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Academic Affairs

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General:

Many in our office use the AA website for disseminating forms, and providing general information, but we fear that many on campus are not aware of what is there
Many use Banner and/or webmail but these are not easy to get to without several clicks.
We also use the schedule of courses to see when faculty are teaching, and reference the College Handbook online quite a bit
We also use the scheduler on RS25, however it is not the “complete” campus schedule as several offices do not use it to list their events. We generally like the ability to request space from the site itself.
Although our experience has been less than positive with CMS, one thing that it does is allow you to set a date for a page to expire, which is very helpful
the college’s search engine is not ideal as it is difficult to find pages
a related issue is the length of pages, esp. in the handbook. It’s difficult to point someone to a particular place when it may be half-way down the page, or someplace in the page that may be difficult to direct someone to.

Goals:

having more freedom to connect to pages outside of our area would be great, such as links to faculty pages or more connectivity to registrar or advising info
ability to disseminate information more easily (perhaps by avoiding email), such as upcoming talks, lectures, meetings, or reminders of deadlines, etc.
it would be ideal to know when faculty are teaching, which we do now by hunting through class schedules. I like Amherst’s schedule tool, where you can add your own
It would be nice to have a collection of faculty accomplishments available on the AA website. Right now we send out an email with that info on a semi-regular basis
Allowing folks to tailor their page to select their own “widgets” sounds like a good thing
How about links to local sites, like weather, CNN, the Chronicle, etc?
Please make sure we leave our address on the front page. This is a real issue for me when looking at other school’s websites, which I do frequently
Could we add a virtual campus tour?
Would like to have a list of grants that have been approved so faculty can check on the status of their request when they log in
We would like an area for all relevant forms separate from informational sections.
it would be helpful if links within a site were listed alphabetically
AA should have a section that provides a “division of duties” chart for all staff in the office that can be referenced by others
Some sections of the site seem to be a “dumping area” for lots of stuff that makes it difficult to cull through. For example, a separate section for course proposal forms, student independent project proposals and guidelines
improve the search feature

College Advancement

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Stakeholder: Mike Schoenfeld

Liaisons: Maggie Paine and Joe Antonioli

Stakeholders interviewed: two in-depth discussions were held with representatives from all CA departments. In addition, each department provided written feedback on requirements.

Overview

College Advancement requirements focus on:

integration of the many sites it relies on;
personalized pages;
improvements to online giving and registration;
improved data collection;
repurposing of content/ability to pull content (video, stories, slideshows, blogs, etc.) into their department web pages,
tracking and analysis of online communications;
sharing of documents and information within work groups;
creation of a microphilanthropy site.

Integration of all CA-related sites

College Advancement needs the various sites that cater to alumni, parents, and friends to be seamlessly integrated and easy to access. Currently, they are not easy to find, it is difficult to move from one to another, and each one has a different look and feel.

These sites are: College Advancement (ie. Give to Middlebury) and Alumni and Parent Programs pages on the cms, Middlebury Initiative, microphilanthropy site (to be developed), online giving form, PantherNet (Harris Connect online community; includes MiddNet career network), Middlebury Online, Agents in Action and Initiative Volunteer Leadership site (volunteer management tools), Google APP events calendar, and University Channel, as well as Facebook pages, LinkedIn site, YouTube, and other social networking tools. In addition, there are affinity group pages developed by alumni, students, or faculty that need to be incorporated into or easily accessible from the CA site. (Examples include the D8 Web site and Digital Bridges site). (Please see appendix for complete list of non-CMS pages that College Advancement relies on.)

PantherNet-the Harris Connect online community-is currently being developed and will launch in May. Alumni and Parent Programs will use PantherNet for many services, and it’s critical that these services are integrated with the Middlebury site. The services include:

Event registration tied to a searchable calendar of events
Broadcast e-mail tool with tracking capabilities
Constituent directory with search tool and easy update process
Classifieds
Career networking tools including interface with LinkedIn and MiddNet, job postings, and online resources

Harris also has the option for alumni to create personalized pages; however, CA is interested in being part of the overall Middlebury customization project. (See below.)

Personalized/Customizable Pages

College Advancement needs to have customizable pages for its alumni, parents, and volunteers. In addition to providing options for alumni to customize their own pages, CA would like to be able to pull specific content into alumni pages, perhaps through a combination of previews of blogs, e-mails, news feeds, videos, etc., and links.

