The College of Arts and Sciences Office of Educational Technology (eTech) requires that websites residing on its servers meet current standards for accessibility, responsiveness, content, and appearance.
To meet those standards, we require that the websites we host provide specific information on pages/posts within those sites, rather than via links to external sources. For other types of information, we leave up to you whether to provide the information directly or link out to it.
Basic (Required) Content
Following is the required bare-bones information that belongs on every A&S department website. This content must be provided on pages/posts within the department’s website.
- General information about the department (overview or about page)
- Mission statement
- Contact information for the department’s main office
- Clear identification of the chair and, if relevant, area or advising directors
- A single-page overview of tenured/tenure-track faculty members’ research interests and activities. Summarize each faculty member’s research in at most two sentences. Organize the information by sub-discipline. Visit other academic department websites, such as chemistry, English, history, physics, and political science, for recommended research page models.
- Profiles of all faculty and staff members who interact with students; each profile must include at least a photo, full name, job title, email, and phone number
- Descriptions of academic programs offered; this page should at least state which degree programs the department offers and list all applicable majors, minors, concentrations, and the like
- A giving page that includes a link to UA’s online donation site and, if you are seeking donations to funds other than your general gift fund, descriptions of each fund to help donors choose.
- For departments with graduate programs, graduate recruiting content recommended by the UA Graduate School (to the extent appropriate to the department)
- The department’s College-produced video.
NOTE: Sites external to the department’s A&S-hosted website may not be used as the sole means of providing any of this information. Faculty and staff members who wish to link to their personal websites (e.g., blogs, people.ua.edu sites, research group websites) may do so within their department profiles; the “website” field in the profile form was created specifically for this purpose. Do not redirect users to a personal site through any link on a faculty/staff profile.
Recommended Information
We recommend that department websites offer the following information (where applicable).
If any of this information exists on other websites, you may choose to link out to those sites instead of duplicating the info. Sometimes this is the best way to ensure that the information remains up-to-date. (One example: academic program requirements in the catalog.) Bear in mind, however, that making users click through to a non-department site takes them away from the department’s site and may be off-putting to users whose Internet use is complicated by device, connection, or disability.
- Faculty office hours
- Faculty CVs (as accessible PDF or Word-compatible files)
- Links to department-run social media accounts
- Descriptive information about lecture series and similar recurring events
- Degree program information that includes examples of jobs for which the program prepares students (Info that helps students understand your discipline and how it fits into the working world adds value to your site.)
- Descriptions of research and service programs, centers, and institutes (interdisciplinary ones are OK to include, but try to limit your description to your department’s involvement instead of describing the full scope of the center’s activities; when such centers have their own websites, link to them)
- Information about service/outreach projects
- A description of facilities and equipment (might include buildings, labs, software, classrooms, study/practice space, UA facilities such as libraries)
- Information about student organizations advised by department faculty
- Information about scholarships, assistantships, and fellowships, including application details
- A linked list of online resources students may find useful (An annotated list is even better!)
- Information about any other special programs, features, activities, or requirements of your department
For Departments with Graduate Programs
If you want to improve or expand your website’s content for graduate students, check out Emphasizing Graduate Recruitment, eTech’s guide to fine-tuning your website’s appeal for prospective graduate students. A companion page, The Graduate School’s Recommendations combines suggestions from the UA Graduate School with implementation tips from eTech.
Information to Include if You Can Sustain It
Web content does not create itself. If you already produce this kind of information on a regular, consistent basis, great — include it! If you don’t, or you aren’t sure whether you can continually refresh this info on your site, proceed with caution. Don’t let your enthusiasm obligate you and your staff to years of extra work (or saddle you with a perpetually outdated site).
- News about faculty, student, and staff accomplishments
- News about research projects
- A calendar of events and deadlines
- The department’s newsletter or other publications (PDFs are okay here, but they must be made accessible.)
- Video or audio of your department’s activities (NOTE: All videos posted to College websites must include captions, and transcripts must be provided. We’ll be happy to discuss your options for creating captions.)
Information to Leave out if You Can Part with It
- Course descriptions, core requirements, other information provided in UA catalogs (Link to the relevant pages of the undergraduate/graduate catalog.)
- College or University policies or procedures (Link to them instead.)
- Forms originating at the College or University level (Again, link to them.)
- Deadlines, schedules, and timetables that are not department-specific and are subject to frequent change. Putting these mid-paragraph on static pages dates your site very quickly, plus you have to try to remember where you put these dates so you can change those pages (Better: link to relevant portions of registrar.ua.edu, for example, or express deadlines in terms not specific to a particular year, e.g., “the application deadline is in early April of each year.” Use your site’s calendar to communicate deadlines.)
- PDFs, Word documents, and other files users must download to view (These are lousy for users on mobile devices and users with disabilities.)
- Graphics, photo illustrations, or other complex visual elements that are time-sensitive or require the expertise of a third party to produce or update
- Anything that contains FERPA information about students or that for any other reason must be protected (This information belongs in your department’s share drive or a UA Box account.)
A Final Word about Forms
Build your forms in Qualtrics, please. Gravity Forms, the plugin A&S has long used to build the various forms departments put on their websites, is neither accessible nor mobile-friendly. Qualtrics, on the other hand, is fully accessible and mobile friendly, plus it’s available for free through the University’s license.