Posted by ehodgso on February 9th, 2011 in Blogs We Read and Colleges & Universities ·
Mark Greenfield wrote a great post this morning on if most college web sites are bad.
Across the board, I think sites have improved dramatically since 1998. I think many more colleges and universities are looking at peers and external resources to help guide architecture and design. But what is missing is the investment in the web on campus.
For content management solutions I have helped implement, the toughest part of the job was changing the culture on campus. Even for schools that were moving to their second or third CMS, the issue was still site maintenance after launch. There are two key reasons for this: staffing and centralization.
Staffing: I have yet to see a web team in higher education, pound for pound, match the structure of web teams on the commercial side. For what higher education web folks have to manage, there is still the “one man shop” mentality. There is still no governance over campus authors. There is still a greater need for a central team to not only help campus web staff but lead them. It takes 10 full time employees, not two.
Centralization: The larger the campus, the less likely to find centralized content. Many campuses still enlist rogue departmental servers, various platforms, and no xml strategy. This requires departments to support individual web staff with little connection to central web staff. Content feeds, content sharing/reuse, and link checking don’t happen.
Until these two problems are solved…until an investment in the web matures…I don’t think we’ll see an improvement on the front-end. With a majority of campuses always in redesign mode, I don’t think we’re going to get passed a general move of the needle. eduStyle.net is fantastic. Conferences like HighEdWeb and eduWeb are great. But all of campus needs to believe, and be led by a strong central force.
Posted by ehodgso on January 28th, 2009 in Eric, mobile and process ·
Maybe that headline is too general. There are many aspects of Gmail — love it or hate it — that are vastly different than other mail applications and services. But today in particular, I am focused on their understanding that not all of us are online all the time. It’s getting closer, but not there yet.
In the meantime, let Google fill in a hole that most of us have enjoyed with other mail services, especially MS Exchange. In those rare times that I am not connected, all my gmail is held hostage. Unless I have pulled the mail into a client, which in a lot of ways defeats the purpose of gmail, I can’t access any of my mail.
Fret no more! Google Labs has introduces Offline Gmail. With a simple app download, you are up and running in about 5 minutes.
I’m not here to pat Google on the back for this, but what is important is that Google recognizes how people work and adapt their product as needed.
Eric, how does this relate to higher ed web. I’m glad you asked. Your admission process, alumni relations processes, and other efforts across campus need to keep in mind that not everything happens online. And not everything happens the way you want it to. Usability testing is a growing necessity in our world, but let’s not forget to ask the questions of what they want to do/see/communicate when your key audiences are offline.
And at a minimum, download the offline gmail app…you never know when you’re going to be caught without a connection.
Posted by ehodgso on January 21st, 2009 in Eric, Millenials, Rant and Social Networking ·
A recent article in The Chronicle — Email is for Old People? — outlines the common fight on every campus…communicating effectively with current students.
In most electronic relationships that I have with organizations, they ask me how they can communicate with me. I provide an email address, a cell number, an address. Something that lets them know where to find me if I need to hear from them. Why not in higher education?
The increase in alert systems for emergencies on campus lends me to believe it’s time to broaden the scope of these systems. If they are good enough for class cancellations, then they are probably good enough for daily updates…specific to the student.
At orientation, let the students tell you — individually — how they want to hear from you. Then, allow them to change their mind online. Some colleges are starting this. But I say that every college that is complaining about students not checking their campus email should climb aboard.
A nice morning rant to a lingering pet peeve of mine. Fix your problem.
Posted by ehodgso on October 6th, 2008 in Colleges & Universities, Eric and Millenials ·
We are in the middle of a ten-year shift in how technology is used in everyday life. And a large reason for that is that our younger generation (millenials, if you will) don’t know any better. Just like the telephone, television, and the automobile; online media for millenials is just there.
So a grand experiment begins on the main campus of UT. A pilot program that offers downloadable textbooks for select classes (free, for now) will begin this spring, hoping to drive down costs and reduce overhead and confusion. If the semester goes as planned, this program will expand.
For many students, this seems like the next logical step. Although personal computers aren’t required at UT for students, they are becoming the norm. Notes are taken on them…wireless access is available across campus…they have become a necessity in the backpack. So why not clear off a little room in the backpack to fit that laptop. And why not have that laptop also contain the textbook.
