Archive for March, 2009

I had 2 announcements related to higher ed blogging awards, so I thought it made sense to bundle both in a single post.

First, I’d like to announce the 20 finalists of the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest “popularity” phase that ended yesterday:

• al-jamiat.com
• blogs.oc.edu
• christine.smcbloggers.com
• dontwasteyourtime.co.uk
• eironae.com
• elearningpundit.com
• heidicool.com
• highedwebtech.com
• highered.prblogs.org
• higheredmarketing.blogspot.com
• isupportuoregon.org
• karlynmorissette.karlyn.me
• killjill.wordpress.com
• learnqtp.com
• murcha.wordpress.com
• nick.smcbloggers.com
• sekolahbogorraya.edublogs.org
• simpsonscarborough.com/blog
• teachingcollegeenglish.com
• ukwebfocus.wordpress.com

The next step will be for the judges of the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest (Matt Herzberger, Stewart Foss and yours truly) to evaluate the quality and originality of the entered blog posts. After compiling these evaluations, we will announce the winner of the grand prize – the $1,500 scholarship – as well as the lucky winner of the 2 other prizes – the $500 door-prizes – drawn among all the contest entries on April 15.

You have until April 15 to nominate your favorite higher ed blogs (institutional, students and best higher ed blog) to participate in another popularity contest (well, the institutional and student blogs will be judged, but as far as the best higher ed blog goes, only a popular vote will be used): the collegewebeditor.com/eduStyle blogging awards.

Here’s the page explaining how you can nominate a blog for the CollegeWebEditor.com Best Student Blog and Best Institutional Blog and here’s the online form for the CollegeWebEditor.com Best Higher Ed Blog.

For this last category, the rules are a bit different:

This category will be awarded as a “people’s choice” award only (not judged). Any blog related to higher-ed qualifies. Blogs maintained by judges of the eduStyle awards may win this award with the exception of “CollegeWebEditor” and the “eduStyle Blog”. Judges have no influence over the winner in this category. You may:

* Nominate as many blogs as you like
* Nominate your own blog
* Use any means you can conceive to encourage people to nominate your blog

Limit of 1 entry per blog per user of eduStyle.

I got the tip about AU web redesign launch yesterday in an email from Maralee Csellar, Acting Director for Media Relations at American University.

As explained in the top news story available on the homepage, New Site Launches, Will Change AU Communications, the whole redesign process started in the summer of 2006 took more than 2 years.

The project required well over 25,000 hours work by more than 125 AU staff members in 20 departments across the university before coming to fruition on March 30

Interesting features of this redesigned website include:

• AUpedia, a wiki directly integrated in the website and available right from the homepage
• An amazing virtual tour section including a virtual map integrated with “My 5 Faves” videos as well as several other videos including close captions and the whole shebang – probably an example to follow if you’re working in virtual tours although I can’t imagine how much such a beautiful thing costs.
  
• The section AU by the numbers at the bottom of the homepage – it’s easy to implement and quite powerful.
  

What do you think?

It looks like the wait is finally over: YouTube just launched yesterday its new channel dedicated to videos produced by higher ed institutions and finally came up with a clear way to apply to get the education partner status.

And, you can thank YouTube employees if you know any, because this baby is the results of their work as explained in this paragraph in yesterday’s release notes published on YouTube’s blog:

Do You EDU? Educational Hub Launches: Using YouTube as a vehicle to democratize learning is one of the coolest, unintended outcomes of its existence. YouTube EDU is a volunteer project sparked by a group of employees who wanted to find a better way to collect and highlight all the great educational content being uploaded to YouTube by colleges and universities.

I’ve been writing about this topic for sometimes, providing some tips for your YouTube videos or suggesting last summer among others the non-profit status workaround, so I was really excited when I found out about YouTube EDU, its new portal aggregating content from colleges and universities (via @nancypricer on Twitter).

Beyond showcasing the most viewed videos produced by higher ed institutions as well as the most subscribed channels, YouTube EDU also offers to its visitors what seems to be a comprehensive directory of its college and university partners along with a dedicated search engine.

So. how do you get your YouTube channel on YouTube EDU if you’re not there yet?

Very easily.
Follow these steps and tips

• Just fill out this online form requesting your YouTube username and some basic contact information.
  
• Make sure you just do a single application per institution (YouTube advises offices, departments and other entities to seek guidance from Public Affairs or Academic Technology)
• Use your institutional email account in the application
• Be patient as the new partners will be included on a periodic basis as specified in the introduction of the form.
• For now, YouTube will only consider applications from “qualifying two- and four-year degree granting public and private colleges and universities.”

