Abstract:

Contemporary students and professors at universities receive a flood of information through various communication channels. This effect has been progressively reinforced by modern information and communication technology (ICT) since the early 2000s. Observations at universities have shown that students need to extract highly specific, study-relevant information from these communications, but they do not want to invest much time in searching for such information. Meanwhile, university professors are obliged to offer a wide range of information, which makes searching for specific information more time-consuming. Thus, information and communication channels need to be designed in effective, efficient, and modern ways to meet students’ and professors’ needs. This research was conducted to identify the best design practices in ICT-based, student-centred information and communication methods. A review of the information marketing management literature was performed and data were collected from several institutes at the Graz University of Technology (TU Graz). Based on the literature review, a questionnaire was created that included questions on the topics "how to obtain information", "preferred information topic presented", and "preferred medium of information dissemination".

The survey was carried out in two ways:
(i) a paper-based questionnaire was distributed at an educational event and
(ii) an online questionnaire was created using Google Forms.

Students fills out 41 questionnaires at the former event, and 64 students completed the questionnaire online over the survey period of four weeks. Data submitted via this total of 105 questionnaires were analysed by applying descriptive statistics and estimating the arithmetic average value, median, maximum and minimum value, range, variance, and the standard deviation. The results of the data analysis show that students place a particular value on subject areas related to their studies and their future careers. In the web-based presentation of the institutes or their subject areas, students indicated that they preferred the layout provided by the central ICT service at TU Graz as compared to those available from external web page providers. The findings also show that students prefer to receive requested information online or via web-based services rather than by visiting institutes personally. Furthermore, the findings suggest that communication with students will be more effective if institutes are present and active in social media platforms. One interesting finding is that the students assigned value to the idea that visual presentations would be available on-site (e.g. displayed on flat screens or touchscreens) or as “old-fashioned”, freely accessible hard copies as information folders, newspapers etc. that can be taken with them.

Keywords:

Information dissemination, communication, university institutes.