Higher Ed Webs

Pass/Fail: Does Your Website Make the Grade [conference preceedings]

When it comes to web sites for intitutes of higher education most of use in that niche of the industry are shooting into the dark. Although we have a good idea of what is needed, how can we be sure that we are on the right track. When you consider that digital divide that exits between university web site administrators and the Net Generation this question becomes even more daunting. Of course we can look at trends in website development in general and infer where we should go but how smart, in terms of a business model, is that approach?

Recently I presented at the Community of Academic Technology Staff (CATS) conference in Sacramento, CA. This is an annual conference, which initially targeted staff in the CSU System but has grown to include attendees from across the country. This year marked my sixth year presenting at the conference, which turned eight this year. Altough the conference is titled "academic technology" many of my presentations have been on topic like web accessibility, designing with web standards, and this year on web metrics and analytics.

In terms of measuring the success of a univerity site I spoke about various metrics and measurement tools available. I also spoke about how to design successful sites with measurement in mind. Unless your site is designed with measurement in mind the metrics you use to measure you site may not be as accurate as you hope. Additionally, with the various user-segments of a universiity site how can a single site with a single navigation schema and a single visual layout design truly be effective?

In an earlier post I referred to a book by Pamela Cox-Otto published LRP Publications (not available on Amazon only via the publisher). Get this book, it has all the research findings from the focus groups, surveys, etc. that Dr. Cox-Otto has done specifically in relation to university/college websites.

As for my conference preceedings my presentation slides are available in both ppt and pdf formats.

posted by Paul N. @ 11:08 AM