Does this web site work? Howard University (www.howard.edu). (First Click).

BEST FEATURES

* Information is organized in a logical, intuitive way. The menu bar across the top and the hot links to major content areas and specific topics provide multiple ways to access information.

* There's a lot of information and resources for students and prospective students. Especially useful are the campus maps, online library resources, and the directory listings. "Including the e-mail addresses of administrators and faculty is not only a convenience, but also conveys the message that faculty and administration are accessible, and comfortable with technology."

* The "Campaign for Howard" fundraising program is displayed prominently, encouraging support through gifts and donations. Contributions can be conveniently made online.

* Howard University was smart to choose Google's search engine, which is offered free to colleges and universities. "Inexplicably, most colleges pay large amounts of money to run their own search engines, which, invariably, are inferior to Google's."

* Customized content selections are available for prospective students, faculty, parents, staff, and alumni.

NEEDS WORK

* The design is inconsistent throughout. Howard.edu would look much better if all the pages used the same fonts and design elements. As it is, some pages posted from different departments and schools of the university don't even look as if they are part of Howard.

* The site needs a sophisticated marketing outreach effort. Despite all of the information that offers admissions policies, downloadable applications, deadlines, and calendars, there is no real call-to-action message. "After showing site visitors all the academic possibilities and the many campus activities, the Web site fails to remind prospective students to apply."

* "I'd like to see a personalization feature that would allow better access to the tremendous amount of information on the site, while at the same time, allowing Howard University to collect data on potential students and their families (within the privacy guidelines set by the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act, of course.)"

* "After clicking around, I found newsletters published by individual academic departments, but there was no way to sign up to receive them via e-mail Why doesn't Howard offer a newsletter sign-up function for high school students? Students can indicate their academic interests and then receive tlored e-mail information about specific programs."

SUGGESTIONS

* Add an online forum or discussion board so that students can chat and post messages. Such a service encourages students to discuss various topics, while it increases their ties to the Web site.

* Offer students server space to set up their own Web sites. Many other colleges and universities do this, yet there seems to be no such service on Howard University's Web site.

* Perform a complete content update of every page. Copyright notices on several pages read 2001 or earlier. Some pages can no longer be accessed, and some calendars that date back to 2000 are still online.

* Integrate the Welcome Center into the opening screen, instead of making it a separate menu choice; this would be more inviting.

* Make the type fonts on subsequent pages identical to those of the home page.

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

WEB SITE EVALUATION PANEL

Brenda Wheeler, co-principal of Wheeler Baird Group, a marketing and communications firm representing educational technology companies. (www.wheelerbaird.com).

Odvard Egil Dyrli, emeritus professor of education, University of Connecticut, and editorial contributor, University Business.

Josh Hanson, technology and Internet maven, and youthful student in search of the right higher education experience.