Tag Archives: reservations

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.

The Commons and Orientation

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Stakeholder: Katy Abbott
Website: http://www.middlebury.edu/campuslife/commons and http://www.middlebury.edu/campuslife/events/orientation
Redo Contact: Ryan Kellett

General: Orientation in both February and September is run, in part, by CCAL (JJ Boggs). There are five commons, each with unique personality and work processes. This report represents all five commons.

Orientation Requirements:

  • Constant Update: the orientation website is unique in that information changes almost daily, especially in the several weeks prior to Orientation which takes place in September and February. That said, the authors of these updates are far and wide since Orientation brings in many areas of the College. It is essential to both have a “working space” for information updates and then a one-click solution to immediately reflect those changes on outward-facing website which is presented to all incoming first-years. Currently, it is far too cumbersome to update the site that often and results in misinformation among first-years who then choose to call in or email.
  • Workflow: The collection of people in charge of Orientation do not have the time or background to necessarily update the website. They have other roles at the College and therefore updating falls to the wayside.
  • AskHiba: It would be nice to have an AskHiba-type (http://askhiba.wordpress.com/) place for first-years to ask questions and receive answers from peers (both upperclassmen and other first-years). This would relieve some of the pressure of calls and emails while still being quite personal. Students should be able (and are likely willing) to run this site. If it’s possible, it would be nice to dynamically feed a FAQ from these questions and answers.
  • Facebook: Start “official” Facebook groups for the admitted students (which then turn into first-years). It should be official in that the school or a Middlebury student moderates it, but it should not be moderated by the Orientation committee. Link our pages into this group.
  • Text Online: find a better way to display lots of info in CMS rather than lists and PDFs.
  • Visually Stimulating: better visual appeal and presentation of orientation information. Rollover graphics would be nice.
  • Similar CCAL (Doug Adams) functionality: online forms, payment, ticketing, embedded interactive media, etc. We do need to be able to take reservations and payment on line.  Class photos, Bread Loaf accommodations, and more mean that having that capacity would be ideal.

Commons Requirements:

  • FYS and Sophomore Experience: Find ways to support the first-year seminars and sophomore experience as part of the 4/2 Commons System. This could take the form of displaying some of the work from the FYS, as fed up through class blogs or websites. This should not require students to do any more work than they already do — should be automated in feeding up content to populate some sort of display of the Commons experience
  • Dynamic Bulletin Boards: Commons are often places to post information (for example in weekly “newsletter” type publications that are posted in bathrooms). An online space (message board, wiki, or wall?) for such activity might be nice but must be sure not to compete with other online spaces. If underused, it becomes useless. Some sort of moderation/vetting needs to be in place.
  • Neighborhood: there should be a way of identifying students online (within the Middlebury universe) as from a certain commons.
  • Deans and Faculty Heads: There should be a better way to connect with deans and faculty heads which are the “family” within the Commons. A lot of emails go out from Commons Coordinators that say: “faculty heads have tickets available for these performances” or “the dean reminds you to bundle up because of extra cold weather this week!” These types of announcements are common but finding a way for deans/faculty heads to connect (but also get information from) is important.

Schools Abroad

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Form of contact: Meeting with Coordinators and Senior Staff

Stakeholder: Liz Ross and Jeff Cason

WebRedo Contact: Jamie Northrup

Website: http://www.middlebury.edu/academics/sa

Brief:

Requirements:

  • Easier navigation- drop downs
  • some interactive features like discussion/blog/wiki
  • a ‘discussion’ where students can post, but the postings are only viewed by administrator.
  • We currently have on-line application for non-Midd students applying to Schools Abroad.  It will be very help for advisors/faculty to be able to submit references electronically as well; currently they can just download a PDF and then send it to us.
  • Possibly create a system so that study abroad advisors at other institutions can track students’ applications to see what stage in the process they are in.
  • Being able to send emails to batches of students (Midd/NonMidd/Term Abroad would be handy, though we can access this info now with FMP, or Excel sheets for those of us who keep Banner records in Excel
  • Ability to upload and maintain forms on the www site
  • Option for text-only loading; useful for students abroad in minimal connection environments (e.g. Russia)
  • Directory – improvement would be to search the directory/website directly from the homepage rather than having to click on the link to the directory page.   Also it’s good that there is a drop-down menu for departments, but “student” would be a choice.  And now that it’s been upgraded, the results are shown below (on my screen/browser) the search screen, so you have to scroll to see the results, when really, once I’ve search, that part of the screen could go away.
  • Segue: the text formatting is terrible (it reformats however it likes and doesn’t allow you to change the formatting once on the interface).  This means that unless you’re typing everything from scratch on Segue, the formatting is screwy.  Also, the “son of segue” version, which lacks the quiz function, makes it less useful.
  • Event registration: I like the automatic reply that tells you your event has been submitted successfully, and I like the on-line calendar/room availability feature-it saves a lot of back and forth. On-line forms, such as Events Scheduling, is useful and works well.
  • Student Worker job posting: VERY easy to use-I wouldn’t change a thing, but there has got to be a way to electronically submit a student payroll authorization form.
  • KeySurvey-This seems to be working well, now that we have a departmental account and can steal from one another’s surveys.  The inability to run a report by respondent and hide the email (making them cease to be anonymous) can be problematic.
  • CMS.  I especially like the ability to “replace” old documents.  It’s recently been proven problematic when we link to a server (on-line application, for example) without the “go” url-and then the server we’ve linked to is off-line.  It’s difficult to know what he “go” addresses are and when to use them if we haven’t created them.  The other problems I have are the bulleted lists (if you remove a bulleted list, I can never get that final bullet to delete) and the multiple pastings of text (instead of inserting a new paragraph, often it will insert it twice-and you can’t always just go in and delete the second one).  Much better in this version than the past is the ability to change the size of an existing table and align pictures/wrap text. It would be nice if the Resource Manager saved resources in either alphabetical or chronological order…some type of searchable order (any order really) would be nice rather than the apparent randomization it uses now.
  • Being able to submit grades online (Blackboard has this functionality)