Title: A comparative analysis of Greek universities' presence on the World Wide Web using an analytical MCDM methodology

Authors: Vassilis Kostoglou; Jason Papathanasiou; Odysseas Moschidis; Paraskevi Ladopoulou

Addresses: Department of Informatics, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 141, Thessaloniki, 57400, Greece ' Department of Marketing and Operations Management, University of Macedonia, 49 Ag. Dimitriou Str., Edessa, 58200, Greece ' Department of Marketing and Operations Management, University of Macedonia, 49 Ag. Dimitriou Str., Edessa, 58200, Greece ' Department of Informatics, Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, P.O. Box 141, Thessaloniki, 57400, Greece

Abstract: Greek universities are currently in a transition state, as a new bill has been voted by the parliament trying to focus on lasting problems tormenting Greek higher level education; the implementation of the new law creating a strong reaction from part of the academic community. What is more, globalisation has increased competition and academia is now called upon to operate in an international environment facing other well established and prestigious institutions. It is in this context that Web 2 technologies widely available today offer a framework that allow academic institutions to increase their extraversion and reach a wider public; wikis, forums and e-learning platforms to name a few of these technologies. This paper attempts to offer a convincing answer to the ability of the Greek universities, operating in an unfavourable environment with many obstacles, to exploit what Web 2 has to offer; to also assess their readiness to integrate the new technologies and face the competition directly. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used for a comparative analysis of the online presence of Greek universities, and the results can prove to be a helpful tool for website creators and academia administration in order to improve their services.

Keywords: university websites; website evaluation; criteria weights assessment; multicriteria decision making; MCDM; analytical hierarchy process; AHP; Greece; higher education; web presence; internet presence; online presence; globalisation; international competition; web 2.0 technologies; wikis; online forums; e-learning; technological integration; electronic learning.

DOI: 10.1504/IJMCDM.2014.064794

International Journal of Multicriteria Decision Making, 2014 Vol.4 No.3, pp.279 - 298

Received: 02 May 2012
Accepted: 09 Jan 2013
Published online: 30 Sep 2014 *

Full-text access for editors Full-text access for subscribers Purchase this article Comment on this article