Web Task Force (WTF)

3/20/2003 Meeting Notes

(These are not comprehensive notes.)

Review the 3/20/2003 Agenda

Members Present

Bob Bradshaw, Paula Cassano, Kevin Kirk (12:00pm-@1:00pm), Cheryl Lambert, May Seet (12:00pm-@1:00pm), Rob Smedfjeld (12:00pm-1:00pm), Lisa Waits (1:00pm-2:00pm).

We finished going through this meeting's agenda by the time Lisa joined us around 1:00pm, so Cheryl/Paula/Bob went through the agenda items again for Lisa's information and feedback.

Quick Topics

Name of Academic (Dis)Honesty Policy

With more pressing matters currently in the minds of Ohlone College administrators and the Board of Trustees, the Web Team will continue referring to the Policy on Academic Dishonesty (as it is referred to in the Board Policy Manual) using the more positive term "Academic Honesty Policy".

Web Team Newsletters

The Web Team began publication of periodic newsletters to the "announcement" email distribution list in December 2002. An archive of the HTML version of each newsletter is available on the Web Team's website.

Site Additions/Changes Since Our Last Meeting

It was suggested that the Web Team announce these website additions/changes and those like them via short email blasts to the "announcement" distribution list so that faculty/staff/administration are aware of these updates. Cheryl will do this.

Converted Newark Ohlone Center Website

The Newark Ohlone Center website was converted to standard templates in January 2003. It is especially important that this site be helpful and accurate because it has consistently been one of the top 30 URLs visited on the Ohlone College website since the new servers were put into place in July 2002. (More about Webalizer website statistics below.)

Replaced "Blue Bruise" Graphic

Cheryl picked up the term "blue bruise" from Paula. It refers to this blue-and-black banner graphic which is commonly used on a number of websites on the Ohlone College domain (resized smaller to fit inside the content area of this page):

This graphic was recently replaced with a graphic of same size using the official Ohlone College colors (teal/green and gold) so it matches the standard site design. The centrally-stored graphic and image map code were changed, not the graphic and code in individual website directories. Websites using HTML <img> tag code that points to the centrally-stored "banner.gif" file (which uses this pathname: /global/image/banner.gif) will display the new teal/gold banner, as follows (resized smaller to fit inside the content area of this page):

Modified Employee Directory Look and Feel

The ColdFusion program that generates the Employee Directory (aka Business Card Directory) was modified to stylize its output similar to the standard site design, including replacing the blue image buttons with dark teal/green buttons. In addition, a link to the IS Department tutorial explaining how employees can update their entry in the Employee Directory were added to some of the pages.

This topic generated a discussion about the Campus Directory (why are there 2 directories? what are the differences? what is the status of a new Campus Directory? who updates the Phone List? who updates the Employee Directory? etc.). Cheryl's best guess is that Troy Choi, the new Systems Network Manager in the IS Department, has begun working on the project based on an email message she was copied on a few weeks ago. She doesn't have much more information. Doug Burns, Director of Information Systems, would be an appropriate person to contact.

Below is a screenshot of the new look-and-feel for the Employee Directory (Cheryl didn't get a screenshot of the blue version before making the changes):

Added Some "Human Interest" Items

Board of Trustees Student Member Awards

Clifton Der Bing (Student Member, Board of Trustees) has begun periodically announcing Board of Trusteees Student Member Awards. The Web Team created a page for these announcements on the Board of Trustees website. The most current announcement appears on the Ohlone College home page with a link to the Board of Trustees Student Awards page. An archive of past award winners will be maintained.

Faculty/Staff-specific Announcements

Announcements of specific interest to Faculty and Staff have been added to the Faculty and Staff Resources pages (formerly referred to as "portal" or "gateway" pages). These items currently include the Stars of the Month and the February 2003 SOAR Social at Mission Coffee photo gallery.

Added "All" Link to the A-Z Index

An "All" page was added to the A-Z Index (it lists all index items from A-Z).

It was suggested that the "All" link be moved from the end of the A, B, C…Z list of links to the beginning, before the A, because it is hardly noticeable at the end of the list. Also, by being at the beginning of the list of A,B,C…Z links, screen readers will read the "All" link first, then continue with A, then B, etc. [Cheryl made this modification after the meeting.]

Question: Should the "A-Z Index" link display "A" page or "All" page?

Most members said "No" because the page has a lot of content and can display slowly for modem users. So, the "A-Z Index" link will continue to display the "A" page.

