135 School Road,

Burke VA, 23067

October 20, 2022

Victoria Worrell
President
VSM Web Design
239 Conway Street,
Burke VA, 23067

Dear Mrs. Worrell:

Subject: Public Schools website report completed

Because of the success of local counties public school websites, VSM Web design has decided
to create Burke County Public Schools website. We would like to develop a user-friendly and
eye-catching website for our users. The website would include pictures of the school, students,
staff, and awards given to Burke County Public School.

We are asking your company to analyze three websites to guide the creation of the Burke
County Public Schools website. The three public county schools should be local to our town. In
addition to the analysis, we would like recommendations and information about the public
schools.

We would like to create the website by August 1, 2023, before the school's grand opening. To
ensure we have time to construct the website and implement your recommendations, we would
like to receive your report by June 1, 2023.

We look forward to receiving your analysis. If you have any questions, please contact our
marketing director Ian Muller at Ian.muller@gmail.com.

Yours sincerely,

Jane Foss

Jane Foss
Superintendent

JF

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239 Conway Street,
Burke VA, 23067

June 7, 2022

Jane Foss
Superintendent
Burke County Public Schools
135 School Road,
Burke VA, 23067

Dear Mrs. Foss:

Subject: Burke Schools Website report

We are pleased to present the public schools website report you requested in your letter of
October 20. The report analyzes Amelia county, Cumberland county, Prince Edward county
public schools and provides recommendations to help Burke county public schools website.

We chose to analyze these three websites based on their visual appeal, strong content, and
ease of navigation. Based on our analysis and results of a public Survey, we have
recommendations that Burke County Public Schools website will incorporate the following:

● Visual appeal from Prince Edward County Public Schools should be included.
● The comprehensiveness and attractiveness of Ameila County’s website
● The simplicity of Prince Edward’s website, as well as making it more user-friendly.
● Improving the intended purpose for Cumberland County’s website

We are confident that these recommendations will help VSM Web Design create an attractive,
informative, and user-friendly website for the Burke County Public Schools.

We would like to thank Hazel Guler for her feedback on the report’s draft analysis. If you have
any questions or concerns about the report, we would be pleased to speak with you. I can be
reached by phone at 541-908-7321 or by email at Molly.heldreth@gmail.com.

Yours sincerely,

Molly Heldreth

Molly Heldreth
President

MH

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Table of Contents

Letter of Authorization……………………………………………………………………………….1

Letter of Transmittal…………………………………………………………………………………2

List of Figures………………………………………………………………………………………..4

List of Tables…………………………………………………………………………………………4

Executive Summary..………………………………………………………………………………..5

Introduction…………………………………………………………………………………………...6

Mode of Analysis…………………………………………………………………………………….7

Analysis of Amelia County Public Schools Website……………………………………………..8

Visual Appeal…………………………………………………………………………………….8

Content……………………………………………………………………………………………9

Ease of Navigation………………………………………………………………………………9

Analysis of Cumberland County Public School Website………………………………………..10

Visual Appeal……………………………………………………………………………………10

Content…………………………………………………………………………………………..11

Ease of Navigation………………………………………………………………………………11

Analysis of Prince Edward County Public School Website……………………………………..12

Visual Appeal……………………………………………………………………………………12

Content…………………………………………………………………………………………..13

Ease of Navigation……………………………………………………………………………..13

Analysis of Survey Data……………………………………………………………………………14

Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………………16

Recommendation…………………………………………………………………………………….17

Appendix A: Public School Website Survey……………………………………………………….18

Appendix B: Public School Website Survey Results………………………………………………19

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List of Figures

Figure 1: Amelia County Public School Homepage……………………………………………….8

Figure 2: Cumberland County Public School Homepage…………………………………………10

Figure 3: Prince Edward County Public School Homepage………………………………………12

Figure 4: Drop Down on Prince Edward County Public School…………………………………..13

List of Tables:

Table 1: Question 1 of Survey data: Organization………………………………………………..14

Table 2: Question 2 of Survey data: Ease of Navigation………………………………………….14

Table 3: Question 3 of Survey data: Visual Appeal………………………………………………..15

Table 4: Question 4 of Survey data: Overall Model……………………………………………..15

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Executive Summary

Based on the growing population in Burke County, Virginia, the local school district has decided

to place more time, money, and energy into advertising their schools. As a result, school

superintendent Jane Foss decided that the new website for Burke County Public Schools

needed to best reflect what the area has to offer in terms of education.

