Articles

Saving Green, Going Green: Nassau Community College Takes Its College Catalog Online

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 14:34:18 -0800

Like many community colleges in recent years, Nassau Community College (NCC) was looking for ways to reduce operational costs and become a little greener. A perfect opportunity was found in their printed course catalog. In addition to the massive paper requirements for printing, traditional methods for putting together the course catalog were very costly, inefficient, and resulted in outdated content by the time it was printed. By taking the catalog online and out of print, NCC was able to significantly reduce costs and produce a better product that is more cost-effectively managed. This article published in Community College Week provides an overview of the process NCC went through to implement an online catalog, including how the college arrived at the idea, the path toward implementation, and realized advantages.

Is Your Website Hurting Your Student Recruitment Efforts?

Thu, 10 Feb 2011 11:32:44 -0800

It goes without saying that the website has become a critical first-impression gateway to success for any organization. Higher education websites aimed at recruiting new students must satisfy the needs and expectations of college-bound high school students and their families. The 2010 E-Expectations survey of 1,069 college-bound high school seniors reveals the increasingly crucial role of the website in the evaluation and selection process of an institution. This article, published in the February 2011 issue of Recruitment & Retention in Higher Education, details the survey findings and provides college and university marketers and webmasters with valuable insight into the website needs and expectations of their target audience.

Digital Asset Management Takes Front Seat for Higher Education Web CMS

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 11:56:22 -0800

This article, published by CMSWire, highlights the new Asset Manager feature in OU Campus that allows for the management of digital assets.

New Campus Technology Article: How To Give Prospective Students What They Want

Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:50:59 -0700

College recruits expect a lot from their prospective schools' websites, but there are two critical pieces of information they demand from a campus portal - information that should be fairly simple to provide. This Campus Technology article will help you determine if your website is delivering what your prospective students want or if your site is simply driving them away.

New University Business article now available on SaaS web CMS

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 11:43:22 -0700

There are several advantages to cloud computing and SaaS solutions in particular. However, higher education institutions must weigh the advantages and disadvantages of cloud computing versus traditional commercial software before making a purchasing decision. Choices are good, and the best choice for one institution isn’t always the right fit for another. In this article, Nathan Gerber, Director of Web Development Services at Utah Valley University (UVU), details how the university adopted a SaaS-based web content management system (CMS) to help UVU control its budget expenditures by minimizing new hardware purchases and the man hours associated with site deployment and maintenance. The article contrasts cloud-based software versus traditional software and gives measurable results of how OmniUpdate's OU Campus greatly improved speed, performance, and the ultimate success of the entire Web Development Services organization at UVU.

New .eduGuru Article: How Victor Valley College Is Using OmniUpdate's OU Campus

Mon, 24 May 2010 14:19:57 -0700

Victor Valley College started using OU Campus in October 2006. This article, written by Victor Valley College's Webmaster, Justin Gatewood, details the school's CMS journey from a 25-user to 100-user license and highlights how OU Campus has simplified the college's web content management strategy and improved the status of updated content on their website by providing an interface that contributors consistently use.

New on CMSWire: OmniUpdate Hits Cloud 9 with Its Web CMS

Wed, 19 May 2010 13:14:07 -0700

OU Campus, OmniUpdate's web CMS aimed at the higher education sector, reaches version 9, adding new developer-centric features along the way.

.eduGuru CMS Usage Survey Results Now Available

Mon, 10 May 2010 16:16:32 -0700

Which CMS to use for a college or university is a question that lingers frequently in forums and on mailing lists. .eduGuru conducted a survey to find out which CMSs are being used from school to school. This article reveals the results of the survey and provides useful information to help you determine which CMS is best for your institution.

Just Published in University Business: "Considering Enterprise Software as a Service?"

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 11:11:58 -0800

Over the past decade, the software industry has seen a swell in adoption of on-demand deployment - commonly referred to as Software as a Service or "SaaS" - and the higher education market is no stranger to this growing trend. This University Business article written by Lance Merker, OmniUpdate President and CEO, weighs the advantages and disadvantages of SaaS versus traditional commercial software that colleges and universities must consider before making a purchasing decision.

College Web Sites and Online Communications - College-Bound Seniors Expect Value

Mon, 2 Nov 2009 15:31:55 -0800

Over the last decade, higher education institutions, like all organizations, have had to adapt to emerging marketing communications platforms. The Internet and the web changed our lives forever, and today social media introduces new challenges. Regardless of the changing technologies we’re faced with, one thing remains certain — online content is more important than ever. This article by Lance Merker, President and CEO of OmniUpdate, published in the October 2009 issue of NCMPR's Counsel, highlights the importance of web content in higher education marketing and admissions efforts.

