A surprisingly high number of Further Education and Sixth Form Colleges, according to their websites, do not host any open events. Excluding these 14 Colleges, the 42 distance learning specialist Colleges and Local Authority adult education Colleges, and Lytham Sixth Form College, which scheduled to close in June, there are 392 Colleges organising open events.

 Open Event Presentations & Navigation

1. 365 College websites presented a menu item navigating to a populated Open Events category or to a single article listing past and/ future open events.
2. 17 College websites, at the time of gathering data presented an empty category pages with no past or present open events listed.
3. 11 College websites simply present a link to the next open event on the home page and do not feature navigation to an article or category of articles showing events or open events.

 Registration Form/Call to Action/Performance Monitoring

44% of Colleges (173) do not offer a means of ensuring participation in their open events. Of 56% that do these are their selected systems:

1. 104 Colleges use local or unidentified forms.
2. 87 Colleges utilise Eventbrite. It provides Add to calendar functionality, a map, a form and lots of tools and data reporting. It also provides great iframe integration and will even send an email to registered users when they have not fully completed the form. Also it is free and has very strong general website traffic (173rd today in UK Alexa Traffic Rankings).
3. 8 Colleges use Google Forms
4. 4 Colleges use ProSolution MIS forms which can be a bit tricky because of the separation of data sources defined in regulation.
5. 3 Colleges each use Akero and SurveyMonkey forms.
6. 2 Colleges use StudentCRM forms.
7. A single Colleges uses each of these: Bookwhen, Cvent, Fixr, MailChimp, Microsoft Form, and Typeform. Cvent is very, very interesting.
8. Finally, 2 Colleges use PDF forms that require printing, completing, and scanning or posting! Apologies for seeming to publicly ridicule hard-working College staff and managers but do a look at this one which is helpfully called Open Event Data Capture Form.

 Date, Time & Geographical Location

54% of College websites (212) fail to show all or some of the important event details. 181 Colleges include full event details on the one page. It takes almost no space and, admittedly, one additional click isn't much to ask to locate the important time, date and location, but that said why not simply show it, and/or utilise Eventbrite?

 Add to Calendar

70% of College websites (276) fail to offer this basic digital functionality. 117 Colleges utilise an events/calendar system or an external service provider such as Eventbrite to provide the bog standard function of adding events to users' phone or PIM system calendars.

 Maps

64% of College websites (253) fail to present a map on the event's page. 140 Colleges present a map but Hugh Baird College have taken the presentation of a Google map to the next level. Admittedly again it is slightly dogmatic to insist on a map or maps on the event's page, but there really is not reason why not.

 360º Augmented Virtual Tour

98% of College websites (386) do not offer augmented and/or navigable 360º images showing the overall campus and/or the detailed interiors. 7 Colleges provide site users and potential students and their friends and families a full visual introduction to the campus estate. None present the spaces as fully utilised with classes underway, teachers in full flow and equipment being operated by students under instruction, which would certainly be optimal. I just purchased a Ricoh Theta SC 360 Degree Camera for £167 and Grifiti Nootle Stand with Mini Ball Head for £40 and volunteer my services for a free photo shoot and edit to the first College to request one.

• Blackpool & the Fylde College
• College of Animal Welfare
• College of West Anglia: King's Lynn Campus | Wisbech Campus | Cambridge Campus
• Northampton College
• Prospects College of Advanced Technology
• Suffolk New College
• York College

 Contact Person or Team

90% do not present an individual or team to address, or to ask for, when a site user wishes to write or speak to an event's organiser. How is personalisation contentious? Asking for a person or a team is easier and therefore more helpful to site users. There really is no reason to withhold the names of event organisers or the name of the team in responsible for fielding enquiries. Of the 10% of Colleges that a present contact name, only Abingdon & Witney College, Isle of Wight College, Luton Sixth Form College, and Welbeck Defence Sixth Form College include a public facing member of staff's name and job title. One website admirably lists the College's Admissions & Marketing Director, but others suboptimally list anonymous abbreviations, for example 'Team KC' and list 'the Infozone' as who site users should contact about attending open events.

 Contact Details

15% of College websites (59) fail to include any contact details on the event page or in the website footer or header. The messaging could more negative but by not facilitating enquiries it does communicate a desire not to engage and must depress public and commercial income.

 The Top Performing College Websites (The 6 of 7s)

20 College websites don't pass any user experience testing and 12 College websites pass 6 of 7 tests of their Open Events offers: