Web Activities
at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies

The Andrew Young School of Policy Studies initiated a major upgrade of its web presence in CY 2000, effectively multiplying the college website content by a factor of sixteen, creating a streamlined and cohesive website able to expand in an organized fashion, and expanding linkages within the college, the university, and externally. Online academic materials fueled students with information; over half of requests for academic information packets were generated from online forms; and nearly 30,000 hits to the main page were garnered in the first seven months of measurement. An internal grant program encouraged faculty to expand online course materials, and was greeted enthusiastically by both students and faculty. Cynthia Blasdell is the College Web Coordinator.

College WebSite

The first priority of the college website upgrade was the establishment of a consistent look and navigational system for the main college site, to integrate well with department and center sites, and with distinct operations of the college, such as the academic programs and the college news. Previously published materials were key in fueling website content. First priorities were course catalog materials, the Experts Guide, The Briefing, and the Annual Report. A key focus was the strategic division of information into separate but linked pages, in order to foster an environment in which a maximum number of disparate groups across the college could link to information relevant to them. For example, lists of graduates and honors from the annual report were listed on a separate page, so that not only could they be linked within the annual report, but also by the Office of Academic Assistance website, or by individual student websites. Similarly, each story in the Briefing was placed on a separate page, available to be linked from faculty web pages, or to be referred to in e-mails to research associates. Suddenly, responding to student queries became much easier as information could be cited from one central, anytime-anywhere source. Greg Streib's organizational and design work from late 1999 on the college pages served as a launching pad for this development.

A systematic means of keeping the front college page current and "alive" included highlighted stories posted in tandem with each new issue of The Briefing. The news site was expanded, adding a listing of media hits to the pre-existing list of news releases and publications. A calendar of activities was added, and procedures put in place for linking to center and department event listings. In response to site visitors' most common request, a directory with full personnel contact information was added.

Academic materials were of high demand. Priority one was the development of a logical system for the update and "ownership" of course and degree description and requirements on the web. A challenge was marrying the philosophy of the web that detailed information not be repeated, with the needs of units to tie in to academic information seamlessly. Also key were the separation of official course requirement information from "flashy" recruiting information and "newsy" course updates.

These challenges were met with the following structure: One main academic directory included all of the detailed information, broken down further into the directories: courses, degrees, specializations, undergraduate degree requirements, and graduate degree requirements. The course directory is composed of course pages for each course taught, which are updated routinely with "newsy" information, and which are used as recruiting information. The degree directory contains pages geared toward prospective students. Specialization sites offer certain career focused groups within the college the place to display news and updates for students. Both the undergraduate and graduate requirements sites feature the current catalog copy. Links are available to earlier archived versions on the main GSU site. The sites for economics, public administration and urban studies, and the office of academic assistance all feature one course page and one degree page each. On these pages, relevant programs are briefly listed and linked to information within the academic directory. Extensive linkages added complexity to proofing online material; Arthur Turner assisted in checking linkages.

Beyond tight integration of information between internal units, efforts were made to tie college course pages into the developing GSU course infrastructure. The central GSU course schedule lists current, archived and upcoming courses. During registration, these lists are updated with official registration database information hourly. Andrew Young School course pages proved invaluable as links to and from this list. One unique page exists for each course, with information on instructors who commonly teach the course, interesting information about the course, key links to further college and departmental information, and a link back to the GSU course listing.

Initial steps in marketing the website included optimization of keywords embedded in html code within the college level pages, registration with key search engines, and identification of external linking opportunities. Web awareness and excitement were generated within the college in response to internal web updates. Counters were used on key pages to track traffic. In anticipation of the USNews fall judging, and with the goal of spreading awareness of the new college, an email introduction of the website was sent to 228 APPAM and NASPAA members, 485 APSA Public Administration members, and 29 APSA Public Policy members.

A necessity in creating maintainable web pages is the creation of set review periods - times when content providers are reminded to review their data and necessary changes are made. Examples of maintenance procedures created are the once-per-year review of academic course pages, and the once-per-semester review of the departmental sites. Certain changes are encouraged on an ongoing basis, including updates to the personnel lists, calendar, list of job openings, and notices of special events.

