Marketing Procedures

1. Introduction

This draft proposes a general marketing editorial, content, and access policy. The ultimate goal of the policy is to provide effective, usable, and consistent marketing materials for the whole of the College of Education. Toward that end, the policy attempts to define editorial control and style guidelines, site hierarchy, channels for content publication, and roles and responsibilities for the COE marketing team.

2. Vision statement

Information on print materials and the website should be parallel, ensuring a consistent, accurate message.

3. Website audience

The COE websites are designed to serve a variety of audiences. These key publics have been defined through both web analytics and COE goals.

• Prospective students, faculty, and staff
• Current students
• Faculty/staff
• Alumni/friends
• Community members and partners

4. What belongs on the COE website (www.pdx.edu/education)?

As the primary source of information about the COE, the school's website should include:

• Official program, faculty, course, and degree information
• Departmental and general school of education information (such as history, location, facilities, etc.)
• General resources and policy information of interest to prospective students, current students, and faculty (e.g. computer resources, forms, links to outside resources, links to other campus resources, handbooks etc.)

Each program and department should have one easily identified landing (recruitment) page for the purpose of providing an overview to visitors, linking from other COE, PSU, and non-PSU sites, and a URL for publishing in print documents.

As part of our service level agreement with OIT, it should be clear that any official COE site requests should be coordinated with COE WebTeam.

Faculty webpages and profiles

All faculty members should submit information to the COE WebTeam for a profile in Drupal. This profile will be linked from the faculty member’s name in the faculty/staff directory and the profile syndication throughout the COE website.

Faculty are provided space to maintain personal websites or wikis that include basic information about their courses, areas of interest, scholarship and research, contact information, and office hours. Faculty pages might also include links to web resources relevant to students, current course syllabi, etc. The link to this website will be included as part of the contact information on the faculty profile page.

The COE WebTeam will be responsible for making requested changes to faculty profiles on the COE website.

COE interactive media sites

The COE actively maintains and publishes content on a blog, Facebook, Flickr, and Issuu. Refer to the COE Interactive Media Policy for use and content guidelines.

5. COE online components

"The COE website" refers to the collection of all official COE-related program, department, or organizational websites. All official COE sites should be under the umbrella control of the WebTeam, and should operate under this COE web policy.

"A COE web component" or "a COE website" refers to a sub-section of the COE site. (Blog, Facebook, Flickr, Issuu, etc).

"An external site" is a site operated by COE staff or students but not directly representing a COE program or department. An example would be a student organization or an inter-departmental program not directly under the COE. These sites may have COE-related content or links but are not under the ultimate control of the COE WebTeam (course/professor wiki, blog, Facebook, etc).

6. COE Website editorial guidelines

COE WebTeam members will follow PSU University Communications' Editorial Style Guide as a basic style reference unless otherwise noted. The UCOMM Editorial Style Guide is located at: http://www.pdx.edu/university-communications/

For web-specific writing issues (i.e., writing for effective website usability), the COE will follow industry usability and accessibility best practices as suggested by the representative sites listed below. The COE WebTeam will keep these references up-to-date through coordination with department chairs and program leaders.

For multi-page rewrites or redesigns, authors should meet the COE WebTeam during the planning stages to review best practices for usability, accessibility, navigation, and consistency with other COE pages. All major revisions will be edited for grammar, consistent voice, and site consistency by an editor.

Preparing content for the web:

• http://www.pdx.edu/university-communications/

Writing for the Web:

• Jakob Nielsen's Articles on Writing for the Web: www.useit.com/papers/webwriting
• Jakob Nielsen's How Users Read on the Web: www.useit.com/alertbox/9710a.html

Design for Web Accessibility:

• Mark Pilgrim's Dive into Accessibility: http://diveintoaccessibility.org
• Oliver Reichenstein's The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard: www.informationarchitects.jp/100e2r

7. COE web roles and responsibilities

COE Webmaster

• High-level editorial site control/authority (following COE policies and guidelines)
• Responsible for major site maintenance and IT liaison, including new URL requests
• Responsible for major editorial control and policy development
• Responsible for site navigation, information architecture, linking to external sites
• Works with section coordinators as necessary

Department chairs

• Serve as the content authority for the assigned section (accuracy and appropriateness)
• Approve changes and forward changes to the COE WebTeam
• Serve as the primary point of contact for the specific program section of the site
• Responsible for section content - accuracy, appropriateness, consistency, etc.
• Authorizes or approves updates or new pages to the section

8. Website policy for programs and student groups

The College of Education follows Portland State University guidelines for website design as outlined on pages 32-33 in the Identity Standards outlined by University Communications http://www.pdx.edu/university-communications/downloads. All program and student group websites that are associated with the COE must meet the “website design minimum requirements” that include:

• PSU header
• COE site header
• PSU footer
• PSU colors and fonts
• Copyright free or approved photography

The general identity guidelines are available through the University Communications website: http://www.pdx.edu/university-communications/.

Website requests must be approved by the WebTeam, linked to the COE website, and editing access given to the COE WebTeam to assure assistance in creating and maintaining the site.

9. Page updating process in detail

Authority

Content changes must be authorized by department chairs. Revisions are copy edited and formatted for the web by the COE WebTeam.

How to submit a request (must go through chair)

1. Online – Email minor changes or scanned page mark-ups to coe-marketing@pdx.edu.
2. In-person – Deliver paper copies of changes to Daryn Lee in FAB 220F.

Materials needed to request a change:

1. Printed copy of original web page with marks indicating requested changes or email describing simple change
2. Text document for changes involving substantial amounts of text or for new pages/sites (submit document either as email attachment or paper copy with shared-directory file path included)
3. New versions of any additional documents (pdf, images, etc.)
4. Your name, phone extension, URL of page(s) to be updated, and requested place on web (pdx.edu, blog, Facebook, etc.)

What happens after your request is submitted?

1. Scope of change and content is reviewed for consistency and impact on existing pages
2. Follow-up meeting with requestor if needed
3. Changes are internally edited for grammar, consistency, and PSU style
4. Change is made
5. Review/final edit
6. Requestor is notified of completed change via email.

10. General content types: