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Largest community college system in Missouri
serving an area of about 700 square miles;
created by area voters in 1962
League for Innovation institution
Four campuses
Three education centers
Transfer, career and developmental programs
Non-credit continuing education courses
Various workforce development initiatives
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25,000 credit students each semester
48,000 non-credit each year
28,000 workforce development students FY2007
90 credit programs
57 workforce development programs
2,000 faculty
4,000 employees
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Public Website
Users Website
(faculty, student organizations, classes, and staff)
Intranet (three sites: key resources menu, static
content pages, and a SPS2001 document center)
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“One College”
Issues and
problems with
current site
Developing a new
brand identity for
the institution
… but several identities
on the web site
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Contains hundreds of mini-sites that don’t
connect to each other or the site as a whole
Site is difficult to navigate – and to find content
– 16,000 pages with no standard navigation!
Reflects the internal organization, not the users’
needs or expectations
Internal use content mixed in with other
content
Pages don’t follow best practices for web
design
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Most pages don’t comply with our loosely
defined college standards
Common to have 2,000 broken links
Out-of-date content
Non-compliance with ADA requirements
No unified appearance – brand identity is
fragmented
No workflow, review or style editing process
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Taking content from the existing 16,000 pages
to distill the items of need to audiences
Taking multiple subsites (i.e., programs and
departments) and integrating them together
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Vendor – marketing communications firm
Meetings at each campus to introduce project
and seek cooperation and support
2005 – Audience research conducted by
contracted firm
Current and prospective students – focus
groups and online surveys
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Continuing Education and high school
guidance counselors – focus groups
Key administrators and faculty influencers –
phone interviews
Larger sample of faculty and staff – random,
online survey
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Studied site’s navigation and search capabilities
Charted the entire site
92 charts provided a snapshot of the site’s
technological structure, showing the:
Types of pages (html, asp, etc.)
 Graphics used (jpg, gif, swf, etc.)
 Links (html, CSS, mailto, scripted)
 Server side (SSI) and client scripting
 Other document types (pdf, doc, xls, ppt, etc.)
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One-on-one interviews with:
Senior administrators
 Technology executives
 Student services staff
 Web coordinators
 and others
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These employees were directly related to the
web site’s operation, administration, updates
and/or maintenance
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Rebrand the site to project STLCC as one
college
Build a site that allows visitors to select a path
based on personal needs
Create a new web content delivery system:
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Easy to update
Reinforces web standards
Provides a consistent user experience
Flexible to respond to changing needs
Embeds review, tracking and accountability
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Acquire and deploy technology that expedites
and streamlines the ongoing content
development and maintenance of the site
Continually evaluate the site’s effectiveness by
reviewing traffic metrics, click paths, on site
searches, and user studies
Use the fault-tolerant design of the existing site
Create an agile technical environment for
future web-based functionalities
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Understand the current user experience
(qualitative research) and issues
Determine features and functionalities desired
by users
Reorganize and rewrite the content to fit the
needs of our target audiences
Integrate the site into the ongoing, daily
processes of the college
Develop an integrated, user-centric, web-based
platform for delivering student services and
informing the community at large
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Branding
Targeting visitors and their needs
Audiences
 Critical top-level site elements
 Navigation required to expose key elements
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Content
Technical
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New firms selected through bid process for
advertising, branding, web site development,
including content
Selection of a web content management system
Creation of Web Advisory Committee –
cross-functional and campus representation
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Branding – research-rich process to uncover
who we are internally and externally
Image – signal of our personal identity and
success
Loyalty – a preference of one brand over
another
Equity – assets linked to our brand name that
add to or subtract from our value
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Revealed our blurred image – image
fragmentation
Revealed our publications, advertising and
Web site have inconsistent messages
Tie branding with enrollment management
communications strategies
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Use the web site as the tool for prospective
student contact
Funnel inquiries to appropriate departments,
responding
Take action that can be tracked and follow-up
appropriately
Process of hiring director of enrollment
management
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84.7% - Registration
82.4% - Student Resources
81.8% - Class Schedules
77.9% - Blackboard
60.3% - College Catalog
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29.9% - can’t find what they are looking for
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Ervin Marketing Report, May 2006
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Registration
Hub for student news and communications
Access to all programs and classes
Class availability, times/room numbers,
changes, grades
Do everything online:
Pay for classes
 Get parking passes
 Get books
 “Not have to go to the campus”
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Ervin Marketing Report, May 2006
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73% - accurate and timely information
70% - easy registration process
66% - ease of navigation
61% - descriptions of programs
55% - easy payment
Ervin Marketing Report, May 2006
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Comprehensive and up-to-date?
Well organized?
Easy to navigate or find content?
Appropriate, consistent and functional
layout, branding, presentation and graphics?
