Evaluation of the TEACH California Website 2005

Contents:
Yearly Totals
Website Traffic by Month
Early 2006
Referrer Findings
Downloaded and Shipped Materials
Destination Findings
TEACH California Website Users
Contact

The TEACH California website, www.teachcalifornia.org, was established in March of 2004 to help in addressing the continuing teacher shortage in California. The Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Leadership Project is focused on delivering information resources to potential teachers via the convenient interface of teachcalifornia.org. Now beginning its third year of operation, the website has seen more than 755,000 visits, continuing to deliver information and resources to an average of over 1,200 visitors per day. The end of 2005 offers an opportunity to both reflect on another year of progress and explore the evolving relationship between the TEACH California website and its audience.

The TEACH California website is administered by the California Department of Education with advisement from the Institutions of Higher Education (IHE) Leadership Team. This team monitors the California Strategic Plan for the Recruitment, Preparation, and Retention of Special Education Personnel. Much of the work of the IHE Leadership Team has involved the development and dissemination of materials, printed brochures, and information through the TEACH California website.

Over 465,000 visitors have accessed the TEACH California website. Of these, nearly 20% made two or more visits, including 14,000 who accessed the site six times or more.

Yearly Totals

The following graph represents the total number of visits to the website in 2004 and 2005, broken down to represent those who had never visited the site before (new visitors), those who had visited the site before (returning visitors), and those visitors whose status could not be determined (not accepting cookies).

Higher totals in 2005 may be misleading because the TEACH California website was not operational for the first several months of 2004.

Returning visitors represent a large proportion of TEACH California's website traffic. It can be presumed that returning visitors access the website more than once because they are repeatedly accessing the resources available.

The percentage of all visits that were owed to returning traffic was slightly less in 2005 than in 2004, with 58.2% compared to 61.9%. This reflects increases among new visitors slightly outpacing growth among returning visitors.

This is further reflected by the average duration of any visit to the TEACH California website. At least half of visits were brief and cursory, as indicated by medians of 3:11 in 2004 and 2:11 in 2005. Much-higher means (8:57 in 2004 and 7:33 in 2005) indicate that a number of visits are from individuals spending extended periods of time on the website. Like any website, it appears that the TEACH California website receives a large volume of exploratory visits, but there is clearly a large volume of meaningful traffic.

Website Traffic by Month

Due to the website's creation in March, well into 2004, a direct yearly comparison is less accurate than one which compares months. An analysis of average months enables some meaningful comparison between the years. Additional comparisons between specific months of each year rounds out the analysis.

Three different measures of traffic are useful in this study: visits, first-time visitors, and unique visitors.

A visit is a series of actions that begins when a visitor views the first page of the website, and ends when the visitor leaves the site. As noted earlier, a single visit can be brief and cursory or extended and meaningful. 2005 showed a slight decline in visits: 1,200 fewer on average per month (from 36,400 to 35,200).

A first-time visitor is someone who has never visited the website before, which is determined when a visitor accepts a tracking "cookie" that is not already present on his computer. While not all first-time visitors to the website will accept this cookie and be counted, this data can be considered representative of the general trend in creating new contacts with website users. In 2005, first-time visitors increased slightly: 400 more on average per month (10,400 to 10,800).

A unique visitor has one visit counted per month, indicating how many individuals are using the site over any given period of time. How much information a visitor's computer is willing to reveal affects this count, just as with first-time visitors. 2005 saw slight declines: 1,000 less on average per month (30,800 to 29,800).

Visits

Visits to the TEACH California website were higher between January and August than between September and December in both 2004 and 2005. This may be a reflection of the "Finding a Teaching Job" page being by far the most accessed (see page 12) and because relatively few teaching positions are open or sought between September and December.

Despite higher total visits in 2005, comparing these years on a month-by-month basis reveals an actual decline which was hidden because 2004 only recorded nine months of traffic. Note the years' highs and lows:

• The 2005 peak was lower than that of 2004.
• The 2005 low was lower than that of 2004.

Additionally, this pattern of declines is revealed by comparisons throughout each year.

• Except for March and April, each month in 2004 received more visits than corresponding months in 2005.
• Months from the middle of the year, between May and August, show 2005 trailing 2004 by a few thousand visits each month.
• During the fall school semester, this trend is especially acute. 2005 trailed 2004 by more than 5,000 visits per month in October, November, and December.

First-Time Visitors

New visitors continue to find their way to the website and its resources.

• 2005 had more first-time visitors than 2004 in almost every month.
• An exception includes April and May, the first two months of website operation, which saw more first-time visitors than at any other time in the website's operation.
• There were never fewer than 8,000 new visitors every month, even in the lowest traffic months of the year.

Unique Visitors

The decline among unique visitors witnessed in the monthly average reveals a more complicated narrative when comparing corresponding months.

The cyclical pattern apparent with visits and first-time visitors, with peaks in spring and lows in fall, is also present with unique visitors.

