Types of online experiences

The goal of this project is to envision integrated online experiences for higher education.

That doesn’t mean that all facets of the experience have to be contained within one system or technology; to the contrary. Just as a master plan envisions how all of the buildings in a town or village fit together at some point in the future, an online master plan defines the way systems could work together most effectively. And with the Web becoming the platform for computing, relationships between systems are key.

So, within that context, it makes sense to list all of the different kinds of systems and experiences that currently comprise the higher education online world; these are the existing “buildings” in our virtual village.

At the moment, this is list is in no order of any kind; please help make it as inclusive as possible. As time goes by, we’ll want to determine what functions they provide and how they interrelate.

Types of online experiences

• Blogs
• Business transactions (bills)
• Chats
• Community voting (e.g., stars, diggs)
• Content management
• Course registration
• Digital asset management
• Document management
• Event registration
• Facilities, space, and equipment scheduling and management
• File management
• Forums
• Grade management
• Learning management
• Library databases
• Live video feeds
• Mashups (with external data and/or services)
• Notifications (aggregation, syndication via e-mail, RSS, SMS)
• Photo albums
• Podcasts
• Polls
• Portfolios
• Portals
• Profiles
• Publc events calendars
• Slide shows
• Social media
• “Static” content
• Surveys
• Video albums
• Wikis

Sources

• Academic departments
• Admissions (viewbook)
• Alumni relations (yearbooks, parent handbook)
• Athletics (rosters and games)
• Committees
• Community service (projects, partnerships)
• Dean of students (student handbook)
• Information research department (about the institution, reports, statistics)
• Non-academic departments
• Public relations (news stories and features)
• Registrar (student financial, official catalog, course schedules)
• Student groups
• Students (off-campus study, service projects)
• Alumni (mentoring, professional intelligence)