Wheaton Web Goals
Status Report as of January 8, 2008
- Use the web to present Wheaton effectively to external audiences. In particular, tell Wheaton's stories to prospective students (and their parents), prospective donors, prospective faculty members, and others who have an interest in what the college is doing.
- Tell more Wheaton stories and show more Wheaton pictures
During the fall of 2006 we introduced a new look that puts stories and images at the center of many pages. This process is now almost complete, with all areas of the web site converted. Meanwhile, the long term plan calls for a full graphic redesign of the site during the coming year. - Engage members of the community to find the juicy stuff that needs to be on the web and see that it gets there
We've started work on new ways to feature people, events, and activities that make Wheaton Wheaton. - Make everything easier to find
In December, a new web site search page arrived. Now you can search web pages and the student faculty directories all at once. The new search page still behaves just like Google (because it is Google!) and as it is used it learns Wheaton's language so it can return more relevant results. In addition to improving search, we have been working with departments to simplify and organize the menus, crumbs and other navigation on their sites.
- Tell more Wheaton stories and show more Wheaton pictures
- Use the web to support our students, faculty, and staff in their learning, teaching and work. In particular, bring together all of the disconnected web-based tools, technologies, and electronic resources the college has acquired over the years into one coherent working environment. Maximize the benefit the college gets from its investment in these resources.
- Make content and tools easily accessible by providing single sign-on access to email, course schedules, class lists, time sheets, course materials, benefits information, term bills, financial aid and more--everything that is currently available through any College web-based service--plus the general information available on the College's website
We are just beginning the final testing for insideWheaton, a web environment for the Wheaton community. Once you've logged in to insideWheaton you'll have immediate access to all of the web-based services at the college, including web mail, calendaring and WINDOW. Watch for further announcements early in the spring of 2008. And, over the next several months, we will be gathering community input about additional services that would be most useful. - Build and support Wheaton's community by using technology in new ways to organize and communicate
The finance staff has been building web sites for several trustee committees to share information between meetings, and a new site for the full Board of Trustees is coming in May. We're actively recruiting other campus groups that would like to use this technology.
- Make content and tools easily accessible by providing single sign-on access to email, course schedules, class lists, time sheets, course materials, benefits information, term bills, financial aid and more--everything that is currently available through any College web-based service--plus the general information available on the College's website
- Use the web to build a stronger community, one that has clear internal communication and a common shared base of information, news, and events. Support and enhance the communication efforts of groups, organizations, and committees.
- Provide a customizable destination for campus community members to receive information and services tailored to them including teaching and learning, productivity and business applications, and news and event information
Remember insideWheaton? (above) insideWheaton is the "customizable destination" that we've been building for the past year. Coming soon to a web browser near you. - Assist College offices and departments, and student government, in communicating with their respective constituencies
One part of insideWheaton will include new ways to send customized messages to student classes, faculty, staff and special interest groups. - Provide tools for clubs, organizations, committees and other groups.
We also expect insideWheaton to provide web space for groups to share news, calendars and documents.
- Provide a customizable destination for campus community members to receive information and services tailored to them including teaching and learning, productivity and business applications, and news and event information
- Make Wheaton's web site and services sustainable.
- Replace old equipment and build a plan for regular renewal
In March 2007, the web site moved to a new server in an off-campus data center to provide increased capacity, improved speed and 24/7 reliability. It has since be upgraded further. In January 2008, after five years of continuous service, the staging server that is used for editing web pages and storing images will be replaced, greatly increasing its speed. - Move from homegrown software to vendor-supported software for key services
The creation of insideWheaton is one giant step in this direction, moving many key services to a vendor-supported platform. - Provide training and tools for web content authors throughout the college
We continue to offer training using our current web editor for people who are creating and maintaining college web pages. In January 2008 we will be introducing several major enhancements to the web editor, including what-you-see-is-what-you-get editing of page text and simplified uploading of images and PDF files. Please contact us if you need training.
- Replace old equipment and build a plan for regular renewal