The seasonal cycle of 2005 is more pronounced than that of 2004 in regards to unique visitors, with a higher peak:

• Unique visitors peaked in March of 2005, with over 40,000.
• 2004's peak had three-thousand visitors fewer than that of 2005 (at 37,000 in May).

2005 also demonstrated a lower trough:

• December of 2005 is the overall low (less than 18,000) for unique visitors, with ten-thousand fewer visitors than the low of 2004 (September's 28,000).
• The four lowest months for unique visitors overall are the four last months of 2005.

The reason for the striking decline in unique visitors at the end of 2005 is unclear, especially compared to the steady number of first-time visitors throughout this period. The fact that these declines outpace any declines among visits could suggest that those using the site are doing so fairly frequently.

Early 2006

During 2006, the count of visits, first-time visitors, and unique visitors all rebound from the low numbers seen in December 2005.

This is consistent with the higher-activity spring and lower-activity autumns of previous years.

Despite recovery from December 2005, the first five months of 2006 show declines in all measures of traffic compared to the same time in previous years.

Corresponding months in 2005 saw upwards of 5,000 more visits each.

• By a smaller margin, every month in 2005 saw more first-time visitors as well.
• Compared to corresponding months, 2006 saw roughly 10,000 fewer unique visitors every month. This represents a 25% decline in the peak month of March.

Referrer Findings

Nearly all visits to the TEACH California website originate on other website domains. These referrals represent over 131,000 visits in 2005, a figure which nearly corresponds with the year's total new visits of just over 130,000.

Understanding where these referred visitors come from is an important part of sustaining the website audience. Additionally, understanding the origin of this new traffic helps create a better picture of the TEACH California website audience.

Most referrals come from one of two sources, which are described in greater detail on the following page.

1. More visitors arrive at the TEACH California website through links on other government sites than from any other type of website. Many of these sites are oriented towards education, but some are also general job-search resources.
2. There were also a large number of referring commercial domains that feature internet search engines, such as google.com.

Referrer domains connected with the California state government account for roughly 57.5% of all referrers (not including any in the "Other" category), and include:

• Edjoin.org (20%), a job-search resource devoted exclusive to education-relation jobs and administered by the California County Superintendents Educational Services Association (CCSESA). Ed-Join.org is a now-defunct address for the same resource.
• The California web domain ca.gov (6%) hosts the California Department of Education (CDE.ca.gov, which individually referred 843 visits) and other links.
• CTC.ca.gov (3%), the California Commission on Teacher Credentialing website, also hosted on this domain, was also a major contributor of internet referrals.
• Jobstar.org (3%), a job-search resource devoted to job markets across California (not limited to teaching) administered by the California State Librarian.
• CSU Websites (9%), from the California State University system include csumentor.edu (3,031 referrals), calstateteach.edu (2,435 referrals), and most campus sites.
• CalTeach.com (2%), a previous address which provides a direct link to teachcalifornia.org, also continued to be a significant source of visitors. While this site provided less than 2% of all 2005 referrals, more than two-thousand visits to the TEACH California originated at this previous address.
• Other California Public Education Sites (8%) and k12.ca.us (2%), include the domains of state and local entities within California, such as the Sacramento County Office of Education (scoe.net) and University of California homepages.
• Private and Non-California Education Sites (4%) include private and out-of-state education-related entities, such as the California Teachers Association (cta.org), National Education Association (nea.org), and a number of universities. The federally-funded personnelcenter.org was included here, having referred 35 visits.

Commercial search engines account for roughly 37.8% of all referrers (not including any in the "Other" category), and include:

• Google.com (17%), a popular search engine.
• MSN.com (3%) and yahoo.com (8%), popular "home page" sites which bundle search engines with convenient news, entertainment, and links to additional tools including the "careerbuilder.com" (msn) and "hotjobs" (yahoo) job-search resources.
• Singingfish.com (4%), an "audio/video" search engine which searches only for multimedia resources
• Other Commercial Sites (6%) include a number of additional websites unrelated to education, almost all of which are search engines (including ask.com) and internet service providers (aol.com).

Internet referrers were recorded automatically whenever visitors arrived at teachcalifornia.org by clicking a link on another website. Visitors to the site were also asked how they were referred to the TEACH California website through a multiple-choice pop-up survey asking specifically how each respondent learned about teachcalifornia.org.

According to the website survey, most visitors to the TEACH California website were referred by the CalTeach website (www.calteach.com), a web address that automatically redirects to the TEACH California website. The next largest named referral was the California Department of Education website, which maintains links to the TEACH California website. More survey respondents chose these two answers than the actual internet referrals indicate came from either site, suggesting that the survey responses are erroneous. Further inquiry revealed that there were very limited response choices given in the web survey question. Respondents may have simply chosen what was closest.

