Study on Web Sites of Physical Education And

STUDY ON WEB SITES OF PHYSICAL EDUCATION AND

SPORT HIGHER SCHOOLS AT TURKISH UNIVERSITIES

¹Levent ATALI , ²Kürşad SERTBAŞ

¹Metropolitan Municipality of Kocaeli / Turkey, (Phd)

²Sakarya UniversityP.E. and Sport Dept., Turkey, (Phd.)

ABSTRACT

The organizations that can evaluate and make use of the internet technologies at proper level and sufficiently will be able to be much more successful to achieve their target people by offering a richer content at web sites. These innovations resulted from internet technology have big importance in terms of creating advantage to the educational institutes.

This study aims to clarify the existing status of web sites of Physical Education and Sport Higher Schools(PESHS) at the universities. The data have been obtained by means of questionnaires and examinations on the web sites. The study has been carried out on web site of PESHS on the internet (n=38)

Consequently, some failures in the basic criteria of the internet (web site) such as updating, scope, standardization, conformity to the target people and design of web sites of higher schools have been found out.

Considering the innovations caused by internet technology the web sites of PESHS should be reviewed by their responsible again and visual, audio and the other technological supports should be available in the web sites of the higher schools.

To establish such components, the higher schools should work on standardization among themselves and working committees should be established.

Keywords : Internet, Web site, Sport Technology, Sport Education

INTRODUCTION

Computer Technologies have been more common in every area of our life since 1980’s and internet have had a role in our lives from the begining of 1990’s till now and been used mostly in education as an immediate way of information transfer. The rapid change in computer and communication technologies named the period as “ age of information technologies”.

In addition to the role of internet in storing and sharing the produced information, it also provides the opportunuties for multimedia. For this reason and due to being cheap it provides big advantages when compared with other communication materials.(Berkem and friends,2001) Internet and web, the swiftly improving way of communication, contribute to improvement of associations and establishments in parallel to their own development and are high level of importance. Evaluation of education policy and new technologies and restructring them is the action that must be done first by the countries who want to reach a high level in every area. While this restructuring society of information which searches, produces, improves and uses information technologies must be aimed at and especially should be adopted by the universities.(Altıkardeşler and friends.2001)

Universities must use internet in communicating with other word-wide universities. Internet is a window that removes the walls of the universities and connects people to the world. (Halis,2002) By means of this window, information has become a component that is shared most rapidly in all over the world. In no period of time after the invention of printing house, information has stretched out as fast and easy as this way. ( Tokat and Öncel, 2001)

Immediate communication and easiness, which are the main purposes of using internet are the critical reasons of education associations’s using internet.

Dolanbay ( 2002 ) summarized the reasons of association’s using internet as below.

a)To strengthen the image of the association. b)To expand the services and to be easily contacted. c)To create new service areas. d)To provode visuality. e)To incrase the target mass. f) To provide satisfaction. g) To reduce costs. h) To expand to the world.

Beside the items above, how much associations can make use of internet is related to the vision and abilities of them. The need of education association’s using these abilities at the highest level, has much more importance than the situation of it’s users producing information. Despite of all these elements, to decide using internet is not enough to make use of it. To take part on the internet is possible by application of the specific rules that are required by an effective web design.

The main titles of these rules have been brought out in 5 items by Walden University.

Actuality – Reliability – Involvement – Design - Standardization

The presentation of information and involvement according to a plan is of importance in the purpose of reaching the target mass. In an effective web design, to have the structure which provides an easy stroll, the regular construction of information and to pass from one page to an other systemetically are of great importance.(ODTU,2002)

That the web site provides the fastest and the easiest way of solution between the association and the users, make this branch of high importance and requires planning.

In the age that we call”the age of information technologies “, rapid improvements affect the structure of associations and make us review the structures and processes of organizations and use the internet technologies as well.

In our study we realize this review by examining the web pages in Physical Education and Sport Higher Schools of universities to the extent of using internet.

As for the existing situation, all of our universities have web pages available. Web pages of Physical Education and Sport Higher Schools take place in web pages of universities as a link.

PURPOSE

Using technologies related to internet in education associations is important in reaching the target mass and realization of purposes of the associations.The associations which evaluate the internet technologies efficiently and properly will be succesfull in reaching their target mass when their web sites present a miscellaneous content. By this study it is aimed to find out the present situation of web sites.

Limitations

This study is restricted by the examination of web pages of Physical Education and Sport Higher Schools(PESHS) in state universities.

Method

In this investigation the present situation of web sites have been tried to find out by using the scanning method.