VSM Web Design was asked by Mrs. Foss to assist in curating an attractive, informational, and

user-friendly website for use by students, parents, faculty, and prospective families. The school

district websites of three surrounding counties were analyzed when deciding how to proceed,

including Amelia County, Cumberland County, and Prince Edward County, and websites were

analyzed using the following criteria:

● Visual Appeal: Attractive color scheme, pleasing to the eye, cohesive

● Content: Easily accessible information, clear and concise language
● Ease of Navigation: Easy-to-use menus, prevention of confusing features

In addition to the analysis, residents in Burke County were surveyed regarding the websites.

Participants were asked which website of the ones analyzed best displayed visual appeal,

content, and ease of navigation, as well as which website was overall the best to use. Results of

the survey led us to recommend the following when creating the website for Burke County

Public Schools:

● Visual appeal elements from Prince Edward County, Cumberland County, and Amelia
County
● Content organization from Cumberland County and Prince Edward County
● Ease of navigation from Cumberland County and Prince Edward County

We are confident that the recommendations from VSM Web Design will help Burke County

create an attractive and user-friendly website for use by students, parents, faculty, and

prospective families.

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Introduction

Throughout the past years, public school education has expanded. Education curriculum has

become more dense and harder. In the United States, public schools had an enrollment of 49.5

million students in 2021, from grades pre-kindergarten to 12th grade.

Demographics of public schools are mainly white, sitting at approximately 22.4 million white

students, while there are 14.1 hispanic students and 7.4 million students of color. Also, another

2.3 million students are two or more races.

As of spring 2022, 98% of public education systems were operating with fully in-person

instruction after the COVID-19 pandemic, while only 33% of public schools still offer remote

learning to any students. Only 10% of public education allows for hybrid education of both

remote learning and in person.

VSM Web Design was asked to analyze three public school websites to help Burke County

Public Schools construct a website. The resulting report would recommend the most important

features for an attractive, informative, and user-friendly webpage.

VSM Web Design specializes in graphic design and marketing. Based in Virginia, we have been

in business for 15 years. Our company has commissioned reports and built websites for a

variety of public schools, including Jude public schools and Aurora public schools.

For this report, we chose to analyze the Amelia County, Cumberland County, and Prince

Edward County Public Schools. Each website was rated on three criteria: visual appeals, ease

of navigation, and content.

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In addition, an online survey was present to parents and children of the schools. We sent out

150 surveys and received 100 responses, which is a large enough sample to reliably support

our recommendations for the Burke County Public Schools.

Mode Of Analysis

The Amelia County, Cumberland County, and Prince Edward County Public Schools were

evaluated on three components necessary for an effective website:

● Visual Appeal: Attractive color scheme, pictures, and headings

● Content: Simple language, information on rooms and availability, easy booking options

● Ease of Navigation: Reliable links, easy-to-use search engine, absence of pop-up ads.

As noted above, to support our analysis, 100 parents and students in Burke County Public

Schools completed an online survey with questions based on three criteria.

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 Analysis of Amelia County Public Schools Website

School Website: https://www.amelia.k12.va.us/

Amelia County Public Schools’ is designed for teachers, students, and parents. Within the

Amelia County Public Schools website there is a home page, administration, schools, parents,

instructions, student services and more. There are different sectors within Amelia County Public

Schools being elementary, middle, and high school.

Visual Appeals

The Amelia County Public Schools website is simple and clear. Information is displayed in a

drop-down menu format, allowing for easy use. The homepage presents current awards and

dates that automatically grab

administration and parents attention.

The website has a green and yellow

theme(Figure 1). The toolbar, menu,

text boxes, and calendar follow this

theme, giving the website the

aesthetic appeal.

Headings on the homepage are bolded and in a bigger sized font, catching the eye due to size

change in text. The text color being gray contrasted against the white background allows for the

text to stand out.

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Throughout the website, the large gray text accompanies the information about the education

system. However, the text color choice on the page is dull, not following the bright school

colored theme.

Content

The Amelia County Public Schools website provides detailed information on their educational

systems. For each sector, information on activities, important dates, and school updates.

Additionally, the Amelia County Public Schools has individualized information on the sectors

once clicked on. However, there is no information on how many schools are in each sector.

Children's websites are displayed within the elementary schools web page. As well as including

website resources for learning disabilities and power school parent portal. However the school

counseling website seems out of place on the homepage, which may lead to confusion when

trying to find help. Finally the website includes information about the individual sector,

information about changes to the pickup/drop-off line, and weather updates. A hyperlink is

included to the calendar when dates are clicked on.

Ease of Navigation

At the top of the page, the drop-down menu allows for users to find the information needed.

However, the website lacks the bus information on the website, there are no numbers found or

even a general location of neighborhoods in their bus routes.

In summary, Amelia County Public Schools are attractive, but a bit unclear on which school

sector you are looking at, in a given time. The content is very comprehensive but lacks a

newsletter section for the county. The site is easy to navigate but could use a better color

scheme for the eyes of young children and older adults.