Added Google Search as an Option on the "advanced" Search Page

Because Google's search engine displays search results in a manner familiar to many site visitors, a "Google Search" box was added to the "advanced" Search page (the page that displays when the "Search" navigation link is selected). A note was included below this search box indicating that Google indexes our website approximately every 30 days so the information may not be as updated as the other site search feature.

Improved the Location Key on the Fremont Campus Map

Following complaints that some Community Education students could not find Hyman Hall on the Fremont Campus Map because it was marked as building number "12" instead of "HH" (print materials refer to Hyman Hall room numbers using "HH"), the Location Key was updated to show that the building marked "12" on the map is the "HH" building. A number of other additions and changes were made to the Location Key to make finding things easier for people less familiar with the campus.

Cheryl has spoken with Patrice Birkedahl, new Public Information Officer in College Relations, about the campus maps. College Relations is working with a designer to create new maps for both the Fremont and Newark campuses. The Web Team would like to implement a campus map look and feel that operates similar to the Santa Clara University campus maps at http://www.scu.edu/map/ (a small overall map with hot spots linking to larger versions of that section of the map).

Added New "Core" Pages

The following new "core" pages were added to the website since the beginning of the year.

Directions to Ohlone College (cross-referenced as Public Transportation)

The Directions page includes information about how to get to Ohlone's Fremont campus using BART, AC Transit, and driving using I-880 and I-680. A similar page exists on the Newark Ohlone Center (NOC) website. Each Directions page contains links to the other. Also included are directions for getting from the Fremont campus to the Newark campus, and from the Newark campus to the Fremont campus. Most of the NOC directions existed on the old Newark website. It was reorganized and expanded to create a new Directions page for the Fremont campus. http://www.ohlone.edu/core/directions.html (Fremont campus), http://www.ohlone.edu/org/newark/directions.html (Newark campus)

Emergency Telephone Numbers

During a recent presentation/workshop for employees of the College, Cheryl picked up an Emergency Telephone Numbers list and has put it on the website. http://www.ohlone.edu/core/emergency.html

Food Services - Cafeteria

One of the things Cheryl's son wanted to know when he was looking at colleges in 1996/1997 was: What kind of food is available? Where would I eat? So, thinking that high school (and other prospective studnets) may want similar information, Cheryl created a Food Services - Cafeteria web page for Ohlone. It lists the 4 places where food is available on-campus (Bookstore, Cafeteria, Coffee Cart, and Vending Machines) as well as the hours of operation. Mara Van de Ven, Director of Campus Activities, has reviewed this page and suggested inclusion of the note in the Vending Machines section about contacting ASOC regarding problems with the machines. http://www.ohlone.edu/core/foodservices.html

Webalizer Site Statistics

Webalizer is a commonly-used, open source program that analyzes website log files and provides summary information in monthy reports (reports can be viewed at http://www2.ohlone.cc.ca.us/webalizer/ (the ohlone.edu domain name will not work for this link until after the servers are renamed to ohlone.edu - below)). Webalizer has access to only the website log file on the main web server which includes www.ohlone.edu and www2.ohlone.edu. The website logs for the other web servers on campus are not included in the reports produced by Webalizer on the main web server (i.e., statistics for online.ohlone.edu, access.ohlone.edu, help.ohlone.edu, etc. are not included).

Analysis of Top 30 URLs List

The most interesting information provided by the webalizer reports (in Cheryl's opinion) is a list of the Top 30 URLs visited on the website. Cheryl recently reviewed this information in reports from July 2002 (when the website was moved to the new servers) through March 19, 2003 (a total of 9 months).

Lisa would like Cheryl to present this information to the Cabinet (and possibly other groups) so they are aware of the high-use areas of the website.

The following is a summary of Cheryl's findings:

Web Pages Consistently in the "Top 30 URLs" List

The following URLs (web pages) have been consistently in the Top 30 URLs list for the past 9 months (in order of "typical" appearance in the list, but the order does change each month):

