Post on 23-Dec-2015
Helping prospective graduate students find information about
MSU
Jim Green
Academic Computing and Network Services
Chair, MSU Web Team
Christina Tower
University Relations
July 19, 2006
This meeting’s purpose
Review the current situation and recent developments
Gather information from stakeholders and interested parties
Begin a dialog process toward determining the best course of action
Decide on the next steps
MSU Web Team
MSU Web Team Joint UR/LC&T team oversees www.msu.edu
content, design, and infrastructurewith direction from upper management
advises and assists departments with their web initiatives facilitate web design that will fit in with official MSU
web sites
Background
2003 www.msu.edu redesign project: “graduate portal” as a follow-on project “prospective students” is top target audience information architecture – findability – is the top design
priority 2006 www.msu.edu redesign 2006 admissions.msu.edu redesign 2006-2007 search.msu.edu redesign May 15 meeting with Janet and Les
Basic tasks
find program information degrees majors/minors fields/areas of study interdisciplinary programs
apply online special program/dept. procedures
find research and teaching opportunites assistantships
learn about and apply for financial aid find information about the MSU and EL communities
Current situation
multiple “front doors” -- institutional grad.msu.edu (Graduate School) admissions.msu.edu/beaspartan.com (Admissions) www.vprgs.msu.edu (VP for Research and Graduate Studies) www.msu.edu/future/index.html (MSU’s main web site) http://csp.msu.edu/pages/explore/grdintro.cfm (Career Services &
Placement) and at the college level
www.ns.msu.edu/pstudents/index.php (College of Nat. Sci.) http://www.cal.msu.edu/portals/ProspectiveStudents.htm (Arts & Letters) http://cas.msu.edu/prospectivestudents.php (CAS) http://web4.canr.msu.edu/canrhome/display_page.asp?
topic=Graduate&theme=Prospective%20Students&pagename=Department%20Links (College of Ag.)
Case Study – program information
Multiple lists of programs/majors Registrar Academic Programs and Descriptions
of Courses Admissions – majors list MSU web site academic programs list Graduate School colleges and programs list
Potential issues
Decentralization presents problems for users Information overlaps and gaps Programs, degrees, majors, minors, fields of study Multiple places to look for information Never sure you’ve seen all that’s available Lack of uniformity in how information is arranged Need to search/browse across all sources of info
searchers vs. browsers PDF format is a barrier
Examples from other institutions
Cornell no keyword search, but drop-down combined with
tabbed info display are fairly effective Minnesota
A to Z majors – searchable multiple lists and catalogs
Ohio State Separate programs and fields of study lists
Programs – searchable; Fields of Study is A to Z only
Possible courses of action
Do nothing Minor adjustments to existing resources Further investigation
meetings, brainstorming focus groups, usability studies
Smaller, targeted projects programs/fields database/search “Be a Spartan” for grads? …
Larger graduate resources web design project where would this fit?
Further information
Jim Green, Coordinator, Academic Systems Academic Computing and Network Svcs. jfgreen@msu.edu 432-7239
PowerPoint and handout:http://www.msu.edu/~jfgreen/presentations