Online Student Services

Meeting Minutes
December 7, 2006

Present:  Ann Miller, Brad Reed, Gretchen Grilliot, Chuck Steel, Becki Lawhorn and Jane Salisbury-CQI Process Leader.

Absent: David Gansz

Review of Edison home page:
Ann Miller brought a copy of the Edison home page to review the site and the current distribution of links on the web site.    The committee members were asked to review the Edison home page and to figure out which links were related to students, staff and outside visitors. 

• With the implementation of the core values page being pushed to all staff computers the links needed by staff are available on that page.

• Some discussion centered on links that were to specific course delivery areas.

NET Capstone Student Reports:
Brad Reed provided the team with two student reports regarding the usability of the current Edison web site. Students surveyed ranged from high school students to Edison students in their final year at Edison.

A few suggestions provided by the students usability tests:

• The calendar of events needs to be more prominent

• The items on the quick links list could be placed into groups/categorized

• Placement of search box at the top of the page

• Consistency in style for all pages on the web site

Current Edison Web Site:
Ann Miller prepared a list of the current sub webs on the Edison web site as well as the person that she works with to maintain the information on the site. There are currently 130 sub webs to the Edison web site.

Internet Marketing Conference: 
Ann Miller presented the following from the Aslanian Internet Marketing Conference she attended in November.

 November 2006 

• Stop talking about the product and focus on the audience

  • Student Stories –make them prominent on your web site

    • Stories not stats

    • People not programs

    • Easy to scan
       

• Think of your audience first..always

• Keep things simple

• Let people talk to one another

  • Interact

    • Information Request Form

    • Admissions Instant Messaging Project

    • Include names of staff, phone numbers and e-mail addresses

• Clear cost information

  • Include link to Financial Aid web site

• K.I.S.S. for inquiry forms

  • The longer the form, the fewer the inquiries.  Ask for what benefits the prospect, not the school

• Content first, writing second, design third

• Web readers are scan readers.  If people can’t scan your web pages, they won’t read your content

• Think subheads

  • Active words, not labels

  • Motivate or entice the reader

  • Flow directly from the headline

• Write for the person doing the search

  • Use keywords that a real person would use

  • Add content that people want to read

• Web readers scan for care words that capture the attention and engage the visitor

• Care words should be the first step in a redesign

Examples:

Words people care about	Words that don’t relate
Advance your career	Accessible faculty
Balancing work, home, and school	Experience of faculty
Career Advancement	Corporate sponsorship
Cost	Shaping Leaders
Best school possible	Class diversity
Prestigious, well-recognized degree	Format of program

 

Review of Services Available Online Results

Academic Catalog	Currently available
Schedule of Classes	Currently available
Library	Currently available
Assessment Testing	Being explored by a few groups on campus
Financial Aid	Currently available
Registration	Currently available
Academic Advising	Becki Lawhorn addressed E-advising part of ILP module, may be on hold for release 18.  Brad Reed talked about the ability of faculty to offer online office hours
Technical Support	Ann Miller to refer this to Dan Reke for input
Admissions	Available online

Career Services	Brad Reed is working on a wiki project for this with Career Development
Tutoring	David Gansz discussed this in our last meeting, available to students in the Learning Center
Bookstore	Possibly going online? Listed on the strategy map as an initiative
Rec'd Email	Student e-mail/identity project
Placement Services	Becki Lawhorn to check with career.
Student Account	Student e-mail/identity project
Student Activities	Blackboard course area
Personal Counseling	Is this something that can be handled online?
Orientation	Face-to-face orientation is being revamped; this may be the second step to that.
Student Club or Group
Disability Services

 Next steps:

Gretchen Rentz:

• Review the current online inquiry form to see if the information being collected can be scaled back a bit. 

• Work with student ambassadors and Academic All American students to get their stories in writing to be posted to the web site.  (with photos)

• Review care words as part of the focus group

Becki Lawhorn:

• Talk to career development regarding online capabilities for some of their operations

• Check with Terri Jacomet for some successful alumni to also be included in the stories area.

Brad Reed:

• Ask at the next academic senate meeting for input on stories for the web site

Ann Miller:

• Begin to work with current web site customers to make changes to the content of their particular sub webs to be more scannable and user-friendly.

Next scheduled meeting date: 
To be determined-following the January Focus Group Meeting.