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NECC Web Policy Guide and Instructions

Overview and Organization

  1. Responsibilities for the NECC Web Site
  2. NECC Priorities
  3. How To Get Started
  4. Training

Web Maintenance and Publishing

  1. Web Site Maintenance
  2. Updating & Adding Content
  3. Web Publishing

Student Content

  1. Student Web Publishing Guidelines

Content Development

  1. General Guidelines
  2. Privacy
  3. Internal Documents/Information
  4. Inappropriate Content
  5. Releases & Copyright
  6. Accessibility Standards
  7. Appearance of Official College Pages

Documents and File Management on the Web

  1. Document Managment
  2. File Types
  3. File Size
  4. File Naming

External Links and Tools

  1. Third Party/External Resources
  2. Third-party Links

Multimedia and Photography

  1. Multimedia
  2. Photography Services

Other

  1. Forms and Surveys
  2. Interactive Content
  3. Scripting/Coding
  4. Contact Information/Employee and Department Directories
  5. Other
  6. Contact Information

Overview and Organization

  1. Responsibilities for the NECC Web Site

    2. Marketing Communications and Management Information Services (MIS) share responsibility for the web site.

    Marketing Communications manages content, administers the client side of Macromedia Contribute, supports NECC branding, supports content providers with documentation and training, and is responsible for daily content (text, images, and multi-media) updates to the NECC Public Site and the NECC Intranet.

    MIS is responsible for database administration and all application development, coding, scripting, and debugging.  This includes web forms.

    CIT is responsible for faculty web sites and instructional web sites hosted on the CIT server.

    IT is responsible for server administration.

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  2. Priorities

    3. While any College-related entity can have a presence on the Web site, priority is given to marketing, student information access, administration, fundraising, and academic policies. Priorities are merely guidelines to help the Web Content Developer make choices with limited resources. The goal is to reduce duplication of content, so some shared content may be centralized and controlled by the Web Content Developer.

  3. How to Get Started

    To create a Web presence, set up a meeting with the Web Content Developer(s) to discuss communication goals, steps to develop content, and strategy for updating material online. Complete a web intake form to identify your web site requirements.

    Complete a Web Intake Form.

    Name a representative to act as a contact person to maintain departmental information. Every site linked to the College needs to identify the person who is administratively responsible for it on the site.

    Important Notes:

    New website development that is not directly related to marketing, student information access, administration, fundraising, and academic policies must have prior approval of the Marketing Director.

    If other NECC resources or external resources are required for this project, these resources must be available prior to consulting with Marketing Communications. Functions external to Marketing Communications include: IT for additional server space, CIT for a companion faculty site or streaming video, or Banner for database integration or internal surveys, faculty and staff development for general technical training, external surveys, web development, blogs, wikis, and more. If Marcom determines that other internal or external resources are required, the project will be put on hold until those resources are available. The client and Marcom will coordinate to determine and engage the appropriate internal and external resources.

Web Maintenance and Publishing

  1. Web Site Maintenance

    The web site will be maintained my Marketing Communications and designated Web Content Managers

    If the site requires daily or weekly changes, the area may be maintained by a designated Web Content Manager as approved by Marketing Communications.

    All requests for updates must be mailed to both the webdeveloper@necc.mass.edu and emazzoleni@necc.mass.edu

    Please allow 2-4 days for requests to be processed. The server updates once daily.

    A web intake form must be completed for anything more than one page of edits.

    All forms, documents, audio and video sum bitted for posting to the web must be formatted for the web and conform to all policies herein.

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  2. Updating and Adding Content

    Pages should be maintained and as up-to-date as possible. In general, users expect to have new content regularly. Dated materials need to be removed as soon as reasonably possible. Pages without dated materials must be reviewed and changed at least once a year to maintain accuracy. Pages that show no activity after one year may be removed.

  3. Training

    The office off Marketing and Communications will train staff and faculty on content creation and web site updating via Contribute.

    If technical training is required for software or peripherals (such as Excel, Word, Adobe pdf, MS office, MS Outlook, scanners, cameras) please contact the Office of Faculty and Staff Development.

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  4. Web Publishing

    NECC has deployed Macromedia Contribute and Contribute Publishing Server as a content management tool Designated content providers will be able to update their web sites via contribute and send the updates to the Web Content Developer for approval. The server will automatically update the web site once each day at a pre-determined hour.

