Faculty Web Survey Results - March 2011
College of Alameda Website Committee
ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES
SUMMARY OF RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS #3 and #4:
Easy to find information and contact info.
Visually appealing but with clean look …simplicity
Ease of editing, creating pages and managing content
Ability to Upload Files, video, images
Embed video, video streaming capabilities
Gather data and usage statistics
Clear and logical navigation
Internal search engine that includes all files on site and is not case sensitive
Complete and current info.
Organized based on student’s primary needs
Course pages by instructors
Class Calendar for faculty pages
Ability to create subpages for faculty pages and department pages
Incorporate Passport info.
Common Look and Feel
Flexible
Adequate Bandwidth
Link to Academic Calendar
Faculty and Staff Directory
Highlight campus strengths (diversity, student achievements, faculty achievements, clubs, community
connections).
Flexible permissions
Minimal pages to keep current
Accessible to those using assistive technology software (508 compliance)
College Calendar with Events
E-mail contact link on Faculty pages
Fast page loading
Compatibility with common browsers
UNIQUE NEEDS:
Password protect files or pages (mentioned 1 time)
Host online textbook
Allow faculty to design page independent of shell used
Ability to share files among faculty and staff
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SUMMARY OF RESPONSES TO QUESTION #5 AND #6, REACTIONS TO DEVELOPMENT PAGE:
Image movement is distracting
Keep it simple … think Google
Center photo takes up too much prime real estate
Font color is hard to read … too grey and low contrast
Separate directory for faculty only … but also had a seperate comment from another respondent
saying this might not be necessary
Revise menu drop downs based on feedback from counselors
Too generic … needs Alameda signature
Violenc e Prevention program should be included under political science
Remove references to Merritt
Add COA logo and COA specific images
Larger Spotlight areas
Does Library get enough hits to be on top bar
I like it or nothing to change (many comments)
Like dynamic image
Like to discuss menu tags
subpages should have breadcrumb navigation rather than using left column
A to Z index has formatting issues
Footer has formatting issues
In Directory, have name of person be link to their page rather than a column with the URL
Have place for photo on Directory page
More variety for subpages in layout and strategic use of images
Be sure all links make sense on their own for ada compliance
Make sure drop down menus are accessible for ada compliance
Program pages need enhancement to be rich and inviting
Two different blues in the header
Incorporate something interactive like where students could ask a question and the answer would
come up (Ask Cool E. the Cougar).
Under Programs, Vocational is no longer the correct term … it should be Career Technical Education
Grouping of topics doesn’t make sense
Nothing inviting to cause someone to explore the many offerings
Very little info. about campus life, learning resources and learning communities
I feel no connection to the site. It lacks emotional impact.
If it is a least as functional as current site then I will be satisfied
What about a link discussing academic integrity, plagiarism
Hierarchy of menu tabs is very logical
Check site for accessibility. All pictures need Alt tags and all links need to make sense when read on
their own.
It looks user friendly
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SURVEY RESULTS - INCLUDES QUESTIONS AND ALL COMMENTS (names and e-mails left out)
QUESTION #1: Names
QUESTION #2: Emails
QUESTION #3: Name/describe FIVE critical things that you need our new website to do, in order of
their importance to you:
1) Easy to use admin tool or wizard to create my pages; 2) Ability to password protect a file or
individual webpage. 3) Ability to easily upload/attach different kinds of files (i.e., .docs,
.pdfs, videos, etc.); 4) Ability to gather user metric data; 5) Website needs to easy to see and
use.
2) Look nice and be user friendly with clean and clear navigation for our students! 2. Easy
content management for adding, editing and controlling the look of department and personal
webpages. 3. Comprehensive yet clear search engine.
3) Ease of navigation. Completeness of information. Currency of information. Emphasis on
what the students want to know versus what we want to tell them. It needs to be engaging
and somewhat playful.
4) Allow students to get up-to-date program information 2. Let teachers post material about
their courses 3. Allow teacher's to design their own webpages, including independent of
whatever sheel used 4. Allow students to link to internal sites, such as A&R and the
bookstore 5. Include resources for instructor: calendar, book orders, Passport, etc.
5) Student access to: 1) course syllabus and an updateable calendar. 2) uploaded documents
(including old tests and exams). 3) chemistry links 4) chemistry news links 5) possibly host
a cheap online textbook.
6) better design allow faculty to view student contact information - not sure if we can do that
now. i can only get an email address and many of my students don't have internet at home
and phone is a better way to get in touch.
