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Business Services

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Stakeholder: Tom Corbin

Web Makeover Contact:  Jai Shankar

E-commerce group:

  • Web site is critical to generate revenue
  • Web site to be used for “advertising” and “marketing” (since policy prohibits advertising in paper form on campus)
    — must be a priority to “self-promote” to drive business
    — also: can we include links to corporate sites in future?
  • Book store
    -The Bookstore should not lose the Bookstore link on the bottom of the homepage since at least 35% of the ecommerce Bookstore traffic comes through that method, and depending on the time of year it might even be more.  If you were to move that Bookstore link to the top of the Middlebury homepage, I would have no objection to a better location
  • That nothing coming from the Web Makeover Team affects the hosted solutions and Bookstore websites in a negative way, other than perhaps header and footer updates coming from changes to the look and feel of the College Web.
  • – Link on all web pages is desired
    – Bookstore can assist in implementing any new branding to general look, and especially header/footer areas of website.
  • Build cross-links among auxiliary services and other web sites
    Examples:
    — an ad in the Addison Independent online links to a season pass order form; on the same page as the order form are up-to-day/minute links to golf course conditions (if it’s October), to athletic events, to book store for purchasing apparel, etc.
    — Snow Bowl page might have links to 51 Main for après-ski specials
    — Bread Loaf School of English site should have obvious links to book store for purchases
    — Events at CFA, McCullough, Mead should have links to Grille, 51 Main (including specials)
  • Make links/relationships easy to develop, including to/from MBS and CBORD
    – Athletics
    – Student fund raisers; gift systems
    – 51 Main
    – Facebook
    – Pro-shop
  • New service ideas
    – sign up for T times on golf course
  • Make site richer in graphics (less “business” like)
  • Allow “pop-ups” for special offerings (e.g., Grille, Bookstore, etc.)
  • Make site compatible with mobile devices – focus significant effort on this for future
    – Grille orders
    – Book orders (as leave class)
    – Snow updates
  • Guest/visitor access
    – have pages for those interested in arts or sports (and related links to e-commerce sites)
    – allow them to build “customized” pages of information they’re most interested in

Information group

  • For students, employees, web should promote “self-service” in finding info (e.g., tax info)
  • — Easy to create & update FAQs
    — Links among different “sites” (areas on campus) (not just what’s in your own dept)
    — Search results need to be relevant & prioritized appropriately
  • Need Policies/Procedures that can be accessed/updated readily; consistently formatted
  • Dining
    — Need much more flexible design for display of calendars, menus
    — Website should display meal offerings, in a way that differentiates Middlebury from other Colleges
    — Current navigation hides too many sites
    — Relevant search results needed
  • General design – need different look & feel for different areas / functions
  • Hard to edit/update policies, procedures, documents (and web site in general)
    — interface is confusing; need simple editing functionality (esp. when just update info once a year)
    —- how can we make this efficient to get departmental input, review, approval?
    — need way to display calendar/schedule of events (such as safety training sessions)
    If things are lacking from the web site, how/who determines where they go?
  • Forms design / formatting / printing is critical  (Reprographics; Faculty housing; Snow Bowl; Golf Course)
    — Need to be able to extract information that’s important and copy/move to other applications
    — Need to be able to edit/update forms without depending on web services
    — Make easier for departments/users to create & update form fields/text
    — Forms navigation should be intuitive (“back” button on browser should work, for example)
  • Need College Policies & Procedures Web site
    — some may be open to public viewing, others limited to designated users (similar to Emergency pages)
  • Need Data Warehouse (web interface, drawing on Hyperion/Banner info)
    — Example: RPI
  • Web support – need clarity, timeliness, information online that is easy to find for web support
    — make clear how to get support & what to do if feel support is “cut off”
    — if we think something is a “bug” how do we know if it’s been fixed?
    — will there be a way to make suggestions for improvements? For new functionality?
    — shouldn’t take 10 days to get a response to an inquiry of “I’m new; how do I create a web site for my dept?”

