Website Guidelines
Purpose
The College of Business website is an external-focused communication tool designed to promote the College of Business. Key audiences for the site include prospective students and parents, current students, faculty, staff, alumni and business partners. The website follows all required OSU guidelines and promotes a College of Business image consistent with other COB communications. All COB-related programs are to adhere to these guidelines to promote a consistent professional image and user experience, as well as to leverage the OSU COB brand.
Responsibilities
The director of external relations is the Webmaster and is responsible for the website. The director of external relations receives technical support from Information Services, the Business Solutions Group and the COB graphic designer.
All faculty and staff are responsible for their individual Faculty Bio on the website bio page. Academic faculty is responsible for their personal websites.
Design and Content Management
Design and content of the first three levels of website pages are under the discretion of the director of external relations. All new pages, with the exception of course materials, must be added through the content management system and fit within the COB framework.
Web programs or pages developed outside the content management system must be pre-approved by the director of external relations. Compatible website design templates are available for additional levels of website content. Content must be professional and maintained. The COB will unlink pages not maintained on a regular basis.
Website content editing permissions are shared for various content sections. For example, Student Services has editing permissions for the Prospective Student and Student Services Sections. In addition, student clubs have access to their club website pages upon request.
Structure
The majority of the College of Business website is managed through a BSG-designed content management system. The system enables content to be easily managed and updated.
Site navigation (the content in the left navigation bar) is deployed by the director of external relations. Navigation additions or deletions, page additions or deletions, etc. can be made by the director of external relations upon request.
Faculty and staff bio listings (not bio content) and the directory are managed by Information Services. For ease of updating, these listings are managed through dynamic directories based on Outlook.
News items, job listings, the e-newsletter system and other applications are built within the content management system. Applications such as the Austin Entrepreneurship Program State Farm Visiting Fellows database are built outside the system, but integrate with the site look and feel. It is recommended that new applications leverage the content management system as much as possible and if not possible, be built to complement the existing website. All external applications built for the website need to be pre-approved by the director of external relations in consultation with the BSG.
Maintenance
To keep content current, the operations workgroup will review website content monthly. The department chair assistant will review course materials each term. The director of external relations will conduct a thorough review of website content annually.
Feedback and Problem Resolution
Requests for website enhancements or changes are handled on a case-by-case basis by the director of external relations. Calendar or existing content updates can be made readily. More resource intensive requests are prioritized and reviewed in the areas of cost/benefit, customer demand, external considerations, design integration, storage implications, programming needs, performance issues and maintenance costs. A priority list of enhancements is created annually with implementation pending resources available.
Please forward your suggestions to the director of external relations.
If a problem arises, the director of external relations is responsible for resolving the issue. Process steps include:
1) bringing it to the attention of the faculty or staff member,
2) bringing it to the attention of the department chair,
3) seeking mediation with the assistant to the dean.
If the issue goes to mediation, the following criteria will be considered:
1) Adherence to website guidelines
2) Cost/benefit, resources
3) Long-term maintainability
If the issue is not solved during mediation, the assistant to the dean will make a recommendation to the dean and the dean will make the final decision. | 