• Admissions - /org/admissions/
  • There is a link to this page in the first level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template. A link also appears on the "A" Index page.
• Catalog - /catalog/
  • There is a link to this page in the first level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template.
• "A" Index - /core/index_a.html
  • This is the first page the "A-Z Index" navigation link which is in the first level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template. .
• Library - /org/library/
  • This is the default page displayed on computers in the Library. There is also a link to this page in the first level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template.
• Current Students - /core/port_currstudents.html
• Future Students - /core/port_futurestudents.html
• Faculty - /core/port_faculty.html
• General Public - /core/port_public.html
• Staff - /core/port_staff.html
  • Cheryl is very pleased that these "resource", "portal", "gateway" pages are being used so much by students, both future and current. She is also pleased (and a bit surprised) that Faculty and Staff use the pages so frequently that they appear in the Top 30 URLs list. It is also interesting that the General Public page is used so frequently. Links to these pages appear on the home page and some "core" pages.
• Campus Directory - /core/campusdirectory.html
  • There is a link to this page in the second level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template. The high usage of this page indicates that it is very important that information provided by the Phone List and Employee Directory be as current as possible. It would be better, of course, to implement a single directory combining the information provided by the 2 separate directories, as well as additional information (such as possibly a photo).
• Academic Calendars - /org/admissions/accal.html
  • The Academic Calendars page links to academic calendars for the current semester and includes a summary of dates for future semesters. A link to this page appears on the "A" Index page.
• Academic Programs, Degrees & Certificates - /core/academicprograms.html
  • Because this page is visited so often, Cheryl recently added many of the programs offered by Community Education and Contract Education to this page with the hope that more people will see what those departments offer and will sign up for classes. A link to this page appears on the "A" Index page and in the "More Links" drop-down menu (on the home page and many "core" pages).
• Jobs - /org/humanres/events.html
  • The high usage of this page indicates that the Jobs page in the Human Resources website is visited quite often. This is not surprising considering the high level of unemployment in the Bay Area. This page appears in the "More Links" drop-down menu (on the home page and many "core" pages).
• Newark - /org/newark/
  • There is a link to this page in the first level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template. The Newark Ohlone Center website has been in the Top 30 URLs list since July 2002. Cheryl is pleased that the Web Team took over management of the site in January and converted the pages to the standard template design. By both campuses using a similar look and feel, we demonstrate consistency across the campuses.
• Search - /core/search.html
  • There is a link to this page in the second level of horizontal navigation on all web pages using the main standard design template. This is not the simple search box that appears on most of the pages managed by the Web Team. This is the page that displays when the "Search" link in the horizontal navigation bar is selected. This "advanced" Search page contains a search box for the ht://dig site search program implemented on the web servers (which indexes the site every 24 hours) and a Google Search box (see Google Search above for more information).
• "O" Index - /core/index_o.html
  • Cheryl believes the "O" Index page is frequently used because it contains links for Online Classes, Online Education, and Online Registration. This page appears in the "More Links" drop-down menu (on the home page and many "core" pages). (Did not appear in the Top 30 URLs list during July 2002).

Web Pages Recently in the "Top 30 URLs" List

These 3 sites have been in the Top 30 URLs list over the past 2-3 months:

• Florence, Italy (3 links) (February, March) - /org/studyabroad/florence/programprice.html,
  /org/studyabroad/florence/courses.html, and
  /org/studyabroad/florence/aboutprogram.html
• Registered Nursing (January, February, March)- /instr/nursing/
• Student Health Center (February, March)- /org/healthctr/

Cheryl interprets this as meaning that site visitors are reviewing the home page announcements for campus news, events and programs - and are finding the announcements interesting enough to want to learn more about events and announcements. This is great!

Web Pages Frequently in the "Top 30 URLs" List

The following pages have frequently appeared in the Top 30 URLs list over the past 9 months:

• Athletics - /org/athletics/
  • This page appears in the "More Links" drop-down menu (on the home page and many "core" pages) and the "A" Index page, as well as other navigational pages.
• Human Resources - /org/humanres/
  • The high usage of this page indicates that our Human Resources website is visited quite often. Although site statistics cannot tell us who visits this page, Cheryl believes it is reasonable to expect that employees look here for information about HR and Payroll matters and that job seekers are looking at it for information about jobs and benefits and other HR-related matters. The information provided on the current Human Resources website is inadequate for employees and for job seekers. This site should be redesigned and expanded to include names and contact information of HR and Payroll employees, a list of who to contact for what information, etc.
• Academic Regulations - /org/admissions/acreg.html
  • Cheryl believes the high usage of this page is related to the information about adding and dropping classes.

Status of Web Team-managed Sites

Number of Web Team-managed Sites

The Web Team currently manages 46 websites on the Ohlone College domain, plus the home page and other "core" pages. In addition, the Math Department site is currently being converted to the standard templates. Additional sites are on the "Waiting List" and will be converted as content is made available by the person(s) responsible for the content of those websites. The Web Team's Client List and Waiting list is available on their website at http://www.ohlone.edu/org/webteam/clientlist.html.

Web Team Management of Committee, Other Group, and Faculty Websites

Currently, the Web Team manages only Division and Department websites. Committees and Other Groups must maintain their own websites. So must Faculty. The volume of updates received by the 46+ websites we now manage is less than originally anticipated. We feel we can add management of Committee/Other Groups/Faculty websites without significant delay in services to our current or future clients.

