Website Wednesday: CCC Edition

With consent from blogmaster PhiloDave, this is a special edition of Website Wednesday that will appear from time to time over the course of the semester. The focus will be our newly designed HWC website, and the CCC website in general, in an effort to give the folks at District some feedback on what we believe to be working or not working with the sites.

We’re posting and commenting. District is listening. Audrey is replying. Life is good in the land of two-way communication.

So, you’ve been using the site for a couple of months now. Anything missing? Finding everything in the right place at the right time? If the answer is yes, then say so and put a smile on Audrey’s face. If not, then say so and put a smile on Audrey’s face while she moves to resolve the concern. (High-five to you Audrey!)

Have at it. Anonymity welcomed. (according to Matt U., Anonymity def. Identity 2-0.)

Posted on February 29, 2012, in Advice, Faculty, Students and tagged HWC and CCC websites, it's not magic - it's District working for you. Bookmark the permalink. 13 Comments.

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Comments (13)

traudg | February 29, 2012 at 7:41 am

I might not be able to reply until later today but I’ll be listening.

AB

Reply
cityteacher | February 29, 2012 at 12:58 pm

Thank you for this. With regards to the CCC website, I cannot find the forms to evaluate non-tenured faculty in the classroom ANYWHERE. It’s so frustrating…
Also, the faculty/staff directory seems to missing a lot of people…

Reply
- traudg | February 29, 2012 at 2:57 pm
  
  Hi Cityteacher,
  
  I believe the form you want is on this page: http://www.ccc.edu/departments/Pages/Faculty-Forms.aspx
  called, “Classroom Evaluation of Non-Tenured Faculty”
  
  The forms were only recently added, which is why you might not have found them if you tried early on.
  
  We don’t currently have a good solution for our faculty/staff directory, but this is something we are working hard to change. My team is developing a new faculty/staff directory, which pulls the names of all active employees from PeopleSoft on a daily basis, and allows employees to enhance their profile with content like a photo, a greeting, office hours, etc.
  
  Please let me know if you have additional questions or concerns.
  
  Audrey Berns
  
  Reply
PhiloDave | February 29, 2012 at 2:52 pm

Hi, Audrey (and people).

One correction and one question (in two parts):

A) The picture on the English Department site is wrong. The Yahoo currently pictured there is a Chemist who only reads books with pictures in them.

B) Once upon a time, like, just before the due date in November, I submitted material for a Philosophy page and for my own personal page. I assumed when the site went live that those things might not be live for the initial viewing, but would eventually be created. So question 1) Is there a timeline for including/posting information about concentration possibilities/areas of inquiry (philosophy, psychology, history, etc? And question 2) is there a plan to create/provide websites for individual faculty members?

Thanks in advance.

Reply
- Realist | February 29, 2012 at 10:47 pm
  
  “The Yahoo currently pictured there is a Chemist who only reads books with pictures in them.”
  LMAO!
  
  Reply
traudg | February 29, 2012 at 6:28 pm

Hi PhiloDave,

A) I will alert the authorities that we have a science geek posing as an English professor.

B) All departmental web content submitted to your Office of Instruction for the initial launch should have been posted by now. Going forward, each department chair has the opportunity to create content related to his/her department, including information about disciplines. I am working on a plan to include concentration possibilities within the AA and AS (and other transfer degrees) within our ProgramFinder tool. http://ccc.edu/programs/Pages/default.aspx This info could be automatically be linked to the appropriate departments. We don’t have a plan yet (i.e. with deadlines, etc) but when we do I will share them with you. As for personal sites: The new staff directory that we’re in the process of developing will be a “mini-site” for each faculty or staff member who chooses to enhance his or her profile. The directory will include the option to add: photo, bio, office hours, and recommended links. As for a full-blown personal website or blog, at this time there are no plans to provide this to faculty/staff. I would encourage people to take a look at one of the following: http://wordpress.com, http://www.weebly.com/, https://sites.google.com/?pli=1, http://www.tumblr.com/dashboard, etc. If people are interested in a workshop exploring these tools, we could probably put something together.

Reply
- PhiloDave | March 1, 2012 at 8:49 am
  
  Howdy, traudg.
  
  A) Excellent. Many thanks. This abomination shall not stand.
  
  B1) I’ll work through my chair and Dean to see if we can get the Philosophy stuff through (or find out what happened). Thanks.
  
  B2) Great! Thanks.
  
  B3) Alrighty. Just wondering. I’m sure I can adapt what I sent to the mini-site format. Thanks.
  
  Reply
hellokitty | February 29, 2012 at 8:08 pm

Audrey…..

From the HWC Main Page http://www.ccc.edu/colleges/washington/pages/default.aspx FUTURE STUDENTS There is a hyperlink Learn English. However this is still routing to Free ESL which we do not offer at HWC. This is beginning to confuse students who come in and go through the new student steps only to discover that alas we do not have free ESL classes!

Can you link this to the credit ESL/ELL Page?

http://www.ccc.edu/colleges/washington/departments/Pages/English-Language-Learners.aspx

Any assistance would be helpful…..

Best…..

Reply
- traudg | March 1, 2012 at 8:24 am
  
  Hellokitty,
  
  Would you be willing to get in touch with me to discuss further? I would like to work with you to ensure that the content on this page:
  http://www.ccc.edu/colleges/washington/departments/Pages/Tuition-Free-ESL.aspx
  
  make crystal clear that
  1.) CCC offers Free English classes at 6 out of 7 schools
  2.) HW does not offer free English classes, but they have an alternate program
  
  If we can’t figure out how to do that, we can have the Learn English link redirect to your page, but then we run the risk of confusing students who came to our site looking specifically for the free program.
  
  I’m at (312) 553-2820 or aberns@ccc.edu
  
  Thanks,
  
  AB
  
  Reply
Realist | February 29, 2012 at 10:55 pm

I was going to make this a weekly post Audrey, but seeing as how we give you so many valuable suggestions, it’s only fair that this post continue to appear once a month so you have time to make changes.
Thanks for everything you do behind the scenes. It’s not going unnoticed.
You are this close (I’m talking fractions of an inch between my thumb and index finger) to being an honorary peep on The Lounge.
If I could, I’d give you a raise! Oh wait, that might require Board approval…

Reply
- traudg | March 1, 2012 at 8:18 am
  
  Being an honorary peep on The Lounge has long been one of my secret goals, so I’m very excited at the miniscule distance standing between me and my dream!
  
  Reply
Anonymous | February 29, 2012 at 10:56 pm

I do not like the picture that shows up on the front page rotation for Degree Programs. The three students look completely unengaged by the professor who is looking in the distance. Terrible representation of what goes on in the classroom.

Reply
- traudg | March 1, 2012 at 8:25 am
  
  Anonymous,
  
  I will pass your comment along to the Marketing folks, who are in charge of the graphics on the site. I know they are planning a “refresh” of the main home page images, but I believe the timing on that is still a few months out.
  
  AB
  
  Reply