While students have more and more exploration options listed on EdExploreSRQ.com, are teachers really checking them out, and more importantly, are they using them?

This year, 34 organizations and 20 teaching artists are already posted on the site, offering more than 155 explorations available throughout the school year.  All of these explorations are linked to standards and benchmarks so teachers don’t have to guess how the exploration fits into the curriculum.

What do the Google Analytics on the site tell us?

Since EdExplore’s inception one year ago, 5,500 unique visitors made 9,200 visits to the site. They looked at an average of four pages during each visit and spent more than four minutes on the site. The bounce rate was 37 percent — meaning they left immediately after hitting the page. But 63% stayed, which our resident web experts tell us is very good. For background, there are 2,700 classroom teachers in the Sarasota County School District.

Users are finding the resource from searches, referrals from other sites and direct traffic to EdExploreSRQ.  The vast majority of traffic is coming from the Sarasota School District teachers, who are our target market.

Our Spring 2012 teacher surveys showed that the best way to spread the word about EdExplore was through principals and peer teachers. Angela Hartvigsen, Angela.Hartvigsen@sarasotacountyschools.net, the EdExploreSRQ project manager, is making presentations about the site at schools throughout the district. She has already been to Venice High School and is scheduled to visit Ashton Elementary. She’ll meet with charter school groups soon.

Users of the site can stay up-to-date on additions to the site by signing up for EdExploreSRQ What’s New.   

Are teachers not only checking out explorations but using them? There’s more to come here. Teachers will get a  “Tell Us About It”  follow up for each exploration. This information will help answer the question later in the year.