Payment and Procurement

  • On Line training functionality
  • Secure access to certain items on the web site (e.g. tax exemption certificates)
  • On-line org chart capability for major College divisions – access might be issue although no sure why; even with 15 years employment and exposure to most of the College areas, with recent changes, growth, etc I find locating the go-to person difficult; such capability should be easily editable by designated area/department staff. Similar structure for Faculty.
  • Intuitive ease of navigation coupled with robust search capability on categories & keywords
  • Well segregated info for College employees which is not relevant or is confidential relative to other constituencies. As part of a web redesign, all areas of the College should have to create a certain minimum presence on the site, fulfilling parameters established by the redesign committees.
  • Ideally, links to peer groups / departments at our peer benchmark institutions – this could be postable by Midd employees with clearance, probably managerial level but could be broader.
  • Move MiddPoints to the Web and expand its scope………..this could be the forum for idea interchange and staff / faculty / student sharing of experiences / interests / memberships / life in our multi-community ‘region’.
  • Move College Magazine to the website in abbreviated form?
  • Improve functionality of e-mail if possible: example – address an e-mail ad hoc to a large distribution group and then be able to save those addressees for later reuse without having to first define the group within the “contacts” lists and then extract that laboriously created group for e-mails

Health & Safety

  • Video on our web page.  E.g. “Every Minute Counts”
  • Ability to edit my training and policies/procedures on the web page and have its availability more user friendly.

Retail Operations

  • Would be nice to be able to either have a rss type window on the front (home) page that consolidates the many.  Campus emails and distributions that occur and not have these go to email.  Doing so would also create some cross over between Faculty/Staff/Students.  I know of much information that the students get which is applicable to staff and the other way around however the information is not currently sent to all these constituents.
  • Currently there is access to wiki work groups however the use and training (familiarity) with this service tool is low.  Additionally, finding the links if not bookmarked can be difficult.   Perhaps a drop down page of common tools & campus electronic resources would encourage more use.
  • Also would be nice to have all blogs etc indexed.  There used to be a listing of blogs but that has gone the way of the wind.
  • Photo share would be ideal for ex. Currently one must dig and link externally to Erin Quinn’s  photo’s of sports teams when this should be more easily accessed.  Likewise if pictures of events could some how be posted along with or archived linked to the events calendar this would be cool.  Theater productions, concerts, lectures etc. would be able to be highlighted by more than a listing.
  • Currently, use of word press and the campus web pages really does not allow for easy tracking of hits and use.  I find I get more information out of the Youtube statistics than I can on my more official Middlebury sites.
  • Additionally if we could adopt some pages that allow for discussion board type of conversations.  Professors currently do so for classes but access to such for information/discussions/creative development is limited to creating a blog which may or may not achieve its purpose.  This could perhaps be individualized similar to a face book wall or could be open forums similar to a craigslist or the dreaded Midd confessional.  I realize concern for abuse might exist so some discussion around this may need to occur.  However from a work load and communications point it would be more efficient for people who work off shifts/days.  Additionally, it may reduce turnaround time on projects as the communications avoid multiple emails – reply alls – forwards and of course trying to find time for a sit down meeting.
  • You can currently use an LL Bean order catalogue on line as though you have a paper copy on screen in front of you.  Might make sense to reduce the number of print magazines (Also, Middlebury, etc.) by putting these in such a format. .

Snow Bowl

  • Create a user friendly site that is a esthetically appealing and easy to navigate for the general public.
  • Create a more commercial look to the Snow Bowl website.  The Snow Bowl   is competing with areas such as Dartmouth Skiway  www.dartmouthskiway.com
  • Snow news, (daily conditions report) updated automatically on the Home page with links to snow school and rental shop.
  • Place Middlebury College Banner across the top of page and allow the Snow Bowl free area for graphic design below the banner.  A creative look with colors, pictures and possible paid advertising.
  • Ability to announce calendar of events.  (spongecell.com) is one idea.
  • Develop Face Book (in progress), link to snow news and link to Home page.
  • Ability to track our statistics: an essential marketing tool to determine where our guests are coming from.
  • Website visibility within the search engines. i.e.  A family from Boston that would like to ski in the Mid Vermont area should be able to type in mid Vermont skiing and the Snow Bowl would rank high on Google.
  • Increase S/B visibility on College website.
  • Staff directory with pictures & contact information
  • Customer feed back ; blog
  • Ability to have video on our new website

RIKERT SKI TOURING CENTER

  • Online J-Term registration
  • Auto update daily conditions report on Home Page
  • Snow News capabilities

SKI & SNOWBOARD SHOP:

  • Ability to list product photos and prices.
  • Rate schedule.
  • Calendar of events, sales, early season specials  (spongecell.com)
  • J-Term specials that would interact with Face Book.
  • Paid advertising.
  • Allow flexibility and creativity in designing the rental page to establish competition with other rental shops i.e. Alpine Shop.
  • Include safety information, no helmet rental.
  • Easy access to update pictures and images to keep the site fresh.
  • Data management system.
  • E-Mail data base, distribution lists.
  • Sale of soft goods/retail items (online store front).

