Tag Archives: cms

Academic Departments

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Heard from Susan Campbell, Department Chairs, Academic Coordinators
Drafted by Renée Brown and Jason Mittell

In surveying department chairs and coordinators, as well as casual discussions with many faculty, frustrations with our current web design and system run deep. Key problems mentioned include lack of design flexibility, difficulty in updating, poor navigation and organization, inability to easily embed images and media, and the static nature of information and site design. There was widespread enthusiasm for the makeover and willingness to participate in the process. Given that every academic department has different needs and specific uses, it is difficult to assess the relative importance of various features, but this document attempts to synthesize key needs and requirements as expressed across the curriculum.

Needs for Departmental Sites

We have identified a number of types of information that departments feel are important to their sites, broken into four major areas:

  • Department Overview: brief mission statement, central contact info, feed of news/events, and visual vibrancy for splash page
  • People: lists of faculty & staff with links to detailed profile pages, office hours & contact info, updates of publications/grants/achievements, alumni & student profiles
  • Curriculum: major requirements (including potential concentrations & sample sequences for more complex programs like ENVS and AMST), independent project guidelines, downloadable forms (both departmental and from the registrar), courses/schedule, links to class websites
  • Resources: departmental library guide, career info, study abroad recommendations, departmental newsletter, facilities & equipment overviews/policies, external links (research sites, grad programs, opportunities for community outreach, etc.), guide to “what can be done with a XXX major?”, feeds from external blogs, video/images of specialized facilities

Many departments indicate that they currently underuse their websites, with minimal information that is rarely updated. There was consensus that this makeover process could help show people some new ways to use the web effectively. During sessions where other websites were demoed, there were frequent “a-has” upon seeing capabilities that other schools are using, so we feel there will be enthusiasm for innovation. Some specific innovations that seemed particularly popular include dynamically generating course listings (a “modular catalog”), faculty pages feeding & linking to schedules and courses, feeds of sponsored & relevant events, and integrated links to Banner information.

We discussed the option of choosing among a group of templates, customized for both visual variety and optimized for different needs (such as more graphics/media, more text-based, etc.) – most coordinators and faculty seem to embrace this option. Coordinators wanted more flexibility with fonts and sizing of text. There was a clear desire for more graphic and media capabilities, especially within the Arts.

Some faculty embraced the idea of student and/or alumni work being profiled and displayed on the site, especially in the Arts. Potential links with the library’s thesis archive is an option worth considering.

Some departments currently publish newsletters, and many would consider publishing them to the web instead of, or in addition to, paper and mailing. Ongoing updated departmental blogs were of interest to a few departments as well.

Needs for Individual Faculty

Faculty pages were noted for being rarely updated, dry, and lacking variability or personality. Faculty were interested in being able to edit their own profile, recognizing that some faculty would be less likely to do so (although no less likely than emailing the updates to coordinators, which could still be an option). Arts faculty specifically want the ability to host images and media of their creative work.

An idea discussed with coordinators was to have a central database for faculty publications/achievements – either faculty or coordinators would enter the information about a new publication (including link to online version or Midd subscription through JSTOR, etc.), which would then feed to the faculty’s homepage, their department(s) page, a college-wide faculty achievement page (which would be useful for library acquisitions as well as PR), and into the annual report for faculty given to the Provost. Coordinators thought this would be a better option than updating individual faculty pages, and expected between 1/3 and 1/2 faculty would enter their own info, growing over time with increased technological fluency.

The idea of automatically feeding a faculty’s scheduled teaching with links to courses to their profile page (as on Amherst) was quite popular. It’s uncertain how many faculty would maintain separate pages through Segue or the community.middlebury.edu server if the core website were more flexible – one option would be to embed separately designed pages into the core departmental site.

Workflow

The current CMS restricts editing to coordinators, although some faculty have edited on the platform. A number of chairs expressed interest in editing their pages, having other faculty edit, or having student workers edit. Coordinators generally want to be involved in the editing process, both to oversee consistency and maintain their web skills, but recognize that the current workflow leads to infrequent updates and little input from faculty.

An easy-to-use editing and authoring system, especially for incorporating media and images, was seen as essential, with the ability to increase participation of faculty in the editing process. One issue expressed by some faculty was that the new system not be tied to a specific browser or platform (e.g. must be usable on Mac/PC and Firefox/IE).

Coordinators were concerned that expanded content on the department site would lead to increased workload. Sharing editing responsibilities would help. Additionally, the ability of sites to be dynamically assembled, rather than static updates, would be useful – for instance, feeding events, faculty publications, career links, library research tools, and alumni news from other offices and systems would make the site update regularly without requiring manual changes.