I’d love to figure out how long the average wait is going to be.

So, please post a comment including the date of your application submission and come back to tell us when you’re finally added.

Website redesigns can be very, very scary projects.
People don’t like change, especially on “their” homepage.

That’s why you should prepare as much as possible before jumping into a website redesign (whether it’s for a university, college, department or even an office).

You can find some tips in a column I wrote for University Business in December 2006 – and you should also make sure to get your hands on the April issue of University Business as my next column provides great tips and tools to redesign on a dime.

But, if you want/need more help, why not register for “Website Redesign Boot Camp – the On-A-Dime edition,” a 3-webinar series scheduled next month?

“Website Redesign Boot Camp: What you need to know before jumping into a redesign project”

This 3-webinar series will help you get ready for your next (or first) big (or small) website redesign by providing some insights into the latest design trends in higher ed, guidance to prepare your project and useful advice to make sure you know what to expect from this type of high-risk projects.

April 21, 2009 – 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: April 28, 2009)
Top trends in higher ed redesigned websites
Stewart Foss, Web Services Manager Founder of EduStyle and co-author of The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher Ed Homepage Design, will present the latest trends in higher ed web design identified among the best redesigned websites (homepage, departmental, admissions, etc.) in 2008.

April 22, 2009 – 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: April 29, 2009)
Website Redesign & CMS Implementation: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Tonya Price, Director, Marketing and Web Operations at Worcester Polytechnic Institute, will share what went bad in WPI redesign coupled with a CMS implementation and how her team managed to overcome these challenges. She will also present her recipe to prepare, manage and survive any big website redesign project that will come your way.

April 23, 2009 – 1PM-2PM ET (rain date: April 30, 2009)
Web Redesign on a dime in 10 steps
Nick DeNardis, Associate Director of Web Communications at Wayne State University and Founder of the video blog EDU Checkup, will explain how his team managed to complete 25 successful website redesigns for different departments and offices. He will share best practices and lessons learned as well as his 10 steps plan to redesign a small website on a dime.

Registration is open until April 9, 2009 and places are limited, so it’s always a good idea to register as soon as possible at www.higheredexperts.com/webredesign

And, if you have any questions, just email me at karine@collegewebeditor.com

About 2 months ago, I was interviewed for a CASE Currents’ article about digital magazines for alums.

The article written by Douglas Vaira, Living a Digital Age, has been published in the March issue (but is only accessible to CASE members), so I thought some of you might be interested in my answers to Vaira’s questions.

As far as digital magazines, where does the future lie?

I think we’re going to see more integration between print and digital publications. Given the shrinking budgets reported by many higher ed institutions, print magazines are going to take a hit in circulation, size, etc. When it was asked to find ways to save money to face a state funding cut in 2007, the University of Florida decided to take a hard look at its publication budget. At that time, I was asked to conduct a comprehensive audit and provide recommendations. Using this study as a starting point, UF has since been able to save more than 1 million in printing, postage and related costs.

However, I don’t think digital magazines should/will replace their print counterparts or even just mirror them. There is an opportunity to provide an even better experience to readers in a more cost-efficient way by making both media work together. Until digital paper becomes a fact of life – which will happen sooner than we think, it makes sense to keep printing magazines for alums, but maybe not as we’ve been doing it for the past 15 or 20 years. I think we really need to start designing magazines using an integrated approach with print and digital sections, with monthly/quaterly more in-depth features and daily/weekly electronic updates, with great copy and beautiful photo spreads and shorter text augmented by videos or slideshows.

What are some of the advantages of going digital?

There are several advantages of going digital. With digital magazines, institutions can skip altogether the costly and time-consuming printing process (as well as the increasing postage costs). It becomes possible to cover events in a timelier manner. Space isn’t limited by a set number of pages anymore. You can also provide a more comprehensive experience to readers including text, images (lots of images), video or audio interviews but also welcome/nurture instant feedback. Digital magazines especially in the form of Websites can become 2-way communication channels. Another advantage of digital magazines is the fact that you can get a very good idea of what your readers are actually viewing/reading. With the technologies available on the Web, it’s easy to find out where readers are clicking, how long they spend on a page, and the type of topics they are interested in by just checking analytics reports. Readers can also access very easily archives.

What are some of the issues or challenges you’ve seen with the format?

