Planning and developing a website for online student support is a critical requirement for ensuring student success and retention. The website facilitates student access to support services that are necessary for them to be successful in college, and it affords students comparable access to the same support services available to students on campus. A student services website ensures compliance with regulatory requirements of online programs.  This chapter will 1) explore procedures necessary for planning and developing a website; 2) explore the technology considerations and infrastructure needed to ensure website success in the delivery of online student services; and, 3) identify the personnel needed to plan and develop a successful website for online student services. It is difficult to prioritize the importance of procedures, technology, or people as all of the outlined steps are interdependent for understanding the framework of successful website planning.

The first model used will be of a large institution--- San Antonio College (SAC). SAC is the largest single campus community college in Texas. It generates 24,000 credit students each semester. San Antonio College Online is part of San Antonio College, providing a comprehensive online degree program that began in 1996. The program offers over 230 online courses, 17 video courses, blended courses, and interactive video conferencing courses; it generates approximately 19,000 annual enrollments. The SAC Online Model will be used as one possible model that can be replicated in large, medium or small institutions by varying the methodologies to accomplish the same goal---successful website planning for student success and retention. Prairie View University, the University of Puerto Rico, San Jacinto College and numerous other community colleges have adopted some of the program features of SAC Online. Institutions inevitably will adjust the model based on the resources available, varying expertise and personnel capacities, and other factors.
 

Procedures to Website Planning and Development

Procedures can be defined as the process used to coordinate the effort of website planning and development.  To attain successful website development, one needs to examine the larger framework of program success and recognition within the institution. There should be a connection between the Distance Education Program and the mission of the institution. For example, San Antonio College Online is embedded in the college mission because it expands access to higher education. (San Antonio College’s Mission Statement: San Antonio will provide responsive education through excellence, accessibility and diversity...). All of the goals of the SAC Online Program are connected and supported by the college mission. This is a critical beginning point to justify budgetary needs and technology infrastructure to accomplish the program’s goals. Another requirement for program success that leads to successful website planning and development is the organizational structure. There needs to be a leader tasked to accomplish the program goals. In some institutions, it is a Distance Learning Coordinator, Director, or Dean. This individual needs to have a vision to move the program forward, and the vision needs to be recognized and supported by the organization.

For practical purposes, we will assume that such a leader is in place at the institution to enable successful website planning and development. One approach is to form a committee representative of the areas that you want to develop in the website. For example, it is recommended that the Development Committee include a webmaster, a librarian, a counselor, a tutor, an admissions staff person, a technical Help Desk representative, several online students, an American Disabilities Act (ADA) representative, an assessment staff member, and staff from financial aid, marketing/public relations, online faculty, department chairs, and any other college unit that you want to reflect in the website. These representatives will guide the DE leader in the development of the content areas for the website. The added benefits of this approach include a cohesive website, consensus from within the institutional units, and the acknowledged responsibility from the various departments to update and maintain their various links.

The Development Committee needs to have a chair that is task oriented and able to lead the group to accomplish the single task of planning and developing the website. The chair needs to establish timelines for: 1) outlining the general framework of the website; 2) researching and gathering information for each of the content areas based on student needs; 3) writing and editing the content areas (with participation from online students and the public relations office), 4) building the website features, dealing with appearance, navigation, clarity, market appeal; and 5) launching the website. Upon developing the website, it is strongly suggested that a review committee made up of members not involved in the development review the website for the aforementioned features. The review team should include: online students to provide feedback using a set criteria that will inform you if the website does what you intended for it to do. The team may also include English department and/or other faculty to check the content areas of the website for syntax, clarity, and style.

The Development Committee should plan to reconvene as needed to review, revise or update the website. An individual should be identified as a webmaster to maintain the established site for online student support. This individual should work with the respective student services units to ensure that the links to their specific content areas are current and clear to students. This is often a difficult task as unit personnel often do not have the expertise to make the changes themselves or the time to update their respective content areas. Therefore, the assigned website manager or webmaster should have sound working relationships with the respective units to facilitate cooperation and collaboration in website maintenance.  
 

Technology and Personnel Considerations for Website Planning and Development

The technology used to plan and develop a website will be determined by the resources of the institution. In an institution such as San Antonio College, there may be a college webmaster, a Technology Center, an Instructional Innovation Center, a district office with technologists available to the college, and other related resources making it possible for a website to be planned, developed, and launched within months. At other types of institutions, the time period for creating the site may be longer, depending upon the college’s infrastructure and the breadth of the website. 

In spite of the resources and personnel available, numerous obstacles can surface along the way. Meetings will have to take place with the respective departments, requesting that each unit participate and assign representatives who would take on additional responsibilities.

Although San Antonio College departments collaborated with the Distance Education Department, consensus building was laborious and required time for the units to understand the global significance for the institution to establish the student support services website. One approach is to explain to the units responsible for developing the content areas about the regional accreditation agency’s and the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board’s criteria for distance education programs.     

