The new website is live, now what?

By bergstroma | Published: October 2, 2009

The College’s new website launched on Wednesday, August 12 and has been well received.  The initial launch focused on content linked from the primary navigation (e.g. about, academics, library), audience navigation (e.g. current students, parents) and the task navigation (e.g. bookstore, directory).  At this time we have started working with the six schools to schedule and assist their migration into the new design.  Once we get the schools moving along well, we will move to departmental requests.  Look for a link to the request form on this site in the future.

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New College Website Launched

By bergstroma | Published: August 12, 2009

On Wednesday, August 12, the College of Charleston launched its new website.  Along with the positive feedback received by phone, e-mail, and twitter, we have also received several questions.  These are some of the most common questions and answers.

Q: Where is the link for CougarTrail?

A:  The link for CougarTrail has been moved under the audience navigation links in the upper left hand corner of the new website.  As the new MyCharleston portal becomes available to more audiences, we will eventually replace the audience navigation links with one link to MyCharleston.  The new MyCharleston portal will contain everything that was in CougarTrail and much more in one centralized location.

Q: Where is the link to WebMail?

A:  Just like the link for CougarTrail, the WebMail link has been moved under the audience navigation links in the upper left hand corner.

Q:  When will my department adopt the new look?

A:  Web Strategies will announce when departments can begin migrating into the new content management system.  Look for something in about 2 weeks.  In the meantime we will be updating the content management system to a new version and addressing any errors with the new site.

Q:  Should I begin changing my current website to match the new template?

A:  No.  Please continue to maintain current information on your site, but please do not attempt to “frankenstein” the template onto your existing site.  Web Strategies will work with each department to migrate their old site into the new content management system and new templates.

If you have other questions, please contact webmaster@cofc.edu or provide feedback via http://tinyurl.com/lyk72m

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New College of Charleston Website to Launch Wednesday, August 12

By bergstroma | Published: August 11, 2009

As many of you know, for the past year Information Technology and Marketing and Communications have been jointly working on the redevelopment of the College website. On Wednesday, August 12, we will launch the new site with the homepage — and all content linked directly to the homepage — migrated into the new design and structure.

As we have discussed in each phase of the project, the new website is purposely focused toward external audiences, particularly prospective students. The goals of this project are to create an online representation that accurately portrays the character, academic quality and high-caliber faculty, students and alumni of the College, while also making critical information easy to access. You will notice that the links tailored to internal audiences (CougarTrail, Webmail, WebCT, etc.) are now housed on separate information pages for faculty, staff and students, and are accessible with one click from the home page.

Of course, there will be a significant amount of work to do after the initial launch as we continue to migrate all the sites that are not yet incorporated into the new design. Content managers in each department and office will be identified and trained, and individual sites will be migrated into the new design over the next academic year. You will receive more information about this process shortly after the main site is launched.

It is inevitable that there will be a few bumps in the road as we implement the new site. If you see any mistakes or issues, please fill out the Feedback form at this address:

http://tinyurl.com/lyk72m

All issues and changes will be tracked and corrected.

Our thanks to the many people throughout the campus who have worked to get us to the point where we have a website that truly offers a better user experience. As a reminder, you can review the history of this project at our redevelopment web page:

http://webdev.cofc.edu

We look forward to hearing your thoughts and reactions.

Sincerely,

Mike Haskins, EVP, Marketing and Communications

Bob Cape, Sr. VP, Information Technology

Andrew Bergstrom, Director of Web Strategies

Larry Stoudenmire, Director of Web and Electronic Marketing

Jared Smith, Webmaster

John Turner, Webmaster

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The Website is in beta release

By bergstroma | Published: July 23, 2009

As you know, for the past year Information Technology and Marketing and Communications have been jointly working on the redevelopment of the College website. We are quickly nearing our initial goal of launching the new site with the homepage — and all content linked directly to the homepage — migrated into the new design and structure. We hope to have the site launched by August 10.

The launch of the new website complements the parallel launch of the College’s new portal MyCharleston as part of the BATTERY project. As we have discussed in each phase of the project, the new website is purposely focused toward external audiences, particularly prospective students, and largely answers the question “Why the College of Charleston?” The MyCharleston portal is focused toward internal audiences and answers the question “How do I find or do something at the College of Charleston?” Both will make information more easily accessible to their respective audiences.

Of course, there will be a significant amount of work to do after the initial launch as we continue migrate all the sites that are not yet incorporated into the new design. Content managers in each department and office will be identified and trained, and individual sites will be migrated into the new design over the next academic year. You will see more information about this process immediately after the main site is launched.

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