Ensuring that those referred by the internet can accurately report how they came to the site will make this and the internet referrer records much more useful. This emphasizes the necessity of adding additional options to Question 7 of the survey, perhaps including:

• EdJoin.org
• CTC.ca.gov
• CSU Website
• Internet Search Engine
• Other Website

Teachers and career counselors were indicated as a referral source by 22% of respondents. While brochures had little direct impact, they may be an important tool in helping these intermediary advisors connect students with teachcalifornia.org.

Downloaded and Shipped Materials

The Becoming a Special Education Teacher in California brochure has tripled its downloads in 2005 with a total of 13,508. In both 2004 and 2005, no other material was downloaded from the website more than 500 times. Other increases in materials downloaded can be observed in the Pathways to Teaching Brochure (88 in 2004 up to 388 in 2005) and Poster (95 in 2004 up to 203 in 2005), and decreases can be seen in the Special Education – Career Choice brochure (down from 324 in 2004 to 109 in 2005).

Overall, the number of materials shipped has increased. The most shipped items of 2004, the Pathways to Teaching, Service Learning, and Delivering on the Promise series brochures were also at the top of 2005's list. Roughly five times as many of each brochure shipped in 2005. Similar volume was recorded for the Poster, CD ROM and Video Guide, each shipping more than 3,000 copies in 2005 despite shipping fewer than 100 each in 2004.

Most brochures for downloading are presented as ".pdf" Adobe files which accurately represent the brochure with vivid color and easy-to-read typeface. However, brochures are presented unfolded in this format, as two separate pages each with three panels, which may not be the most effective means of information delivery.

Destination Findings

TEACH California's website drew a large number of visitors in both 2004 and 2005. The following list includes pages on the website which were accessed more than any other. This list excludes the welcome page and an error message page, which were also top-ten accessed pages, in order to create a more accurate picture of what visitors were looking for and finding. Overall, traffic trends held mostly constant between 2004 and 2005, and it is important to note that 2005 saw more traffic overall because the website was not yet operational in the first three months of 2004.

Overwhelmingly, the top destination on TEACH California's website was Finding a Teaching Job. This page saw substantially more traffic than the next most-accessed destination, Understanding the Requirements. Make and Follow Your Plan, the Search Option website tool, and Where are the Jobs round out the rest of the top five destinations.

TEACH California Website Users

To find out more about who is accessing the website, a user survey was developed and added to the website. The survey greets visitors as a "pop-up" window when they arrive at the site and asks for demographic information and about the respondents' interest in teaching.

The website survey analysis includes the responses of 15,138 individuals, collected between January 7, 2005 and December 31, 2005. During that period, there were approximately 180,000 unique visitors to the website. The survey response rate was approximately 8%.

Because pop-up blockers (which can suppress the TEACH California survey) are increasingly available to internet users, the survey response rate may be improved by placing a link to the survey more prominently on the front page of the website (perhaps moving "help us" to the left of "about us"). At this time, respondents may be drawn from among the less web savvy given that they may not have installed pop-up blocking software.

Demographics of TEACH California website visitors:

• Females accounted for early three-quarters of all respondents.
• While the largest age group was 25-35 (with 38%), all age groups were well-represented, including 17% over 45.
• The ethnic composition of website users demonstrated considerable diversity, with non-Caucasian users representing nearly half of respondents.

Potential teachers (indicated in blue) were the largest share of survey respondents visiting the site.

• Career changers with a college degree were the largest group of respondents, with 26%.
• College students, including those enrolled in community college, represented the second largest group, with 22%.
• Students are considering teaching at much earlier levels as well, with students between middle school and high school together forming 5% of all respondents.

A number of visitors indicated they were teachers from outside of California. Of these, two categories may represent a group interested in moving to California and continuing their teaching career.

• Out-of-state teachers accounted for 11%.
• Another 5% were out-of-country teachers.

Currently credentialed teachers may have visited the website seeking information about teaching requirements and employment.

Of those visitors to the TEACH California website who responded to the survey, 75% indicated they were thinking of becoming a teacher. The "not applicable" response to these questions may represent career counselors seeking information, teachers who are already teaching, and similar individuals. Very few visitors (2%) indicated that they were not interested in becoming a teacher.

Of those who were thinking of becoming teachers, 68% indicated that they were also taking steps to become a teacher. Roughly one-in-four visitors (24%) indicated they were not yet taking steps to become a teacher, and may indicate respondents who are not yet ready to commit to a teaching career. Another 8% responded "not applicable," which may represent younger students who don't feel that any of these steps are yet available to them.

Those interested in becoming special education, math, or science teachers included almost 30% of all respondents. These categories were singled out in the study because there is currently a teacher shortage in all three of these areas.

Most visitors to the TEACH California website expressed interest in the less specific categories of elementary, high school, and middle school teachers. Respondents showed greater interest in elementary teacher than any other single category (with 36%). Another 35% were divided between middle school and high school, with high school leading middle school by a ratio of nearly three-to-one.

Contact:

Developed by CalSTAT on behalf of the California Department of Education Special Education Division.