For the past 18 months, the Information Technology Services and Marketing and Communication teams have collaborated with university leadership, employees and students as well as two vendors to redesign the website and implement a new content management system. Following are the goals for this initiative:
As we complete migration of several thousand redesigned webpages and wrap up content management system (CMS) training for content owners and content editors across colleges and administrative divisions, we wanted to provide the following update to the university community.
The website redesign project team sincerely appreciates the patience, cooperation and flexibility of the university community throughout this important strategic initiative. We would particularly like to thank content owners and content editors for their efforts to complete training and begin the important work of updating their respective Level 2 websites (for colleges, departments, institutes, centers, administrative divisions), as well as deans and vice presidents for their patience and support during the transition from the old to new site.
This update reflects where we are on key aspects of the projects, including migration of the university’s Level 2 websites (for colleges, departments, institutes, centers, administrative divisions), as well as next steps and continuous improvement efforts that will persist in the coming weeks and months.
The core project team recently completed migration of all Level 1 and Level 2 websites, comprising several thousand redesigned webpages, and has wrapped up CMS training for content owners and content editors across colleges and administrative divisions.
Please see “Plan for ongoing support and training for content owners and editors” below for details about how we will continue to support owners and editors in improving their CMS skills and helping them maintain the accuracy, accessibility and overall effectiveness of their sites.
The core website team made up of ITS and Marketing and Communication employees will continue to manage and make updates to the Level 1 websites. These include the university homepage, About pages, Admissions pages and academic program pages.
We have identified and trained content owners and content editors for all Level 2 websites (for colleges, departments, centers, institutes, administrative divisions). These owners and editors work closely with their respective leadership teams to ensure that the content on their sites is accurate and reflects the unique offerings and strategic priorities of those units. If you need to make updates to a page on one of those sites, as an initial step please review the master list of Content Owners and/or Content Editors and contact the appropriate person responsible for the page you need to update.
The Radford University Website Standards and Procedures document [PDF] stipulates that content publishers in Marketing and Communication must review and approve all updates submitted by content editors before posting them to the website. This step is designed to maintain the quality of website updates as content editors learn to use the new content management system and its many features.
We will continue to maintain this review and approval process for the foreseeable future. However, we are committing necessary resources to review and publish all content update submissions on a daily basis, including responding to those submissions that require further refinement before posting.
As for the daily submission of OneStop tickets requests for website updates, we will continue to work on these as they are submitted, per our normal process.
Accessibility is a university-wide issue that impacts many aspects of our operations. Public universities that receive federal funding must comply with accessibility requirements in the areas of digital content, electronic and information technology, programs and services, and policies and procedures.
Accessibility affects our website in several ways, including how we present images and graphics on webpages and how we create PDFs for online use. In the Website Standards and Procedures document [PDF], section 5.1 – Accessibility, we state that our website must adhere to Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0. We also address a range of PDF-related issues in section 5.11 – File and Folder Management.
Achieving these standards will require a team effort involving content owners and content editors, the core website redesign project team, and members of the Web and Enterprise Systems team and the Digital Communication and Marketing team. We do not expect content owners and content editors to achieve these standards on their own; we are here to support them.
Redesigning the university’s website presented us with the opportunity to streamline content. This involved reviewing content on the old site and determining: 1) what content needed to be migrated to the new site, 2) what content was no longer necessary on the new site and 3) what content was unnecessarily redundant in two or more places on the site.
If content is missing on the new site that should have been migrated from the old site, content owners and content editors can submit a Get Help ticket on ITOneStop, and the core website project team will work with them to integrate restore that content on the correct pages in the new site.
To streamline faculty and staff directory listings on the website, data for these profiles is now drawn directly from the Banner ERP System. This integration keeps information up to date automatically whenever employees are hired, leave or change positions within the university. Additionally, all faculty and staff members now have a Modern Campus Profile Page designed to showcase bios, publications, presentations and more.
Historically, profile information has been managed across multiple platforms, such as Eprofiles, Faculty Data Sheets and Merit. We encourage everyone to consolidate this information by transitioning to the Modern Campus Profile Pages. Please coordinate with the Content Owner or Content Editor for your website to update or create your profile. (Note: We have provided content editors with instructions on how to do this below.)
For more detailed instructions, please review an instructional video recorded at our previous office hours session.
Now that we have finished migrating all the webpages into the new content management system (CMS), the search functionality on the site will improve and get progressively better as the new site “settles in.”