If an institution has extremely limited resources, they can accomplish the goal of planning and developing the website by hiring an outside consultant to do the design and layout; however, the college should still have an assigned Website Development Committee responsible for organizing and/or writing the content areas. Hiring a consultant will ensure a professional look to the website. The costs to the institution will be a worthy investment as the website will have market appeal and accomplish the goals of a good online student services website. The institution needs to identify a technologist that can maintain the website upon development and make the necessary updates as needed.   

Technical Infrastructure.  An institution also has to consider infrastructure and server capability for launching the website. How much memory and storage will the website require?  At what networking speed does your server connect to the Internet and how sufficient is that for your applications? Should you host the website on a campus server or outsource it to an external company?  In many situations, the server decisions will be made by an information technology division.  However, particularly in smaller institutions you will want to consult with the information technology group before initiating, and throughout the creation of the site.

Software.  The webmaster and or designer will need to consider the software to design the website. The original layout and design should be flexible and easy to modify. If the software is not flexible, the webmaster will have technical problems when broad modifications are needed due to directional change, program growth, added links, etc. These considerations need to be anticipated because they will occur. A website for online student services is fluid as student needs may change from year to year.

Making software decisions for an online services website is critical. Some questions to ask are: How interactive should the website be? What are the costs to make the website interactive? Can the institution afford it? Is there an alternative way to provide interactive student services online? Who will pay for the costs---the institution, the district office, the department?       

Interactivity.  Another consideration in the technical design of the website is addressing whether the website will be highly interactive. For example, if the website is designed to inform students about online student services, there should be links to: application, counseling, financial aid, tutoring, orientation to online learning, testing, library services, student success strategies, and others as needed.  The links should, by e-mail or other means, connect the student and the respective department staff. When a student is seeking online counseling, the most basic approach would be to post the counselor’s email address and provide an Ask a Counselor link to allow the student to email a question and the counselor will respond within an established response time (Example: 24 to 48 hours).

Some students may not be comfortable with e-mail based advisement because the discussion is not spontaneous and the student may lose interest in seeking advice, course information or personal advice given the time delays for getting a response. Thus, a counselor could use special meeting software with live chat and presentations. Products such as Elluminate or Horizon Wimba allow counselors to have a highly interactive conversation with a student. Although pricey, valuable features can include real time chat and voice/audio capabilities. Other features may allow students to click on an icon to raise their hand when they have a question, simulating the protocol that one would typically find in a face to face classroom setting. Only the counselor or facilitator can grant the student permission to speak. The student can also email the counselor while they are having the session. Online meeting software is gaining wide-spread use for teaching content areas, teaching library services online, and for online counseling.

Training Needs.  Who will train the staff and faculty? The institution also has to have resources to train staff and faculty to use the web resources effectively. If an institution has a faculty lab for professional development, (Ex. San Antonio College has an Instructional Innovation Lab specifically for faculty professional development, online course development and for teaching pedagogical teaching strategies) courses could be offered to faculty to improve online student support services, enhance interactive teaching, and to serve students more effectively through instantaneous communications. Otherwise, individuals within Student Services, Distance Education, or other areas will need to be given the responsibility for professional development.

Budgeting.  Can the institution sustain the program without the software and other technology? Is the software needed a priority in the college technology plan? In the unit plan….in the budget? The related resources for successful website planning and development should be part of the college’s priorities. A successful distance education program which includes a successful website should be supported college wide. It should be something that the institution wants. The needs should be identified and woven into the technology plan, the department plan, and the college or division budget.
 

San Antonio College Online Model

San Antonio College Online, a best practice to website planning and development included a number of procedures, technology considerations/support and personnel, including:

• The appointment of the existing Online Advisory Committee to serve as the Website Development Committee and establish specific timelines to plan and develop the website. The SAC Online Advisory Committee consists of faculty, students, librarians, counselors and staff. Its purpose is to work with the Director of Distance Education, the Dean of Evening, Weekend and Distance Education, and the Executive Vice-President and President to implement initiatives that will further develop and improve Sac Online. 

• The SAC Online Advisory Committee and college president asked the college webmaster to design the layout of the website. 

• The content areas were written and organized by the respective units.

• The DE Director and the College Webmaster worked jointly to organize the content areas and links.

• The President and DE Director prepared a welcome using video streaming that is on the Welcome Page of the SAC Online website. Its purpose is to personalize the welcome to prospective SAC Online students.

• The DE Director and the Webmaster presented the final website to students for review and assessment of navigation ease, and other website features.

• The finished website was also presented to the SAC Online Advisory Committee for review, discussion, and further editing.

• Upon completing final edits, the College uploaded the SAC Online website on the district server of the Alamo Community College District in April 2004. The old links of the initial Distance Education website were routed to the new website: www.accd.edu/sac/online.

• San Antonio College purchased the software Elluminate to use for online counseling, online library services, online teaching, and to hold college-wide meetings. 

• San Antonio College appointed department webmasters to maintain website information departmentally.

• The College Webmaster is responsible for ensuring that departmental websites are maintained up to date, show appropriate information, etc. Established guidelines are in place. San Antonio College’s SAC Online website is a “best practice” and it follows established national guidelines for web design and planning: American Council on Education and the Best Practices and Tools for Adult Learners by the Aslanian Group: Experts in Adult Learning.   

This best practice allows departments to manage departmental information and removes the overall responsibility from the college webmaster. It also places responsibility on every department to keep the websites updated. This balanced responsibility generally works. However it is an on-going responsibility to ensure that departmental websites maintain a professional appearance, include only relevant information, are not used for consulting, advertisements of a personal nature, etc. The Alamo Community College District (ACCD) supports the colleges’ efforts by maintaining a district wide Information Technology Planning Council that reviews legal issues related to technology, computer usage, and college website design and guidelines information. The ACCD website provides district employee’s access to its Web Publishing Policy and Procedures via an e-portal system. The document provides an overview, oversight responsibility, and acceptable use policies.     
 

Alternative Website Planning & Development Options for Medium and Small Colleges

Institutions that are struggling to develop online student support services through a website to 1) help students, or 2) comply with accreditation and/or state principles or criteria, generate program growth, or meet current student demand, can implement alternative options:

·         Colleges can develop a website with online services such as counseling or library services that may use email instead of interactive software; however the emails should be replied to within 48 hours at a minimum, and within 24 hours if possible.

·         A Frequently Asked Questions Website can be developed based on documented logs collected during the day. The site can replace a help desk in the evening and on weekends when staff may not be available. For example, the University of Minnesota Find an Answer FAQ is of this type and logs the number of times a particular question is asked.  Minnesota State Community and Technical College has a “best practice” FAQ link located on its home page. The FAQ’s are broken down into five main topic areas for ease of searching.

·         Online assessment can be accomplished with proctored testing locally, and at remote sites. This strategy works if an institution does not have secured testing software.  

·         Student assistants can be trained to field help desk questions. Students sometimes prefer assistance from their peers. However there should be systematic and thorough training before staff or students answer a help desk.

·         The website can reside on a campus server instead of a district server and site maintenance can be done by a small Ad Hoc Committee, if the institution does not have a designated college webmaster or departmental webmasters.

·         The website can be simple and have only the most viable links to begin with. Later the website can be further organized as the program grows and more links are needed.

·         Institutions that do not have a webmaster, can hire a consultant to design the website initially or identify one or several students in the college’s web design classes. Web site development could be an internship project for students.
 

National Trends in Website Design

National trends of website planning and design consultants recommend that institutions should focus on the following principles or criteria in developing a website:

·         Websites should be clear, well organized and easy to navigate.

·         Website links should work and load quickly.

·         Websites should reflect information that students need to be successful.

·         Websites should reflect a welcoming image for your institution.

·         Websites should reflect images of your students.

·         Websites should have a search button allowing for specific related searches. 

·         Websites should be reviewed periodically for needed updates.

·         Content should be well organized.

·         They should include special portals for the community, the media and others as needed.

·         The website should also include up to date events or news related to student services.

·         It should include minimal clicks to access the needed information.

These principles of website development represent a set of criteria that can be used to plan and develop a website. The Website Development Committee should be willing to serve between 5-12 months to accomplish the goals of the institution for an online student services website. If a consultant is hired, the timelines may increase to allow for hiring external personnel.       

Conclusion

Website planning and development is an integral part of a comprehensive and successful online program. Online students need and expect to have access to course selection as well as other support services that include online application, testing, counseling, library services, proctoring, tutoring, payment, bookstore services, technical support, and other online support services. National trends indicate that online students enroll in online courses as a result of having busy lifestyles and inflexible work schedules that prevent them from enrolling in traditional face to face courses. Thus, they seek flexibility, convenience, access to their course sites, and support services anytime and anyplace.

Institutions must adapt to students’ new needs and educational demands. And, institutions that have decided to serve this new market of students, and that are offering Online Programs must be prepared to respond to their specific needs. If ignored, prospective students will look elsewhere for the education and services that they need to continue their educational goals or to maintain professional certifications in an ever changing and competitive workplace environment. “Market Share” is therefore a consideration for Distance Education leaders across the country and globally, as more and more institutions join regional consortiums and form international partnerships. A well planned and well organized website can generate new revenue stream, and if it serves students well, can create repeat customers. A well organized website that is easy to navigate, and that links students to the services needed is likely to improve student retention and student success. The most important criterion of a well designed and well organized website is that it needs to be student centered.      
 

Resources

American Council on Education

Aslanian Group, Best Practices and Latest Tools for Adult Learning.

Author: Craig Cockburn, Website Design Guidelines For Improving Usability. www.siliconglen.com/usability

Best practice examples: http://admissions.tc.umn.edu/answers/index.html, www.minnesota.edu 
and www.accd.edu/sac/online

Meeting software examples: www.elluminate.com  or  www.horizonwimba.com

Research Based Web Design & Usability Guidelines: http://usability.gov/guidelines

Useit.com: Jakob Nielson’s Website http://www.useit.com  Research on design guidelines.