However, there are also some disadvantages with digital magazines. With so much information – and so many distractions – available on the Web, there’s a bigger chance to miss the reader. Even if you publish the best digital magazine in the world, you’ll still need to attract – and retain – readers. “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to digital magazines or websites. It’s true that people can find you on the Internet easily by using a search engine, but you got to give them a compelling reason to search in the first place. That’s why these digital magazines require to be promoted on other channels: emails, postcards or other mailings. When an alum gets a print magazine in the mail, s/he won’t probably throw it right away into the recycling bin even if s/he doesn’t have time at that specific moment. A digital version might not be that lucky.

What are some best-practice ideas you might be willing to offer?

The recommendation I would make is to try to come up with an integrated approach using print and (a real – i.e. web-based) digital versions altogether, build both version as distinctive but complementary parts of a same magazine. Ithaca College has done something very interesting with a magazine targeted to prospective students, FUSE, that includes a print version and a digital version built using their web content management system. The digital version is updated more often, but the print version has definitely its place. The readers — the famous digital natives — have expressed a strong interest in the print version, proving that this isn’t the dead medium we thought it was.

It’s also important to offer possibilities for readers to subscribe to updates on their terms via email, RSS or even by pushing updates on Facebook and other social media tools (Twitter comes to mind). If you can keep printing your magazine, ask readers if they would prefer to receive it in their inbox instead. Some might find it more practical and more environment-friendly. Don’t launch a digital magazine without incorporating from the beginning some ways to measure traffic, reader behaviors, etc. If you have to go paperless (from print to digital only) for budget reasons, tell your readers in the print magazines and offer them the opportunity to be notified by email about new issues.

If you’re planning to go digital or paperless with your magazines, you should consider attending “Stop the Presses,” a 3-webinar series presented by editors who took this path. You can get more info about it at www.higheredexperts.com/stopthepresses

Once again I found in my inbox a message from someone who wanted to register for the upcoming webinar series: “Analytics 360″ (the initial registration deadline was yesterday at 9PM).

As a result, I decided to postpone the registration deadline until next Friday (March 20, 2009) at 9PM ET.

If you are trying to make sense of your Web and email analytics, this 3-webinar series scheduled next week (March 24, 25 & 26) and featuring Karlyn Morissette (Dartmouth College), Shelby Thayer and Joshua Ellis (Penn State) is the solution (and why not pack a room with your Web, marketing and communications teams to watch the webinars and fire up a great brainstorming session?)

Some of the institutions registered for this series include:

• San Francisco State University
• Upper Iowa University
• HEC Montréal (Canada)



• The Johns Hopkins University
• Agnes Scott College
• Eastern Kentucky University
• Union College
• Santa Clara University School of Law
• Simpson College
• University of Southern Indiana
• Missouri University of Science and Technology
• Penn State University
• Rhode Island School of Design
• University of Central Florida
• Indiana University East
• Duke University
• University of Victoria (Canada)
• University of Florida
• Nova Southeastern University-Fischler School
• Lethbridge College
• Northwest College
• College of the Rockies
• UNC Wilmington
• University of Colorado Denver
• Berry College
• Montgomery College
• University of Nevada, Las Vegas
• Monmouth University
• Saginaw Valley State University
• The University of Alabama
• University of the Sunshine Coast (Australia)
• Lund University

For more information and to register online, just go to www.higheredexperts.com/analytics360

If you have any problems or questions, just send me an email at karine@collegewebeditor.com

I’m giving this presentation (an updated version of the keynote speech I gave at the eduWeb conference in July 2008) today (in about 30 minutes) at the CUPRAP conference. It’s the first part of a workshop about social media. Mike Richwalsky presents the second part.

Here are my slides available on Slideshare:

Here are links to the online videos recorded by some higher ed community managers for this presentation:

Ann White from OCU

Adam Stahr from UNL

Rachel Reuben from SUNY New Paltz

Mike Caulfied formerly from Keene State College

Stewart Foss from eduStyle

At the end of my presentation, I’m inviting all the conference participants (and you, my dear readers) to share the secrets behind the success of their social media initiatives and online communities. So, feel free to post your secrets and lessons learned in a comment below.

Isn’t this headline quite a teaser?

I stand by it though as this is also a good way to look at the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest.

As I’ve explained on this blog a few weeks ago, I’m managing this contest targeted to edu bloggers. It’s open to the “usual suspects” of the higher ed blogosphere (you know who you are – and if you aren’t registered yet, hope you’ll do it before the deadline next Tuesday), but also to any of the bloggers writing for your institution.