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 Analysis of Cumberland County Public Schools Website

School Website: https://www.cucps.k12.va.us

Cumberland County Schools’ website is specifically designed with both current and prospective

families’ interest involved. It has tabs regarding administration of the school, student resources,

and current news regarding the school district.

Visual Appeals

Overall, Cumberland’s website is visually appealing. There is heavy use of pictures and

slideshows which show the schools’ day-to-day activities and resources. They utilize drop down

menus, however the menus have a lot of empty “dead” space, so there are large blocks of white

that take up much of the screen. The website also utilizes a blue and white theme, reflective of

the district’s colors. This theme is consistent throughout the entire website and gives it a more

cohesive feel.

On the landing home page, there is a very

large slideshow that takes up much of the

screen. So much so that there is no room for

any urgent or relevant information to help

page visitors. It is distracting and slightly

overwhelming to see as soon as you get to

the website. Perhaps a smaller slideshow that isn’t so “aggressive” would be more appealing.

There are also multiple drop down tabs throughout the website, and just on the homepage alone

there are nine. The choices are overwhelming, and there are too many options to choose from.

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Perhaps if some menus were condensed and conjoined the choices wouldn’t be so

overwhelming.

Content

Cumberland County does a great job of providing ample resources on their website. While their

menus and choices are slightly overwhelming, there is no denying that there is a plentiful

amount of information available for website visitors.

There are sections for students, administration, employees, and even a section breaking down

all the departments in the school system. There’s also a “quick links” section that has many

choices of miscellaneous school information. None of the information has any relation to each

other, though, and options include everything from an event calendar to a health plan for

students, to a random tab titled “staff.” There also is a tab for the Virginia Department of

Education as a whole, which is a great resource for questions about Virginia schools in general.

Ease of Navigation

Overall, Cumberland County does a good job of providing tab and choice options depending on

what you’re looking for. At first glance, though, the ease of navigation is not easily

acknowledged, and you have to really know where to look for various resources. The tabs are

very self-explanatory, and the website is quick, efficient, and not overloaded with information.

All-in-all, Cumberland County School District has a good website, but could use some help with

making the information more accessible, and making some content not so overwhelming.

However, the website is informational, helpful, and a great resource for Cumberland families.

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 Analysis of Prince Edward County Public Schools Website

School Website: https://www.pecps.k12.va.us/

This website is meant for everyone to be able to have access to it. Whether they be a teacher,

students, prospecting families, or future/current employees. There are multiple sections on the

front page to help you navigate your way through the website. It has access to all the different

school levels throughout the whole county. It has meaning to everything on the website. Giving

you a chance to find the information you are looking for.

Visual Appeals

The website visually draws you into

it. Purple and gold stand out as the

colors of the county. It also has a

slideshow of photos of students in

the county (Figure 3). The website is

simple and to the point with the

location of the tabs being up top. The logo shows where the colors are coming from making the

design cohesive.

The text is in the same font throughout the home page as well. When heading toward the

bottom of the homepage it has information on directions and also contact information which is

helpful to the viewer. There is also a What’s Trending spot on the website in order to showcase

what is going on in the county currently. Which is helpful for people to see what this county is

about.

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Content

The website overall is meant to hold information about the Prince Edward County Public School

system. The multiple sections allow for different places for more information rather than being a

general summary of information. It also allows the viewer to see the

information format as a place of comfort with it being a simple outline.

When you look at each section they also break down into different

subsections to make the information more detailed. An example is looking at

the section about useful links, not only does it have subsections when looking

at for staff sections it also breaks down into more information for that part

(Figure 4).

It is a website to cater to anyone of any age. But there are some things that

make it difficult to understand. One of them is how it seems like the only school in the county is

Prince Edward. Being that it does not explain how many schools make up the county. There is

also another thing. The school system has schools of every level but the photos only show the

upper level of schooling.

Ease of Navigation

The drop-down tabs that have been stated before are helpful when finding information about

Prince Edward County. The google maps at the bottom of the page is a plus because it helps

people get the right information needed in order to find the location they need. There is also a

phone number and a fax for the office which is a vital part of finding out more and reaching out

to the county. The website does like general information on the homepage though.

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Overall, this website is very detailed in the information given while also being able to be clear

and concise. However, with it being so simple, it does make you need to dig to find the

information you might need. The website is balanced for any age range to try and navigate.

Analysis of Survey Data

After looking at all three different county school websites, we as a team concluded we need to

conduct a survey with people from Burke county in order to get the ideas and impression that

the people of Burke would want to see on their county’s website. In order to get the information

needed to finish the analysis we asked four questions in order to hopefully get some more data.

