2001 Evaluation
2000 Evaluation
1999 Evaluation

2002 Evaluation

UW Extension's Food and Nutrition Web Site Maintains Active Use

SITUATION

A work group* of county and state-based UW CES educators is responsible for maintaining and expanding the UW Extension Food and Nutrition Web site at <www.uwyo.edu/cesnutrition>. The following are key points related to the group's activities and the site's use for FY 2002:

• •Activity data: Because the site's server changed mid-year, software on two different servers collected and compiled monthly data related to the site's activity - October 2001-March 2002 via the West server and June-September 2002 via UW's administrative server.
• •Site expansion and improvements: Examples include revision of site descriptions to be more useful to visitors, linkage to a number of new sites, addition of more detailed high-altitude information, and work on a site search feature.
• •Promotion: New rolodex cards with a punch-out design and additional promotional information were distributed to all UW FCS educators and other clientele. The group promoted site changes and features to UW FCS educators for distribution in their counties.

IMPACTS ACHIEVED

Popular pages

The most popular pages have been Food Composition/Nutrient Analysis, Food and Nutrition Publications, and Nutrition Misinformation/Fad Diet Critiques. Newsletters has been gaining popularity. Most visitors enter the site via the main page.

Use & trends

With the switch to a new server in May 2002, consistent data are not available for visits (available only October - March) or visitors (available only June - September). However, consistent data are available for pages viewed. The new server's software also reports use rankings for all sites on the server.

Rank on UW's server

The site consistently ranks in the top 10-13% of UW server web sites in terms of visitors.

Total Visits and Visitors

For the first six months, total monthly visits to the site averaged 1,578. This reflects a steady increase from previous years (1,240 in 2001, 1000 in 2000, and 450 in 1999).

Table 1 and Figure 1 show the number of visitors to the Web site each month, June-September 2002. The average was 246.

Table 1 Visitors to Site 
Month Total # of Visitors

June 220
July 238
August 263
September 261

Figure 1 Visitors to the Web Site

Total Number of Pages Viewed

Once visitors reach the site, they can view numerous pages, such as diet and disease, food composition/nutrient analysis, food publications, nutrition misinformation/fad diet critiques and more.

Table 2 and Figure 2 show that the total number of pages viewed during the ten months between October 2001 and September 2002 when data were available was 26,888, for an average of 2,689 pages per month.

Month # Pages Viewed  

October 2345
November 2396
December 2789
January 2326
February 2403
March 1897
April Not Available
May Not Available
June 2851
July 3414
August 3078
September 3389

Figure 2 Number of Pages Viewed

SUMMARY

UW Extension's Food and Nutrition Web site was very active in FY 2002, averaging 246 visitors per month, each of whom visited an average of 10 site pages per visit. During the months for which data on visits were available, visits reflected a steady increase from previous years.

*UW Food and Nutrition Extension Web-site Work Group (2001-2002): Randy Anderson, Bonnie Ellenwood, Vicki Hayman, Phyllis Lewis, Christine Pasley, Suzy Pelican (chair), and Virginia Romero-Caron.