In imagining the workflow model that would work best for academic departments, coordinators endorsed a system where many users could be given editing ability for the department page (including faculty and student workers), but that all edits must be approved by the coordinator before publishing (via a notification system). This should increase updates from faculty on the content they know best, and allow delegation and distribution of work more effectively, without sacrificing consistency and appropriate form & use of media. Some thought it would be helpful to be able to turn the approval requirement on and off, allowing the possibility of all authorized editors to publish directly.

The idea of a student/alumni section of the site that could be updated (with approval) by students and alumni themselves was mentioned as a way to encourage participation. Another option is a simple webform for alums to send in info to feed into the site, perhaps at the college-wide level with tags to majors and field of employment.

Other Desired Features

  • Many coordinators were enthusiastic about being able to easily customize their own user profiles to make their web use more efficient – after a clear explanation, all coordinators present at the meeting said they’d definitely use this feature.
  • One consistent theme with coordinators and faculty was that as much Banner information as possible should be accessible from the website directly without using BannerWeb. Course rosters (linked from course pages, as on Amherst), student schedules, faculty schedules, lists of majors, and the like should be accessed via links rather than BannerWeb login.
  • More sophisticated use of feeds and targeted info via the web was endorsed, especially as an alternative to email-driven communication.
  • One idea would be to have lists of new library acquisitions in a certain discipline feed into the departmental site.
  • Better management of events and calendar info was mentioned, both in terms of flexible feeds by tag, department, location, medium (lecture, performance, film), and the ability to click “Add to my Calendar” to export to Outlook or other systems.
  • Some language departments mentioned the need for varying language character sets (such as Cyrillic and Greek).
  • Some arts departments want the ability for students to create their own portfolios of their work, as Teacher Ed currently does. This would ideally be embedded directly into the core department site, not externally hosted on Segue.
  • A few faculty expressed interest in having the ability for social networking, and a couple said they have used Facebook pages to coordinate with current majors and alums.
  • A few mentioned the use of wikis, but only for specific purposes (for instance, a wiki for documentation of FMMC equipment).
  • Some suggested a “majors-only” area, although there was not a clear sense of what information and material should have restricted access.
  • One coordinator suggested that departments could have a list of current majors on the site, potentially with links to student pages/profiles.
  • One coordinator suggested the possibility of online sign-up for scheduling of meetings and appointments. Another suggested the use of an online order form for equipment requests (currently used on CHEM site), which might also be expanded to request access to facilities (like MUSIC practice rooms), reserve specialized equipment (like FMMC cameras).
  • A few faculty expressed interest in having the departmental website offer the possibility for discussion and community involvement, not just a one-way flow of information. Options include blog-like updates with comments, an open “wall” to make announcements/promotions, and a department wiki open to Midd users as a workspace for engaging with the department.

Center for Teaching and Learning Resources

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Stakeholder: Susan Campbell and Kathy Skubowski

Website: http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/ctlr/

WebRedo Contact: Renee Brown

General:

  • We regularly use Banner, library, blog for writing tutors, servers, Outlook, and Entourage. Would like to be able to share documents, photos, video, blogs, email, RSS feeds
  • Search/navigation: lack of consolidation. Would like a way to centralize material or link from one location–even if you’re good at finding information, it shouldn’t be difficult to do.
  • There seem to be lengthy delays and lack of timely response to requests for new channels and the possibility of a bottleneck in authorizing and approving requests for new or more web content.
  • The ability to look at the Master Schedule without having to go through someone else is very valuable.
  • Our course management tool is not easy to find on the College web site.

Goals:

  • Would like to offer short questions and self-paced tests to students as part of the tutoring program but there is no easy way to do this despite the fact that other institutions have this facility. In Math, there are symbol/equation issues, but nonetheless, we should have a built in online testing capability.  Emphasized the desirability of being to work with such a tool without any intermediation by tech folks.
  • Noted the lengthy delays and lack of timely response to requests for new channels, etc.  Also mentioned the possibility of a bottleneck in authorizing and approving requests for new or more web content.
  • The possibility of integrating AccuTrack more into Banner.
  • Having a web designer help with setting up the original structure and organization would be helpful.
  • If there was tracking program that the web admins could run to see where the hits to a particular department are going, it would facilitate the organization of the site. The general sense is that students have difficulty finding information and without information about how people are navigating the CTLR site, it is difficult to know how to improve the organization of information.
  • When on a site, having drop down menus are a comfort, providing glimpses as to the result of clicking on a link and a sense of how the site is organized. Also, shows a variety of options.
  • Hamilton’s teaching/learning site (http://www.hamilton.edu/writing/index.html) is very well laid out. Was searching for oral presentation skills and had no problem logically navigating.
  • Like the idea of having a customized home page, that is optional, but would be most helpful to permit a unique home base for each user.