Student Web Sites

  1. Student Web Publishing Guidelines

    Recognized student organizations are encouraged to create Web sites to provide information about their programs, services, and events. Each student run web site must have a faculty or staff sponsor who is responsible for reviewing content and maintaining the Web Site. Each page must include the name and e-mail address of the student responsible for managing the organization's Web site as well as a link to the faculty/staff sponsor. All content must conform to NECC and the State of Massachusetts’ guidelines, privacy policies, and comply with standard web accessibility (section 508) and best practices. All student web sites must be physically maintained by a faculty or staff administrator via Adobe Contribute. The Marketing/Communications office will provide support to the faculty or staff sponsor, but will not maintain or edit web sites run by student organizations.

    1. Signed approval from Student Affairs Committee or Student Engagement.
    2. Signed agreement by student and faculty/staff  to adhere to all NECC and State policies. regarding Web Content, Privacy, Copyright, Network Usage and more.
    3. Contact information for Faculty/Staff member and Student.
    4. The site should be updated at least once a semester by the staff/faculty web administrator. The faculty/staff web administrator will use Adobe Contribute to update the site.  Contact the web content developer to purchase a license. 
    5. Content for the web site will include.
      1. About your group
      2. Contact information (how to join)
      3. Activities
    6. Photo Releases for any photos of people and places.
    7. Releases for use of any copyrighted materials (images, music, text).

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Content Development

  1. General Guidelines

    All content must relate directly to College business, programs, and/or services. College pages cannot promote individual opinions or causes not directly related to College purposes, nor link to external entities that are not directly related to NECC. Promoting businesses, people, or entities outside of NECC is not allowed on the NECC site. Each department is responsible for keeping information current. Administrators of out-of-date sites will receive an email request to update the site; those not updated may be removed.

    Files no longer in use on the site must be removed promptly from the server. Files deemed inactive will be removed at the discretion of the Web Content Developer. If inactive files are going to be used again at a later date, remove them from the server and stored on your own computer or on disk, until they are needed again. These files include graphic elements, forms, documents, and web pages. Text is developed by those responsible for the site. All web content and architecture may be edited prior to approval by Marketing Communications, in order to decrease redundancy and maintain NECC standards. In developing content, please consider the following:

    Please, don’t replicate information that is available elsewhere on the site. Examples of this include course descriptions, contact information, program requirements, tuition and fees, forms, documents, policies, etc. Managing information this way ensures that it remains current because Marketing Communications provides regular updates to such items. In your initial planning meeting, the Web Content Developer will provide guidance.

    Your content should be short and written in active voice. The style and tone of the content should be business-related and directed. Remember to consider your audience when writing and make your content clear and succinct without the use of nomenclature, colloquialisms, acronyms, and unclear terms. Double-check spelling, grammar, dates, phone numbers, etc

    Forms and large documents can be posted in .PDF format. Please reduce the file size of large documents to format for the web.

  2. Avoid using links that take people off our site.

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  3. Content and Privacy

    NECC must ensure that sensitive information is stored and transmitted securely to avoid such occurrence of such events here at NECC. It is important for all those with access to sensitive NECC data take active measures to protect information and maintain its security. Of particular concern is identity-related information that can be used for identity theft and includes names in combination with:

    • Full Social Security number (SSN)
    • Date of Birth
    • Driver's License number
    • Credit card number
    • Address

    While collection of this information is commonplace for students and employees, the means to obtain the information as well as storing the information must be secured. For example, collecting this information using email is highly unsecured.

    Beware of personal data or sensitive information on:

    • Desktop and laptop computers
    • Servers
    • Personal or home computers used for Campus business
    • Portable electronic devices such as Blackberrys, PDAs, and other mobile devices.
    • Removable media, such as CDs/DVDs, flash drives, disks and backup tapes.

    Look for campus-related personal identity or sensitive information in email containing, but not limited to, the following types of information:

    Personnel or academic related spreadsheets, databases, and files student records downloads from Banner Systems or any versions of intellectual property.