However, the core website project team is also taking steps to make the search tool more effective and user-friendly. One way to do that is to add similar search terms, also known as “best bets.” These are words or phrases that are commonly used or have alternative names for the same thing. For example, some people might search for "International Education" while others might search for "Study Abroad.” We can add both terms as best bets, so the search tool will show the same results for either term.
If you have any suggestions for best bets for specific websites/pages, please let us know. You can submit a support request through ITOneStop www.radford.edu/itonestop with the following details:
Here is an example of a support request:
Thank you for your cooperation and feedback. We hope to make the website search tool more useful and convenient for everyone.
We have scheduled the following sessions for content owners and editors to discuss accessibility and related PDF issues:
We will schedule additional office hours periodically to discuss any issues or questions that arise as content editors continue to work in the new CMS.
In addition, content editors can always request help using the following process for urgent and normal edits:
The website redesign kicked off with an introductory call with Radford University and New City Media.
Stakeholder engagement, enrollment/admissions discovery, marketing strategy discovery, review existing website, analytics review and discovery workshops.
Create a research plan, conduct audience research, analyze research results, identify conversions and indicators in the admissions journey and develop a strategy blueprint.
Define the site architecture and navigation strategy, develop a content strategy, develop search engine optimization (SEO) strategy, wireframes and page designs.
Content writing, template and information architecture development.
Website owners and authors should carefully review their websites, page-by-page, line-by-line to clean up website content and assets. To help you stay organized as you review your website, you are welcome to use the attached web content audit spreadsheet (Excel).
The Marketing and Communication web team will begin migrating content from the current CMS into our new CMS. During this phase, website owners and authors will not be able to make updates to their sites.
If essential web updates are needed, site owners and authors should submit requests using the IT OneStop ticketing system. Please include the URL of the page to be updated along with clearly marked edits. Requests will be completed in the order they are received.
Phase I Launch on June 11
Phase 1 will include about 2,200 webpages (Level 1 websites) representing the university
as a whole (e.g., homepage, About, Locations, Rankings and Accolades, Our History,
and Mission, Vision and Core Values). They will also include enrollment-focused pages
(e.g., Student Life, Visit, Admissions) and 80 academic program pages that have been
optimized for search engines.
Phase II Launch after June 11
Following June 11, we will launch Phase 2 of the project, which will continue throughout
the summer. This will include all remaining webpages (Level 2 websites), beginning
with colleges and academic departments and followed by centers, institutes and administrative
units.
New Website Governance Policy and Coordinated Governance Model
Redesigning the website and launching a new content management system provides an
opportunity to rethink how the website should be governed and the approach we use
for updating content. The website redesign project team has created a new Website
Governance Policy and a Website Standards and Procedures document (both approved by
the President’s Cabinet) that will help us facilitate the efficient, effective, secure
and accessible operation of the website. We will share links to these documents later
this summer.
Radford University will use a coordinated governance model for its website that features centralized control and shared responsibility. The model is:
Led by the AVP for Information Technology Services and the AVP for Strategic Communication, with oversight by the Website Governance Committee.
Managed daily by the Digital Communication and Marketing team and the Web and Enterprise Systems team.
Informed by the strategic vision of Content Owners (to be determined), including deans or their designees and VPs/division heads or their designees.
The website redesign project team is meeting with deans and vice presidents in May 2024 to determine who will serve in the roles of Content Owner and Content Editor for each of the Level 2 websites residing within colleges and administrative units. We expect to make these decisions by the end of June and will communicate with the people who are selected. At that time, we will also share a timeline for CMS training for all Content Editors.
Plan for Submitting Edits Immediately Following June 11
As with any launch of a new website design and a new CMS, we will undoubtedly experience
issues that need to be addressed in the days following the launch. As we identify
these, we will work as efficiently as possible to fix them. Thank you in advance for
your patience in the days following Phase 1 launch.
Following the June 11 launch of Phase 1 but before we can train all the new Content Editors on the new CMS, current editors should submit requests for web edits in the following manner. There will be two kinds of edit requests — urgent and normal — managed through different processes.
Urgent edits include any inaccurate program content that could mislead current students or prospective students in their decision-making process. It also includes content that does not accurately reflect the legal standing of the university or the accreditation standing of our colleges or academic programs. Urgent changes should be submitted via email to webcomm@radford.edu after June 11.
Normal edits include any other content edits that do not meet the urgent standard stated above. Normal changes should be submitted via a Get Help ticket on ITOneStop after June 11.