SNOW SCHOOL

  • A site that would appeal to the general public with an emphasis on family skiing.
  • Market our philosophy and mission
  • Attractive, creative site that will be on par with other Snow Schools in our area.
  • Ability to promote private lessons, Tag-along- series and Regular program series.
  • Calendar of event.
  • Develop” staff” page to present the range of talents and the uniqueness of Middlebury Snow School instructors.
  • Ability for guests to write reviews of their experience.
  • Creative text, graphics and pictures updated as often as needed
  • Text that will include keywords for optimal engine search.
  • Increase visibility on SkiVermont.com, snowcountry.com
  • Data management: ski and snowboard rosters created from online registration information.
  • E-mail data base.
  • Ability to track our statistics, important marketing tool to determine where our guests are coming from.

Alliance for Civic Engagement (ACE)

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Stakeholder: Peggy Burns

Website: http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/tools/ace

Redo Contact: Ryan Kellett

ACE is the most important resource on campus faculty interested in community-connected teaching, learning, and research-and for students who are interested in volunteering, social justice issues, activism and advocacy, citizenship, and international service opportunities.  ACE should be a portal for all things service-whether curricular, co-curricular, or extra-curricular.  In the current economic climate and as health and human services statewide budget cuts take effect, community needs change regularly-and because this is an active campus in terms of service, it is important that the site is perceived as dynamic and up to date/accurate.

Specifically and generally, what do you want from a new site? (as an individual and as an office)

-To have a prominent place on the overall Middlebury College site to promote current and future community-connected teaching, learning, and research opportunities to faculty.

-To have a prominent place on the overall Middlebury College site so that students (current and prospective) as well as faculty and staff interested in community service opportunities and social justice issues can find ACE easily.

-To promote immediate community service needs in a prominent way.

-To be able to promote specific opportunities (internships, conferences, on-campus events) to students.

-To have a number of different “Channels” (like we do now) to divide up the different portions of our site, e.g. Community Service, Anti-Poverty Initiatives, etc.

-ACE has so many pieces-we hope to find a coherent navigational “theme” that brings it all together.

What will help your office get things done more efficiently? How can a new website help your workflow?

-Easier and more flexible content creation, editing, photo/graphic use.

-Better forms (for nominations, community service sign-ups, etc.).

-Better way to archive/view old pages and photographs.

What type of interactivity would you use? What can help your office communicate more effectively?

-A calendar feed that we have on our website with ACE-related events that also automatically feeds into a larger campus-wide site-and have a way for RSVP to come to us plus have the event added to respondent’s Outlook calendar.  Also-a way to promote “outside” events as well via the calendar (e.g., an environmental rally in Burlington).

-A section that promotes professional development opportunities for faculty.

-An interactive calendar for faculty.

-Video (interviews with students and community partners, worksites in action, etc.).

-Video of faculty teaching community-connected courses; interviews with community partners involved in community-connected teaching, learning, and research.

-Opportunity for students, faculty, staff, and community partners to sign up for ACE e-newsletter.

-A way to enable students abroad to report on their service/internships/engagement there (but more formal than a blog, reviewed by ACE first).

-Link for recording volunteer hours (as part of student portal?).

-Online payment (e.g., for MAlt trips).

-How can we get alumni involved?

Do you have examples of functionality, design, or features from other colleges or industries that you like and admire?

-Sites of ACE-related offices (civic engagement, service learning, community service, citizenship, etc.) at Bowdoin http://www.bowdoin.edu/mckeen-center/index.shtml , Tufts http://activecitizen.tufts.edu/ , Amherst https://www.amherst.edu/academiclife/cce , and Swarthmore http://www.swarthmore.edu/langcenter.xml .  Also:  Georgetown, Macalaster, Princeton, Carleton, Bryn Mawr, and Colgate.

-We really want to have the capability to create “photo slideshows” on a regular basis-the type of slideshow where the picture changes automatically every few seconds. Here is an example of what we like: http://www.colgate.edu/DesktopDefault1.aspx?tabid=1870. Here is an example of what we don’t want: http://www.middlebury.edu/admissions/gallery/?galleryImage=0 because you have to click “next” each time.