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  4. Internal Documents, Reports, Projects and Information

    The NECC public website, http://www.necc.mass.edu, is a forum for disseminating information to prospective students, the local community, and the general public. The Intranet, http://intra.necc.mass.edu, is the proper location for internal and NECC communications. Keep in mind that content on the web site should have beginning date and an expiration date. For example, if minutes from a project meeting are posted on the web site, they should be deleted after they are no longer relevant. As a general rule, if a web page or document has not been visited in 12-24 months, it should be deleted. The web site is a communications tool and not an archiving tool. Please contact IT for archiving alternatives. Please refer to state guidelines for retention schedules:
    http://www.sec.state.ma.us/arc/arcrmu/rmuidx.htm.

  5. Third-party Links

    Third party links should either have a direct relationship with NECC or be public information/governmental web sites

    Third-party links must not violate any other College policies.

    Links that lead away from the NECC site should be clearly noted so that users know they will be leaving our site. Third-party links will open a new browser window.

    Links from External sites to the NECC site are not allowed without approval from the Web Content Developer.

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  6. Inappropriate Content

    • Contain copyrighted information without written consent of copyright owner
    • Violate federal, state, or local laws or regulations
    • Violate College policies
    • Are defamatory to any group(s) or individual(s) or are disparaging of any group(s), organization(s), or institution(s)
    • Are abusive, profane or sexually offensive
    • Consist of information that may injure someone else and/or lead to a lawsuit or criminal charges
    • Use the College name and logo without official authorization in ways that imply endorsement of commercial organizations, their products, or services
    • Are advertisements for commercial products or enterprises or individuals
    • Represent the operation of a commercial enterprise(s)
    • May constitute an invasion of privacy of any group or individual
    • Violate the confidentiality of college or student records

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  7. Releases and Copyright

    All photographs which contain people’s faces in a manner that would make them easily identifiable must have a Model Release. The Web Content Developer can provide these forms and they will be available on the web site at www.necc.mass.edu/marcom/web/forms.

    Other information that requires a release includes written content (testimonials, speeches), audio (music, lectures), video (podcasting, lectures), images of buildings, logos, identifiable businesses, and any other copyrighted materials.

    All release forms are to be digitally saved and e-mailed to the Marketing Communications office for entry into the Portfolio Digital Archiving database.

    For more information on copyright please visit: http://www.copyright.gov/

  8. Accessibility Standards

    All sites must be 508 accessible (according to the Americans with Disabilities Act) and meet Massachusetts accessibility standards.

    One important standard for all the College web pages is accessibility. All College sites must conform to technical and visual standards that allow users with disabilities to access the site. Using animations, color-coding, or text emphasis (bolding, italicizing or underlining) to draw attention to text does not comply with accessibility standards for the visually impaired because they do not translate for text readers. Alternative methods may be used to access emphasized text.

    The (USA) Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998, Section 508 and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts Information Technology Division Web Accessibility Standards Version 1.0, May 1, 2000, outline the standards we follow. Pages that violate these standards will be removed from the site until these standards are met. The Web Content Developer can provide assistance in ensuring that your plans and your implemented site comply with these standards. Copies of these standards are available on the Internet at: www.section508.gov/ and www.state.ma.us/itd/spg/publications/standards/Web-access-std.htm

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  9. Appearance of Official College Pages

    NECC has developed templates and style sheets to control the visual identity of the NECC brand and to ensure compliance with recognized accessibility standards (see below). Templates will be provided by the Web Content Developer. If you have a unique style requirement, the Web Content Developer will work with you to create an appropriate template. To keep a consistent look and feel to the entire site and to maintain accessibility standards, Northern Essex Community College uses site wide cascading style sheets and templates. All colors, fonts, and layout designs are chosen by Marketing Communications. Every page needs to be designed using the College Web templates. The Web Content Developer will work with those desiring an official College page, to organize the content and lay it out on the template.

    Graphics files and images approved by the Web Content Developer shall be posted to the site in images folders as designated to avoid redundant graphic elements, and ensure file security and image quality.

    The Marketing Communications Office has a library of approved images, please feel free to contact Marketing Communications to obtain graphics and photos for your web site.

    All content that was not created at Northern Essex Community College must be properly credited and/or a release obtained. Content examples include, but are not limited to, graphics, charts, PDF, and text.

    Animated icons, banner advertisements for other web sites, and other unauthorized art are not consistent with the College brand and will not be allowed.

    Pages stating “under construction” or “temporarily unavailable” will not be posted to the site. All pages must be complete in content and functionality before being posted.