Universe-Sampling

This study is realized in PESHS under leading of state universities. ( Table-1 ) The whole universe has been reached by internet connected PIII computer, but 4 universities who do not have web sites, 1 web page site which has a temporary renewal warning,1 web site which gives error alarm, 6 unique web sites have been excluded. The rest of the web sites have been visited with spesicif periods od time and with different computers. Totally 25 web sites of PESHS have been examined by means of formed questionaire.

Gathering Data

The data of study have been provided by visiting web sites by means of questionaire which consists of 36 questions (yes/no ) prepared with the assistance of viewpoint of specialists in connection with the literature.

Analyzing and Interpretation of Data

The data provided from the web sites of (PESHS) has been collected on a data base and then it has been interpreted by evaluating frequencies and percentages in Microsoft Excel program.

FINDINGS and COMMENTS

Table-1 : Data for Physical Education and Sport Higher Schools (PESHS)

Table-2 : The distrubition of the pictures in sites.

As seen in Table-2, there are totally 365 pictures available in PESHS web sites. Of these, 255 items (%69,8) are suitable for a document, 28 items (%7,7) are of buildings, 6 items (%1,6) are of gardens, 69 items ( %18,9) are of activities, 7 items (%2)are of cities. In the web site of PESHS, there is not used enough pictures which contributes to the introduction of the school.

Table-3 : Distribution of e-mail adresses and backgrounds of the acedemic staff on web sites.

As seen in Table-3 there is data of totally 585 staff in web sites of PESHS. 173 people are Member of Education, 218 people are assistance of education, 97 people are assistance of search, 93 people are Lecturer and 4 people are spacialists. Of the available staff 208(%36) people have e-mail adresses on web site,377(%64) people do not have e-mail adresses, 282(%48) people have backgroundson web site and 304 (%52) people do not have backgrounds.The number od e-mail adresses which belongs to academic staff and provides fast and economic communication is not at an enough level.

Table-4 : Fax and telephone.

As seen in Table-4, the number of the web sites which has fax and telephone numbers is 18(%72 ) and the number of those which do not have telephone or fax numbers is 7 (%28)

While there should be telephone or fax numbers, being tradditional way of communication, available in all of web sites they are not available in % 28 of web sites.

Table-5 : Responsible person for web site

As seen in Table-5, the nuber of the web sites in which a responsible is determined is 12(%48) and those in which responsinle is not determined is 13 (%52). Inspite of the fact that there should be a responsible for every web site of PESHS in order to be contacted in case of any problem, the percentage of the ones in which the responsible is not determined is (%52).

Table-6 :The section which requires fee

As seen in Table-6, the number of the web sites of PESHS which have the section that necessitates fee is 0(%0) and the number of those which do not have is 25 (%100).

In point of view of the target mass, the absence of the section that necessitates the fee facilitates economically.

Table-7 : Personal Information of Staff

As seen in Table-7, the number of the web sites in which the personal informaiton of the staff is given is 1 (%4) and the number of those in which the personal information of the staff is given is 24(%96)

Table-8 : Information with source

As seen in Table-8, the number of the web sites of PESHS in which the personal information of the staff is given is 4 (%116) and the number of those in which the personal information of the staff is not given is 21(%84). The information that can be used in investigations and publications is not at an enough level.

Table-9 : Advertisement on the page

As seen in Table-9, the number of the web sites of PESHS in which there is advertisements is 0(%0) and the number of those in which there is not advertisements is 25(% 100).

Table-10 : The date uf update is determined.

As seen in Table-10, the number of the web sites of PESHS in which there is the date of update is 3(%12) and the number of those in which there is not date of update is 22(%88)

The date of update should be on every page in order to maintain the validity of the information on these web sites.

Table-11 : Site map

As seen in Table-11, The number of the web sites of PESHS that have the site map is 3(%12) and the number of those which do not have site map is 24 (%88 ). Site maps which provides us to reach the information in the easiest way are insufficient.

Table-12 : On-Site research

As seen in Table-12,the number of the web sites of PESHS which has an in-site research is 2(%8) and yhe number of those 23(%92). The on-site research which provides us to reachy the information in the easiest way is insufficient.

Table-13:Supplement applications for disabled.

As seen in Table-13, the number of the web sites of PESHS which include supplement applications for disabled are 0(%0) and the number of those which do not include supplement applications for disabled are 25 (%100). For this reason there is not sufficient supplement applications for disabled.

Table-14: Text version

As seen in Table-14, the number of the web sites of PESHS which have text version is 1(%4) and the number of those which don’t have text version is 25(%100). The text version which manages us reach the required information in the fastest and the easiest way is insufficient.