The University at Albany has decided to entirely re-vamp its website, beginning this summer. You might not have noticed any changes at all if you've been surfing because they're making the changes gradually and in many cases the appearance of the page will be the same. In any event, I will also be changing the EAS website over to the new system (for those of you in the know about web servers, we're moving from an independent DreamWeaver based system to a "content management" system, RedDot) sometime next academic year. At least, that's what the administration has told me to expect.
What does this mean? Well, among other things, it means that I'll be revisiting the content of the department site and thinking about how it might be improved. Imput from students would be a big help--are there features you use all the time and don't want to see changed? Is there something you think could be done better? Is there anything superfluous on the page that we could get rid of?
Ultimately, I'd like the page to serve BOTH the "outside" community (prospective students, etc.) and the "inside" community (current students, faculty, staff) well. And--here's the rub--I don't want to spend every waking moment webmastering. Whatever we do should be relatively low-maintenance. The "content management" system prevents me from making any changes to the graphics (colors, fonts, layout, etc.) of a basic university web site, so there's no point in thinking about that. Really all we have control over is the actual text.
Please send me your comments, either by e-mail if you want them to remain private (fessler@albany.edu) or here on this blog.
2 comments:
Is there anyway to have a vBulletin message board? I think that would be a really cool way to enhance the feeling of community in EAS. The only problem would be that it would likely have to be moderated, and having moderated a forum for over a year now I know that it's hardly low-maintenance, and moderation would be even less so if it were publically available.
I always liked the Featured Alumni section. It's interesting and informational to see what people are doing after they leave the school. It would be nice if it could be updated more often.
I'm glad you mentioned the alumni section--especially since you're (in effect) an alumnus now. I cannot emphasize enough how much we welcome news from alumni. Really--you don't have to be doing something famous or accomplished to be on the website. Many alumni have been shy about appearing on those pages, but they shouldn't be. The whole point is to show in what different directions graduates go. So, send me a photo and a paragraph or two about what you're up to , and you'll be posted pronto!
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