Although e-books aren’t as widely adopted as they were thought to be by this point in our society, UT makes the shift to making online reading of required texts an option. And that’s all we really want….the option.
Congratulations, UT.
Posted by ehodgso on September 24th, 2008 in Uncategorized ·
Well, they almost get it.
Over the last few years (ever since the NHL came back from the strike), the organization has been trying to crawl back into the living rooms of the American public. They have used great partnerships to do this, namely Yahoo broadcasting games online. Sometimes the quality was there, mostly it wasn’t.
Now, the NHL ventures on their own with live games online. They greatly expanded their video section of nhl.com to include interviews, game highlights, features, and in-game podcasts. If you are a hockey fan, but are doomed to live in a non-hockey market, nhl.com is for you.
As for the games, well, that will cost you. A subscription service of $169 will get you the season online. It will be interesting to watch how many subscribers they get.
Overall, much more video online, and broken up very well. It’s now time to look at games, since there are so many fans out of market.
Posted by ehodgso on July 24th, 2008 in Blogs We Read, Eric, Facebook, Social Networking and curmudgeon ·
I recently caught Kivi Miller’s article: If Social Networking Isn’t Marketing, Why Bother. She makes some great points about why we should be in the social networking space.
A couple things we need to remember when developing a strategy for participating (which, by the way, individuals don’t develop a strategy, they just participate. We don’t have that luxury):
- Don’t go ‘all in’. Pick what you want to get out of social networking participation and make that a very short list. Do you want them to see your events, chat with other members, share photos, discuss direction? Don’t pick all of those, just one or two.
- Don’t expect large or immediate results. It naturally takes a while for fans of yours to find you immediately online, then be active on your page. These things take time…time to be shared by your friends…time to be discovered by new members.
- Make it easy through linking. On Facebook or Upcoming, throw a badge on your site. drop it at the bottom of your email. Push people to your site from the right places.
We should be in this space, but might be shunned if we over-communicate or over-market. Have a strategy, set limits, and have fun. Thanks for the great post, Kivi.
Posted by ehodgso on June 19th, 2008 in Uncategorized ·
Let me preface this post by saying that I have sat through a barrage of search optimization sessions and discussions in the past month or so.
I have seen a split in the approach to Web content. There seems to be the Google campers that put findability over function. Then, there is the McGovern campers that believe if there’s no value when your user is in the door, they’re gone.
You’re both right, but where is the common ground?
- Flat navigation. For optimization to be successful, the spider needs to find a page quickly and through a relevant path. The more tunnels you give the spider to reach the content, the higher your relevance. Same works with a user: as a scanner, the user is looking for a relative term. The sooner they find that relative term, the better. Without overwhelming your site visitors, give them plenty of grouped link sets to find information.
- Multiple entry points. Search relevance points are awarded when known/popular sites push traffic to your site. And vice versa. So link up with associations and industry sites. For the user, this also applies. Not everyone comes into a site knowing that’s where all the information they would ever need would be. The Web is a roadmap to information.
- Keywords. It always come down to content. With great navigation and push from external sites, the user will determine if the journey was worth it by the quality of information. They are still scanning, so a consistent term that was used in navigation will make them feel right at home. Don’t overdo it, just for Google. Use the terms appropriately and naturally. Listen to how users describe your institution, programs, etc., then use those terms. Institutional Advancement will lose to Giving or Development every time.
Keep it simple. Listen to your users first, then build your search strategy around them.
Posted by ehodgso on May 30th, 2008 in Eric, mobile and web2.0 ·
I caught a great article from Business Week today: Welcome to the Weekend Web.
As we go through site effectiveness and audience understanding, we now have to think in 3-dimensional terms. It used to be ‘who are our users’ and ‘what do they want to do’. Now add ‘where/when are they using our site’. Technology has allowed us to turn our sites into mobile-ready layouts. That’s not the issue. The question to be answered is, ‘can they get to the good mobile content quickly?’
A few things to remember:
- mobile users still have too many roadblocks to navigating your site on their mobile device.
- if the information they want isn’t instant, or easy, they’ve moved on
- promote mobile content so users will know where to go when the time is right.
‘Is our site mobile-compatible’ isn’t the issue. ‘Is our site mobile-user ready’ is.
