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Largest community college system in Missouri
serving an area of about 700 square miles;
created by area voters in 1962
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League for Innovation institution
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Four campuses
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Three education centers
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Transfer, career and developmental programs
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Non-credit continuing education courses
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Various workforce development initiatives
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25,000 credit students each semester
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48,000 non-credit each year
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28,000 workforce development students FY2007
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90 credit programs
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57 workforce development programs
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2,000 faculty
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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”
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Issues and
problems with
current site
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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
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Site is difficult to navigate – and to find content
– 16,000 pages with no standard navigation!
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Reflects the internal organization, not the users’
needs or expectations
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Internal use content mixed in with other
content
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Pages don’t follow best practices for web
design
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Most pages don’t comply with our loosely
defined college standards
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Common to have over 2,000 broken links
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Out-of-date content
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Non-compliance with ADA requirements
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No unified appearance – brand identity is
fragmented
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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
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Meetings at each campus to introduce project
and seek cooperation and support
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2005 – Audience research conducted by
contracted firm
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Current and prospective students – focus
groups and online surveys
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Continuing Education and high school
guidance counselors – focus groups
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Key administrators and faculty influencers –
phone interviews
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Larger sample of faculty and staff – random,
online survey
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Studied site’s navigation and search capabilities
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Charted the entire site
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92 charts provided a snapshot of the site’s
technological structure, showing the:
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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
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Continually evaluate the site’s effectiveness by
reviewing traffic metrics, click paths, on site
searches, and user studies
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Use the fault-tolerant design of the existing site
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Create an agile technical environment for
future web-based functionalities
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Understand the current user experience
(qualitative research) and issues
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Determine features and functionalities desired
by users
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Reorganize and rewrite the content to fit the
needs of our target audiences
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Integrate the site into the ongoing, daily
processes of the college
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Develop an integrated, user-centric, web-based
platform for delivering student services and
informing the community at large
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Branding
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Targeting visitors and their needs
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Audiences
Critical top-level site elements
Navigation required to expose key elements
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Content
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Technical
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New firms selected through bid process for
advertising, branding, web site development,
including content
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Selection of a web content management system
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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
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Image – signal of our personal identity and
success
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Loyalty – a preference of one brand over
another
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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
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Revealed our publications, advertising and
Web site have inconsistent messages
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Tie branding with enrollment management
communications strategies
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Use the web site as the tool for prospective
student contact
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Funnel inquiries to appropriate departments,
responding
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Take action that can be tracked and follow-up
appropriately
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Hired 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:
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Pay for classes
Get parking passes
Get books
“Not have to go to the campus”
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?
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Well organized?
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Easy to navigate or find content?
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Appropriate, consistent and functional
layout, branding, presentation and graphics?
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Meets the needs of the intended audience(s)?
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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
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Must be timely, accurate and consistent
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Content management system to assure fresh,
reviewed content
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Frequently accessed content on home page
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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
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Organizes together content from multiple
sources
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Some users never search; and in many
cases search isn’t as effective as structure
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Allows users to find the content they
need in a way that makes sense to them
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Tried using an outside firm on contract
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Most effective was the work of district
community relations personnel
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Reviews and edits were done internally
– a very slow process
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Final editing and checks for AP style by
community relations
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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
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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New system – Windows Live student e-mail
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Web publishing process
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Content review and approval process
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Content deployment process
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Requests for new/additional content/subsites
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Change form
“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
Multiple usability
and beta tests
Rollout
announcements
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Focus can get redirected based upon urgency
of communications
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Underestimating timeline for content and
technical specifications development
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Working with several different agencies
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Agency reshuffle – new AE
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Deploying new WCMS in conjunction with
new site
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New positions, new employees – no blueprint
for their jobs
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New employees in a large, complex
organization
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Internal audiences – time it takes to
communicate
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Managing expectations of new site –
1,600 vs. 16,000 pages
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New brand identity – advertising, publications
New logo and graphic standards
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New website went live March 9:
http://www.stlcc.edu
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In order to have a go-live date, a “line” had to be
drawn somewhere on what content would be part
of the initial deployment
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We used the Ad Hoc Web Committee to develop basic
guidelines for what was to be included for Phase 1
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However, when you make such a decision, there are some
who may feel their content was left out, or who may
incorrectly feel that someone else had decided their
content wasn’t important enough
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“Phase 2” begins 
Corrections and updates
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WCMS contributor training
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Content that was not included in the initial deployment
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New content based on feedback and metrics analysis
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Some content needed to be delayed until we could develop
guidelines to present the information in a consistent manner
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Further reinforce “One College”
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Development of interactive, more dynamic content
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Testimonial videos (Flash based)
“Phase 3” - Student credentials and my.stlcc.edu site

Richard Schumacher
Manager, Technology Initiatives
rschumacher@stlcc.edu
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George Sackett
Web Content Supervisor
gsackett@stlcc.edu
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Presentation is available online at:
http://www.stlcc.edu/presentations/