Transcript W.I.C. Student Life Website Proposal

Western Idaho College
Student Life Website
Proposal
Presented by:
Claudia Barton
Kerrie Montgomery
Christine Richmond
Lilia Santiague
University of Florida
Outline
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Importance of Student Affairs Websites
Student Life Mission Statement
Statement of Philosophy
Core Values
Guiding Environmental Theory
Critique & Recommendations
Future Considerations
Implementation
Sample Homepage
Student Affairs Websites Can…
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Help foster the goals and mission of the division
and institution
Reflect the values of the division
Provide timely and accurate information
accessible to all students
Encourage students to use services
Provide professionals with time for more
meaningful student interactions rather than
answering quick questions
Compliment the overall learning environment
Student Affairs Websites Can…
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Attract new students
Celebrate success and give recognition
Provide connections between the institution,
students, faculty, alumni, and staff
Highlight important programs and policy changes
Help create a virtual community
Websites should not be a substitution for
face-to-face interaction, but rather a
starting point- an invitation for
conversation, an enticement for
involvement, a call for contact between
all members of the campus community.
The W.I.C. Student Life website
should reflect the mission and goals
of the department.
The current website does not include
the mission of the department, only
the mission of the university.
Student Life Mission Statement
The Student Life Department supports the mission of Western Idaho
College by providing a variety of opportunities for students to become
involved, empowered and connected while fostering the full
development of their intellectual, humanitarian, and leadership
potential in an environment that is sensitive to the diverse needs of the
campus community.
The goals of the Student Life Department include promoting continuing
education, career preparation, economic mobility and independence;
encouraging the participation of minority students, commuter students
and “lifelong learners” in programs and services; integrating the goals
of student affairs and academic affairs; and increasing the accessibility
of Western Idaho College to a wide audience.
The goals and vision of the
department’s website should be
clearly outlined through a
Statement of Philosophy that
connects to the overall mission of
the department and the
institution.
Statement of Philosophy
“We hope to capture and provide you with a glimpse of our unique and
diverse campus environment. Through our website we hope to
develop a virtual community and to become “the place to be,” the
home page on every student’s desktop, a point of introduction,
initiation, connection and involvement, that transforms and evolves
with you, the student, from application to graduation.
It is our intent to create a convenient, customized, accurate, and
responsive tool to supplement the learning environment. We strive to
provide opportunities that will affirm and empower every student to
reach their fullest potential.”
“Student Affairs is essentially
student focused and
interpersonal, and our web sites
should reflect our core values”
(Barratt, 2001).
Our core values are connected to our
mission and philosophy:
 Inclusion
 Involvement
 Interaction
 Connection
 Convenience
The W. I. C. Student Life website
should utilize environmental theory
to help fulfill its mission and goals.
Wallace (2000) applies traditional
definitions of campus ecology theory
to technology.
The following recommendations are
guided by environmental theory
including the ideas of:
 Physical
Environment
 Human Aggregate
 Organizational Structures
 Constructed Meaning
Physical Environment:
The physical environment of the website
includes its images and form- what you see
and hear, and the paths that lead you from one
link to another.
Our website should be a welcoming,
interactive, convenient environment
that all students can easily explore.
The website should appear immediately
welcoming and relevant to all members
of the campus community through its
physical image.
The current website does not clearly
communicate the role that student life can
play in the experiences of current and future
students, faculty, and staff, nor does it
contain images representative of the student
body.
Recommendations
Increase students’ sense of inclusion by
adding diverse images
 Provide links specifically for faculty with
information on how they can become more
involved in student life on campus (see:
http://web.mit.edu/dsl)
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The student life website should serve as
a meeting point, a gathering room, and a
connection between different members
of the campus community.
Links should serve as two way roads
between students, faculty, and staff.
The website should be easy to navigate,
aesthetically appealing, and purposeful
in content.
The current website is illogical in
structure, unaesthetic to the eye, and
some of its features, such as the
headline links, lack clear purpose.
Recommendations
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The physical layout of each page on the site
should have a common theme that is also
consistent with the university’s main website
Principles of graphic design should be applied to
make the site appealing to the eye
Simple is better-the website should not contain
laundry lists of potential links on the homepage
(see http://www.ecu.edu/studentlife for an
example of a simple, yet functional homepage)
The website should provide added
convenience to the student through its
features.
While the current website invites
students to call or email for
information, it lacks features that
many users expect to find.
Recommendations
Add a search function
 Add links to downloadable forms such as
registration forms, maintenance requests,
etc.
 Have direct links to staff email addresses
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The website should be interactive in
order to encourage purposeful
participation and enhance the overall
learning environment.
The current website only allows for
passive viewing.
Recommendations
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Provide an email address where students can send
their questions and get an almost immediate
answer
Encourage feedback from students regarding the
usability of the site
Feature chat rooms that can be monitored such as
faculty/student rooms or prospective/current
student rooms
Offer online surveys, quizzes, or program
assessments
The website should contain ample
information to answer common
questions.
The current website lacks a variety of
important information such as
complete contact information, dates,
and information on programs and
services.
Recommendations
Include complete contact information for
each unit within the department
 Include links to the mission statements for
each unit
 Include information on important programs
and activities
 Include a “FAQ” link for frequently asked
questions
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The website should be accessible and
useful to all students regardless of
location or disability.
The current website would be of little
use to prospective students or
students with certain types of
disabilities.
Recommendations
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Forms should be readily available and easy to
download or submit online
Adhere as closely as possible to Web Accessibility
Initiative guidelines for website accessibility (see
Barratt, 2001 and http://www.w3.org/WAI/)
Include a statement on the homepage regarding
accessibility for persons with disabilities
Human Scale Design
“Settings characterized as human-scale in design
tend to encourage greater participation and
involvement of members,” (Strange & Banning,
2001, p. 143).