We would like to offer to manage (convert to standard templates) websites for Committee and Other Groups (such as ASOC). Since Cheryl is a member of SOAR, she has recently begun managing the SOAR Committee website.

We would also like to offer to manage Faculty websites using a different standard template which we will create for faculty websites - one that would not have the large image in the header. We would like to standardize the information provided to name and contact information, photograph (optional), current semester schedule, links to a syllabus for each course taught (optional), links to grades information for each course taught (optional), educational background (optional), and possibly more.

There are some Faculty who either do not have a website now because they don't have time/don't want to learn HTML/whatever, and there are some Faculty who post their schedule once each semester and that's all they do. The Web Team would like to manage these sites for those Faculty members, which may encourage some to provide additional information about their courses (syllabi, etc.) for students. Faculty who have high-volume and/or quick turn-around requirements for their websites will be encouraged to (and will probably want to) continue to maintain their own websites.

All WTF members present were in agreement that the Web Team can "offer" to manage websites for Committees and Other Groups on campus. Websites for campus Unions (such as UFO) will continue to be maintained outside the Web Team.

Cheryl will modify the Web Style Guide, Web Center and other information on the website to reflect these changes and will email an announcement.

Faculty Spotlight

(Presented by Paula.) In an effort to keep our web content as compelling as possible, the Web Team frequently reviews other college and university sites to find new content ideas. Our goal is to engage as many site visitors as possible, particularly those who are prospective students.

Many sites contain a humanizing aspect on their home page such as faculty and/or student spotlights. Examples of such sites include:

• Barnard http://www.barnard.edu/
• Berklee School of Music http://www.berklee.edu/
• Duke University http://www.dukenews.duke.edu/newfaculty/ (7/9/2003: broken link)
• UCLA http://www.ucla.edu/

A page mockup showing how this might be implemented on the Ohlone website can be temporarily found at http://dev.ohlone.cc.ca.us/home2.html.

Upcoming Web Team Tasks

Create a "Disabled Access to the Campus" Page

Paula will be talking with DSPS to get information for a Disabled Access to the Campus page she's going to write for the website. There are places in the various navigation pages just waiting for this page to be created so a link can be added (About Ohlone, "D" Index page, etc.).

Offer Website Accessibility Workshops

Still on our list of things to do this semester is to offer workshops for creating accessible web pages. This is on Cheryl's plate and she's been working on other things. It may get pushed to Fall semester.

Offer a Dreamweaver MX Template for Faculty Websites

This project has been started. We hope to have something to offer in the next month or so. Cheryl has been trying to make the templates straight-forward to use. The intent is that the template can be used as a "master document" or as an actual Dreamweaver MX template (which requires a comfort level with that Dreamweaver feature).

Offer a Dreamweaver MX Template for Division/Department Websites

After the Faculty templates are complete, this project will be easier to tackle since we'll already have a model to work from. This project has not been started yet. The intent is that the template can be used as a "master document" or as an actual Dreamweaver MX template (which requires a comfort level with that Dreamweaver feature).

Projects re the Web Servers

Perform Maintenance on Web Servers

Tj would like to apply some upgrades and patches to both web servers. At this time, she estimates 3 days of downtime for the development web server and a half-day downtime for the main web server. She would like to schedule this downtime during one of the first weeks after the end of the Spring Semester when we think that volume of usage will be low. Cheryl and Tj will discuss this further before plans are made.

Change Web Server Names to "ohlone.edu"

Currently, both the development (dev/dev2) and main (www/www2) web servers default to the "ohlone.cc.ca.us" domain name and "pointers" have been set up so that calls for files at "ohlone.edu" point to the "ohlone.cc.ca.us" servers. Cheryl and Tj want to rename the servers to use the "ohlone.edu" domain name and change the "pointers" to point calls for files at "ohlone.cc.ca.us" to the "ohlone.edu" servers.

Changing the name of the servers will mean that "root" and "relative" links will prepend the new "ohlone.edu" server name to the beginning of those links (instead of prepending the current "ohlone.cc.ca.us" server name to those links). In this way, a good majority of links on our website will be consistent with the domain name we switched to last fall (i.e., "ohlone.edu"). If a link is an absolute link (which uses http:// followed by the full domain name "www.ohlone.cc.ca.us"), those links will continue to use the ohlone.cc.ca.us domain name regardless what the name of the web server is. Whew. Any questions, just email Cheryl.