The only 3 requirements to enter this contest are 1) to write a post about online education or education online, 2) to include the contest badge in the entry and 3) to fill out the form available on the contest page.

While the contest is sponsored by Online College, a website about online education, these posts written for the contest don’t even have to be in favor of online education – and can also help promote what’s going on at YOUR institution.

• If your student bloggers think that studying on campus is the only way to get an education, they can discuss their opinion in their contest post.
• If some of your faculty bloggers teach online classes at your institution and want to write about their experience in a post, they can enter the contest.
• If some of your staff members passionate about academic technology want to blog about the future of education in this online world, they can submit an entry for the contest as well.

What I’m trying to say is that there is plenty that can be written about education online or online education, and I’m sure the folks blogging for your institution would love to get an opportunity to win one of the 3 scholarships.

Think it’s not even worth trying because of the numbers of A-list bloggers already entered in the contest?
Even if I find it hard to understand, as of this writing, we only have a dozen entries – which means that with 3 prizes to win, any interested edu blogger has a very high probability (we’re not even talking about chances) to grab at least $500.

I know most edu bloggers don’t do it for the money (hey, if we were we would be blogging about something else), but I would really love to see a bit more entries for this contest, you know, just to keep things interesting for the jury.

So, go read the rules on the Edu Blogger Scholarship Contest page. Share this post with your bloggers or go write your own entry if you’re a blogger.

The deadline is next Tuesday – March 17.

First, let me start with a disclaimer:

I’ve just received and browsed my electronic review copy of The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher Ed Homepage Design (email arrived a bit before 6AM this morning). I knew it was supposed to be released any day now, but I had no clue when it would hit my inbox.

Stewart Foss, one of the co-authors of this brand new book (who will present the first of the 3 webinars about Web Redesign offered in April by Higher Ed Experts), and I have been talking about the book for a couple of months now as I wanted to mention it in my column about Web Redesign to be published in the April issue of University Business (which was due to my editor on Feb 1st).

Writing a book is always a bold move and I think the Foss brothers have done a very good job with this first 95-page volume, a book inspired by and written for the eduStyle community as well as the higher ed web professionals.

So, here’s my 1-1-1 Express Book Review for The eduStyle Guide to Usable Higher Ed Homepage Design (electronic version available now for $39.99) by Stewart, Cody and Andy Foss:

1 (bunch of) things I liked:

Instead of focusing on design mistakes, the authors have decided to review only 20 of the best web homepages among the 2,700 referenced in the eduStyle gallery. They explain what works, why and offer some pieces of advice to improve on great web design.

I especially like the profile page that precedes every web design analysis. It includes some quick facts about the institution, the file size of the homepage and the number of different files and types necessary to come up with the end result.

I also love the sidebar where they referenced other comparable institutions that you can find in the book (with their respective page numbers). You can look for comparable institutions by size, geographic area and type (private vs. public).

Here’s a 6-page excerpt in PDF format that will give you a good idea of what I mean above.

1 thing I didn’t like that much:

The recommendations and tips for good practices are available for each of the 20 reviewed websites. I would have loved to be able to get those nuggets of design wisdom listed in another section of the book – at the end for easy reference. There is an index, so it’s possible to find your way and this is just a tiny thing.

1 big take-away from the book:
Successful homepage web design can take many forms. While there are some common features in the 20 homepages reviewed in this book, they all have their unique web design.

So, go buy this electronic version (email me first at karine@collegewebeditor.com today to request a discount code that will get you 10% off the book – what would have been my affiliate fee had I decided to sign up for the book affiliate program) – and if you want to get the print version, here’s what the Foss brothers have in store for you as explained in an email they sent this morning to folks who registered to get the early bird pricing

We expect the print version to be ready in the next two weeks. Once released we’ll offer a $19.99 US credit toward the purchase of the print version to anyone who couldn’t wait and bought the electronic version early.

Oh, and if you are wondering which institutions are featured in the book, here’s the complete list:

• Biola University
• Boston University
• University of California, Riverside
• Case Western Reserve University
• Champlain College
• Concordia University, St. Paul
• Cornell University
• Denver Seminary
• Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis
• The University of Louisville
• Loyola Marymount University
• Marylhurst University
• University of Nebraska-Lincoln
• North Carolina State University
• University of Notre Dame
• Portland State University
• Rice University
• Saxion Universities of Applied Sciences
• University of St. Thomas
• The College of William & Mary

Have you checked out the book yet? Tell us what you think (good or bad) by posting a comment.