Meets the needs of the intended audience(s)?
Does it “deliver the goods”?
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Role of the Ad Hoc Web Advisory Committee –
taxonomy (navigation structure, organization)
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Navigation and organization of content must
be intuitive
Must be timely, accurate and consistent
Content management system to assure fresh,
reviewed content
Frequently accessed content on home page
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New and current student
resources
Program information
Admissions and
Registration
Workforce Development
Continuing Education
Distance Learning
Foundation & Alumni
Library
Search
Authenticated portal link
Learning management
system link
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About STLCC
Employee directory
Campuses and Centers
Maps
Calendars
Job opportunities
Newsroom
Contact information
Legal disclaimers and
statements
Access and disability
information
Diversity at STLCC
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Provides structure to unstructured
content
Organizes together content from multiple
sources
Some users never search; and in many
cases search isn’t as effective as structure
Allows users to find the content they
need in a way that makes sense to them
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Firm on contract
District community relations personnel
Reviews and edits internally – slow process
Firm on contract does final editing and checks
for AP style
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Community Relations
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Web Content Supervisor
Web Graphic Designer
Technology Support
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Web Manager
Web Programmer
www.stlcc.edu
•Anonymous access
•Official College content
•Marketing focus
•Unified navigation and
appearance
•Workflow based
publishing and content
approval process using
Serena Collage WCMS
•Google mini search
users.stlcc.edu
•Anonymous access
•Faculty, staff, class,
group/organization, and
student content
•Navigation limited to list
of available “users” sites
•Unmanaged publishing
(although WCMS and
suggested templates, or
RSS feed from MOSS
mysite, will be available)
•Google mini search
my.stlcc.edu
•Authenticated access
•Self-service password
reset
•Entry point into Banner,
Blackboard, and other
systems and content
requiring authentication
•Navigation is
personalized to the user,
standardized appearance
•Publishing workflow
varies depending on
location within the site
•MOSS 2007 search
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Automate consistency and standards through
templates and required elements
Allow authorized users to easily add or update
content “anytime anywhere” through a browser
Rich text editing eliminates the need for HTML or
web editor (i.e. Dreamweaver) experience
Manage workflows with the combination of task
management (assign, track and categorize), version
control, permissions and a review/approval system
Roll pages back to a previous version as needed
Schedule content replacement or removal
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WCMS based
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Workflow-driven updates
Special emergency/urgent content
Deploys from WCMS
Content not in WCMS
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Needs to leverage template components and
standard font/color CSS (via SSI)
Web applications (mostly asp/aspx)
CORS
Deployed by replication using ViceVersa Pro
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Cisco load-balanced switch
Two front-end web servers running multiple
websites in DMZ
WCMS server and database server
Server for content not managed by WCMS
Users site remains separate
Intranet will be replaced by MOSS 2007 site
– a new portal for all things authenticated
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SungardHE Banner (ERP) Self-Service
BlackBoard LMS
Home-grown applications
Course Schedule
 Schedule of Late-Starting Courses
 Employee Directory
 Continuing Education Registration
 Student Application
 Sexual Harassment, FERPA, and Diversity Tutorials
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Web publishing process
Content review and approval process
Content deployment process
Requests for new/additional content/subsites
“Tight governance can
stifle a site, preventing
constituents from evolving
it to fit their needs”
“Loose governance can
result in a site flooded with
broken or inappropriate
content and functionality”
Zach Wall, ppc.com
Ownership and areas of responsibility
Modifications to the core navigation
Subsite additions / modifications
Site-wide standards
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“Look and feel”
Style
Taxonomy
Metadata
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Document types
Navigation
Coding
Security
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Web Advisory
Committee
Intranet Website
Discussion with
college leaders
Discussions with
faculty and staff
Usability testing
Rollout
announcements
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Focus can get redirected based upon urgency
of communications
Underestimating timeline for content and
technical specifications development
Working with several different agencies
Agency reshuffle – new AE
Deploying new WCMS in conjunction with
new site
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New positions, new employees – no blueprint
for their jobs
New employees in a large, complex
organization
Internal audiences – time it takes to
communicate
Managing expectations of new site –
1,500 vs. 16,000 pages
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New brand identity – advertising, publications
New logo and graphic standards
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New website is in testing at:
http://test.stlcc.edu
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“Go Live” date for the new site is January 2
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“Phase 2” begins
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Overlooked content
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New content based on targeted audience feedback
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Development of interactive, more dynamic content
Student credentials and my.stlcc.edu site
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Patricia Crowe
Director of Communications
pcrowe@stlcc.edu
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Richard Schumacher
Manager, Technology Initiatives
rschumacher@stlcc.edu
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Presentation will be available online at:
http://www.stlcc.edu/presentations/