HighEdWeb becomes Digital Collegium on Nov. 1. Discover the new brand
Link: The Journal of Higher Education Web Professionals
Susie Kirk and Lacy Wolfe from Henderson State University‘s Huie Library explore the reasons academic libraries need social media in their talk at HighEdWeb 2016. With thousands of hidden gems and resources in libraries its hard for visitors to know what exists at all. To raise people’s awareness of materials and services, social media is a valuable tool to […]
“Words are fun. Words are your friends.” is what Donna Talarico states in her highly entertaining talk at HighEdWeb 2016. Writing content for the web is all about telling a compelling story. Knowing what makes a good story, and what makes a story good is as essential as knowing the audience: who we are writing for, […]
“Findability is the biggest content problem in higher ed.” That’s how content strategist Rick Allen opened his session Beyond SEO: Writing Findable Content. He also debunked the myth that “SEO is dead,” a notion that’s becoming quite ubiquitous in online marketing. A notion that’s just not true. Allen explained that he sees some of his […]
Have you tried the new app, Snapchat yet? Record scratch. Wait a minute. Hold your horses. Lori Packer reminded us that Snapchat is anything BUT new. Released in 2011, this app joined the world the same year as Pinterest, Google+ and Siri. “It’s not as new as we think it is,” said Packer, adding that […]
Twitter chats – or planned conversations linked together through a common hashtag – can be valuable tools for brands and organizations, higher education included. Dave Tyler, of The College at Brockport shared his experiences engaging with his institution’s community this way in his presentation, “Is This Hashtag Really Necessary: Taking the Plunge into Twitter Chats.” […]
Conversations: All. Over. The. Place. Sound familiar? You’re not alone. In 2014, Lacy Paschal found her team of 12 at Vanderbilt University buried in email. To defeat this monster, her office implemented a new tool and process. Overwhelmed turned to organized. Scattered turned to streamlined. At this year’s High Ed Web, Paschal revived and updated […]
When Aaron Baker arrived at Harvard last year, to begin work on web analytics, he had…Google Analytics, and its data. But that wasn’t really enough to do the kind of reporting that their office needed. While they had data, Aaron really needed to be able to tell stories. Before you can turn data into stories, […]
“I believe that literacy is the birthright of every single human being, no exceptions.”
Nikki Massaro Kauffman loved Mary Poppins growing up, partially for the way Mary turns work into a game. Now she argues that we need more gamification in our schools to help promote learning for all students. In her red stapler winning talk at #heweb16, Massaro Kauffman, a Multimedia Specialist and Interaction Designer at Penn State, discussed the ways […]
This Red Stapler winner for best in the UAD track by Justin Gatewood of Victor Valley College offers a simplified approach to the complicated — but very necessary — topic of accessibility for the web. In “S.I.F.T. Through Your Content for Accessibility,” Gatewood noted the acronym stands for Structure, Images, Forms and Tables. Being in Memphis, he noted […]
Some folks just seem better at coming up with creative ideas than others. If you find that you’re one of the folks who struggles with idea generation and creative problem solving, don’t despair. Matt has provided a full tacklebox of strategies to help. Most good brainstorming sessions follow six basic rules: Start by reviewing the […]
Even with a small web team, user experience should and could be a big part of what you do, explained Jason Kammerdiener, Lead Information and Digital Architect, Colgate University, in his “We Can All ‘Do’ User Experience” session. All universities have forms for prospective student inquiries, college visit appointments, and collecting gift online. “It’s a […]
Podcasts. Feature films. Applications that streamline answers to student questions and make posting calendar events a cinch. An hour wasn’t nearly long enough to hit up all the great poster presentations at HigherEdWeb 2016 – but here’s a quick tour through several of them: The UNH Publishing Platform – Cynthia Cargill and Jennifer Dykens, University […]
For years, you’ve probably been beating the drum of the wise web professional — separate your HTML from your CSS from your JavaScript. Well, you don’t have to forget those best practices, but Web Components is going to take you down a path that might make you rethink those rules. Imagine you have a content […]
Best of “It’s not paranoid if they’re actually out to get you. And they are out to get you.” In his fast-paced and engaging #DPA8 session, “Access Denied: Keeping Yourself off an Attacker’s Radar,” Paul Gilzow from the University of Missouri shared universal concepts and WordPress-specific examples for preventing exploits of your site and infrastructure […]
Have you ever wanted to pull data out of your LDAP system and use it in your WordPress site? How about pulling data from WordPress to use in another system or in a mobile app? Or using structured data from a non-WordPress source in your CMS? The REST JSON API may help you to do […]
What happens when you take Stanford’s School of Humanities and try to centralize the school’s web resources and support across a nursery school, an archaeology collection, a slang dictionary, a collection of 10th century manuscripts, and a variety of academic departments, interdisciplinary programs, and research projects? Dustin Liang, Web and Operations Manager, Stanford University, and […]
Where does accessibility live on your campus? If Rob Carr had it his way, accessibility would touch every end of campus. His presentation gave a high-level overview of this notion—and he touched upon how roles and processes can be tweaked to account for accessibility. Accessibility shouldn’t be relegated to one team, and especially not to […]
Adam Gould is a Web Technologist at Jamestown Community College who presented today on social media-driven digital signage/billboards. Adam created digital signage that was able to be displayed and customized on all of Jamestown Community College’s four campuses as well as the different departments within these campuses. This allows the system to run on one […]
Can you explain what you do for a living—and how you contribute to your campus community—succinctly? If folks have a hard time understanding your job or your team’s role, you might be not be getting the credit you deserve. That was the idea behind Explain Your Work! 5 Public Speaking Tips You Can Use Now. […]
There are zombies walking among our websites, said SUNY Oswego Director of Digital Communications/Associate Director of Communications and Marketing Tim Nekritz. So to best tackle those zombies, and implement web governance in what can be seen as a post-apocalyptic, lawless space, Nekritz turned to lessons from AMC’s smash hit show “The Walking Dead.” That zombie content can […]
How can you make an app based on your communication strategy? Should you? Dan Kim and Jennifer Judge Hensel from the University of Michigan College of Engineering promise to help us think it through in AIM10. The One Cool Thing app launched in Fall 2014, has been downloaded by 13,00 people on 6 continents, gets […]
Corie Martin from Western Kentucky shared her study on what mattered to the students in her incoming class in their social communities. She found that surprisingly, academics, finances, and outcomes DON’T MATTER to her students. So she set out find out what DOES matter to them. Come join me in #TIE9 to learn about what […]
Although Doug Tschopp from Augustana College presented on this topic at Higher Ed Web 2015, the 2016 material has changed based on new discoveries. What do we call them? Gen Z? iGeneration? Rainbow Generation? Really, researchers have not come to a consensus on a name yet. Doug promises to investigate generational theory, and perhaps even define it […]
Personalization has acquired a bit of reputation as being too intrusive, too fake, and well, a little creepy. But Tuesday at #heweb16 Oho Interactive’s Georgy Cohen and Jim Dalglish argued that there are ways to do personalization that yield great results without crossing the line into creepiness. Amazon.com is likely the king of these types of […]