It’s Alive!

Purdue University College of Technology is up and running on Twitter.

Follow us: http://twitter.com/TechPurdue

And don’t forget to check out our FaceBook page: College of Technolgy on FaceBook

New site usage statistics

After a few days of visits to our new website, I was happy to see some good reports in our analytics program.

Some fun statistics: 2008 – 2009 Comparison

Prospective students on the prospective student page:
Up 327%

Bounce Rate (people leaving immediately after viewing 1st page)
Down 146%

% Exits from the home page:
Down 89%

Time spent on Home Page:
Down 51% (this is good, it’s a landing page that doesn’t have the info they came for – we want them to go to another page to get that)

We’ll continue to monitor the performance and usage, but these early reports are promising.

New Website Template and Navigation

Well, it’s time. After lots of research, user testing, feedback, some programming, and more testing, we are in the process of updating the website templates and navigation for the main CoT site. If you are experiencing an error with the site or have a question, please email me mbosma@purdue.edu.

The main CoT site will be completely updated before students return. Department and statewide templates will be ready for implementation in the next few weeks.

Thanks for your patience and for all your input so far.

-Matt

Security Reminder

To: All student services advisors and others handling student data.

Do not email spreadsheets containing student data!

We should never compromise student data, and email is particularly vulnerable. Never email student ID#, names, email addresses, mailing addresses, etc. A good place to post this data for sharing is the College of Technology Intranet site. If you need to set up a secure location for sharing data, please contact Matt Bosma (mbosma@purdue.edu)

To review university policies, please visit http://www.itap.purdue.edu/tlt/policies.cfm

New Communications Survey – How Connected Are You?

Take our communications survey on the CoT Intranet. it’s quick (only one question) and allows comments and discussion.

https://share.tech.purdue.edu/Lists/How%20Informed%20Are%20You/overview.aspx

Log-in with your career account: “onepurdue\username”

New Facebook Group Gaining Momentum

The College of Technology recently created a new group on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=15467539572

With the 2008/2009 school year just ahead of us, we’re hoping new students will ask questions and get a little insight from alumni and faculty/staff before showing up in August. Feel free to join the group and offer some suggestions to incoming freshmen & upperclass. We’ll also promote events and ocassionally send out important announcements to group members.

The group is also a great way to stay in touch with alumni. Most of the current members (100+) are alumni.

New Blog for TOTAL Summer Camp Program Now Available

We’ve recently launched a new blog for the TOTAL summer camp. Check it out here: http://cottotal.wordpress.com/. This blog will allow campers, counselors and leaders the ability to post pictures and video, and write about daily activities. It also allows comments so parents can ask questions and campers can write about their experience during and after the camp.

If you like this blog and want help setting up one for your project, contact Matt Bosma in Knoy 150.

Dynamic News Display on Department and Location Sites

In an effort to provide appropriate news coverage for your department, the communications team has made some enhancements to your web site.
 
We have recently added a news section to your home page that displays the most recent news specifically related to your department. In addition to reading the news headlines directly on your page, visitors can subscribe via an RSS feed from your department’s home page. This will allow visitors to read the news using their favorite RSS reader online.
 
The news on your page is being generated from the College of Technology news database. To add news, use the online Submit News form: http://www.tech.purdue.edu/News_and_Events/Submit_News/
(This form can also be accessed from the “Contact Us” tab on the College’s home page.)
 
How it works:
When you submit news, the Communications department will be notified to review it. We will categorize the news for departments and statewide locations, and determine if it’s appropriate for college wide distribution. You can also pre-select the distribution options including departments and locations on the submit news form. If a formal news release is drafted, you will be contacted for input and during the review process. Once the news item is approved, we’ll publish it and it will be automatically added to your home page and RSS feed.
 
What is RSS and why is it on my web page?
RSS stands for Really Simple Syndication. It’s a way for visitors to subscribe to web page content that is updated frequently. Visitors can subscribe to multiple RSS feeds and read them all in one place, rather than going to multiple web sites to see if anything has changed. You can learn more about RSS feeds on the college’s website blog here: http://cotweb.wordpress.com/2008/05/01/rss-feeds-explained/

 

 

 

New RSS Feed Available for TCN

There is now an RSS feed available for TCN. Get the news online at the TCN website, or subscribe.

Submit News Specific for Locations and Departments

Use the submit news feature to submit news for your department. It will be stored in the CoT news database and be available in RSS feeds and on the department site.

watch the video to learn how to select specific departments and locations: