Using school websites for home–school communication and parental involvement?

Figures & data

Table 1. Categories and coding agenda.

Category	Definitions/coding rules	Elements/examples
Transparency/information	Information relevance, richness, and openness	Parenting, communicating, volunteering, learning at home, decision making, and collaborating with community (Epstein, 2009)
Interactivity	Possibilities for two-way communication, including online communication	Opportunities for feedback, discussion forum, chat room, interactive bulletin, online application forms of different sorts, contact information, etc.
Accessibility	Attribute of being easy to meet or deal with	Optional languages/audio alternative, interface to outside resources, FAQs/IT support, news/bulletin board
Usability	User friendly – structure of navigation, search engine effectiveness, design and aesthetics, freshness	Multimedia design (text, image, and video), graphic features, direct links/buttons (home, back, and top), frequency of update, comprehensive navigation schema

Table 2. Information on school websites related to the six key components by Epstein (2009).

Key components regarding parental involvement	Examples of information related to the components
Parenting	Parental education, such as lectures/seminars/materials for parents
Communicating	School vision/profile, curriculum, regulations and action plans, teaching and learning in school, schedules, school/class activities, students’ work and products, support for students in school, school lunch menu
Volunteering	School or class activities that parents are supposed to be involved in, parents as volunteers
Learning at home	Homework, learning and teaching resources related to homework
Decision making	Parental board
Collaborating with community	Resources and services provided by community organizations outside of schools, links to social media

Table 3. Information on school websites relevant for parental use related to the six key components by Epstein (2009).

School	Parenting	Communicating	Volunteering	Learning at home	Decision making	Collaborating with community
A1		√				√
A2	√	√		√	√	√
A3		√
B1		√				√
B2		√			√	√
B3	√	√			√
C1		√		√	√	√
C2		√		√		√
C3		√		√	√
D1		√		√		√
D2		√			√	√
D3		√	√			√

Table 4. Interactivity.

School	Online feedback/ comments	Online application forms	Online reporting sick or leave	Individual staff contact information	Closed discussion forum/blog
A1		√	√	√
A2	√	√	√	√
A3		√			√
B1		√*	√	√
B2			√	√
B3		√	√	√	√
C1		√
C2	√
C3	√	√	√	√
D1				√
D2		√		√
D3	√	√			√

*Only available for sport profile.

Table 5. Accessibility and usability.

School	Other languages than Swedish	Audio version of the main homepage	External links to shared resources	FAQs/ real-time IT support	News/ bulletin board	Text	Photos	Videos	Links to social media	Search engine	Link to internal LMS**
A1	√	√	√			√	√		√	√	√
A2	√		√		√	√	√	√	√		√
A3					√	√	√	√		√	√
B1	√	√	√			√		√*	√	√
B2	√	√	√			√				√	√
B3					√	√	√		√
C1		√	√			√			√		√
C2		√	√			√					√
C3			√		√	√		√	√	√
D1			√		√	√
D2			√		√	√	√	√		√
D3				√	√	√	√	√	√		√

*Only on webpages for sport profile

**LMS: web-based learning management system. Different schools use different kinds of LMS.

Epstein, J. (2009). School, family, and community partnerships: Your handbook for action (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

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