corn, couture, & harkness (2003) website review committee: western idaho college committee...

Corn, Couture, & Harkness (2003)

Website Review Committee:

Western Idaho College

Committee Members:

Andy Corn, Rene Couture, Shaun Harkness

Indiana State University Case Study Team


Review of Presentation

Target Audience Current Trends Importance of a Website Statement of Philosophy Challenges with WIC’s Student Affairs

Website


Target Audience

Considering the stakeholders that will use the WIC Student Affairs Division website, is there something for everyone?

Student and Staff needs are not the same. Are we taking this into account?

So who are our stakeholders?


Target Audience Stakeholders

WIC Students: Current Students Prospective Students Parents and Families of Students Alumni

WIC Student Affairs Staff Current Staff Prospective Staff


Current trends In 2002, 85% of college students said they owned

a computer (Pew Internet and American Life Project, 2002).

If current trends continue, that number will only increase. Should students adjust to the way things are or should student affairs professionals adjust to accommodate the needs of college students?

When dealing with administrators, many students prefer getting the message via an email containing flash as opposed to a phone call (Mangan, 2003).


William Glasser’s (1995) Theory

People are motivated by four needs:1. Fun2. Power3. Belonging4. Freedom

A student affairs division website should attempt to meet these needs for the students served.

People who enjoy their interaction on a website are more likely to return to that site (Berthon & Davies, 1999).


“Your website is YOUR values in action”

It has been remarked that, “your budget is your values in action” (W. Barratt, personal communication, January, 2003).

This concept may be applied to student affairs web pages: “Your website is your values in action.”

For an increasing number of students the website is a primary recruiting tool.

Even if this is not necessarily the view of the student affairs staff at WIC, it is could likely the view of the students at WIC


Dynamic vs. Static websites

Another question to consider is: is the website dynamic or static?

Strange and Banning (2001) suggested that dynamic organizations encourage innovation, whereas static organizations do not promote the exchange of ideas.

The same can be said of student affairs websites. The current website at WIC is static.


A website should be visual The information within a website should not

simply be content that was created for printed material (Niederst, 2001).

To make WIC’s site more visually appealing, photos of students should be included.

Students need to know that they are important and belong, and one way of doing that can be to include photos of people who look like them (Schlossberg, Lynch, & Chickering, 1989).


Enhancing communication Does the website enhance two-way communication

(Berthon & Davies, 1999), or is the communication intended to be one-way? A good example of two-way communication is found

at Idaho State University where students are able to post announcements of campus concern to a public bulletin board—http://www.isu.edu/bulletinboard/student/.

Providing “additional ways to create public discussion (can add) a democratizing force to campus environments” (Strange & Banning, 2001, p. 194) and be a wonderful source of students’ needs for power and freedom.


Reducing status differences

Reducing status differences leads to better communication (Birnbaum, 1988).

Having photos of staff with brief biographies might help students to see student affairs staff as being “regular people.”

A good example of this is the University of Montana’s Student Affairs site, where brief biographies are provided for senior student affairs staff and staff are referred to by their first names- http://www.umt.edu/studentaffairs/.


Possible retention problems

Compare WIC’s site to other Idaho universities’ sites, possible destinations for transferring students, such as: Idaho State University- http://

www.isu.edu/studenta/ Or the University of Idaho-http://

www.webs.uidaho.edu/viceprovost/

It becomes evident quite quickly as to which schools place more value on their websites.


The Blumberg Project

Indiana State University has created a website for students in a first-year residence hall-http://blumberghall.indstate.edu/.

One aspect of this site that has seen tremendous student interest has been the extensive photo section.

Students are excited to see themselves and their friends on the Internet.


Importance of a Website

Parsons & Hernandez (2003) pointed to the importance that a website makes on a student’s impression of a school. The student affairs division website may be the

first stop most students make when they need to know something.

At the moment, the website for WIC’s student affairs division might lead some students to be confused and frustrated.


Why is it important to have a Division Website?

Communication with students today needs to be more web connected. The novelty phase is gone and the practical era is here. As the primary medium of connecting and communicating shifts to the web, the WIC Student Affairs Division needs to lead the way embracing the merger of effective websites and student development theory.


Statement of Philosophy

Rooted in the Mission Statement for WIC, a Philosophy Statement should be short, concise and achievable:

“Website is designed to meet the needs of students, staff and stakeholders at Western Idaho College. Site will embrace student development theory to provide interactive services, community building, awareness of events, communication, and stimulation of diversity. Use of website will be applicable to a wide range of users with varying technical skills.”


Challenges with WIC’s website

Overall, this site seems to have been created haphazardly, with little consideration given to student needs, student development theory, or current technology available.

The color for the banner and logo is dull. There are no photos of students, staff, or the campus

environment. The Policies and Procedures section has typing

errors, incomplete sentences, and too much ambiguity (i.e., “Keep draperies and shades drawn in the evening and at other appropriate times.”) What is meant by “other appropriate times”?