If you currently create or edit pages on any of our web sites, what functionality is good? What could be improved?

-We like that we can create content (e.g., a new News and Events story) and add it immediately to the website without going through a lengthy or bureaucratic approval process.

-We would like it if there were a better system for the News and Events Feed archives… right now they just run down the right-sidebar in a long column.

-We would like ACE to be able to use both the left and right sidebars (if the new system has both sidebars). Right now we can only use our right side-bar although some offices use both sides.

-Web stats!  We need information on who visits the ACE page-and which section(s) are most visited.

-Less “homemade” looking-e.g., it’s so obvious when the home page looks great, but other pages look just cobbled together (not arguing for total conformity, just a conformity in overall graphic appeal).  More opportunity/options for choosing design emphasis (heads, etc.).

-More seamless and clarifying links to collaborating departments (e.g., CCAL).

-Better search is critical.

Sponsored Research Office

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Jim Ralph, Dean of Faculty Development and Research

Franci Farnsworth, Coordinator of Sponsored Research

Alison Darrow, Science Grants and Writing Facilitator

Our website serves several constituents:

  • the Controller’s office: we host their grant-related policies and information
  • faculty seeking grants: we supply tips, data, institutional policies & guidelines, forms, etc. to help guide proposal writing and application
  • Advancement’s office of Corporate and Foundation Relations: we share some policies and procedures, which are hosted at our site
  • the Dean of Faculty Development and Research: our site announces faculty grants and annual reports of grants awarded, a key way to celebrate faculty successes

We are a two-person office that reports to the DFDR; both of us maintain and update the site. Out offices are spread throughout campus (the Library, Bi Hall, Old Chapel), so sharing information electronically is crucial. The current site is an artifact of dumping old paper-based documents online in order to have at least some web resource and then not having the time to update or redesign. As a result, the site doesn’t invite active engagement and participation and is static and text-heavy. Faculty currently underuse our site, probably because it’s easier to just call us than it is to find and use information at our site. Revision and redesign is now ongoing, but a lot of what we do is still email-driven.

What we hope for from a new site:

  • an easier and more intuitive way to add linked pages, to help break up long blocks of text a way to add pop-ups, drop-down menus, etc., to keep users from having to navigate to other pages for short bits of supporting or related information
  • an easier way to “hide” and control access to sensitive and confidential content
  • ability to assign levels of access for stuff the office shares: currently we use Google docs for our department “whiteboard”
  • access for many users (including faculty and student workers) to edit the site and notify us easily so we can approve content before publishing it
  • dynamic linking to other departments’ information, through Banner and other means, so that redundant updates aren’t necessary
  • a platform-neutral system
  • ability to edit the site remotely

Features that would improve efficiency and help our workflow:

  • customized user profiles
  • a shared calendar
  • an anual grants-deadline calendar with a way to let faculty subscribe to alerts and reminders (currently we have to spam them)
  • a way to let faculty notify us that they plan to apply for specific grants
  • ability to dynamically link to and from faculty CVs and other content required for proposal writing (Institutional Research data especially; links with the library’s thesis archive; central database for faculty publications/achievements; faculty pages; career-path info for science alums, etc.)

Types of interactivity that would help our office communicate more effectively:

  • drop-down menus and pop-up windows so we don’t need to link to new pages – would flatten and simplify navigation considerably
  • an index of terms & acronyms (offices, agencies, etc)
  • dynamic timelines, checklists, and other forms that could be filled out online
  • calculators, worksheets, spreadsheets with College and funding rates and percentages built in
  • dynamic comments (e.g., user-contribute FAQ)
  • feeds of sponsored & relevant events, such as guideline updates, workshops
    & seminars
  • integrated links to Banner information
  • dynamic link updating, so that if material shared with another department is moved, the link on our page still works (or we’re notified to fix it)

Examples of functionality, design, and features from other colleges or industries that we like and admire:

  • Google docs: clean, simple, fast, super-easy to use and share
  • Google calendar: ditto
  • Boston University: clean, uncluttered design, yet there’s a lot going on; really like the tabbed navigation on the Home page and the way each tab slides aside to launch a video, interactive map, etc. (and that user has the option to interact or not).
  • The Daily Beast: the Cheat Sheet is a great feature

Current functionality of the Middlebury site and CMS:

    Editing is OK but clunky and subject to unexpected results; especially formatting carrying over when you cut & paste. It would be helpful to be able to see formatting tags (toggle on and off) so we could find and fix weirdness. Currently sometimes have to delete and redo because we can’t figure out how to fix the formatting.
    When Save refreshes the screen, it puts you at the top of the page: very annoying to have to scroll back down! Would be easier if it refreshed to where you left off.
    Hyperlink Mgr is great, very easy to use. Same with uploading documents.
    Really hate the way the right sidebar either doesn’t reflect the page titles or creates redundancy – not certain what creates this problem – editing page titles after they’re created? If so, the sidebar should reflect any changes to the page titles dynamically. Right now, we’re not even sure the sidebar can be changed, once created.
    More flexibility with fonts and text size would be nice.

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

Art Department and Slide Museum

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Dana Barrow, Visual Resources Assistant (443-5546)

I’m working with Monica McCabe on the art history and studio art sites:

Monica McCabe, Academic Coordinator, History of Art/Studio Art (443-5234)

Websites I’m re-doing:

  • History of Art and Architecture department website
  • Studio Art department website
  • Visual Resources website

What we’d like to do:

  • Create a new graphic design that mixes art images and short blocks of text
  • Generate new content focused on the people and facilities in the art departments (example: faculty and student profiles), as well as informational content (example: courses and requirements, downloadable forms)
  • Create clear, new information architecture to organize our new content
  • Add photo galleries, video/audio clips, and social networking tools

Areas where I know I need help:

  • Creating video (example: short faculty and student interviews, images of student work, panoramic images of studio spaces)
  • Conceptualizing dynamic (i.e. effective, not necessarily flashy) was to present photo galleries
  • Conceptualizing  dynamic navigation

Ideas from Shel Sax that we’d like to follow up on:

  • A proposal for a winter term class for video making next January (2010) so we can create high quality video clips
  • Creating a space on our site where students (HARC and SA) can create portfolios.  (The model is teacher education.)  This might be a good place to use social networking tools.
  • Fostering some kind of convergence with Segue (examples: portal with access to online exams, course websites, and student portfolios)

General list of things we’d like to do/have (in no particular order):

Information about people in the department

  • Short profiles of faculty, visiting architects, students, and alumni (I will create list of people.)  Models are “My Midd Experience” and the short format of the bios in theater programs with accompanying photos.  Could involve short questions for faculty such as, What is your most recent accomplishment?
  • An online magazine for a more in-depth look at who is studying abroad, faculty research and projects, student projects, etc.  Model might be International Studies magazine (http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/ump/majors/is/)
  • A feature where HARC faculty talk briefly about their favorite works in college art museum
  • Place where we can link to external info about faculty and students (example: College alumni magazine will be doing a feature on John Hunisak and we would like to link to this

Images

  • Images of our studio spaces (studio art and also architectural studies)
  • Photo galleries of student work
  • Photo galleries of faculty art work

Information

  • Info on courses and requirements (SA + HARC)
  • Info on planning your major, including study abroad (HARC – link this to student portfolios)
  • Downloadable forms (HARC – or make this part of student portfolios)
  • Put our department calendar online (HARC – maybe)
  • Special page on architecture and the environment (HARC)
  • Page about student work exhibitions (SA)
  • How-to info on VR site (could be in form of blog or wiki)

Technical Stuff

  • Support for Flash (studio art would like their site to be animated in some way, HARC doesn’t require this)
  • Ability for VR staff, academic coordinator, faculty, and students to add materials to various portions of the site
  • Ability to integrate images into site design (e.g. images of faculty and student art, images from museum collection)
  • A way to create student portfolios online (maybe use Segue)

Inspiring website we like:

  • Some of the pages on the Rhode Island School of Design website (http://www.risd.edu/undergraduate)
  • What we like about it: clear architecture, video, photo galleries, integration of art images into the design

History of Art and Architecture

Courses + Requirements

Faculty office hours

Students and alumni

Visiting the department

Resources (artstor, VR collection, museum)

Photos

Contact

Studio Art

Courses + Requirements

Faculty + Office Hours

News

Facilities

Study Abroad

Student Gallery

Visiting Artist Program

Contact

Sculpture in the form of a chair (photos)

Visual Resources Collection

Note: Made in CMS but links to pages made in another program

Collection Holdings

Stats on our facility and others’ facilities