We are pleased to report that the web site and portal project is on track and on budget. As we begin the final phase of this project, we want to update you on recent accomplishments, how we will transition to the new site and how it will be maintained as we move forward.
Migration Process
Nearly every department has completed the content migration process to ensure the existing content is in good shape. We have already met with over 100 campus departments and will be reaching out to the remaining areas in the next couple of weeks. The entire project team is truly grateful for the support we have received across campus during this phase of the project.
In the past few months, there have been improvements to Polaris and the Google search appliance has been launched. This feature, which is still under development, allows a visitor to receive better results and searches across the university’s main public portals. With the launch of the new site, faculty and staff members, along with students, can log in for search results curated by their user type.
Site Transition
During the past few weeks, the ITS/marketing project team began testing Drupal, the new content management system, and will soon enter the build-out phase of the new site.
From now until winter break, we invite all faculty and staff members, particularly those with OpenText access to continue to update their existing webpages. When we return in January, access to OpenText will be reduced to just a limited number of users—a list of this group may be found in Polaris. Remember, that as in the past, you may also open a ticket with the ITS helpdesk if you need changes to your webpages.
Why limit access? We need to closely manage and track updates to ensure they are carried over to the new salemstate.edu. We encourage information about activities, events and such to be added through Drumroll. This tool currently feeds the site and will be used to post information on the new salemstate.edu. Drumroll access is available to all faculty and staff members and training is available.
Content Strategy
As many of you heard during community and migration meetings, the strategy for the new site is that the content added through Drupal should be mostly evergreen in nature, with Drumroll as the platform for content that has a limited shelf life. Enhancements on the new site will improve the display of calendar and news information.
When we launch the new site in March 2017, a limited number of users will continue to have access to Drupal, with all faculty and staff having access to Drumroll. We have found, as have many other universities, that having a completely decentralized content management model is not the most effective. There are many instances of misinformation and contradictory or outdated content on the existing site. For further information about the content strategy, please visit the campus dialog blog and click on “presentations” or visit this Canvas class.
We often describe sections of our current site as a “junk drawer”: that kitchen drawer where you keep adding stuff but you never really get around to cleaning it out—so you may have old links to former flowsheets, tuition rates, events (with no year dates), etc. As five million unique visitors come to salemstate.edu every year (25% of these are new), we need to ensure their experience be a good one—and to make certain the content is ADA compliant.
With the new site, marketing will undertake a continuous improvement plan to ensure that each section of the site is reviewed with the corresponding department on a regular basis. Of course, after the launch, please continue to contact your division’s web editor or open an ITS helpdesk ticket if you need updates in between reviews.
Thank you again for your support of this project. Please let us know if you have questions about the web and portal development project.
Scott James
Vice President, Enrollment Management, Student Life and Marketing
Patricia Ainsworth
Chief Information Officer