Course Description:
Institutional Web sites have become the mainstay for a wide variety of information about college or university life. Student Affairs offices are no different. The Web has become an important tool for these administrative units to convey information, provide feedback, and promote itself to the campus community as well as beyond. Unfortunately, too often the construction of an office or division Web site ignores basic design principles. This prevents a browser from successfully locating pertinent information or easily navigating through the site.
This course will examine basic design tenets that student affairs professionals should incorporate into their Web pages. Through examples and online discussions the essentials of creating a user-friendly and stylistically adroit Web site will be presented.
The course will utilize online readings, exemplar Web sites, and an online discussion board, to address these five points. The book, "Web Style Guide: Basic Design Principles for Creating Web Sites," by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton's recommended as an excellent resource and will be utilized extensively in the course, as well as several instructional web sites regarding design.
Course Outline:
The course will address the following points on the creation of student affairs Web sites:
- What should be conveyed via the office or division Web site?
- What tools are available to accomplish these goals?
- What type of resources - personnel, monetary - are necessary?
- What are the basic style guidelines that should be incorporated into the Web site?
Participant Expectations:
Participants should expect to spend 3-4 hours per week on the course. This will be administered as an asynchronous class which means participants can log on whenever they wish and from whatever location they have Internet access. There will be no "real time" meetings for the course. Participation on the online discussion board is critical to your success in the class and is expected of each student.
Individuals registering for CEUs will receive 1.0 CEU upon successful
completion of the course.
Instructor Bio:
Phil Bernard received his Master's Degree in College Student Personnel Administration from Indiana University. He has worked in residence life at Marian College in Indianapolis, at Eastern Connecticut State University, and at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he also began the Residence and Campus Activities web site. He is currently the Director of Housing and Residential Life at the Wentworth Institute of Technology in Boston. Phil was also the Information Technology Chair for Region I of the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, and has been asked to be the Information Technology Knowledge Community National Chair for NASPA.
