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Academic Agility: Navigating Higher Education Web Development
1. Academic Agility: Navigating Higher Education Web Development Ryan Dellolio Adjunct Lecturer Department of Information Systems School of Business The George Washington University Web Program Manager Columbian College of Arts and Sciences The George Washington University & Given at eduWEB 2011, San Antonio, TX August 1, 2011
11. Web Activity at GW Columbian College of Arts & Sciences 500+ faculty and researchers 3000 students 100+ staff University’s largest academic unit
12. Africana StudiesAmerican StudiesAnthropologyApplied Quantitative Risk AnalysisArt TherapyBiochemistryBiological SciencesBiomedical SciencesBiostatisticsChemistryClassical and Semitic Languages and LiteraturesClassical ActingCounselingEarly Modern European StudiesEast Asian Languages and LiteraturesEconomics EnglishEnvironmental StudiesEnvironmental Resource PolicyEpidemiologyFilm Studies Fine Arts and Art HistoryForensic Sciences GeographyGeological SciencesGenomics and BioinformaticsGlobal CommunicationsHistoryHominid PaleobiologyInterior DesignJudaic StudiesLinguisticsMathematicsMedia and Public AffairsMedicine, Society and CultureMuseum StudiesMusicOrganizational Sciences and CommunicationPhilosophyPhysicsPolitical ScienceProfessional Psychology PsychologyPublic Policy and Public AdministrationReligionRomance, German, Slavic Languages and LiteraturesSociologySpeech and Hearing SciencesStatisticsTheatre and DanceUniversity Writing ProgramWomen's Studies 50+ Departments and Programs
28. How can University staff navigate the delicate balance between their requirements, available resources and the unique challenges of the higher education arena?
29. Why Academia is Different 1 Web is traditionally seen as far from the core mission
30. Why Academia is Different 1 Where is the web in relation to a university's core mission?
31. “The George Washington University, an independent academic institution chartered by the Congress of the United States in 1821, dedicates itself to furthering human well-being. The University values a dynamic, student-focused community stimulated by cultural and intellectual diversity and built upon a foundation of integrity, creativity, and openness to the exploration of new ideas. The George Washington University, centered in the national and international crossroads of Washington, D.C., commits itself to excellence in the creation, dissemination, and application of knowledge.”
44. Why Academia is Different 2 Lack of quality control feedback loops
45. How to respond Bake people, process and technology into existing bureaucratic structures, establishing web governance. “Strategy, not sparring” Educate upwards
48. How to respond We must redesign our use cases and think outside the box. Consider: Current students browsing admissions sites Prospective students browsing information for current students Prospective partner institutions browsing information for current students Prospective students browsing internal department websites “Navigation-phobia” – the chronic Googlers Entrance paths that often defy logic
54. Agility is also… “the gracefulnessof a person or animal that is quick and nimble” “the powerof moving quickly and easily; nimbleness” Source: Princeton WordNet Source: Random House Dictionary
55. The group tasked with web management must also be organizationally agile
67. Manifestation of Agility 1 Recognize the web is morethan a marketing tool. Marketing is just one component of a successful web strategy
68. Manifestation of Agility 2 Lose control. Full control is difficult in the academic community, and misguided Empowerment vs. limitation Governance vs. government Guiding vs. requiring Advising vs. insisting
69. Manifestation of Agility 3 Let strategic tools foster positive outcomes Consider: Intuitive newsletter generator A CMS that makes it easy to edit and understand Web services model
70. Lagrangianpoints of multi-site management “One of five points in the plane of orbit of one body around another (e.g., the moon around the earth) at which a small third body can remain stationary with respect to both.” Source: Oxford Source: NASA JPL
79. How we’ve found our Lagrangianpoint Out-of-box repeatable solutions including: Content management systems (Drupal) Research collaboration tools (Wikis) Hosting infrastructure (LAMP) Information architectures Content templates Student “army” with standard on-boarding procedures Central authentication management
80. Holistic approach to web management With 100+ websites, dozens of applications & countless organizations to support, there are few alternative approaches.
81. Finding your Lagrangian point (small/limited web management) Identify sources of technical expertise, and make contributions repeatable Codify processes, make them repeatable Embrace ‘web as a platform’ for common tasks Factor people, process, technology into large projects (e.g. contractor-supported web overhaul) Ask: Does every request/new requirement have a path to completion?
