Higher Ed Webs

Approaching HigherEdWeb

[taken from my portfolio]

Having performed work for non-profits, student organizations, universities, professional sport teams, politicians and exotic dancers and worked with large design firms such as Razorfish I have refined my workflow process so that it can be used for various clients with numerous stakeholders. I have also had the unique opportunity to see first-hand where lessons learned from one industry can be applied to another.

The ability to amalgamate these lessons and experiences to the tangible benefit of a web project is ultimately enhanced by adhering to a design philosophy that embraces standards such as XHTML, XSLT and XML and building upon open-source solutions. In taking such an approach to designing and developing for the web the final work product is assured to be both sustainable and extensible.

As a university webmaster for two of the larger campuses in the California State University system it has become quite apparent that one can not take lessons learned from e-commerce and web services from the private sector and apply them directly to higher ed. When it comes to web sites for institutes of higher education most of us in this 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 the digital divide that exits between university administrators and the millennials (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 this approach?

My primary objective as a web technology strategist is to address not only this technical divide but to also leverage the power of the internet and the benefit of web standards so that ownership can not only remain distributed but so that data can also be used by all while being pulled from the authoritative sources. In addition, integrating web services (this is not the same as centralizing) should allow the institute to streamline business process and customer service while resulting in enterprise-wide cost-savings.

Surprisingly this approach to web-based services is a new model for higher education. Add to this model a user-centered design approach that results in an excellent user-interface and the final product will not only be simple and intuitive to use but will also meet the identified business objectives and exceed overall expectations.

Technology can not be used only as a tool. Rather it needs to be part of our lifestyle. Once we arrive at this point it will no longer be "technology."

posted by Paul N. @ 10:25 PM