CoA Website CommitteeApril 1, 2011

Agenda I. Approve Agenda and MinutesII. Chair’s Report – Jane McKenna

a. Update on Hiring DeveloperIV. Feedback from Counselors on Menu Hierarchy - Sheila LauV. Faculty Survey Results – Jane McKennaVI. Review/Prioritize Needs for New

SiteVII. Identify Next Steps

President’s ReportWaiting to hear back from Pres. about final

budget and long term staffing plan for web.I’m in communication with Merritt, we

should have a copy of the most recent version of the site next week.

Sent a request to Staff Development asking to include a workshop in the Summer Tech Institute on “How to Create/Edit Your Campus Webpages Using the New COA Website (based in Drupal) – presented by the COA Website Committee.

Hiring a Drupal Designer/DeveloperGoing into negotiations and a contract, we

need a clear idea of priorities (more details the better)because based on our funds we will not be able to get everything …especially not migration. (surveys, analyze Merritt’s site)

The Chair has had initial conversations with several developers. In order to get price quotes, we need to provide them with a more detailed wish list/scope of project.

Need three quotes. Final choice will fall to the interview sub-

committee members of Jane McKenna, Bala Sampathraj and Kelly Pernell.

Summary of advice from Drupal developers and colleges using Drupal:

Figure out site architecture early on … important with setting up more in-depth permissions. Can also be political (hot topic)

We probably can’t afford to move to version 7 and might not be good idea with no Drupal expertise in-house.

Build up expertise in-house If you can afford it, get LDAP integration (connects to District

database for profile directory info. and usernames/passwords). Avoid having developer create custom modules for you … only use

contributed modules that are used by large groups and were developed by BIG players (core contributors) for Drupal.

For Admin - make sure to have a sandbox to play around with … even after launch.

For Admin - document everything you do because some things are done so rarely it is easy to forget.

Definitely a learning curve but all of them say it is a better overall system than Wordpress.

Focus on functionality for cost effectiveness (requires higher level of expertise)

Vision Statement

Recognizing that our wish list will exceed our budget, we might want to develop a statement that reflects how we will prioritize our needs. For example:

The goal of the website committee is to develop a COA website that is user- friendly (easy to administer, edit, and navigate), secure, well organized, and visually appealing.

Vision In general, what we need in a new site is:Clean look with info. architecture that has

minimal number of pages requiring updatesEasy to use and maintain. As little

administration necessary as possible.Compartmentalized permissions for

different groups and page based permissions

Easy management and utilization of images, files, documents, media

A variety of layout choices for users Inexpensive and low maintenance

Faculty Survey ResultsA link to an online survey with questions

about the COA website was sent out to the COA-FAS distribution list.

23 surveys were completed. Results have been compiled. See Handout

called Faculty Web Survey Results – March 2011 (avail. on Web Comm. Website under documents)

Mark and Jane recommend surveying students later in the process when we have a more finished product and can ask more specific questions.

Identify Wish List in Priority OrderShow copy of Merritt site and discuss

priority list that I compiled based on: feedback from my Drupal contacts, documentation on Drupal.org, review of about 100 education sites using Drupal, Drupal video courses on Lydia.com, discussion with Alexis at Merritt, discussions with District IT, and review of the Admin side of Merritt’s new Drupal site.

Draft List of Priorities – Part I hierarchical and group/node based permissions. For

example, the Library would only have access to update, edit and create library pages not all pages on the site.

LDAP integration to communicate with our District database for username/passwords, authentication and directory listings.

File management enhancement – allows users to easily upload and link to files on their pages. File organization – ability to manage folders of files such as Committee sites having minutes and agendas available or faculty having syllabi and instructional handouts available.

Improved Image/media management – options when inserting photos … including optimization

Draft List of Priorities – Part II Customized content types for different types of webpages

….for example library main page, list of databases page, subject guides. Department pages, faculty/staff pages, course level pages. A few options of layouts for general pages that users can choose from … I guess this would also fall into category of custom content types.◦ Modify layout of pages so left column does not have all menu

navigation items listed. (this is probably part of department level (content type) page customization)

◦ Modify right hand column to not include catalog but instead have image, text box, or quick links … options is the key to the layout.

Breadcrumbs for navigation Improve faculty/staff directory to show photos when available

and have link to webpage be an icon rather than full url of page.

Tinkering with colors and main title to slightly differentiate it from our sister colleges site. Clean up main page for example, get footer columns to line up cleanly

Draft List of Priorities – Part III Fix A to Z index Include Captcha for forms Blogs? Training guides for most commonly needed tasks for

beginning user as well as for Admin maintenance tasks such as giving users access to certain pages, etc.

Assurance that it is 508 compliant (works with software for visually impaired and other disability software)

Provide troubleshooting and bug fixes for certain period time after main body of work completed.

Work with COA to identify good hosting fit. All pages and files indexed and searchable …including

documents Clear documentation that assists Admins in basic Admin

tasks and editors in common editing tasks. Take it to live environment.