Archive for September, 2007
Yes, that's right. BSU hasn't just redesigned its website: the university is relaunching it tomorrow (October 1st) as Nancy Prater, University Web Coordinator, told me in an email a couple of weeks ago. The project including the redesign, a revamped information architecture and a CMS implementation took 18 months as explained in "Extreme Makeover: Web Site Edition:" "If we only wanted to change how things look, we could have been done 15 months ago," says Nancy Prater, university Web coordinator. "Instead, we have 're-architected' the site, so now it has a fully planned information architecture or behind-the-scenes structure for building out all of...
Read MoreEven if you don't take the time to read my last article about crisis communication (although you should), don't ignore these 5 basic tips and share them with folks in charge of crisis communication at your institution: Make sure the chief communication officer of your institution is part of your emergency team. Include in your crisis plan your institution response to different possible scenarios. Define the type of communication channels to be use for the different situations and prepare the notification templates for each. In case of a crisis, you'll be able to update and send these templates in minutes. Practice, practice, practice....
Read MoreSeptember isn't over yet, but the month has already seen 2 shooting-related crises: Yesterday at St. John's University in Queens, NY (the campus was locked down after a masked gunman was found on campus) Last Friday, 2 students were shot at Delaware State University. The good news is that lessons learned after the tragedy at Virginia Tech last April seem to have been implemented in both cases. As I mentioned before, I spent time this summer researching and writing an article about crisis communication for the October issue of University Affairs, Canada's higher ed magazine. Now available online, the article titled "Crisis Communications...
Read MoreAfter the registration deadline expired yesterday evening, I received a few emails asking if I could give people a bit more time to register for the October 1-5 webinar series about social networking websites: Social Networking Websites Week - All You Ever Wanted to Know about MySpace, Facebook and Co: October 1-5 2007 Social networking sites are the number one destination for students, and connecting with them through this new medium can be a powerful way to inform and create interest. "Social Networking Websites Week" brings together experts from across the country to teach you more about how to use MySpace and...
Read MoreIf you read this blog, you probably understand how important Facebook has become for our prospective and current students as well as our younger alums. While this new communication channel should always be used with caution by higher ed institutions to avoid "invading" their students' primary social hang out, it makes a lot of sense to take advantage of advertising opportunities offered by the platform (and I don't make a dime by writing this - although if Mark Zuckenberg and any Facebook Execs read these lines, chocolates or flowers are always welcome ;-). One of the cheapest (that could also be the...
Read MoreI've already posted a couple of times about "Social Networking Websites Week - All You Ever Wanted to Know about MySpace, Facebook and Co," a 5-webinar series scheduled on October 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (with the 50% discount for HEE members, the total price for the webinars is just $250 - more information is available at www.higheredexperts.com/socialnetworking) that I designed for Higher Ed Experts, so this is just a quick reminder of the registration deadline. Registration will close this Monday. If you plan to attend, you can register online. Don't forget to join Higher Ed Experts first at www.higheredexperts.com/register...
Read MoreAs I mentioned in this previous post, "Don’t think the conversation is the message? Just look at how higher ed media have been going 2.0 lately," I was interviewed last June by Andrea Jarrell: Anyway, “the conversation is the message” has come back at me this week in an email exchange with Andrea Jarrell. She’s working on a follow-up piece for Currents focusing on the Web 2.0 denial syndrome (my words, hers were “fear and loathing in Web 2.0″) in higher ed communication offices. I can’t wait to read Andrea’s article in the September issue of Currents, because she’s definitely right...
Read MoreLast July, I launched an online survey about the state of print and electronic publications in higher education to help me with two projects of mine: my column scheduled for the October issue of University Business a study I conducted for a big public university over the summer. When I asked you to take part in the survey on July 9, my goal was to gain insights from about 50 people. On July 25, the date I closed the survey, a total of 218 professionals working in institutions representing more than 3 million students completed it. This survey was done on a...