82. Finding your Lagrangian point (larger web management group) What are our common pitfalls and how can we empower our constituents to avoid them? “____ Department always produces poor quality newsletter or webpages” “Our technology consultation costs have skyrocketed” “University leadership imposes strict visual guidelines” “Our in-house IT team can’t keep up with changing technologies”
83. Finding your Lagrangian point (larger web management group) How can we structure our processes? Single front door Issue tracking Knowledge base What does our organization look like?
84. How are new projects chosen? How are new technologies chosen? Which comes first, content or function? How agile will this group be on the web?
91. Contact Ryan Dellolio The George Washington University Washington, DC ryan@gwu.edu (202) 994-5497
Hinweis der Redaktion
When we talk about higher education web management, what are we referring to.One off or standardEasy, or hardNew or oldCOTS or customWe’re tasked with all of itWeb output and goals alignNot intuitive, need goal oriented STRATEGIC approachWe’ve seen it all
“necessity of answering question” in typical academic fashionIf you;’re perfect, youre not working on the webExpand the agility definition
“This is us”Mid-to-large sized university
Web activity occurs at all levels at GW, and is largely decentralized. We represent a decent chunk of GW web activity, 60-70%What that means is lots of web output
From Chinese to Chemistry, from Sociology to StatisticsIn your time at GW every student will take a Columbian course
Give examples of each
Matrix Organization
I’m not crazy about pageview counts
What do we do on a daily basis?
This is the bread and butter of what we do
Immediate impact, realizable reward, big picture academic things. Inherently when you do these things, there's more risk
There’s a flipside to higher education
How normal industry or common sense might approach this problem
How academia sees theseissues. What questions might be asked. We don’t handle things in academia like we do outside.
How these requirements may (and have!) played out
Revision of earlier question
You might say higher education is a microcosm of real world web mgt, and that’s not untrue, but we must recognize the differences.
Now let’s first establish the importance of the web to higher education. This is where I prove the importance of the previous revised question. How does your average faculty member view the importance of the web?
If the web is not central to realizing that mission in the 21st century, I don’t know what is!
We have an email marketing system that allows tracking, saves money, conforms to standard ---- we, in a sense, compete with external services which, in our opinion, lower the standards for our departments
Or “How those tasked with web development for higher education should respond” Mission translation for GWU, eye opening, you can do the same
Such as revenue and profit. These loops are far expanded, but still exist. Compare to Amazon.
People, process, AND technology. Do not leave out any one of these three, stress the holistic approach. Explain combinations and how you might forget one or another.
Web governance is the intersection of people, process, technology. At GW we have all scenarios. These are recommendations
Including staffing structures, authority structures, control structures, user behaviors and patterns
Takeaway here is things are unpredictable in academia. Keep these and more in mind. Tools to track these things. If you think you know who’s browsing where, reexamine.
One of the largest pieces of advice I can give. We’ll see why traditional agility is a good thing, and then expand on agility.
Research/science not done in waterfall, therefore web to support it should not be either.
Our waterfall projects are usually over budget, past deadlines, miss requirements
We’re going to expand here on agility
Power in the second definition implies we can gain MORE from being agile
Agile AbeLEGS --- these are the things that must move quickly
These are take-aways. The web is more than a marketing tool, use it as such. Examples of additional metrics may include: how well are we responding, internal costs, efficiencies, etc. Recognizing the web is a more than a marketing tool allows us to break this cycle.
These are take-aways. So I pose to you.
These are take-aways
Culmination of navigating higher education web development.
Aforementioned tips, techniques, etc are ways of doing that“Fostering intra-University relationships…” physics dept example“Fostering extra-University relationships…” GWU site visits with Library of CongressKeep in mind when new requests, needs, priorities file in.
Imagine these requirements hitting your desk. As much of a mindset as it is a toolbox.
Federal work study
This MUST occur for management office of 200+ websites
“What does our organization look like?” continued in next slides.
Just some ideas on org structure. No silver bullet here. Exact titles will differ. Questions to ask yourself when deciding org structures.
CIO now at top
Now just a ‘slew of techies’.
We’re not perfect, we have a large job to do, we’re always improving! Inventory takes up the width of a classroom. 8pt font. Informational “brochure-ware” sites only.
