Rethinking the Website as an Educational Technology Resource

David Moretti, Director of Digital Marketing and Technology, at Columbia Business School

David Moretti, Director of Digital Marketing and Technology, at Columbia Business School

As colleges and universities settle back into the traditional face-to-face modality of classes, the many platforms, apps, online tools, and learning management systems adopted during the pandemic have become a regular part of the classroom. Moving course materials online, teaching synchronous or asynchronous online classes, and making use of a myriad of web-based systems became the norm for the past couple of years.

As campuses transitioned from fully online or hybrid back to face-to-face or in-person classes, some elements of the transition have not been so smooth. I have run into the situation where we want to provide our students with the best possible tools to succeed on campus but how we present those tools and support information can be confusing or difficult to find on our websites detracting from the student experience.

We have all heard from colleagues in student-facing offices or from faculty members on campus who complain their students cannot locate the resources on the website for a myriad of reasons. We look at analytics and see engagement on certain pages is below the desired level. We conduct surveys to collect feedback from students, faculty, and staff across campus to get their feedback. We look at our navigational structure, which causes frustration due to its enormity. We edit pages and create new pathways to access the resources in response to requests from the administration. In many cases, the “solution” created new issues to address.

One of my main concerns is ensuring our students can navigate our website to access all the resources they need that we offer anywhere from any device. For the most part, the needs of the students are relatively the same whether they attend undergraduate, graduate, or post-graduate schools.

“One of my main concerns is ensuring our students can navigate our website to access all the resources they need that we offer anywhere from any device.”

My approach to this issue has been to identify the needs, wants, and desires of both the student-facing offices and the students themselves. Next, we need to determine how we plan to deliver those resources. If we plan to deliver our resources via mobile apps, I press upon the need to provide a web-based student-friendly solution as well. If the decision is to use a student web portal to access all resources, I press upon the need to ensure navigation to the portal is clear and direct. One never knows how or where a student needs to gain access to the resources they need. It starts with understanding how we direct students to a desired resource be it through email, social media campaigns, on-campus digital signage, or in-class announcements. We must also know who are the offices communicating with the students, what messages they are sending, and which pages they are directing students to enter the site. The ultimate goal is to deliver a user experience that meets or exceeds the expectations of our students.

How do we do it? Collect links to all the resources students need to access. Categorize the links to make manageable “buckets”. Make use of user experience/user interface best practices to develop pages for these buckets. Start mapping a path backward – from the “bucket” to the main starting point (e.g., a landing page). Keep in mind how students will use the website. SEO strategies are important. Craft content that is easy to read that has a clear call to action. If a page is behind an authentication system, make sure there is content on the page informing students what resources are available upon successful login. Lastly, make certain pages are accessibility compliant and responsive.

Learning Management

Digital Signage