Read MoreHighEdWebDev 2007 will take place on October 14-17 in Rochester NY. This year, I'm going to Rochester but I put out a call for guest bloggers last week to try to offer the best possible conference coverage. Two readers, Stephen and Martine, have already offered to help (if you want to share your notes about one or two sessions you plan to attend, you’re still welcome to let me know by email at karine@collegewebeditor.com - you’ll get a byline on your favorite blog ;-) Whether or not you plan to go to Rochester in a month, I’m sure you’ll be interested to...
Read MoreIn "Facelifts for the Facebook Generation" published today in Inside Higher Ed, Andy Guess gives a good round-up of the web design trends in higher education: As universities start to unveil the next generation of college Web sites, their efforts include a mix of approaches that tend to overlap. Lewis and other Web administrators note several trends: * The Facebooking of college Web sites. Lewis said colleges were looking toward variations on social networking to keep in touch with students after they graduate and maintain databases for fund raising. [...] * Showing, not telling. Simon...
Read MoreEverybody is talking about online videos lately (well, the fact that it's Day 2 of the Higher Ed Experts' series about online videos might explain some of the chatter in my virtual neighborhood ;-) A recent report by the Pew Internet and American Life Project confirms that online videos have become a must-have web features as more and more of our target audiences spend time watching them on their computer screen. So, now that you have started to produce and post your online videos on your website, your YouTube channel or even on MySpace and Facebook, what's next? Joost might be worth investigating,...
Read MoreI've just secured my early-bird registration to attend HighEdWebDev in Rochester on October 14-17, 2007. If you also plan to attend what is probably the best higher ed conference for Web folks in North America (hey, that means we'll get a chance to meet ;-), make sure you register before this Friday. It's the deadline for the early-bird registration. Next week, the conference fee will cost you an extra $100. This year, besides attending as many interesting sessions listed on the conference program as possible, I'm going to give a presentation. Here's the description of my session titled "12-step program...
Read MoreExecutive Director at the Caltech Alumni Association, Andrew Shaindlin has been blogging at Alumni Futures since last February, but managed to make my list of 5 bloggers that make me think last May by posting regularly well-researched, well-written posts targeted to alumni professionals. 1) Why did you decide to start your blog Alumni Futures in the first place? Can you tell us a bit more about your experience with blogging? I started a listserv called ALUMNI-L back in the early '90s. It eventually grew into an international forum for almost 1,500 people before I asked CASE to take it over....
Read MoreLast week I read 3 interesting posts written by 3 different higher ed bloggers, but couldn't find the time to post about these. Paul Baker (Education PR) shares a great story that shows the power of Web 2.0. A year ago, while he was attending a conference in New Orleans, he took some great photos of post-Katrina classrooms and uploaded them to Flickr. A few weeks ago, he was contacted by a publication that asked permission to use one of his photos. Magazines are always looking for convenient and affordable solutions to illustrate their articles. By making some of your...
Read MoreI'm glad to introduce the first event of a new series called "30 minutes with a Higher Ed Expert." The plan is to try to schedule one of those free online events per month. As regular readers might know I signed a yearly contract with WebEx for Higher Ed Experts, and I thought it would be a good idea to use the service I'm paying for to its fullest. That's why I've decided to offer a few free events along with the regular webinar series. The first free event will take place on September 19 at 1PM ET and will be presented...
Read More"The Old College Try: Marketing Higher Ed" showed up on my technorati radar a few weeks ago. Since her first post, I've been enjoying Deanna Woolf's funny and witty blogging style. Senior Marketing Specialist at a public university in the Midwest, Deanna didn't only catch the blogging bug -- but also a severe case of Simpsonesque Yellow Fever -- as you can see on this headshot used on her blog ;-) 1) Why did you decide to blog about higher ed marketing in the first place? Can you tell us a bit more about your experience with blogging? I read a handful...
Read MoreDuring this long Labor Day weekend I got a few emails asking if it was still possible to register for the September 11-13 webinar series about online videos (the initial registration deadline was Sept. 1st). As a result, I decided to postpone the registration deadline until this Thursday (Sept. 6) at 8PM ET. If you want to learn more on how to start an online video initiative at your institution, this 3-webinar series featuring Andy Mrozkowski (Mars Hill College), James Todd (Duke University) and David Burge (UNL) should help. All 3 have implemented successful programs for their institutions. For more information and to...
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Lin Larson on 
Julie on 