Some of the content could be determined by an individual’s Banner record. For example, if an alumnus was celebrating a reunion, information specific to that reunion would automatically be pulled into his page. Similarly, if an alumna were a class agent, Initiative leadership volunteer, or Cane Society representative, specific links and tools would be included on her page. Donors could see their giving history.

Other content that might be pulled into a person’s page includes events, important college news, such as a communication from the president, notification that the latest donor honor roll was online, Initiative updates, Annual Fund progress reports (with overall and class participation), and stories relating to a person’s interests as shown in Banner (athletics, D8, etc.).

College Advancement would like to see customized pages/portals for volunteers and stewardship reports for individuals accessible after log in.

There is interest in having one log-on that would provide people with access to Middlebury personal pages, donor honor roll, online community, and their pages on multiple social networks. (particularly for younger alumni). At the least, once logged into any Middlebury site, there would be no need for log in to another Middlebury site.

In addition, CA would like to see personalized Web pages for staff members, with features such as calendar, project team discussion groups, and rss feeds.

Online Giving and Registration

Online giving and registration need to be more fully automated and connected to Banner and the Harris online community. Online giving also needs to be easier for donors to use and to provide more giving options.

Currently, TouchNet does not interface with Banner. Instead, each gift and registration requires a journal entry to be done. Then gift processing and alumni staff members enter gifts and registration information manually into each person’s Banner record. Recording registration information on the web site is also a manual process.

College Advancement would like to see the following improvements to these systems:

Enable Touchnet to interface with the logic that is already written into Banner Self Service.
Automatic processing and entry of registrations and gifts into Banner with a screen that allows each gift and registration to be reviewed by a staff member, then accepted. This would also include automatic entry into Banner of updated personal information that is generated when people register for an event or make a gift; again, this data would need to be reviewed before being fed into Banner.
Event registration forms that require people to include their e-mail addresses and other personal information.
Event registration forms that also allow people to make a gift and have both automatically processed (see above).
Registration and gift information automatically displayed on appropriate college pages. For example, when someone registers for reunion, his/her name would automatically appear in the list of who’s coming on the class reunion page; as gifts came in, the “mercury” in a thermometer tracking giving would go up.
Automatic processing of recurring credit card gifts or pledge payments (currently done manually and credit card information must be kept on file)
Once a person logs into the system (either the online giving form, online community, or personal Middlebury page), when he/she goes to make a gift the personal information we have for them in Banner is automatically displayed.
Elimination of need for storage of personal security information (credit card data) on College servers.

Online giving could be made easier and more effective in the following ways:

Enable memorial gifts and gifts in honor of others
Flag missing information in the online giving form as people are filling it out
Include a printable form for multi-year pledges as part of giving form
Enable automatic withdrawal from donors’ bank accounts on a monthly basis
Allow donors to request information about gift planning, reunion giving, etc. using the online giving form
Provide a feature that recognizes what someone is giving to and suggests other options (like Amazon)
Provide option for links to videos that demonstrate impact of giving in particular areas
Customized online giving forms for different areas of the College (BLSE, LS, etc.) or specific fundraising projects (Organic Garden, etc.)

Improved Data Collection

Updated information on constituents is key to being able to communicate effectively. College Advancement needs to collect e-mail addresses and other information about alumni and parents. The changes noted above, will help. They are interested in other methods of collecting this data that we might suggest.

Repurposing Content

College Advancement needs to able to pull and display content aggregated in Middlebury Online, “below the fold,” or available elsewhere on the Middlebury.edu site (campus blogs, discussion groups, news, stories, lectures, video, slideshows, The Campus, WRMC, etc.) into individual CA pages, where having such content would reinforce key messages and help advancement tell the Middlebury story to its audiences.

Tracking and analysis of online communications

College Advancement needs the ability to track and analyze its online communications. It may be that training in using Google Analytics, Lyris, and the Harris Connect broadcast e-mail tool tracking function will fulfill this need.

Sharing of documents and information within work groups

An easy, searchable system for sharing documents and information-perhaps also including as video, slideshows, photos, etc.-is needed to replace the static N drive, where advancement officers currently store and share information. This must be accessible from off-campus. Having the ability for multiple people to work on a document at once (like Google docs) would also be useful.

Microphilanthropy Web site

College Advancement is charged with developing a site that combines concepts from microfinance and social networking and that enables donors to fund specific projects that are meaningful to them and to connect with others who share their interests.