Registrar’s Office

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Stakeholder: Susan Campbell

Registrar Website: http://www.middlebury.edu/administration/records

WebRedo Contact: Renee Brown

General:

It’s important that it’s easy for us to update our departmental website (CMS).  The current method works but is rather cumbersome.

The master calendar is a very valuable tool.

Maintaining and/or improving the search functionality will be very important.  Since users have to drill down deep in our current website (pages buried 5 and 6 levels deep) the search function is especially valuable.  We need the website to be easy to navigate for our constituents

(faculty, alums, current students, parents, etc).

Format-wise, a home page that occupies all of the space in the window (not framed in white, or centered) is more visually appealing.  Our current page is flanked in blue space, whereas Harvard’s homepage content spans the width of the entire window.  Some web pages navigate directly to the proper page when you type it in the search engine.  See vassar.edu.  Also, larger font is a must!  Users often comment that the font size is too small.  We understand uniformity, but it would be great to have at least a headline font size as well as a text font size.

Goals:

We would like to be able to explore the possibility of increased functionality of the web to reach our constituents in new ways.  For example, creating a Q & A  first-year blog for registration questions, etc.  Or, an on-campus registration blog during web registration time as new ways to reach students.

It would be useful to employ the “hover” function on the home page with the large categories that allow users to link right away to an embedded page.  Many schools use this functionality well online.  For example, see williams.edu.

It would be very valuable to have a searchable, online database that archives course data (meeting schedules, course descriptions, etc).

Center for the Arts (CFA)

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Stakeholder: Liza Sacheli Lloyd
WebRedo Contact: Joe A.

Center for the Arts requirements focus on:

  • Calendar and events services
  • Improved search functionality and navigation
  • A modern online/real time box office system
  • Customization
  • Social networking
  • Tagging

Right now, the Arts are one of the seven main areas at the op level of navigation off the home page. In the web makeover, we want to ensure that the Arts continue to be included as a top level of the College’s web presence. The Arts at Middlebury play a unique role as an area of the College in that the Arts are important to both a campus and community audience.  We’re a connector between students, faculty, staff, and community members.  We’re also a connector between academic disciplines, enrichment pursuits, and leisure interest.  Because the Arts are relevant to such a broad cross-section of the community, our outreach should be represented early on in the viewer’s experience with Midd on the web.

One of our biggest wishes for the future is that the Arts at Midd’s presence on the web can better reflect the vibrancy, the energy, the vitality of the programs and people here.  We’d like a web framework that allows more freedom, more excitement… we’d like to see sound and movement on the new site.  The ability to better incorporate audio and video would allow us to show what happens here more effectively. Obviously, artists are people who value free expression!

Calendar: An events calendar is, and will always be, a really important part of the Arts’ web presence. The Events at Middlebury area, and the way it interfaces with Resource 25, has always felt clunky and unfriendly.  We have an amazing amount of exciting stuff happening at Middlebury-there has got to be a way for the web to show that excitement in a way that’s easier to navigate and understand, that looks and sounds great too (pictures? sound?)  Maybe an events calendar could be more interactive, or have social networking compatibilities. What about a running marquee of events each day?

Search: Middlebury would benefit from a more effective/friendlier search functionality for the entire Midd web presence.

Navigation: There is great room for improvement in our web’s navigation strategy!  There is an opportunity to integrate different functions so that intuitive sequences of info unfold to the user.  For example, one of our faculty envied a school where it was easy to find each academic department, then once you located a particular faculty member, you could see what classes they were teaching, and that page linked right up to the relevant course catalog listings; that linked right to registration, etc.

Box Office: We would like to see Middlebury invest in new ticketing software that would run in real time, and be hooked up to exchange critical information with Banner. Right now we operate on a separate system, and we have work-arounds to make ticket sales available on the web (NOT in real time).  If we ever got this functionality, we could be of real service to the entire campus community as a commercial portal for all kinds of services.

Customization: We would like to see our web presence have customization capability so that the various places we go electronically every day could be collated into my Midd web experience.

Social networking: We have an opportunity to strengthen our sense of community at Middlebury with technology.  In the era of Facebook, there are so many new and different ways to keep in touch.  How can Midd take advantage of that connectivity?

Tagging: We have a program we call “Curricular Connections” where we suggest links between the course curriculums each semester and the public arts offerings that are planned.  Each semester the online Curricular Connections brochure is organized thematically, with chapters devoted to any theme that emerges during that timeframe.  There is a connection between this thematically organized content and the tagging feature.