It’s possibly alive!

Intro to Web Site Development covers everything you need to create, update and maintain a modern website.

If we can get enough students to sign up, the course will begin September 26 and run through until November 4.

It is a Continuing Studies course aimed at students with zero or beginner web development experience. The course explains HTML, CSS and after 12 classes students are able to create their own websites “by hand”. We don’t use any wysiwyg editors, no dreamweaver, just a text editor.

Check out the full course description below.

If you’re interested in taking the class, there is still time – just contact Judy Beaver (250 828 5213)

From the Continuing Studies Kamloops website:

Course Description: This course will teach the student the basic skills necessary to create and maintain web pages. Topics included in this course will include HTML, Cascading Style Sheets, and basic scripting using JavaScript and VBScript.

Course Pre-requisites: As this is a course on web design, a basic knowledge of the internet is required. Students should be very comfortable using search engines and navigating websites. Knowledge of a software suite such as Microsoft Office will make learning the tools used in the course easier.

Course Requirements: While there is no required homework in this course, it is recommended that the student spends between 5 and 10 hours each week practicing the course materials. The students will also be required to bring their own storage device for keeping all their course work on. A USB flash drive is recommended.

Course Materials: There will be no required textbooks for this course.

Shooting a video and then getting it online doesn’t take that much effort. It’s drive-thru easy with Youtube.

But making a quality video? Pro video, pro sound? It takes expertise and equipment that most of us don’t have.

So what about this?

The NYtimes published this interactive feature on the legalization of same-sex marriage. They could have intereviewed each couple, shooting video, but would it have been as effective?

The page features great portraits of each couple laid out in a grid. When you click on a photo it plays a short (about 30 seconds) audio clip of their reactions, emotions and events that day. It captures the moment and it’s easy to do.

We are going to try this out in the Newsroom, hopefully this week, so stay tuned!

NYTimes: Portraits From the New York City Marriage Bureau

Researches are delving into the world of crowd funding to raise money for their work.

Crowd Funding is the collection of small donations from a commuity interested in your project.  It’s popular for making movies and music.

For Dr. Calkins and Dr. Gee, who received their Ph.D.’s in 2001 and 2003, respectively, crowd funding is just one more way to scrape together a patchwork of funding and incremental bits of research aimed at larger goals. “I have had to be opportunistic about keeping my research going,” Dr. Gee wrote in an e-mail. “I collect data guerrilla style — when and where I can! I think my story is typical.”

The article talks about different crowd funding websites and explains how researchers are also selling merchandise related to their work to raise money.

Here is a pic of the campus activity centre from April to add colour to an other wise black and white post.

Approximately 3% of our overall web traffic.

When people ‘google’ for our site, they enter anywhere.

Mobile Traffic vs Normal Traffic

The Constantly Connected Consumer

• Home was the location where smartphones were most used (93%)

• Search was the most visited website (77%)

• Killing Time is the most common use for Smartphones (Waiting-59%, Socializing-40%, Eating-48%, Bathroom-39%, Smoke break 20%)

• Research and News(82%) is 2nd highest activity behind Staying Connected (89%)

Mobile Strategy:

#2 Objective in the Web Redesign Project Charter was:

2. Create a complimentary set of designs for our mobile website, ensure the main TRU website is mobile friendly and develop a strategy for the TRU’s online presence on mobile devices

Responsive Web Design

Respond to Device

• Desktops
• Laptops
• Netbooks
• Tablets
• Smart Phones
• Cell Phones
• Screen Readers

Respond to Location

• Kamloops
• Toronto
• Istanbul
• On Campus
• Off Campus

Summary

• We have a finite amount of resources

• Our mobile traffic is very low (3%)

• Our mobile website visitors are the same as the other 97%

• Mobile users want the same content as normal visitors

• The Web Redesign project will encompass a mobile strategy

• Our focus should be on the difficult questions

• How do we present a seamless offering of products and services?
• Why don’t we have our own registration form?
• How do we better showcase our programs better?
• Can we use Banner to search for and present program?
• Can we use banner to store program description & translations?
• Do we continue the practice of allowing departments to maintain program pages?
• Do we continue a distrubuted model of web services?

