New websites for a variety of College departments will be reconfigured in the fall, with results that will affect everything from prospective students' first online interaction with Dartmouth to seniors' job searches. Among the sites currently undergoing revision are the College's official website, Blackboard and Student Assembly's webpage.
Web design team participants have said the widespread changes initiated by multiple parties do not reflect an organized effort to revamp College-affiliated websites. Many said they hope to improve their organizations via their online platform and cited the ever-changing nature of technology as motivation for the upgrades.
"It's been several years since we did a refresh of the look and feel of [Dartmouth.edu]," Director of Academic and Campus Technology Services William Garrity said. "Web technology changes pretty quickly, so I'm sure we wanted to stay current."
Computing Services and the Office of Public Affairs have been collaborating on the College website's redesign, which is still in the planning stages, according to Garrity.
The College is aiming to correct the current disjointedness of its homepage and make the entire design more visually appealing.
The College will also review the use of Blackboard as its "learning management system" after its contract expires at the end of 2013.
Students and faculty have already joined a steering committee chaired by professor Christiane Donahue to determine whether Blackboard will be replaced. Additional input will be gathered through focus groups and online surveys, Garrity said.
"Anything that important to Dartmouth when it comes time to renew a business arrangement or a contract we stop and think," he said. "The outcome of all this could well be that Blackboard is the best product for Dartmouth and we're going to keep it, but it could be that we're going to do something else."
The steering committee is currently investigating which features students and faculty want from a learning management system, one of which Garrity said he anticipates will be a social media platform, among other additions. One competitor, Lore, is already establishing a presence on campus and could rank among the College's options, he said.
Lore performs many of the same functions as Blackboard but has social media components such as the ability to chat online with classmates and "follow" users in a manner similar to Twitter. The company refers to itself as a "social network for higher education."
The Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Society is currently promoting Lore across campus in an attempt to encourage faculty and students to use it in their classes, according to organization president John Michel '14.
"The classes that I've gained the most from at Dartmouth and in high school have been the ones where I connected most with the students around me, and I think Lore capitalizes on that," Michel said. "It lowers the barriers to entry for communication."
Physics professor Ryan Hickcox used Lore in his Astronomy 15 class last spring and said that while it worked for the 10 students in the class, it would be hard to use in larger classes because it is not an official College system that automatically enrolls students.
"It was very intuitive and easy to use, which is what makes it better than Blackboard," Hickcox said. "The reason I didn't use it this term is that it has one major drawback, which is that it isn't connected to the course registration system at Dartmouth."
One aspect of computing at Dartmouth has already changed. Students used a new version of the Office of the Registrar now the only source of the Organizations, Regulations and Courses manual, which is no longer distributed in print form to elect courses this fall.
Following their work with students at the beginning of the term, Deans Office Student Consultants provided feedback to the Undergraduate Deans Office regarding the new site. Comments were forwarded to the Registrar's office, which made changes such as listing specific course titles next to their corresponding number on the departmental subpages.
"From my experience, it's been hard for '16s to come in and not really know how to navigate all the different websites we have," DOSC Jill Dunne '13 said. "I have no idea why [the Registrar] would change it this seems to be more buttons to press."
While Dunne criticized the lack of student feedback solicited before the website was made, DOSC Dimpy Desai '13 said she felt that the opportunity to provide comments to the Deans Office was helpful and that the new website is a success.
"It's a constant process of making sure the website is meeting the needs of students," she said. "I think that the information that's more important to students is easier to find now."
Career Services also recently updated its website with the intention of making navigation easier and highlighting nontraditional job and internship opportunities, according to Career Services Co-Director Monica Wilson. The new version was launched at the beginning of the summer, and the office is continuing to accept feedback and make changes.
"We recognized the need to revamp our website well over a year ago," Wilson said. "We wanted to make it easier for students who are new to Career Services to learn how to use our resources."
Student Assembly President Suril Kantaria '13 cited similar motivations easier navigation, better visuals and highlighting new features as motivation for the Assembly's own website redesign. He also noted that the website will feature social media such as YouTube videos and a link to the Assembly's Facebook page.
"One of the greatest challenges for SA is communication with students, and I think with a website that students use and could set as their homepage, the communication channel becomes clear between Student Assembly and students," Kantaria said.
Students and faculty said they have begun to notice the trend of digital renovations.