A Web Oversight Committee was established in fall of 2000. Members were identified from each unit, to include: Cynthia Blasdell, Jamie Boex, Wanda Cooley, Julie Hotchkiss, Angie Jackson, Susan Laury, Glenn Landers, Jeff Pruett, Joey Smith, and Greg Streib. The mission of the committee is to identify ways to optimize the audience experience and maximize traffic across all of the college, department and center pages. This involves identifying overlaps and linkages between the units.

Unit Level Websites

In general, most units within the college have created and maintained their own websites. For those that do not maintain their own sites and use the services of the college web coordinator, personnel have been identified as "owners" of the content, who are responsible for reviewing the site for accurate content, and initiating changes when necessary.

Webmasters and content coordinators across the college are:

Applied Research Center Council for School Performance		Angie Jackson (webmaster/web server administrator)
Aviation Programs		Bill McAllister (webmaster/content) Cynthia Blasdell (webmaster)
Economics		Julie Hotchkiss (content) Cynthia Blasdell (design & coding)
Environmental Policy Program		Kathy Banks (content) Kanyarat Sukudom (design and coding)
Fiscal Research Program Domestic Programs		Lakshmi Pandey (webmaster/web server administrator)
Georgia Health Policy Center		Gregory Moore (webmaster)
International Studies Program		Jamie Boex (webmaster/web server administrator)
Office of Community Outreach and Partnerships		Megan Griffiths (webmaster) Telesa Wilson (webmaster)
Program for Rehabilitation Leadership		Sally Siewert (webmaster/content) Cynthia Blasdell (webmaster)
Public Administration and Urban Studies		Amy Helling (content) Cynthia Blasdell (design & coding)
Research Atlanta		Janice Ransby (webmaster)
Systems Support		Jeff Pruett (webmaster)

Leading the way in early CY 2000 were the Fiscal Research Program, the Applied Research Center, the International Studies Program, and Research Atlanta websites. With active webmasters at the helm of each site, they served as good models for the work performed by other units during the year. The Fiscal Research Program hosted bios on each of its researchers and support staff, pdf and html versions of their archived reports, and write-ups on upcoming conferences, etc. In response to their frequent media attention, especially in conjunction with Council for School Performance Reports, The Applied Research Center offered a full review of their current projects, and timely media releases of new reports. The International Studies Program created a site full of information for prospective funding agencies, such as the World Bank and USAID, focusing on recent and upcoming training courses. Research Atlanta cooperated with Access Atlanta in bringing news, events and reports to the public in Atlanta.

Highlights of new web development activities across the college in CY2000 were:

• The Department of Economics expanded its site to include a Chair's welcome, a listing of job openings, a photo gallery of incoming Ph.D. students, and featured programs such as the South Africa study abroad program.
• The Department of Public Administration and Urban Studies added forecasted course schedules and alumni information to its thorough listing of course information and internship opportunities.
• The Office of Academic Assistance expanded its site, to include shortcuts to course and degree information, application materials, dissertation defense announcements, dissertation guidelines, etc.
• Specialization webpages were established for aviation, planning, and human resource development, featuring lists of classes, alumni information, photos, news items, etc.
• The newly established Flint River Water Planning and Policy Center developed a site.
• The Georgia Health Policy Center greatly expanded its site, including personnel lists, project lists, etc.
• The Environmental Policy Center updated its site with a newer streamlined look and expanded content.
• The Program for Rehabilitation Leadership expanded its content, listing personnel and project descriptions.
• The Information Center moved to its own site, and began expansion.

WebCT

WebCT is a tool that facilitates the creation of online educational environments, which offers a passworded space for faculty and students to chat, post messages, turn in class assignments, access grades, post group projects, etc. Faculty are able to monitor activity on the WebCT site, and students are able to receive immediate feedback as they progress through the course. While several faculty across the college were early adopters of WebCT, a focus of GSU and AYSPS is to increase the development of web-enhanced learning.

As part of an effort to expand usage of WebCT within the School, the Dean's office initiated a Summer 2000 WebCT Incentive grant program. As a dual objective of awarding early adopters and of creating a collaborative environment of assistance for new adopters, Paula Stephan led the School to adoption of a mentor/mentee structured grant program.

