Tips for faculty webpagesThis page is dedicated to all the people I've been encouraging to get a website.
It's along the lines of: if I can do it, so can you.
This is my first website. I don't have previous computer experience beyond learning how to use one. (Well, the B.A. in journalism helped.)
As of December, 2002, ten months since starting this site,
the website overall had over 20,000 hits (not including pages students are required to visit for homework), I had 1,000 hits on each of a few pages including the Novice Swimming and Lifeguard Training pages and my home page had 4,000+.
I've had e-mail fan letters from off-campus and job offers from people who fopund the site (I was retained as an expert witness in a near-drowning lawsuit, which the good guys won. I have been a guest lecturer at Santa Clara University and taught for Los Gatos Recreation, the Fremont Union High School District and others).
In late October 2006 this website received its one millionth hit.
The History of swimming page I wrote to cover part of the curriculum for my swim classes is getting over 2,000 hits a month. Instructors at a Texas College and an eastern secondary school linked to my page on the history of swimming as homework for their students.
Isn't it time you got a website?
Occasionally staff development offers a free two-hour class to set it up.
Or you can do it yourself, see below.
Start at:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/
"Users with a little internet experience should be able to create their own sites."
Then go to:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/howto/createsite
Some of my pages are weblogs rather than a dissertation on one subject. (Web logs generally are logs of articles, websites people have found on various subjects, or some blogs are journals or diaries. Some of the blogs at my site are in business only when that class is in session, and will include an occasional class discussion page; others are ongoing, like this page.)
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Many people type 'Welcome to my homepage' or 'Welcome to this website' as the first line at the top of their homepage. But if a student or team member selects such a site as a 'favorite' the words in their list of favorites will be 'Welcome to.' If you write a first line that starts with your name, such as "Jane Faculty welcomes you..." then your name will be identified on their list of favorites.
De Anza has a page of photos of the college you can use. Find them at:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/resources/deanzaphotos
Faculty Website Support, with the whole training manual, can be found at:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/
Website support is strongly encouraging faculty members to use that site's web-based discussion feature to post support questions. Look at the site for Post Questions and Recent Discussion.
Since Manila does not have a spellcheck feature, faculty support gives advice on how to make do without it at:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/howto/spellcheck
In the first faculty webpages class we were taught to make a link to the De Anza homepage. I changed the link to go directly to registration information:
Registration steps are at: http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/admissions/
I thought it would be convenient for students to be able to go directly from my site to the schedule of classes for the particular classes I teach so I put direct links to the P.E. and Biol/Health sections of the schedule on a couple of my pages. Example:
For the Fall quarter 2002 Physical Education schedule of classes click on:
http://schedule.fhda.edu/FMDB/DAfallDept.fm?max=500&Department=P+E&sort=
You can make link(s) to whatever section of the schedule of classes by going to that section, copying the URL and following the directions in your manual.
HyperText Markup Language (HTML)is introduced in the brief manual supplied with the Manila class. It's how this
word
got into the center of the line (and how you can put pictures in the center of a page instead of the left hand side where they would go without your direction). If you lost your manual, the faculty website support for basic html, such as underline, bold or italic is at:
http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/howto/basichtmltags
For more HTML go to the Manila user's guide at:
http://manilanewbies.userland.com/usersguide/
scroll down to Appendix A and look at the three topics.
I first learned how to make a word blue or green or ... at a website from the University of Brighton, UK:
http://snowwhite.it.brighton.ac.uk/~mas/mas/courses/html/html1.html
Warning, some colors, like lime are not very readable on a white background, but purple or teal are okay if you don't use them too much.
(If you put your mouse on the rainbow colored line above or below, you will find that the title I gave it when I put it on my pages was 'moving rainbow line'. This is because it was originally an animated (moving) GIF. But when I narrowed it to fit on my pages it lost the animation. It turns out that when you re-size an animation it loses its movement and becomes the first image of the various images.)
The first photo most of us download to our sites is of De Anza from the De Anza website, so it is the correct size. The second one I tried to move to my site more than filled the screen (actually, only a corner of it was on the screen). I had scanned it and tried to move it directly to 'pictures.' Soon enough I learned to resize the scanned photos using Photoshop Elements. If you right click on an online photo and go to properties you can see the dimensions in pixels.
Remember, if you use too many large sized images, your page will take a long time for some people to download.
