A Mixed-Method Approach

Abstract

Hopkins (2011) developed a mechanism for monitoring interest in transnational academic mobility to Australia that utilised web analytics, the collection, measurement, monitoring, analysing and reporting of web usage data, to identify the geographical locations of visitors to a website providing information about academic careers in Australia (Hasan, Morris, & Probets, 2009). From a total of almost thirty thousand data points collected over a twelve month period, the highest level of interest was identified as being from users within Australia (12.7 per cent), followed by UK (8.4 per cent), US.edu (3.2 per cent), New Zealand (3.1 per cent), Canada (2.3 per cent), Germany (1.6 per cent) and France (1.1 per cent); with the site being accessed by users located in 46 different countries overall. Whilst the research succeeded in collecting a valuable set of data that highlighted the nations where the highest level of web activity was originating, a number of limitations were also identified. The results were restricted Monitoring international interest in transnational academic mobility to Australia