Three Mentors and seven Mentees applied and were funded. All mentees were asked to incorporate multiple features of WebCT into their course(s) such as the bulletin board feature, linked syllabus, use of quiz feature, chat rooms, etc. Mentors were chosen based on their previous WebCT experience. Mentors and Mentees were:

WebCT Mentees and Mentors*

Mentee	Course	Mentor(s)
Shiferaw Gurmu	ECON 3950, Introductory Econometrics and Applications
Julia Melkers	PAUS 8091, Communication in the Public Service	Greg Streib Ross Rubenstein
Judith Ottoson	PAUS 8521, Evaluation Research	Greg Streib Ross Rubenstein
David Van Slyke	PAUS 8111, Public Administration and Organizations	Greg Streib Ross Rubenstein
Sally Wallace	ECON 8450, Issues in Public Programs and Tax Policy	Julie Hotchkiss
Katherine Willoughby	PAUS 8161, Public Budgeting and Finance	Greg Streib Ross Rubenstein
Yongsheng Xu	ECON 4930/6030, Mathematical Economics/ Intro to Mathematics for Economists and ECON 8030, Mathematics for Economics	Julie Hotchkiss

* Shelby Frost, visiting instructor with the Department of Economics, also participated in WebCT mentor/mentee workshops and development activities.

Initial activities in preparation of course development included a day long training session taught by Paula Christopher, GSU WebCT administrator, in which basic skills were covered. This was followed with invited presentations by faculty from the School of Accountancy, who shared their WebCT successes. Faye Borthick, Professor, and Director of the new Teaching and Learning with Technology Center, spoke about her fully online course, and Carol Springer spoke about her increased student performance on tests as a result of the WebCT quizzing feature.

As mentors continued to set up their WebCT courses, the college computer support team led by Jeff Pruett purchased and loaded additional software on an as-needed basis (Dreamweaver, Frontpage, FTP, etc.). Both mentors and mentees frequented the GSU hosted WebCT brownbag meetings, in which policies and technologies related to WebCT were explored. Updates were distributed via email groups; and a multitude of training sessions were available (group, one-on-one, workshops, etc.). The GSU WebCT administrator was available to assist designers, and could log into courses to identify problems during phone calls with instructors.

AYSPS held two follow-up workshops, in which mentors and mentees discussed experiences, lessons learned, and impacts to the classroom. Final reports from mentees and mentors were turned in two weeks after the distribution of student evaluations of instructors. Comments from both students and instructors regarding the Summer 2000 WebCT Incentive Program were quite positive, including:

"All of the info that I need is available at the touch of a button." - Student from Julia Melkers' class, Effective Communication in Public Service

"I find that I am able to communicate with the professor better. It saves time and the professor is able to track who she has communicated with, along with her response and my question." - Student from Julia Melkers' class, Effective Communication in Public Service

"I found the WebCT support meetings helpful when I met not only with the experts but a similar faculty "type" to myself. Feeling surrounded by "techies" was more intimidating than helpful. Having mentors was critical to my staying involved." - Judith Ottoson

"One of the unexpected outcomes for me was seeing opportunities outside the university for WebCT. For example, a colleague from another university was linking an international course among Canada, the States, South Africa and a European country, and there was potential to get GSU into this mix through WebCT." - Judith Ottoson

"The bulletin board has also been great for answering questions about assignments that arise during the week. Rather than answering the same questions individually for many students, I encourage students to post their questions to the bulletin board... Then I'm able to answer for everybody at the same time." - Ross Rubenstein

"The bulletin board allowed me to keep students updated about my schedule and the schedules of our invited guest speakers. In addition, students provided feedback on speakers, continued discussions about a speaker's comments, and contact information with a short biography was distributed about each of the speakers. All of this contributed to our effectiveness in linking students with nonprofit community leaders, and assisting them in building their own networks. In one instance a speaker was so impressed with the questions raised by a student that the speaker contacted me... As the speaker said in her email to me, "She's great and she asked really astute and targeted questions, she's the kind of person we want to hire." - David Van Slyke

"I am now hooked on WebCT for teaching and communication. I have found that it enhances my organization of class materials, and helps me to keep in touch with the class, as a group and individually." - Katherine Willoughby

"It also seems to me that for principles (of economics) courses, there is perhaps a stronger reason to have a common informational source for all students... For example, this common informational source can act as an "equalizer" by giving students equal opportunity of accessing materials that are deemed standard for those courses. In a way, this function of WebCT may compensate students' knowledge and learning of the principles courses from different styles of different instructors." - Yongsheng Xu