SECTION 1100 – INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

 

1105 COLLEGE World Wide Web (WWW) SITE

 

POLICY

 

Recognizing that the world wide web quickly is becoming a primary information resource for the citizens of Georgia and the world, Georgia Perimeter College is committed to hosting/designing a web site that:

 

§         promotes the college as a whole as well as its initiatives, academic programs, events, faculty and staff, and students

§         functions as an efficient and effective educational tool, providing access to online courses and other educational resources

§         provides access to information and services for potential and current students

§         serves as a general source of information about Georgia Perimeter College.

 

The GPC web site is considered an official college publication. As a whole, the web site will adhere to the same standards Georgia Perimeter has established for published forms of information. Its design, graphics, and content will be visually appealing, well-written, well-organized and comply with appropriate legal and college guidelines.

 

Those faculty and staff members responsible for creating pages for GPC’s web site are encouraged to design the pages and any links so that they are easily accessible and particularly useful to prospective students and first-time online visitors.  Keeping the web site’s content current is a high priority, and web authors are encouraged to update their pages as often as is reasonable.

 

Georgia Perimeter College reserves the right to regulate access to links, other servers, and the content of its web site.

 

Guided by a standing Web Steering Committee comprised of individuals representing a variety of college departments, Georgia Perimeter is committed to constantly assessing the content, functionality, accessibility, usability, and future direction of its web site.

 

PROCEDURE

 

The college’s world wide web (www) site must be monitored to ensure security, accuracy and consistency. Procedures have been established to support the development and maintenance of the college web site.

 

A.     Minimum Services Provided

 

The Office of Information Technology will provide leadership, management and serve as a clearinghouse and source of technical support for all departments responsible for posting information on the college’s web site.  Working in cooperation with other departments and individuals, the Office of Information Technology will maintain primary responsibility for the quality and presentation of the college’s web site.

 

Areas to be addressed by GPC’s web site include, but are not limited to, information about the college, admissions and registration, academic programs and services, continuing education, student resources, student life, college services, and faculty/staff resources.

 

At every service level, the college will provide a designated e-mail address; the person identified will be responsible for responding to any inquiries.  All inquiries will be handled in a manner and time deemed reasonable by the responding department.  Content shall be kept current with specific periodic updates; the activities and responsibilities of the individual departments may determine the required frequency of updates.  At a minimum content must be reviewed for update every term.

 

Access to content will be provided through a search engine, personnel directory, and other navigational tools and aids.  These tools and aids will be reviewed by the Web Steering Committee for continuing suitability.

 

B.     Management Structure

 

The web site for Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) belongs to the institution. In order for it to be successful, its creation and maintenance must be a collaborative effort. Two groups will be formed to ensure an effort that is representative of the college as a whole:

 

Web Steering Committee – To be made up of appointees by the vice presidents and provosts of the college with the assistant vice president for information technology serving as chair. This group is charged with the following responsibilities:

§         Defining the mission, goals and objectives of the site.

§         Developing and recommending policies/standards.

§         Overseeing and managing the intellectual content and structure of the web site.

 

Web Technical Committee – To be made up of appointees by the assistant vice president for information technology, who will also appoint a chair. This group is charged with the following responsibilities:

§         Guiding and implementing technical development and support.

§         Developing/recommending policy for technical areas.

§         Identifying, prioritizing and solving technical problems and needs.

 

C.     Web Support

 

Under the direction of the Web Steering Committee and in consultation with the Office of Public Relations, the Office of Information Technology (OIT) will develop and maintain the architecture and manage the content of GPC’s central web space. These responsibilities most notably include, but are not limited to, creating, maintaining, and managing top-level GPC home pages. These pages include the "core pages" (as specified by the Web Steering Committee) as well as pages directly linked to the core pages. Additional responsibilities include:

 

§         Providing the technical infrastructure necessary to use and manage the college web site.

§         Implementing standards and providing a basic level of support and standard tools to meet technical needs.

§         Implementing, maintaining and monitoring security measures.

§         Working with the Web Technical Committee and Web Steering Committee to maximize efforts.

§         Managing the structure and content of the college web site.

§         Offering training classes for web development for faculty and staff.

 

OIT will assist departments, offices and units of the college with establishing a web presence according to the direction and requirements of the Web Steering Committee. The currency of material on existing pages or the addition of pages not requested by the Web Steering Committee are the responsibility of the respective department, office or unit.

 

D.     Management Considerations

 

Generally, management of the web site relates to issues of content, format and technical considerations. Procedures for the following areas are to be developed:

 

§         The college has an interest in how it is perceived to the general public.  The proliferation, registration and access to web servers accessible from off campus is to be regulated.

§         Uniform specifications for development tools, naming conventions, directory structure, scripting languages, browsers, graphics, colors, style, etc. are to be developed.

 

The college reserves the right to restrict access to unauthorized web services operating on campus, and to disable links and pages.

 

The Office of Information Technology, in conjunction with the Office of Public Relations will prepare and publish (electronically via the college web site) a handbook, Standards and Guidelines for Web Publishing at Georgia Perimeter College. This document will provide additional detail about the provisions set forth in this policy. This document is to be reviewed and updated annually or more frequently if appropriate.

 

 

Adopted by the College Advisory Board, July 27, 2000