    All pages must be tested, for appearance and functionality, using Internet Explorer and Netscape, as well as various screen resolution settings, before being posted to the site.

    Marketing Communications reserves the right to change the templates at any time as necessary.

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Document Management on the NECC and Intranet Web Site

Documents to be stored on the web site must meet the following criteria:

  1. They must be accessible and relevant to a large population of the college, or crucial to a smaller segment of the NECC population or public.
    1. For example, Financial Aid forms for students or Human Resources forms for all employees are relevant and should be accessible to many.
    2. However if the document or form is only relevant to one specific area and has no broader use, it will remain in that specific area. An example would be http://www.necc.mass.edu/programs/pe/pdfs/sportmedicineexercise.pdf, which is a pdf discussing careers in sports. This is accessory information that would be relevant to students or prospective students of the Sports Program only.
    3. Forms and documents that are very specific to a certain area, but are crucial and should be accessible to a wider audience should be kept in a central area. An example would be the criteria packets and audit sheets for each program. Even though one student would probably not want to access all criteria packets and audit sheets, this information is crucial and should be easily available to all students.
  2. They must have a lifespan of over 5 years. For example, financial aid forms may be updated yearly, but they will be accessible for several years. Press releases are added daily and archived after 1+/- year. There is no need to store press releases, events, or athletics news in a centralized location for retrieval at a later date. Institutional Research and Planning also falls under this umbrella.
  3. They should be updated often
  4. Marcom and the client will collaborate to decide if the forms and data are linked from the forms/document area of the web site and/or the most relevant areas.
  5. Marcom and the client will collaborate to decide if the forms/documents are stored on the NECC Public Web Site or intranet (accessible only from the NECC campus).
  6. External documents should not be stored on the NECC web site if at all possible. External documents should be linked, not copied and placed on the NECC web site.
  7. Documents containing financial or confidential information should be on the intranet.
  8. Photos on the web site:
    • Most photos will be stored in the appropriate folder, in a sub folder called “images”
    • Photos used on the home page, and multiple times throughout the site are stored in the root folder in a sub folder called “images”. These include NECC logos, and icons. All logos, icons, and other universal images should be stored in the main NECC images folder and not the individual area folders.
      • b.
    • photos should be named similar to other documents so they can be sorted by date. folder name(2-4letters)_yymmdd_keyword.

Files

  1. File Types

    All files that are electronically supplied to the Web Content Developer for placement on the site must be in one of the following formats:

    PDF – Adobe PDF – All non-image files posted to the web site must be in PDF format unless it is necessary for readers to download and edit the file. The Web Content Developer is not responsible for converting documents into pdf files. When converting the file, please select the “smallest file size” setting in Adobe. If you require training in PDF conversion, please contact Faculty and Staff Development.

    • JPG or JPEG- image
    • TIFF- image
    • GIF -image
    • If the file is to be downloaded and edited, it can be in the following formats:
    • xls – excel spreadsheet
    • doc – word
    • ppt - PowerPoint

    Please contact the Web Content Developer prior to sending a file that is not in the specified format.All files should be formatted for the web prior to delivery.

  2. File Size

    3. A reasonable upper limit for an individual web page is 100k, please try to keep the page sizes below 100K to adhere to accessibility standards.

    Files should be formatted for the web prior to delivery to the Web Content Developer, or adding to the site via Contribute.

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  3. File Naming

    4. File naming protocols protect your site users and your content. The general protocol is below, and the Web Content Developer will provide assistance as you develop your content. The Web Content Developer will name the file folder.

    Document Naming:

    Documents and Images must be named in the format: 2-4 letter abbreviation for the department _Date in either yymmdd or yymm or yy format_keyword. File names should be under 27 charachters, or under 64 for the entire path (necc.mass.edu/athletics/docs/filename.pdf).

      The date is included only if the document is a dated material.

      For example, a baseball roster for spring 2007 would read: at_07_baseball_roster.pdf or at_07spring_bb_roster.pdf for a file originally named Spring 2007 Baseball Roster

      If the Document does not have a date, such as an application form, it is not necessary to include the date in the document name.

      for example: at_health_form.pdf

      Documents may be stored in one large folder or database. This naming convention will allow the content manager to alphabetically list the documents by department, date updated, then keyword. This naming convention assists in the management of the thousands of files on the NECC server. Files not named appropriately will be renamed.