Deciding Mobile Internet Too Important To Ignore, Victor Valley College Provides Seamless Browsing Experience

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 16:01:47 -0700

Today's current and prospective community college students are browsing the web more and more on their smart phones. A report by Nielsen Mobile found that as of mid-2008, there were 40 million mobile Internet users, of which nearly 25 percent were 13-24 year olds. With such growth in mobile Internet browsing, Victor Valley College quickly moved to ensure our web site was able to service students, faculty and staff looking to access information from their mobile devices. We understand the college Website is an important "first impression" for any community college, whether viewed from a desktop, laptop, or mobile device. Because of this, the mobile internet can no longer be ignored.

Social Networking and the .edu Experience: It's Time They Meet

Wed, 7 Jan 2009 16:01:47 -0700

With all the Web 2.0 hype these days, it’s no surprise that student expectations of the web continue to swell. Is your institutional website living up to these expectations? Today higher education websites are more than just static pages. They are strategic assets for admissions and enrollment, advancement and fundraising, brand awareness, disseminating information such as news and safety alerts, and, now more than ever, they are strategic assets for social networking. Research shows that social networking is the most popular online activity among today’s internet users. Thus, colleges and universities must jump on the bandwagon and consider how best to address social networking to meet growing student expectations.

my.newpaltz.edu: SUNY New Paltz Tackles the Problem of Portal Content Management

Fri, 02 Jan 2009 17:09:47 -0700

University of New York (SUNY) at New Paltz.happens, it’s a great thing. Such was our experience at the Statesometimes struggle with this ideological concept; but when it“Technology is supposed to make life easier.” In reality, weIt’s probably been heard and said a million times over:

Changing the Game with Web 2.0 Technologies

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 16:01:47 -0700

Blogs and Really Simple Syndication (RSS) have shifted from "what's that?" technologies to game changers in the way we engage students and faculty on the Web. These amazing Web 2.0 technologies have become major Web stragegy considerations for community colleges across the country. Making matters even more interesting, the combination of these two technologies have become one of the most viable low-cost ways to manage crisis communication. It's time to understand why.

Blogs: High-Tech Marketing by Accident?

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 16:01:47 -0700

Like it or not, your college is being discussed by bloggers. Students, faculty, and otherse are influencing your brand, image, and expensive messaging with a few simple keystrokes -- keystrokes that are being read by a rapidly growing population of your prospective students.

9 Best Practices for Implementing a CMS

Wed, 30 Jan 2008 16:01:47 -0700

Giving people the ability to update their slice of the campus website doesn't sound like a revolutionary idea--at least not in an era ruled by mass participation in social networks, the sharing of mashups, and the craze to add widgets to personal websites. Yet, the easy road for achieving that--the use of a content management system (CMS)--is lightly traveled, according to software publisher OmniUpdate . It estimates that only 15 percent of colleges and universities have deployed a CMS to update the content on their sites. Why such hesitation to deploy a solution that can help a school keep its site refreshed in a timely way?

Learning to Leverage XML for Higher Ed Web CMS

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 16:01:41 -0700

The benefits of incorporating the use of XML/XSL in your web content management strategy are clear and compelling. XML technologies may no longer be considered bleeding-edge, or even leading-edge; nevertheless, there is good news.

Best Practices for Using a CMS

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 16:01:47 -0700

There is simply no bigger challenge for any web team on the planet than that of managing a college or university website. Most college web management strategies rely on the "squeaky-wheel" approach, or employ various textbook triage techniques in an attempt to care for areas of the site that are suffering most. If this sounds like your institution, you're not alone. The web managers at even the most admired university websites are constantly struggling to keep their sites responsive and up to date. If you are planning to purchase a content management system (CMS), you might be surprised to learn that all your problems will not magically go away. Indeed, the real secrets to maintaining a great college or university web presence are leveraging your CMS with careful planning, and using best practices.

Serving Up Success on Community College Web Sites

Wed, 10 Jan 2007 16:01:47 -0700

For today's community colleges, creating an engaging, responsive and effective college Web site is more than simply a goal; it's a strategic imperative. As a society -- young and old alike -- we've all been conditioned to shop, compare, and buy off of the internet. This consumer mentality is also proving to extend to how students choose a college.

Tackling the Problem of Repurposing Web Content

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 16:01:47 -0700

In the spring of 2003 we began looking at alternatives that would simplify and streamline the process of updating the university's web pages. Specifically, we wanted a straightforward way to repurpose content across pages. At the same time, we needed a solution that would allow stakeholders outside the IT department to contribute and maintain website content without having to become technical experts. Because the IT department would support the technology chosen, it was decided that IT would make the decisions. Several key staff from marketing, which is responsible for site design and usability, were also involved in the process.