Other Needs

Graduate programs easily accessible via the home page.
Discussion groups in each of the languages we teach
Interactive thermometer that tracks alumni participation
Amazon-type feature that remembers visitors’ preferences
Obvious way to provide feedback or comment
Ease of site navigation
Meeting organizer that makes it easy to schedule meetings involving many people
Donor site accessible after log-in that includes donor honor roll, 1800 Society and True Blue Society pages, and other stewardship content.
Interactive map or other feature that would enable alumni and college communications to post a photo and a brief story or statement. Then each person/location would be added to the map and when you clicked on it, you would see the photo and quote. Map would also have locations of all our schools abroad and Bread Loaf sites with information on each one. An alternative way to show this would be to rotate photos/quotes on the map. MSNBC did something similar, but without the map. Roll over a particular photo of a person and you get a brief quote. Click on the full story and it delivers the story in a pop-up screen. See www.msnbc.com/id/26903309

Breadloaf School of English (BLSE)

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Jan. 29, 2009

Attending: Sanda Legault, Judy Jessup, Elaine Lathrop, Lexa DeCourval, Karen Browne, Susan Holcomb with Renee Brown and Shel Sax

One major complaint was the Middlebury branding, student profiles that are undergraduate focused which doesn’t work for Bread Loaf. – would like to have the ability to use BL appropriate content. Love the fact that BLSE is well-positioned on the College’s home page along with MIIS, Writers Conference, etc.

Unlike other groups on campus, BLSE has its own communication/conferencing/email program, Breadnet (First Class software) that it uses for communications, particularly during the summers when the 4 campuses are in session. During that time, many students don’t use the Middlebury College web page, since all available relevant information is accessible from Breadnet.

Types of information: very basic information is currently there but have talked about photos, something like a Facebook page that connects applicants to current students, etc.

overview at BLSE page – with who we are, what we do, faculty
information that we have is there but the CMS standards are too rigid and have prevented BLSE from changing content – so the original content was mostly straight from the catalog and that’s what’s still there – this summer, looking to have a media section where they can put podcasts – this is an idea for the reunion – also issues with permissions for a large scale podcast initiative
integration with Banner Web is critical, particularly for the online applications process.
online application is confusing to students – students from the Language Schools apply to BLSE, for example

Navigation/Search:

Want to make sure that the inquiry process is in place for admissions, so that online applications and forms work well from the current web page. – some students need assistance but typically because they don’t read the available online instructions
some things are very hard to find e.g. webcams, campus map, etc.
search function is not a big help but a site map would be a big help. – are there people to advise on the better way to structure the site and to do more creative and interesting things
people want to get to information with only a few clicks

Requested Features/Functionality

areas for growth including online newsletter, audio and video of presentations, plays, readings, etc.,
online community for alums and current students, BLTN for example
Single log on and customization of individual pages would be desirable
Unique factor about BLSE is the use of FirstClass (Breadnet) for communication and some document sharing. Otherwise, use Ocelot
Having a link to Breadnet would be useful
Forms, applications, etc. are typically Banner based or on Ocelot
Definitely want embedded photos, video, podcasting, etc.
visual map for the various campus, virtual tours of the 4 campuses
Want to have students submit and publish photos taken by BL’ers with some control.
Ability to create summer content that would be easy to turn on and turn off as the yearly cycle turns. How to communicate with students during the yearly cycle that permits the targeting of specific subsets of the BLSE community.
Want different types of information – some general for non-enrolled students, faculty, etc. and then have a log in for students, faculty and staff to access more individualized information.
Ability to ‘push’ information rather than publish information. – RSS feeds might be of use, but assumes that people use RSS feeds and it is not clear how to create such an environment
For example, want to let enrolled students in Vermont that theater tickets are available, but don’t want this information to go to BLSE students on other campuses.
want something to facilitate the publishing of images on the web, automating the optimization of the image size, etc.

Workflow – current & desired

Interested in having multiple editors with one or two ‘approvers’
would like a way to individualize the application forms for BLSE – and looking to put course registration online
Use pdf files, and forms that interact with Banner.
Note that students range in age from young to old and the older cohorts have difficulties navigating the web site and online forms – there’s lot of individualized assistance provided by the BLSE staff
lack of use of credit cards is an issue

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.

Web Makeover Docs

Documents for the Middlebury Web Makeover

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Academic Affairs