eduweb2008

I’m late to the party for final thoughts about the eduWeb conference, because I’ve just made it back home. Technically, I could have driven back home yesterday, but just chose to meet with family and have some fun after a 2-day long journey from Atlantic City.

For those of you who didn’t follow me on Twitter, after my keynote speech in Atlantic City Wednesday, I had the pleasure to spend 5 hours on the tarmac at Philly (but I guess with the amount of rain and wind shaking up the plane on the ground, it was better than being in the sky), to take 2 cab rides with my new friends Kaitlin and Angela to our far far away hotel, spend more than 8 hours yesterday in a rental car out of those I took the wheel for about 3 hours under some really heavy thunderstorms (think buckets of water thrown at your windshield consistently).

I’ve uploaded my slides to Slideshare, so you can get an idea of my presentation.

Mark Greenfield and I will also be recording webinar versions of our talk as well (available early next week) so people who didn’t get to stay (or come) will be able to get most out of the keynotes.

As my fellow higher ed bloggers and twitterers have already said, this conference has been an amazing experience. I feel very lucky to be part of the higher ed community. I have big plans for the future and hope this will help this group thrive even more.

If you want to find a great round up of all the content produced at eduWeb 2008, here are some useful links (many have already shared most of those, but just in case you’re not one of their readers yet)

• “eduWeb 2008 in 140 words” series (17 posts written by speakers who all shared the main take away of their presentation)
• All of eduWeb 2008 (aggregation of most content produced at the conference, courtesy of Matt Herzberger)
• eduWeb 2008 on Twitter

I’m flying to Europe tomorrow for business and pleasure, so there might be some very light blogging in the following weeks. You’re still invited to share your secrets behind your successful community or social initiative by posting a comment or a video reply

When I was asked to present the closing keynote at eduWeb 2008 last October, I said to myself: “this is great! For the first time in my life, I’m 100% sure I will have the last word ;-)”

Then, when I picked my topic, “It’s the community, Stupid! 7-step plan to raise and nurture any community online,” the idea of standing alone talking about the community for 45 minutes or so felt a bit weird.

That’s the reason why I asked Brad Ward from Butler University, Mike Caulfield from Keene State College and Adam Stahr from UNL to share on camera some of their secrets behind the success of their online communities.

That’s also the reason why I’d like to invite YOU – whether you attended the conference or not – to share the secret behind your successes in community development and management by posting a comment or a 1-minute reply to this video posted on Seesmic (you might want to skip the second video posted by a Seemic member teaching an Arts Class at Cape Cod Community College who felt like replying in French – that is unless you want to practice your High School French):

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

Ask most people who’ve launched a major web project how they did their user testing and you’ll likely get a blank stare, followed by a hastily constructed and somewhat “improvised” answer.

Why would otherwise bright forward-thinking folks ignore one of the most proven and important processes of a website redesign?

• fear of what they’ll find out
• fear of cost
• fear of losing time – getting off schedule
• fear of not knowing what to do with the results

Fear figures large – and with good reason.

Few have the intestinal integrity to take an objective critique of their “perfect” web product. But get on that Kevlar jacket and start asking! It doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive; user testing can be as simple as a survey, or as involved as a large-scale test with eye tracking.

The key is that you DO user testing before, during and after implementation. There’s a method for every budget and time frame.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

The principal conclusion from our presentation is the importance of undertaking detailed user research at the beginning of redesign projects and crucially, really listening to what the users say.

User research gave the Imperial project team an insight into how audiences were using or anticipated using the site and highlighted commonalities in tasks they wanted to perform and information they were hoping to find.

User interviews informed “mental models,” which played a key part in defining the site’s information architecture. These involved identifying discrete tasks from user interviews, grouping similar tasks under broad goals and highlighting frequently mentioned topics.

This task orientated approach ensured the site met the demands of its various audience groups and helped justify and support navigation and content decisions to internal stakeholders – something which has helped maintain the integrity of the site since its launch.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

Do you manage multiple school catalogs and have multiple web sites where that content must be published?

Using the right Content Management System and database multiple school catalogs can be managed in a single CMS and published to print, PDF and multiple web sites. Advanced searching can be enabled easily for the online catalogs and selective catalog content can be published where needed easily.

The University of Richmond has one catalog finished and has published it to PDF, Print and 60+ web sites and is enabling two graduate catalogs this summer as it moves to place its entire suite of catalogs into one repository.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

The most important thing Carleton College learned from our site redesign was that user research doesn’t have to have a huge price tag, a usability lab and a cast of thousands.

If all you can get is five members of your target audience, make the most of it. I guarantee you’ll get better results by listening carefully to what five real users want than assuming what all users want. And users are surprisingly willing to help, if approached in a straightforward, friendly way.

Look for a variety of opportunities to reach prospective students: In person during college visits (camping out at the Admissions office worked wonders for us); online where they are checking their application status; via email after they’re accepted; on third-party college discussion forums and social networks; at local high schools; among teenage friends of staffers’ children.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

Viewbooks, brochures and university driven Web sites provide a wealth of information to prospective students, staff, faculty and others. But they can only go so far.

To truly convey the personality of our campus communities, we need to hear from the people who make up those communities.

University sponsored blogs give campus members an easy-to-use outlet for expressing their opinions, sharing their insights and communicating with the world. While individuals could blog anywhere, and often do, a university provided system also provides a way to aggregate and showcase the different blogs to our site visitors, thus letting them hear from a variety of voices in one easy to navigate location.

Together, the blogs written by students, faculty, staff and alumni, provide an inside look into the life of the university, thus allowing visitors to gain insights they might not glean from our traditional marketing materials.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

The most important take away from my presentation on how we built our catalog (and course descriptions) in our web Content Management System (CMS) is that it is easier than you think but requires organization, project management skills and an ability to problem solve.

Also, a strong second item to take away is to consider technology you have already implemented and how it can be configured to work as needed before going off and investing in new technology that requires implementation and training phases.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

Variable print technology is revolutionizing the way we recruit and is helping institutions of higher education save valuable resources by leveraging data and technology.

With the ability to use variable print technology a college can save time and resources by printing on demand and use elements such as text, graphics and images to be changed from one printed piece to the next without stopping the printing process.

Implementing the variable print practices in addition to a targeted email communication plan can maximize response rates. By utilizing different attributes within your database, email communications and print pieces can be personalized to students preferences, interests and even student type.

Data is the most important component when implementing variable print technology. Captured data can be utilized to strategically place variable elements throughout your print piece, making a big impact on your audience by tailoring information to the recipient.

Heard the expression- garbage in, garbage out? Well it is true – your variable print pieces will only be as good as your information in your database.

Note from Karine: This year, I’ve asked all the eduWeb speakers working in universities/colleges to share in 140 words or less the biggest take-away from their presentation or table talk. If you’ve attended this session, feel free to weigh in by posting a comment, a question or a suggestion.

Ask yourself two questions:

Does your email campaign tie in with the rest of your efforts?
Are you doing and tracking all the little things – i.e checking open rate, sending them to landing pages, monitoring your list sizes and subscription base, following the ROI if it’s a-call-to-action campaign?

People tend to hit send and then not look back, because it’s easier to think you are through with your email campaign until the next item to send.