As I work on my keynote speech for the 2015 eduWeb Digital  Summit in July, I keep coming back to the following philosophical question: When it comes to the web and digital in higher education, how good is good enough?

I’ve said it once and I’ll say it again – most college websites are still mediocre at best. For the past two months I have reviewed hundreds of catalog sites and to say they are mediocre is being nice.  Most of them are awful.  Information about degree programs is arguably the most important information on the site yet these sites are doing disservice to the campus.

I recently asked a group of conference attendees the following question: True or False: Most College Web Sites Are Bad?  The majority of the audience said this was false and that their websites are well done. But when I look at their sites I see plenty of areas for improvement.  As part of my consulting work I conduct website reviews on a regular basis and I have yet to see a site that didn’t have issues.

Am I being too picky? Is it worth the money to produce the absolute best website? At one extreme is having your site created and maintained by students at $10 per hour.  At the other extreme is having a world renown digital agency do this work.  Where should higher ed sites fall on this continuum?

How good is good enough?

Discuss.