Masters Theses

Date of Award

12-2001

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Nutrition

Major Professor

Paula Zemel

Committee Members

Betsy Haughton, June Gorski

Abstract

Included among the issues of using computer technology with children are the concerns with website content and gender inequality. Many tools have been developed to evaluate the content of websites, however even a website validated with accurate content can create an unpleasant experience for the user if it does not possess qualities that motivate the user to engage in it. Also, based on previous data that demonstrates variations between males and females with various aspects of computer usage, gender differences in ratings of websites for their motivational quality could potentially exist.Thus, the purpose of this study was three-fold: 1) to determine the level of utility and interest of nutrition-related websites for children; 2) to evaluate gender differences with the way that the motivational qualities of websites are rated; and 3) to determine those factors that are associated with utility and interest of nutrition-related websites forchildren.Using the WebMAC Junior- 2000 evaluation tool, 38 fourth- and fifth-grade students in a local magnet school for technology rated the motivational quality of one science-related website that was rated "awesome" from previous use with the WebMACtool and ten nutrition-related websites. First, the students interacted with the website andthen, based on a Likert-type scale, assigned numerical ratings to each question in theWebMAC Junior- 2000 tool for the website being evaluated.Our results indicate that 1) there were differences in the utility and interest score for the websites evaluated; 2) only two websites demonstrated a significant difference inscores when compared by gender, thus male and female students tended to rate the websites similarly; and 3) predicting factors for the levels of utility and interest of the websites emerged from the data and can be used to guide the design of nutrition-related websites.

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