Challenges continued The name of the entire site is “WIT Housing and

Residential Life.” The main division page identifies itself as “Student Life

Development.” There should be a page specifically for the division

of Student Affairs. The site should identify student affairs staff by photo,

title, function, and personal biographies. Email links should work and should be addressed to a

person by name.


Challenges continued

Remove negativity (i.e., “We are on the web, finally” and “many east-coast types”)

Phone numbers should include area code and prefix, not just extensions.

Athletics needs to include all sports, without suggesting favoritism toward basketball.

The calendar should be interactive and searchable, including all campus activities, such as speakers and special events.


Challenges continued The Site Index is pointless, elementary, and

redundant. What is meant by “true warrior fashion” as indicated

in the scrolling box on http://studentaffairs.com/vcs/2003vcs/athletics.html

The Orientation section is not helpful. If you say it includes tips, then include those tips on the website.

Create a Student Life or Student Organizations sub-section.


Additional Technical Challenges

Website uses blinking text, which is distracting and is not inclusive of some disabilities.

Pages with Tables of Contents at the top should use bookmarks within the page to organize the content.

Scrolling Calendar should not be animated, and its current speed is far too fast.

Links to Career Services, Residence Life, and Residence Information either do not work or are not appropriate.


Where to go from here?

At the current moment the WIC website is not meeting the basic needs of:1.Students2.Staff3.Community


Evaluating the Content We feel that in order to highlight those areas

within the current website, an evaluation of the content should be looked at and broken down into specific areas, such as:

1. Relationship Dimension2. Navigation and Design3. Technical Details4. Aesthetic Appropriateness5. Content of Site

Checklist is compiled from current research in progress. (Barratt et al., 2003)


Areas of the Evaluation

Relationship Dimension

• Does the content of each area offer a High or Low Relationship to the areas of need?

High Relationship/Warmth 5 4 3 2 1 Low Relationship/Warmth

Pictures of people Pictures of buildings

Personal statements from staff

No personal statement



Navigation and Design

All pages should list a most recent update date, and have been updated within the past 12 months.

All Most Some

No Recent Update

s

Material should be found within three clicks from the home page.

3clicks

4click

s

5clicks

6clicks

7clicks

More than 7

•Does the site have a sense of organization to its design that allows individuals to navigate through it freely?



Technical Details

• Does the site meet the requirements of user systems, such as: server speed, is it registered with a search engine, or does is it meet the ADA accessibility standards?

Dead pages have been removed from server.

All Many Some All

All links should be active.

All Most Some None



Aesthetic Appropriateness

Appropriate balance of text and pictures. All Many Some No balance

The pages should be appropriately attractive. Good use of color, text, and overall feel.

All Many Some Not attractive.

• Is there a consistent look and feel to the site and different areas within?


Areas of the EvaluationContent

Department or Division Mission is available.

Many

Some

Few None

Information should be provided for all types of current, prospective and alumni students, faculty and staff.

All 3 of 5

1 of 5

0 of 5

• Does the site cover the area of Student Affairs broadly and/or in depth supplying information to individual users?


In Conclusion

Our committee feels that by evaluating the content of the site, with the aid of the checklist, and applying these steps to the website will bring the WIC website to an equal or surpassing level of other peer institutions sites in information and personal look and feel.


Thank you,Website Review

CommitteeIndiana State University


ReferencesBarratt, W., Corn, A., Harkness, S., Reyes, R., (2003, March). Developing effective student affairs web sites. Pre-conference workshop to be presented at the American College Personnel Association Annual Conference. Minneapolis, MNBerthon, J. P., & Davies, T (1999). Going with the flow: Web sites and customer involvement. Internet Research, 9, 109-116. Birnbaum, R. (1988). How colleges work: The cybernetics of academic organization and leadership. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Glasser, W. (1995). The control theory manager. New York: Harper Collins. Mangan, K. S. (2003, February 21). Perfecting the sales pitch. The Chronicle of Higher Education [online]. Retrieved February 17, 2003, from http://chronicle.com/weekly/v49/i24/24a03001.htm Niederst, J. (2001). Web design in a nutshell. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilly and Associates, Inc.


References Parsons, A., & Hernandez, J. (2003). Creating student centered web

pages for incoming and new students. Student Affairs Online, 4 (1). Retrieved February 18, 2003, from http://www.studentaffairs.com/ejournal/Winter_2003/creatingwebpages.html

Pew Internet and American Life Project. (2002, September 15). The Internet goes to college. Retrieved February 18, 2003, from http://www.pewinternet.org/reports/pdfs/PIP_College_Report.pdf

Schlossberg, N. K., Lynch, A. Q., & Chickering, A. W. (1989). Improving Higher Education Environments for Adults. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Strange, C. C., & Banning, J. H. (2001). Education by design: Creating campus environments that work. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

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