W. I. C. is a small institution. The website
should reflect the college’s size by adding a
human touch to its pages. See
http://www.wooster.edu/students/ and
http://www.washington.edu/diversity/video.ht
ml for examples of personal student pages and
student perspective videos.
Recommendations
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Add quotations from students, faculty, and staff
Invite students to submit images of their own
college experience to be featured on the homepage
Include pictures and biographies of staff
Recognize individual student leaders through a
weekly or monthly feature
Recognize individual faculty who are highly
involved in student life
Human Aggregate:
On campus itself, the human aggregate eludes
to the dominant features of its members. On a
website, the images, structure, and content
give the user a sense of what beliefs are
valued and what culture is prevalent.
The website should not only reflect
the dominant culture on campus, it
should also foster the development
and creativity of the unique student.
Students are more likely to become
involved if they feel as though they are
part of a group of alike individuals
(Strange & Banning, 2001).
The website should foster a
connection between students who are
hesitant to participate and students
who are leaders on campus, as well as
connect students with like interests.
The college campus is a mosaic of
unique individuals. The website should
strive to communicate on a personal
level with each type of student
comprising the human aggregate.
The current website does not clearly
outline “what’s out there” for
students, nor what services are
provided by the department of student
life.
Recommendations
Include searchable student organization
information
 Include a full list of activities
 Include a calendar of events
 Provide links to additional campus
resources
 Provide links to the surrounding community
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Organizational Structure:
The organizational structure of the
website includes its hierarchy, its
complexity, and one site’s relationship to
another.
Just as departments collaborate in the
physical sense, so too should they
collaborate in the virtual world.
Department websites should not be
encapsulated units separate from the
institutional entity.
Form follows function. The website should
reflect first and foremost the way the site is
used. “Wayfinding” design (Strange &
Banning, 2001) is just as important in the
design of a website as it is in the design of
campus grounds.
While features such as quick links are
useful, the overall design of the
current website is difficult to navigate
and does not clearly lead users to the
information they may be seeking.
In order to determine the utility
of the site we must ascertain:
What information students want to access
most frequently
 What information is most useful to certain
groups of students such as prospective
versus current students, and residential
versus commuter students
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Recommendations
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Important information should be no more than
three links from the homepage
All units within the department should have links
grouped in one location
Each unit within the department should have
consistent links such as: events, announcements,
programs, and staff
Items specific to one unit, such as policies and
procedures for residence life, should not be listed
as a quick link, but rather as a link from the
residence life page
There should be links specific to each
member of the target audience including:
Current students
 Prospective students
 Faculty
 Staff
 Parents
 Alumni
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Constructed Meaning:
The overall image and feeling of a
website will be different for each user
based on their own unique perspective
and experience.
“We create a constructed meaning from our
website experience exclusively. The image
conveyed through the web becomes the reality
of the college for web visitors”
(Wallace, 2000, p. 3).
A student who visits the website should
gain a sense of the college’s values and
culture. The prospective student may
determine if the college is a good fit,
while the current student may feel a
sense of community and connection.
The current website has no “feel”. It
fails to portray the campus culture.
“Those institutions most successful at
enculturating a tradition of involvement
among students are culturally distinctive in
the sense that they create an attractive and
powerful “feel,” apparent immediately to
prospective participants in the setting,”
(Strange & Banning, 2001, p. 153).
The website has the potential to
significantly contribute to the overall
feel of the college to prospective and
current students.
Recommendations
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Include challenging and motivating slogans
such as:
 W. I. C.: Where Involvement Counts!
 Get a Life- Get Involved!
 Become a Leader!
 It’s your life. It’s your time. Get
involved!
 How do you want to change?
Recommendations
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Add audio such as the college’s fight song
Examine the type of language used: formal versus
informal. We should maintain professionalism
and correct grammar, but at the same time have a
relaxed feel
Use the first person when addressing information
to students. Example: “Come join us Friday!”
rather than, “Students are encouraged to attend the
social Friday.”
While the initial goal of the
committee should focus on creating
a user-friendly and informative
website, additional features should
be considered for future use.
Future Considerations
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Campus portals (see Kruger, 2000,
http://www.naspa.org/netresults/article.cfm?ID=42)
Virtual tours of campus
Web-cams
Online orientation preparation programs (such as
“Preview Prep,” University of Florida, Division of
Student Affairs)
Co-curricular transcripts
http://www.stulife.cmich.edu/sdr.shtml and
http://campuslife.indiana.edu/)
Interactive job search tools (such as GatorTrak,
University of Florida, www.crc.ufl.edu)
Implementation
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Maintenance-A clear outline must be made
regarding who is responsible for creating and
maintaining the website
 Evaluation-The new website should be evaluated
by both students and staff to determine if it is user
friendly
 Advertising-The new website should be
advertised through listservs, flyers posted in
student life offices, new student orientation
programs, and direct interaction
Sample Homepage
http://plaza.ufl.edu/kamroma/WIC%20Case%20Study/
References
Barratt, W. (2001). Models for evaluating student affairs websites.
Student Affairs Online, 2. Retrieved February 18, 2003, from
http://studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Spring_2001/will1.html
Kruger, K. (2000, December 4). Designing campus portals-From a
student affairs perspective. Netresults. Retrieved February 18,
2003, from http://www.naspa.org/netresults/article.cfm?ID=42
Strange, C. C., & Banning, J. H. (2001). Educating by design.
San Francisco: Jossey Bass.
Wallace, H. (2000). Campus ecology theory and websites: One
example of applying traditional student affairs theory to
technology. Student Affairs Online, 1. Retrieved February 18,
2003, from
http://studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Fall_2000/wallace.htm