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    Web Page Naming

    File and folder names should reflect their content, with the exception of index, which must be the main page within every folder. (i.e., newprogram.php or healthservices.php) The Web Content Developer will name the file folder.

    All lower case letters are to be used. Some servers are case sensitive and do not recognize upper case letters.

    No special characters~`!@#$%^&*()=+{}[]”?’<>) should be part of the name, as these characters are specialized to the computer environment and may cause errors or inconsistent behavior for the end users. The underline “_” must be used sparingly.

    No name may begin with the underline character “_” as this may cause errors or inconsistent behavior for the end users.

    Spaces MUST be removed from filenames. This is to avoid broken links as most Web browsers do not recognize blank spaces.

    Mac users, keep in mind that PC users, and web browsers, do not recognize special characters or spaces in file names.

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Multimedia

  1. All multimedia files must be approved by the Multimedia Director in the Marketing Communications office and must comply with all NECC policies.

    If multi-media development is required, please contact the Multi-Media Developer for a consultation.

    Multi-media files include: audio, video, podcasting, flash, animated gifs, and more.

  2. Please Contact the Multi-Media Developer to schedule photography services for the web site.

Other

  1. Forms and Surveys

    A survey targeting internal NECC faculty, staff, or students can be requested via a work ticket to MIS.

    You can create a fillable PDF with Adobe Professional to be posted on the web. Data from the fillable pdf can be downloaded into a spreadsheet. If you need training creating a fillable pdf, please visit the Adobe web site for instructions. 


    1. http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/solutions/detail/create_form.html

 

Database driven and email forms must be coordinated with MIS.   Marketing communications is responsible for content development and management, MIS handles application development.

  1. Interactive Content and Database Driven Content

    All interactive content involving a database and server side scripting will be handled by MIS or IT. Please contact MIS or IT for the following needs.

    • Banner database interaction
    • New Database Creation
    • Interactive Forms
    • surveys
    • feedback forms
    • data collection forms
    • Message boards
    • Job board
    • Chat rooms
    • Live Chat
    • Wikis
    • Blogs
    • Calendars
    • Search Forms
    • RSS

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  2. Scripting/Coding/Debugging

    All web site programming/scripting/coding will be handled by MIS or IT. Please contact MIS or IT for the following coding needs: HTML, DHTML, CSS, XML, PHP, PERL,Javascript, JAVA, ASP, ColdFusion, Sql, Mysql and more

  3. Third Party/External Resources

    Third party resources could provide extended functionality for the web site and your department. The use of all third party resources must be approved by NECC.

    NECC may already have the solution that is required, it may be in development, or an approved third party vendor may be available. Some third party vendors may not adhere to NECC privacy policies or standards and should not be used without approval from NECC. Most importantly, NECC does not provide support or backup for third party resources, or data hosted off site.

            A few examples of third party vendors would include:

    www.surveymonkey.com - online surveys

    www.pbwiki.com - wikis

    www.typepad.com – blogs

    www.facebook.com – social networking

    www.trumba.com - calendars

    www.constantcontact.com - email marketing

    Google groups

    Google docs

    Google calendars

    Instant Messaging

    Live Chat

    any other technology source that is not hosted, supported, and/or maintained by NECC.

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  1. Contact Information/Employee and Department Directories

    Please notify the Helpdesk with any changes in contact information for the Employee, Department, or TTY directories. To ensure privacy and safety of College personnel, only authorized NECC email addresses are to be used on the web site. Staff and faculty members may request a NECC email address through the Help Desk at 3911.

  2. Other

    Please remember that these rules are not intended to restrict creativity but rather to create a professional and reputable site with a consistent look, feel and experience. Sophisticated users such as potential students expect it – less sophisticated users need it.

    The NECC web site has been designed to adhere to accessibility, privacy and industry best practices. It is vital that our content remains visually consistent, the content presents a unified message, and that the web site adheres to industry standards. Visual elements have been chosen to help expedite the process of creating pages for each department and control the elements throughout the site to reflect the College’s communication plan for the Web site. This policy is subject to change. Please contact the Web Content Developer or the Director of Marketing Communications, or the Multi-Media Developer if you have any questions or suggestions regarding this policy.

  3. Contact

    Ron Taber, Director of Marketing Communication ext. 3954
    Betsy Mazzoleni, Multi-Media Developer ext. 3952



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