Web Strategy and Development News

Sustainability Web Site Updated

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Sustainability Web SiteThe Sustainability web site has been updated with new media and a new look. You can access it at http://www.missouristate.edu/sustainability/.

The new design incorporates an updated navigation structure as well as feeds of blog news and events.

The entire site is within Web Press. The changes to the site design were done completely through CSS.

Lindsay Winchester designed the look of this site and its new media counterparts. Students Greg Bartlett and Ray Lehnhoff coded the CSS content and converted content within Web Press. Brad Mitchell set up the new media components. Chad Killingsworth coded the new calendar feed. Brian Heaton coded the social media buttons.

New Media Support

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The Office of Web and New Media recently overhauled our new media support web site. It now offers guidelines, recommendations, examples and resources on a variety of social media and multimedia topics:

Twitter Support

YouTube SupportWe’ll continue to update and enhance these pages.

You can also keep up with new media (and web) tips and resources by subscribing to the Web and New Media blog, following MSUWEB on Twitter or referencing our Delicious bookmarks.

Re-purposing videos from Inside Missouri State

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This post will give you step-by-step instructions on how to embed the videos from Inside Missouri State on your University web site. There are five marketing message videos, one for each of the first five sections of the site, as well as testimonial/spotlight videos that correspond to each marketing message on the left of these sections. You are free to include any of these videos on your University website. Here’s how:

  1. The videos are hosted on Missouri State’s iTunes U site. You will need the URLs for these videos to embed them on your site. First ensure that the iTunes software is installed on your computer, and then visit http://itunesu.missouristate.edu and click on the button labeled ‘Open iTunes U: Public Access.’ This will open iTunes on your computer, and automatically navigate to Missouri State on iTunes U.
  2. Now that iTunes is open to Missouri State’s page, click on the section labeled ‘About Missouri State,’ which is in the first content area called ‘Welcome.’ You will see multiple tabs in the About Missouri State section. The tab labeled ‘Inside Missouri State’ houses the five marketing message videos from Inside Missouri State, and the tab labeled ‘Spotlights’ houses the testimonial videos from Inside Missouri State (they are the first six videos under this tab).
  3. Find the video you wish to use on your site, ensuring that the correct tab where it is located is selected and open in iTunes. At the top of the page is a ‘Subscribe’ button. Right-click on this button, and select ‘Copy Link.’
  4. Open your web browser, and paste the link you just copied from iTunes into the address bar and press Enter. You will now see the RSS Feed of the tab you had open in iTunes U. Find the video you wish to embed on your site, and copy the URL of that video. The video URLs should all end with ‘encolusure.mp4.’

Now that you have the URL to the video copied, you need to paste that URL into the video player. In Web Press, you will use a content class called ‘Video Player – MP4 or FLV.’ The instructions below will show you how to embed the video using this player in Web Press.

If you have a University site that does not use Web Press, the embed code can be provided to you. Please send an email request to bradmitchell@missouristate.edu if you would like to use the video player embed code on your site outside of Web Press.

To embed the video in your Web Press page:

  1. Open the Foundation Page of the web site that you want to edit.
  2. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and click Edit List of Content Pages. The Edit Link Element page opens.
  3. On the Edit Link Element page, click Create and Connect Page. The Content Class Groups page opens.
  4. In the top portion of the screen, click the General Pages group.
  5. In the bottom portion of the screen, click Video Player – MP4 or FLV.
  6. Type in a headline. This headline can not seen by users and is used for searching only.
  7. Open Edit Video Settings Via Form and paste the video URL you copied from iTunes.

(More information on using the MP4/FLV Video Player in Web Press can be found at http://webpress.missouristate.edu/VideoPlayerMp4Flv.htm)

Also note that you can use the above instructions to embed any video that is hosted on Missouri State’s iTunes U site. Simply find the video you wish to embed on your site, and then follow the above instructions.

iTunes U Artwork Updated

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Last week we updated all of the artwork for our Complete Public Courses in iTunes U. Here are a few examples of the new artwork:

telecourse-tale3superpowerstelecourse-surveyofAstronomytelecourse-missouriGovtelecourse-introductiontoReligion

We have already seen a jump in views and downloads for some of our courses: the Classical Mythology course by Dr. Joseph Hughes is in the Top 20 Downloads for all of iTunes U, and is currently the #1 Download in the Literature category in iTunes U.

iTunes U Top Downloads

Inside Missouri State Microsite Launched

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Earlier this month, the University launched a microsite,  Inside Missouri State, that correlates with the Undergraduate Admissions Guide. This was a collaborative project between the Offices of Admissions, Web and New Media and Publications.

Inside Missouri State HomepageInside Advantage Section

A few highlights:

  • This new site is meant to be a standalone, self-contained microsite. It’s like a advertisement about Missouri State. We link out to several standard Missouri State web pages, but the design used on this microsite will not be reused elsewhere.
  • The content within the microsite was repurposed from the printed Undergraduate Admissions Guide. This allowed us to reuse a lot of excellent content that Admissions and Publications had already produced and coordinated.
  • There are five marketing message videos, one for each of the first five sections of the site. There are also videos for the spotlights on the left of these sections. The video work was done by Brad Mitchell and student Carlynn Forst, with script help from Michelle Rose.
  • The design was done by Lindsay Winchester, in coordination with Veronica Adinegara’s printed Viewbook designs. Additional support was provided by student Dustin Jacobs.
  • The coding of the site was done by student Ray Lehnhoff, with oversight by Chad Killingsworth and Sara Clark.
  • The main route into this microsite is from the Admissions homepage, which has a new Flash element that links into the microsite.
  • Many of the features of this microsite can be reused in other sites, such as the spotlight videos which are in iTunesU and can be used within Web Press.

University departments are welcome to point their future undergraduate students to the Inside Missouri State microsite.