7) Allow for immediate update of time sensitive information. 2) Allow for ease of updating
using common word processing software so that there is a cut/paste ability 4) Allow for web
indexing capability and internal serarch engine 5) Look GOOD, new, and on the cutting
edge...not bland. Allow for common look and feel for administrative pages down to major
divisional/student service unit pages
8) Upload files (PDF, XLS, DOC, JPG, etc) Create Subpages of faculty pages HTML Editor
with ability to embed video from external open source resources (youtube)
9) Easy to load content (i.e. docs, presentation, media files) 2. Enough Bandwidth 3. Flexbile
10) 1. Link to Passport schedule. (Current link to .pdf's is not useful). 2. Link to academic
calendars. (Currently I have to go to District site.) 3. Link to department/program pages so
students can get info on courses, services, etc. 5. Faculty and staff directory. Very useful
when looking for just COA. I'm not convinced it's important to have a separate faculty
directly.
11) highlight faculty and their achievements highlight our strengths as an urban, diverse campus
differentiate the strengths of each college highlight student clubs and opportunities use art to
make the site more creative highlight community connections
12) Make it easy to get to our department Allow our department to EASILY AND SIMPLY edit
and modify our own webpage Allow our department to EASILY AND SIMPLY add
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additional pages, for example, some schools allow employers to access student resumes on
their website. In the past, we could only build on a single template. Just to give you an
example, we have a Toyota program, and it took 3 months to get permission to put a picture
of a Toyota vehicle on the website (because it wasn't in their clipart folder). moving old
website stuff to new site Depth and complexity of page arrangement (e.g. outline format)
ability to post graphics attractivenes (marketable) of site
13) -registration link easy to find -online classes link easy to find -academic calendar link easy
to find
14) Clean look, logical menus, easy to administer, flexible permissions, minimal pages to keep
current, ability to manage documents, images and video.
15) be accessible to persons with disabilities who use assistive technology provide information
in a clear way include functional search process be visually "clean" -- not a lot of extra
visual "stuff" be easy to update
16) Class Schedule College Calendar, including upcoming deadlines and events Special
Programs (learning communities, ASTI, ATLAS) Access to Library/Learning
Resources/Student Services Faculty and Staff Websites/Directory
17) Faculty webpage easier to create and more storage space for adding a questionnare, photos,
etc. 2. Students ability to send faculty an email within the instructor's webpage. 3. Links in
more detail so students can quickly search our website. 4. Ability to share files among
faculty/staff. 5. Ability to easily upload short videos on faculty webpages.
18) Organization- things have to be easy to find Being User Friendly Searches on the web page
should not be case sensitive Web page needs to be up to date
19) Ease of navigation ease of editing/updating/adding pages training interactive
20) Fast page loading, Easy access, simplicity, intuative structure, avoid over content,attractive
pages
21) Appealing to the eye Easy to access information Information sorted/classified correctly Link
to our various on-line and hybrid courses Link to campus current/upcoming events
QUESTION #4: What do you like least about College of Alameda's current website?
22) Horrible admin tool - too hard and bulky to use. 2) no password protection abilities.
23) It's a wreck! Poor search features, poor interface, difficult to control the look of fonts and
text, difficult to add and edit pages. It's a mess!!!
24) Not kept current. Incomplete. Difficulty in updating. Boring.
25) It pretty much meets my needs.
26) Works fine now, and I like that students don't have to log in. Not crucial, but an optional
login feature would enable me to legally post copyrighted lecture slides.
27) site design
28) The "Look" it is dated and lacks any real identity. Lack of consistent linkages between urls.
Poor search capability. Difficulty in updating, and not user friendly. No video streaming
capability.
29) It's hard to find what you are looking for. Many pages are empty.
30) Looks ugly Is not user friendly Lacks compatibility with common browsers'
31) Missing link to Passport schedule. Missing link to academic calendar.business as usual. not very
creative.
32) Students can't easily find contact email addresses or telephone numbers when they have
questions
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33) nothing, actually
34) Alot of wasted space on the home page. I'd rather have useful information there instead.
Maybe just keep one photo.
35) Strange bugs and editing issues when using certain browsers. Navigation requires too many
clicks to drill down to find info.
36) ugly, clunky
37) "static"
38) I would like to be able to move easier and quicker throughout our website. The front page
needs to look more professional in content and maybe add an interactive video and photos
that scroll.
39) Its organization, things are hard to find and lots of pages aren't current.
40) lack of training difficulty in editing/updating/adding pages hierarchy of resources clunky,
hard to find
41) See last comments. These are lacking in our site.
42) Very busy Lack color
QUESTION #5: We would like you to take a minutes to review a rough draft of a possible front page for our
new website at http://new.alamedaweb.org. To do this, please open up ANOTHER browser window and copy
and paste the address ( http://new.alamedaweb.org ) into the address bar. After spending a few minutes
looking over this page, come back to this browser window and list below the THREE things that you would
change about this draft site. If you would change nothing, just say nothing.
43) I am very distracted by the text box that flashes in the middle of the photos on the homepage.