Our Product

The University of Vermont: Department of Computer Science

Links

• Smartphone user study shows mobile movement under way
• Mobile Movement: PDF
• Example: CSSGrid
• http://coding.smashingmagazine.com/2011/01/12/guidelines-for-responsive-web-design/
• http://www.alistapart.com/articles/responsive-web-design/
• Location Detection
• SunGard Higher Education’s Mobile Connection
• SunGard Higher Education Previews Extensible Mobile Framework

Here is a good post on the rules of social media. For staff here venturing out into the world of wall posts and online invitations there are inevitable questions about how to do it. Well here’s your answer. There are no rules! Just try it, and make it your own. Engage and connect with your readers and you’ll do fine, just fine.

Techdirt posts a lot of stuff that is long and technical: TLDR. It’s nice when they get to the point.

A month ago I was on vacation.

Lord Robert Duke of Centennial reports that the Monarchy is alive and well, in this office at least.

News aggregator and trend spotter Ken Steele will be visiting TRU tomorrow morning.

oh! I see a way to make money on the internet!!

Many of you start your day off (or depending on when you go to bed, end your night) by reading the Academica Top Ten.

It’s a mailing list that sends out ten news stories from academic institutions across Canada and the US, every morning. It’s free, contains no ads and doesn’t directly generate and revenue (I’m assuming you can’t buy your way on to the list!). But each morning it is an indirect advertisement for the consulting and speaking services of Mr Ken Steele and his organization.

This mailing list if a very effective model of marketing in our internet age. Techdirt describes it as “Connect with Fans and give them a Reason to Buy”.

Administrators of higher-ed love this service. It saves them time, informs them of news and trends and, most importantly, makes them feel like they’re in the know. Need more information? We also do speaking engagements.

How can you use this model in your department? What service, information or entertainment can you provide that people will want? How can you leverage your expertise into a free service and then leverage it to promote your program or department?

It’s not the hard sell, it’s the opposite. It comes from a position of confidence. You are the expert and you’re such a nice person that you will offer this to people for free. And when they want more? You do that too, if they want to pay.

Interested in learning more? I am available for short departmental meetings and lectures. Cost? You buy lunch.

A click-through presentation on one company’s list of trends.

Trends are trends, not best practices. If anything, this list can help you sound a little less clueless at those dinner parties you so look forward to.

You have great programs, why are you keeping it a secret?

Do you know how prospective students use your website?
What information are they looking for?
What questions remained unanswered?
What are you telling them that they didn’t even think about asking?

Here is a great example of how prospective students use your website.

This blog post from a design & communication company in Vancouver advises prospective students on how to choose a design school.

I’ve been asked by innumerable potential students about the merits or shortcomings of the various local design schools. It seemed time to put these thoughts down in writing once and for all, hopefully saving me some time in the future.

We offer fine arts and creative design programs here, but the points he makes are applicable to any program at any school. It could be trades, political science or computing science. Students will compare and contrast programs, just like a new phone, before deciding. The first place students will look for this information is your wesbite.

SO is your website able to answer these questions?

1. Do your homework. Determine which schools work closely with local industry and what efforts they make to get their graduates hired. Do they offer internships, co-ops, or job placement assistance? Do they invite industry advisors to engage with their program? Do they participate with local industry associations? Do they have any real evidence of their success, such as percentage of students who land positions after graduation? Considering the investment you are about to make, any school worth more attention will easily be able to answer yes to all of these questions

Considering the investment you are about to make, any school worth more attention will easily be able to answer yes to all of these questions.

4. Look at the results yourself. Perhaps the best evidence of a school’s success and suitability is to evaluate their graduates yourself.

6. Evaluate the vibe. One important aspect of choosing a design program often missed is the culture or “vibe” of the school

We’ve just launched a new campus campaign. You may see posters pinned up and images on the closed circut TV’s. Copies of the posters are in our photostream on flickr and there is a website you can hit up for a random sampling.

The purpose of the campaign is to highlight great facts about TRU that may not be as well know as they should be. We worked with the IPA department and this campaign coincides with the national student surveys currently being administered.