Web Strategy and Development Blog

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.

Missouri State courses featured in iTunes U

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Missouri State currently has a podcast as well as two courses featured in iTunes U. Todd Daniel’s Great Ideas in Psychology podcast is featured on the homepage of iTunes U, while Dr. Wyrick’s Principles of Macroeconomics and Dr. Kaufman’s Introduction to Philosophy have been featured in this month’s iTunes U Spotlight.

itunes_intro

Congrats and thank you to our faculty members who provide us with great audio and video content for iTunes U. If you’re interested in becoming a content provider for Missouri State on iTunes U, please visit our iTunes U page to learn more, as well as the Contribute to iTunes U page when you are ready to submit content.

Missouri State University News Site Updated

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NewsThe updated version of the Missouri State University News web site went live on Monday, August 3rd. The new site utilizes WordPress as a publishing platform with a custom design and interface. Since the updated site only contains news content, a separate web site was also created for the Office of University Communications in Web Press.

Along with a new layout and design, the updated News site also has these new features:

  • Featured Story
    There is a new area on the front page that allows for a featured story that includes an image associated with it.
  • Podcasting
    There is a new Podcast section on the website that includes both audio and video podcasts. Users can listen to or watch the three most recent podcasts on the front News page by clicking on the name of the podcast to stream it in their web browser. An option to subscribe to the podcast is also available through RSS.
  • Search Function
    Users can now search within the News site itself by typing in a keyword in the ‘Search News’ search box in the grey bar at the top of the page.
  • Consolidation of content
    The previous content areas of Faculty & Staff Accomplishments, Student Accomplishments, and the Out In Front blog have now been consolidated into an overall Accomplishment category.
  • Integration of Audio and Video
    There is a simple way to add audio and video content to a news release, whether that be the main focus of the news release or supplemental material. Any audio or video included in a news release will be embedded in that story and include an audio or video player so users can stream the media from the page they are viewing.
  • Multiple Archives
    Content is archived by the month it was posted as well as by news category.
  • Linking to other Missouri State Social Media sites
    There is a new section called Missouri State Media that includes new icons and links to other University social media sites such as Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, iTunes U, and Blogs.
  • Tags
    All news releases and posts are now tagged with keywords. Users can use these tags to find similar articles with the same tags, searching for content with specific tags, or to see all posts with a particular tag. The most popular tags are shown on the front page of the News site, and every news release shows it’s tags at the bottom of the story. Users can also get an RSS feed of a particular tag by adding ‘feed’ to the end of the URL.
  • Multiple RSS Feeds
    There is an overall RSS feed which includes all news, as well as separate RSS feeds for each news category (News Releases, Hot Topics, and Accomplishments) and another RSS feed for podcasts.

This was a collaborative effort between the offices of Web and New Media and University Communications and could not have been accomplished without the help from all of the staff in both offices. I’d like to thank everyone in University Communications for all of their great recommendations and for coming along on the ride of taking the News web site to the next level.

iTunes U/Podcast Producer training in Chicago

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This week I spent 3 wonderful days in the Windy City to attend two separate Apple training sessions: one day of iTunes U training, followed by two days of training for Podcast Producer. Both sessions were great, if not very intense and overflowing with information. Thankfully I came home with hundreds of pages of printouts and nearly 2 gigs of coding and workflow samples, so I feel much more prepared to tackle the huge mountain of work we have in front of us.

I want to thank Keith Mountin and Mike Miley from Apple for doing a wonderful job, and feeding me for 3 straight days. During the training I created something like 80 podcasts of nothing but the following. It was a good week.

httpv://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=z4ysREh8gs4