2) I think the text is too grey and low contrast - it should be black, not grey, for maximum
readability. 3) I think there should be a separate directory of faculty since most users will be
looking for faculty websites, not the websites of staff or admins.
44) The Counseling faculty reviewed the site at our last meeting and gave feedback regarding the
groupings of the headings and navigation of the site.
45) Looks too generic. Needs to have an Alameda signature. It needs soul.
46) Nothing
47) Keep it simple : Think Google. 2) Instead of an advertisment, make it an efficient navigation
hub. 3) Leave out the animation and latin quotes.
48) the program i am the lead instructor in, is not present on the website. we are housed in
political science. it's the violence prevention strategies certificate.
49) I liked it, except for the center section that says MERRITT college....I's like to discuss the
menu tag lines too, but overall it looks a lot better. YEA!!!
50) COA logo graphic at the top and images in the moving images on the front page. Navigation
and look and feel is very nice.
51) I like it!
52) Center photo takes up too much prime space. Not sure if library will get enough hits to
warrant placement on top bar. But kudos to library folks, Jane!
53) too much
54) See $4 above. There is so much pizzaz on there that someone who is interested in, say, "what
does your Auto program offer that is special?" gets confused by all the bells and whistles.
Ever noticed that GOOGLE is the simplest damn page on the web and gets the most hits ???
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If I were you, I'd keep it SIMPLE and EASY TO NAVIGATE. Cater to a web "dummy," not
a silicon valley hotshot.
55) nothing- like dynamic graphic.
56) Ooo - lovely. So much better! Nothing to change.
57) Changing image is distracting. On next level down of pages, the left side navigation should
be moved to a breadcrumb style and only include current page and higher up levels (not all
menus on drop down). A to Z directory needs formatting fixed. All docs and files should be
searchable. Fix footer formatting to line up better. Improve directory to have the person's
name be a link to their webpage (rather than listing the URL for the page in the far right
column) and include space for a photo. More variety of layouts for subpages. More areas for
images on subpages.
58) can't easily navigate from passport link back to COA
59) Be sure all links make sense on their own. Replace "More" with "More information about
upcoming events" (for example) Check to make sure mouse rollover menus are accessible
Eliminate the feature that changes the main picture. It's distracting. Makes me seasick.
60) I like the photos of students engaged; perhaps there can be a range of activities (to present dif
programs we have and to avoid scenic photos). I also looked through the drop down menu of
the various categories. I am most unclear about the program. Check out BCC's links to the
various departments, for example. Those pages are rich and inviting. Thanks for all your
hard work!!
61) I actually like the front page; however, our color is royal blue and there are different shades
of blue used. I think it would be nice to have something interactive (using our mascot the
cougar) where students/parents can ask a question and the answer would come up. (For
example: Ask Cool E. the Cougar)
62) The pictures should be more CoA specific. The quotes aren't in English,are we trying to have
quotes in many languages ? Include a link to the Academic calendar on the home page.
63) maybe smaller looping picture and larger "spotlight area; library link first to homepage, then
other resources
64) Merritt is spotlighted on the home page. I don't like that. Under programs, it is shown as"
Vocational." This is not correct. It should say, "Career Technical Education." CTE is
approved Federal and State jargon. Vocational is no longer recognized.
65) Love the blue/organe color; however it lacks a backgroun image, grouping of topics does not
make sense, the website has nothing inviting to cause someone to explore the many offerings
at COA, and very little image/information regarding campus life, learning resources, and
learning communities.
QUESTION #6: Any other comments?
66) I think Jane McKenna should be named "President for Life" of the COA Web Committee
(;p)
67) Thanks for your work. I manage the EOPS site as well as my own site for my class. I am
happy to help and give feedback in any way I can.
68) I feel no connection to the website. It lacks emotional impact.
69) Cool!
70) If the new website is at least as functional as the current website, I will be satisfied.
71) When can we get it UP and running? It has much potential... Thanks!!
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72) What about a link discussing academic integrity? Plagiarism? Favorite student quote:
"Copying from an encyclopedia is not plagiarism because it's public knowledge." Friending
on Facebook?
73) Thanks for your work!
74) sorry i cannot spend more time.
75) -I like having the address and phone number at the bottom of each page, as it is now. -I
noticed on the new site that the area code is on a separate line from the rest of the number.
76) Thanks to the committee for volunteering to work on this big project. I think the hierarchy of
the menu tabs if very logical.
77) Please be sure to have sites checked for accessibility. All pictures need Alt Tags. All links
need to make sense when read on their own.
78) Thank you for upgrading our website.
79) It looks user friendly.
80) Very good beginning
81) Overall it is a very nice looking and much improved site. Great job Web Committee.
82) Incorporate the new COA logo as a background image Incorporate pictures of our smart
classrooms, etc...
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