Envisioning Bates’ Next Web

Toward an effective online media environment for Bates

By Jay Collier, 5/5/08

Context

Between December, 2007, and April, 2008, I conducted 13 visioning sessions with the following groups:

• Advancement staff
• Alumni Council (San Francisco)
• Area coordinators
• Arts steering committee
• Academic Affairs
• Admissions
• Marketing staff
• Parents (Maine)
• Parents (NYC area)
• Students – open session
• Students – residential staff
• Web oversight group
• Web roundtable (content developers)

My primary question has been this: please envision what the next-generation Bates public Web presence might be like 5 years from now. Over 100 people had a chance to share their needs, hopes, and aspirations for the next Bates Web.

Please note that the limitations of using a “Web” oriented framework became apparent early on in the sessions. Instead, accessing content and collaboration through multiple media, multiple devices, and multiple places was paramount. For that reason, future discussions will be organized around the idea of an “online media environment” that supports all kinds of communications — collaboration, information, transaction, and persuasion — with the goal of drawing people into the face-to-face experience that is at the heart of Bates.

Few of the following goals and objectives can be accomplished with our current staffing and budget. They need to be offered to the President and Planning Steering Committee prioritized  into categories: recommendations that can be acted upon using current resources, those that will require additional funds, and those requiring further study.

The next step will be an online survey prototype, to be tested by online media professionals and associates here at Bates. It will be available for further testing when needed.

Overall goals

Capture, extend, and enhance the essence of Bates

• A welcoming community of multi-faceted people
• Connections across boundaries of knowledge, across the globe
• Dynamic cycles of rigorous learning, relevant for a life of intellectual and social growth
• Dedicated to personal responsibility and social justice in an increasingly complex world

Draw people into a satisfying and deepening experience of the Bates community

• Enable online connections and collaborations between Bates people, groups, and off-campus partners
• Provide a multi-tiered experience from vetted, unrestricted content to private spaces
• Encourage contributions from members as teachers and learners
• Respect  user feedback and evolve contenat accordingly
• Increase engagement and increasingly deeper participation through online environment

Extend the Bates education into a lifelong experience

• Bring interests of all Bates people, from across the lifespan, into a single context
• Publish and aggregate academic, research, professional, and community insights
• Establish, maintain and support online collaborations over many years

Develop a best-in-breed online environment that extends Bates’ academic model worldwide

• Provide distinctive features that reflect the core Bates experience for an extended community membership
• Don’t reinvent the wheel; integrate with other services, such as social networks, via open standards
• Pay attention to how Bates is valued externally
• Make online Bates ultimately portable; participate from anywhere, anytime

Measurement methods

• Conduct periodic surveys of awareness of essential values, with ranking of contributors to awareness (including online
• media)
• Track new memberships, content favoriting, page ranking, feedback submissions, and journal posts
• Track number of actions on major pathways, including continuity via reduced bounces and exits

Principles of an effective online experience

Be dependable

Is it available whenever and wherever I need it?

• Access from anywhere, on-campus or around the world
• Access any time, day or night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year
• Access from a variety of devices — laptop, screen reader, PDA, phone, appliances
• Access through a variety of media, including Web, e-mail, text, voice
• Access with no more than a 5 second wait
• Access during an emergency

Be intuitive

Can I easily explore, find, and contribute?

• Simplify all levels of the online experience: contribute, search, find, use
• Get an overall sense of the Bates “vibe” quickly and deeply
• Follow clear, step-by-step paths through important procedures
• Quickly find answers to questions of all kinds
• Navigate easily to related, connected content
• Post content to the community

Be useful

Is content relevant, accurate, and up to date?

• Explore a deep and wide pool of up-to-date stories, events, and practical information
• Find a set of shared interests with others, through multiple methods
• Learn about services and perform transactions
• Easily create and join spaces for collaboration

Be engaging

Is the experience appealing?

• Explore timely and relevant stories
• Hear personable and authentic voices
• View a compelling sense of place
• Immerse yourself in moving visuals and sound
• Enjoy appealing graphics and imagery, matched to your stylistic preferences
• Contribute to the creation of new knowledge
• Recognize the promise of future value … plan to come back!

Be personalizable

Can I find, save, and subscribe to my interests?

• Mark topics, events, people, and places as favorites for future reference
• See what’s changed since the last visit
• Rate content for value and see what others value
• Subscribe to notifications for areas of interest from faculty, staff, and students
• Contact others with similar interests via private messaging

Be welcoming and sociable

Are a variety of perspectives and voices presented?

• Feel welcomed by an authentic, warm range of individual voices
• Listen to first-person stories about the Bates experience
• Get to know people, starting with online content about their interests
• Read the contributions of community members
• Find shared areas of intellectual excitement
• Join dynamic spaces for social and intellectual collaboration

Be meaningful

Is the experience valuable and worth my attention?

• Experience the Bates “vibe” even from off campus
• Extend the Bates education into a lifelong experience.
• Receive insight into the things that matter to you
• Share your passions, with your own voice
• Learn about important initiatives at Bates
• Help create new knowledge every day

Related posts:

1. Envisioning Bates' Next Generation Web Presence
2. Bates and the Social Web