If you need an overhead photo of something for your page and the item is portable, take it to the stadium and put in on the ground at the soccer field side, then climb the bleachers and take the photo. Two examples are at: How to pitch the Cabela eight-person tent
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Personally check out other recommended websites before you link to them. Many of the sites recommended in our Wellness Center 'Instructor's Resource Guide' have good information, but they really exist mostly to sell some product or book. After you link, check to see that your link functions. Recheck links occasionally or just before you assign homework from them.
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I've been pleased at how quickly most sites have responded to my email requests for permission to use photos from their websites. Some (like the National Park Service) limit which I can use, others have said it's okay as long as they are not used for commercial purposes. Some ask for attribution, others don't. The maker of a product said "as long as ______ and its products are portrayed in a positive light, and the _____and ____ are being recommended for their intended purposes, permission granted."
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On August 17, 2002 I got an e-mail from the inventor of a product I had mentioned in my backpacking advice page. He let me know that the area code for a referral phone number I mentioned on the page had changed and thanked me for my good work. I imagine many people search for their products/services/names regularly to see if they are being mentioned.
When I look at the referrals to my site I note that many people search at a search engine for the answers to Red Cross tests, or at least sample questions, so I wrote a page of the same advice I give my students before an exam. It's at:
How to pass a Red Cross written test
and it had 8,600 hits as of June 2005, 19,000 by June 2006 and 40,000 by October 2007.
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Nov. 2002
I'm quite pleased with the Manila online discussion group I set up for one of my classes. My version of instructions for students on how to use it (some of which is a copy of Heidi King's material) is at: online discussions how-to
Were you working on your site and got a stiff neck? Try out the info at the De Anza ergonomics task force at:
http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/faculty/workplace/ergonomics.html
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I wised up and put in a complete index to the site in January 2003 when students complained that I have too many pages that aren't listed on the left hand column. I started by copying the complete list of Stories on to a new blank page and deleted the dates, etc. Then all I had to do was put quotation marks around each one and organize them. The result is at Site Index .
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webmonkey color codes are at:
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/color_codes/
De Anza's burgundy is #830330 and the yellow-beige is #FCFOD2
I made a page for myself so I could see what various colors actually look like at my pages when used for text. It's at: HTML color codes
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special characters are at:
http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/special_characters/
you can find instructions there to add ♥ ™ { ← £ © , umlauts, grave accents, etc.
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NOLO Press has a section on Internet Law.
Go to: http://www.nolo.com/index.cfm
go to patents, copyright and click on software and web development
Some of the most important rules there are:
1. Assume Others' Work Is Protected
3. When In Doubt, Seek Permission
and it has links to copyright collectives or clearinghouses
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http://www.chillingeffects.org/
"A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics.
Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you."
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MERLOT is a "free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Links to online learning materials are collected here along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments." (According to the choices we have for type faces, this sentence is in Trebuchet type.)
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po
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The index to De Anza professors' web sites (over 275 of them as of early 2005) is at: (According to the choices we have for type faces, this sentence is in Helvetica.)
http://faculty.deanza.edu/
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PageRank at Google explained
http://www.google.com/technology/
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Who links to you
http://www.google.com/help/features.html#link
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Detailed maps of the campus with the exact location of each room, are at:
http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/map/detailmaps.html
You can add a link to specific quad maps at pages for each of your classes. (This sentence is in Verdana.)
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According to Google: "Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site, which is the best way to ensure you'll be included in Google's results." (This paragraph is in Courier.)
http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html
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Your referers page lists the referrals in the last 24 hours from whatever source: a search engine, or someone who has linked to your site. Your most read messages page tells you how many total hits each of your top 50 pages has had. You can also see hourly hits by the hour for the last 24 hours. How to find these pages, what you might see there and the Google country abbreviations for referers are at: searchable faculty websites. (According to the choices we have for type faces, this paragraph is in Times New Roman.)
I've made a few borders like the ones above and below. They can be found at:
clipart borders
Photoshop Elements filters
One photograph of wildflowers growing from a crack in rock using different Adobe Photoshop Elements filters.
If you want to work on your De Anza College faculty website, but hide it from view to the world while you do, contact Drake Lewis. LEWISDRAKE@FHDA.EDU
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You might also be interested in:
Student attitudes about disruptive behavior
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Important notes from the portal about confidentiallity that also apply to your website:
"Student educational records are considered confidential and may not be released to a third party without the written consent of the student.
Do not share non-directory information from a student's education record such as grades or class schedules with parents--even if the student is under eighteen years of age. Refer the parents to the Office of Admissions and Records."
http://ets.fhda.edu/call_center/portalFERPA
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America believes in education:
the average professor earns more money in a year
than a professional athlete earns in a whole week.
Evan Esar (1899 - 1995)
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