Iowa college websites: usability rankings

Usability scores, grades, and the most common failures for 18 public and 31 private college and university websites in Iowa, from ScanGov homepage scans.

  • Sites: 49
  • Last scan: 11/8/2026

Showing Iowa college and university sites. All education sites

Public colleges and universities in Iowa are ranked and averaged together; private nonprofit institutions are listed below with their own average.

D 69

Average usability score of 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites

6th

of 48 states and territories, ranked by average usability score

16 of 18

Iowa public college sites fully scanned. We couldn't fully scan 2, so they're listed without grades

D 68

Average usability score of all 2,687 fully scanned education sites

How Iowa usability scores are distributed

Smoothed distribution of the 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites, score 0 to 100. Height shows how many sites score near each value.

  • Iowa average
  • All education average
View the data table
Score rangeSites
0 to 90
10 to 190
20 to 290
30 to 390
40 to 493
50 to 592
60 to 694
70 to 792
80 to 892
90 to 1003

Iowa by usability grade, compared with all education sites

Share of fully scanned sites in each grade band. Iowa: 16 sites. All education: 2687 sites.

  1. Iowa
  2. All education sites
  • A (90 to 100)
  • B to C (70 to 89)
  • D to F (below 70)
View the data table
GroupA (90 to 100)B to C (70 to 89)D to F (below 70)
Iowa19% (3)25% (4)56% (9)
All education sites11% (289)42% (1,124)47% (1,274)

Top 3 Iowa public college sites by usability score

#1 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 1

Southwestern Community College

A 100 usability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability D
  • Security C
  • Usability A
  • Readability F

#2 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 2

Des Moines Area Community College

A 93 usability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability A
  • Security B
  • Usability A
  • Readability A

#2 in Iowa · U.S. education rank 2

Ellsworth Community College

A 93 usability

  • Accessibility A
  • Botability B
  • Security A
  • Usability A
  • Readability F

Most common usability failures among Iowa public college sites

Share of the 16 fully scanned Iowa public college sites failing each check. A site can fail more than one check. Each check links to the sites failing it, or to its standard when we have no list yet.

  1. Open Graph image alt75%
  2. Open Graph site name63%
  3. Open Graph type50%
  4. Open Graph URL44%
  5. Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)38%
View the data table
CheckShare failingSites failing
Open Graph image alt75%12
Open Graph site name63%10
Open Graph type50%8
Open Graph URL44%7
Largest Contentful Paint (LCP)38%6

What each check means

  • Open Graph image alt. The social media preview image has alt text for screen readers. Screen readers cannot describe shared images.
  • Open Graph site name. The site has a name for social media and browser display. Site name missing in social media shares.
  • Open Graph type. The page declares its content type for social media cards. Social media shows wrong content type.
  • Open Graph URL. The page has a canonical URL for social media sharing. Shared links may point to wrong page.
  • Largest Contentful Paint (LCP). The page's main content loads within 2.5 seconds. Users wait too long and leave your page.

Every education site with one problem

Iowa public 4-year institutions by usability score

3 sites, 3 fully scanned. Part of the headline average.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 uiowa.edu
University of Iowa U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
2 uni.edu
University of Northern Iowa U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
3 iastate.edu
Iowa State University U.S. rank 24 		8 of 15 checks pass F

Iowa public 2-year institutions by usability score

15 sites, 13 fully scanned, average usability score 68 (D). Part of the headline average.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 swcciowa.edu
Southwestern Community College U.S. rank 1 		16 of 16 checks pass A
2 dmacc.edu
Des Moines Area Community College U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
2 iavalley.edu
Ellsworth Community College U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
3 nicc.edu
Northeast Iowa Community College U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 iowalakes.edu
Iowa Lakes Community College U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
5 iwcc.edu
Iowa Western Community College U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
5 niacc.edu
North Iowa Area Community College U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
5 witcc.edu
Western Iowa Tech Community College U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
6 indianhills.edu
Indian Hills Community College U.S. rank 20 		10 of 16 checks pass D
7 eicc.edu
Eastern Iowa Community College District U.S. rank 25 		8 of 16 checks pass F
8 iowacentral.edu
Iowa Central Community College U.S. rank 27 		7 of 16 checks pass F
8 kirkwood.edu
Kirkwood Community College U.S. rank 27 		7 of 16 checks pass F
8 scciowa.edu
Southeastern Community College U.S. rank 27 		7 of 16 checks pass F
hawkeyecollege.edu
Hawkeye Community College 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We couldn't fully scan your site because it responded without any page content. Status 995 -
nwicc.edu
Northwest Iowa Community College 		Not fully scanned, so not graded. We weren't able to fully scan your site. Status 999 -

Iowa private nonprofit institutions by usability score

31 sites, 31 fully scanned, average usability score 77 (C). Ranked among themselves. Not part of the public average above.

Rank Site Checks passed Grade
1 central.edu
Central College U.S. rank 1 		16 of 16 checks pass A
1 dordt.edu
Dordt University U.S. rank 1 		16 of 16 checks pass A
2 bvu.edu
Buena Vista University U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
2 loras.edu
Loras College U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
2 uiu.edu
Upper Iowa University U.S. rank 2 		15 of 16 checks pass A
3 drake.edu
Drake University U.S. rank 4 		14 of 16 checks pass B
3 morningside.edu
Morningside University U.S. rank 4 		14 of 16 checks pass B
3 palmer.edu
Palmer College of Chiropractic U.S. rank 4 		14 of 16 checks pass B
4 allencollege.edu
Allen College U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 clarke.edu
Clarke University U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 coe.edu
Coe College U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 dmu.edu
Des Moines University-Osteopathic Medical Center U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 emmaus.edu
Emmaus Bible College U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 faith.edu
Faith Baptist Bible College and Theological Seminary U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
4 graceland.edu
Graceland University-Lamoni U.S. rank 9 		13 of 16 checks pass B
5 dwci.edu
Divine Word College U.S. rank 10 		12 of 15 checks pass B
6 briarcliff.edu
Briar Cliff University U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
6 grandview.edu
Grand View University U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
6 luther.edu
Luther College U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
6 simpson.edu
Simpson College U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
6 stlukescollege.edu
St Luke's College U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
6 wmpenn.edu
William Penn University U.S. rank 13 		12 of 16 checks pass C
7 mtmercy.edu
Mount Mercy University U.S. rank 14 		11 of 15 checks pass C
8 nwciowa.edu
Northwestern College U.S. rank 16 		9 of 13 checks pass D
9 miu.edu
Maharishi International University U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
9 wartburgseminary.edu
Wartburg Theological Seminary U.S. rank 17 		11 of 16 checks pass D
10 wartburg.edu
Wartburg College U.S. rank 20 		10 of 16 checks pass D
11 dbq.edu
University of Dubuque U.S. rank 21 		9 of 15 checks pass D
12 sau.edu
Saint Ambrose University U.S. rank 23 		9 of 16 checks pass F
13 cornellcollege.edu
Cornell College U.S. rank 27 		7 of 16 checks pass F
14 grinnell.edu
Grinnell College U.S. rank 31 		6 of 16 checks pass F

About this data

ScanGov scans the homepage of each college and university site on our higher education list. Scores come from the checks in the ScanGov standards. Sites were scanned between 10/28/2026 and 11/8/2026. Each site's report shows its own scan date. A site counts as fully scanned when its homepage loaded and sent us its page content. Averages, grade shares, failure rates, and ranks use fully scanned sites only. We could not fully scan 2 sites. They did not respond, blocked the scanner, or sent no page content. They appear in the table without grades, with their scan status, and are left out of every figure. Grades follow the ScanGov grade scale. Rank follows the ScanGov ranking method. The full dataset, with every county's raw results, is in the ScanGov data repository.

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