Keene State College Web Policy

I. Principles

• Because it represents the College, the KSC web site should be carefully developed and maintained to high standards of professionalism. It should be progressive and dynamic, with accurate, useful, and comprehensive information; efficient navigation; excellent graphic design; and the opportunity for conducting many kinds of transactions with and within the institution. Users should be able to find the information they seek or at least a source for that information. Outdated, incorrect, or poorly presented pages tarnish the College's image.

• The web site should support the mission of the College at the broadest level.

• Priorities for the KSC web site must be recognized. The highest priorities are for web pages devoted to marketing the College, enhancing instructional and administrative services for students, increasing staff efficiency, and providing for mission-related interchange with outside constituencies.

• The comprehensive, dynamic, and timely nature of the KSC web site depends on a distributed model of responsibility, with shared accountability and opportunity.

• The College values creativity in web development within the standards listed in this document and the limited resources available to such initiatives. Web pages should reflect consistency and a unified campus identity while allowing for flexibility and individual department functionality.

• Ongoing training, centralized support, and other resources are necessary for the effective development and maintenance of web pages.

• KSC web servers should conform to College standards for security, reliability, redundancy, and backup.

II. Web Management at Keene State: Developing and Managing Web Pages

Purpose. This section describes the development and management of web pages on Keene State College servers. Its goal is to help build and maintain an accurate, effective, attractive, up-to-date, and cost-effective web presence. Drawing on the strengths of both centralized and distributed models, we employ a system of shared responsibility in which monitoring and updates of web pages are the responsibility of individual offices and departments, with site development, support, and training provided by IT offices and College Relations, in collaboration with those respective offices and departments.

Web standards. While the web management section of this policy addresses procedures for developing and maintaining web sites, standards for web pages are listed below, in part III.

Administrative web pages. Administrative web pages are those used to conduct College business, display official information, and provide services to students and other constituencies. All College pages are considered administrative except department pages, individual pages, and instructional pages. Administrative web pages should be available to users at any hour, day or night.

For consistency in navigation and design, administrative web pages should be developed in accordance with the Web Style Guide and in consultation with the webmaster in College Relations.

Administrative departments will designate page editors, who will be responsible for keeping information on their pages current. Each office should develop a plan for implementing the web into its operations and for maintaining its pages.

Academic web pages. Each academic program is represented on the College web site by a uniformly designed program page, which presents material taken from the catalog. Academic departments may develop department pages with more in-depth information such as a calendar of events, faculty profiles, or links of interest to department majors.

Department pages should be developed and maintained by a page editor identified from among department members by a dean or chair. These page editors, who will serve as primary contacts for web issues, may consult with the webmaster for assistance, but individual departments are responsible for maintenance of their own pages and for adherence to College policies. The content and design of department pages is subject to approval by the department chair, who should monitor adherence to KSC computer and web policies.

Instructional pages - pages and sites developed for use in academic courses - are developed by individual faculty members, often with the assistance of the academic web developer. Faculty members are responsible for maintaining these pages but are encouraged to consult as necessary with the academic web developer. Faculty members are encouraged to become comfortable with the process of developing and maintaining their own pages. IT will make training available to faculty members and departmental administrative assistants.

Student web pages. Like other College resources, the web's primary use - directly or indirectly - is for the benefit of KSC students. Students themselves develop pages for various uses. web sites of officially recognized student organizations maintained by designated page editors and meeting all KSC policies may be mounted on MyKSC, with appropriate links from other College pages. Students may also mount individual pages on MyKSC or request a link to their pages off-site. For assistance in developing these pages, students may contact the HelpDesk.

Page editors. Most administrative offices and departments are responsible for monitoring and maintaining their web pages and will appoint a page editor. The most important duty for page editors is to keep information up-to-date and accurate. In most offices, a page editor's duties consist of reviewing web content and editing web pages residing on the appropriate server. In many cases, page editors participate in the initial development of their office pages. All page editors are encouraged to attend training sessions regularly. Some page editors will need specialized training to integrate programs and applications relevant to their department's work. Directors of several offices may agree to share a single page editor.

Site Development, Support, and Training. The webmaster coordinates support and training for page editors, with her first priority to offices that maintain marketing pages. Page editors maintaining other administrative pages may also consult with the webmaster or web assistant for support and training. The College Relations web editor is also available for consultation on text development.

The webmaster maintains the academic program pages, which are considered marketing pages. The academic web developer is the primary contact for faculty members developing web-based course materials and department pages.

III. Web Page Standards: Minimum Requirements

1. All pages. Web pages on Keene State servers must adhere to certain minimum standards, including all USNH and Keene State College policies and to applicable laws, including those pertaining to accessibility, copyright, commercial use, and the College logo. Pages should also be in good working order, with text and graphics that appear as intended and links that connect as they should. Each page must also:

   • name a contact person with a current e-mail address. Pages without correct contact information are subject to removal after a good-faith effort by the webmaster to locate the person responsible.

   • be updated at least twice a year, indicating the day of last update (with the exception of instructional pages). Pages not reviewed and updated regularly - with out-of-date information removed - are subject to removal after a year, following two notification attempts by the webmaster, at least two weeks apart, with the second notification at least two weeks before removal of the page.

   
   

2. Administrative pages. Administrative departments and offices will consult with the webmaster in College Relations in developing their web sites. Administrative pages must be reviewed by College Relations for design, navigation, and editorial correctness before going live. All pages should conform to the KSC Web Style Guide.

3. Academic pages (department and instructional). Pages developed and maintained by academic departments must meet the guidelines listed in 1 (above) in order to be most useful for students and prospective students. Instructional pages do not need to indicate a twice-a-year update. Academic program pages, with content derived from the catalog and their consistent design, are administrative pages.

4. Student organization pages. The College will link to the web sites of officially recognized student organizations, if the pages on those sites meet all guidelines in 1 (above) and if they also post the e-mail address of the organization's faculty or staff advisor, in addition to that of the student maintaining the page.

5. Individual pages. Keene State College supports the development of individual faculty, staff, and student web pages. Faculty and staff pages should provide information relevant to the person's role at the College. In addition to the requirements stated in 1 (above), individual pages must not appear to represent or to make statements on behalf of Keene State College or the University System of New Hampshire. As stated in 1 above, all individual pages must conform to applicable policies and laws. Individual pages are subject to removal if their nature or size compromises the function of College computing resources. Individual pages will not be systematically monitored for compliance to this policy; however, pages brought to the attention of the webmaster are subject to removal according to the provisions of the Computer and Network Use Policy.

Upon request by the developer of an appropriate individual page, the webmaster will create a link to that page from a directory page. That page will also list links to individual pages residing on non-KSC servers, provided that those pages conform to the same standards as those on College servers. A disclaimer on the page will notify users that individual pages are not the responsibility of the College.

Terms in this document are defined in the Glossary.