Flagstaff, AZ (January 25, 2010) – Coconino Community College (CCC) has created a new user-friendly, more simplistic website for students and faculty to use that will launch Wednesday, January 27, 2010. CCC decided to change the look of its website due to the challenges students and faculty reported when trying to find important information.
“We found students had difficulty locating application and registration functions in the current web site design,” said David Hakanson, Coconino Community College chief technology officer. “CCC knew that change needed to come so they created a new student-focused site design. The new design reduces clutter by relocating the tools that faculty and staff use to the Intranet, its internal site, keeping the public site neat and clean. This reorganization allows for simplicity and ease, so that students are able to find important information about the college and its departments. For the past four weeks the new site has been in preview mode to allow students and faculty a chance to view it and give their feedback.”
“The new site allows for more quality control, allowing people to review web pages before they go live,” said Rick McDonald, Coconino Community College director of online and media services. “Our goal is to allow departments to have an easier time managing their websites, while also making it easier for students to find the information they need.”
Built on Microsoft SharePoint TM, the new user-friendly site gives CCC both the image and feel of a more sophisticated design. The Information Technology department at the Coconino Community College is hoping to allow such dynamic content as blogs, wiki’s, and electronic portfolios to be accessed within the next three to five years. The college is also working on a mobile view service for the web site’s future.
The new website design has received positive feedback and the IT department wants to continue this response by looking for ways to improve it. The IT team created a feedback icon on every page so students, faculty, and staff are able to make suggestions.
The user-friendly web design speeds the search for information and allows faculty and staff the ability to upload the latest in news, graphics, and events. A new feature also provides the Coconino Community College marketing department with an ability to keep students, faculty, staff, and the Flagstaff community up-to-date on the school’s upcoming events.
CCC’s IT department created the innovative site to fit the community college’s mission statement: “As a learning-centered college, we enrich lives by embracing diversity and transforming the future through quality education.” One of the key elements of the site innovation is its Community and Visitors tab that provides community members and alumni access to information on college activities, events, and CCC’s foundation.
“I don’t think we are finished,” said McDonald, “It will be a continuous process to try to make the site better.”
Coconino Community College is interested in community input on the new website design after its January 27, 2010 launch. Suggestions and comments are enabled on the CCC site and website improvements will be an on-going process by the college’s IT department.
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