From this survey, we got data from 15 different people who looked at three different school

systems' websites.

The first question asked about which

website had the best content

organization. This was an important

question to ask because we answered

this when analyzing all three websites.

When looking at the data we can see

that 40% of the participants concluded

that Prince Edward county had the best organization (Table 1). Organization can be seen in all

of them but how organized is that stands them apart.

The second question that was asked focused on ease of navigation. This is another one of the

three parts of our analysis of the websites. This concluded in a tie between two of the counties

having 46.7% each (Table 2). Both

Prince Edward and Cumberland

County both seem to be fan

favorites when it comes to the

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survey so far. This is important for us to understand and see in order to determine what will be

beneficial to Burke County.

The third question focused on the final part of the analysis process. Visual appeal is important

because you want the

viewer to see what makes

your website stand out. For

these counties, it is about

highlighting the importance

of what is going on in the

school systems. The data

shows that Prince Edward County again is the favorite among the participants with 46.7%

enjoying the visual appeal (Table 3). We can determine from our analysis that Prince Edward

does have a visually appealing website.

The fourth and final question was to see which website overall the participants from Burke

county. The model is going to be what we

can focus on when creating the best website

for Burke. Prince Edward’s website has

been at the top and with the data from this

question it still is with a percentage of 46.7%

which is 20% higher than both Cumberland

and Amelia (Table 4). This is important to notice because even though Cumberland county was

always close to Prince Edward people still preferred Prince Edward over them. Overall, the data

from the whole survey concludes that Prince Edward County Public Schools’ website is the best

fit for being an example and well-rounded for Burke County to be modeled after.

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Conclusion

Overall, this analysis is meant to be a guide in helping create the best website for Burke County

schools. With education entering the modern age of technology, websites serve the purpose of

being a first-look for potential families, students, and employees to find information on the

school. We are here to help make sure that Burke County has the best website experience for

anyone who visits the site.

In order to create data, three school systems and their websites were analyzed. This included

Amelia County, Cumberland County, and Prince Edward County Public Schools, which are all

accredited school systems in central Virginia. The websites were analyzed based on three

different criteria: visual appeal, context, and ease of navigation.

In terms of Amelia County’s website, it had its strengths within the website, such as being

attractive and also being very comprehensive. However, it lacks organization and the color

scheme is not exceptionally appealing when first looking at it.

Cumberland County is one of the other counties looked at for the analysis in order to help Burke

County. Cumberland’s website is informative and helpful, however, it lacks visual appeal and

can be overwhelming for viewers visiting the website for the first time.

The third and final website we looked at for the analysis was Prince Edward county. Prince

Edward had visual appeal and was simple to use. With it being so simplistic, it did lack

organization, and it was hard to locate information on the website.

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Recommendations

For the final product of Burke County Public School website we recommend the following:

● Visual appeal from Prince Edward County Public Schools should be included.

● The comprehensiveness and attractiveness of Amelia County’s website

● The simplicity of Prince Edward’s website, as well as making it more user-friendly.

● Improving the intended purpose for Cumberland County’s website

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Appendix A: School District Website Survey

This survey has been created by VSM Web Design to evaluate the visual appeal, content

organization, and ease of navigation of three school district websites. Please look at the

three websites provided and click on the answer that best fits your opinion for each

question. Thank you for your input.

1. Which website do you feel has the best content organization?

a) Amelia County Public Schools

b) Cumberland County Public Schools
c) Prince Edward County Public schools

2. Which website do you feel is the easiest to navigate?

a) Amelia County Public Schools

b) Cumberland County Public Schools
c) Prince Edward County Public Schools

3. Which website do you feel has the best visuals?

a) Amelia County Public Schools

b) Cumberland County Public Schools
c) Prince Edward County Public Schools

4. Which website do you feel overall is the best source of modeling for Burke County’s future
website?

a) Amelia County Public Schools

b) Cumberland County Public Schools
c) Prince Edward County Public schools

Thank you for taking part in this survey about school district websites. If you have any questions

or comments, please email Victoria Worrell at vworrell@vsm.com.

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Appendix B: School District Website Survey Results

Of the surveys sent out, 15 were returned. The tables below show the breakdown of votes for

each question. The figures in the report show the visuals for each question and response.

1. Which website do you feel has the best content organization?

School Amelia Cumberland Prince Edward

Responses 4 5 6

2. Which website do you feel is the easiest to navigate?

School Amelia Cumberland Prince Edward

Responses 1 7 7

3. Which website do you feel has the best visuals?

School Amelia Cumberland Prince Edward

Responses 2 6 7

4. Which website do you feel overall is the best source of modeling for Burke County’s future
website?

School Amelia Cumberland Prince Edward

Responses 4 4 7

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