Recommended Update Schedule

Follow these guidelines to keep the information on your department website up-to-date.  Our feedback surveys show that outdated information frustrates visitors more than anything else.  A&S Web Framework Team will send reminders about updates that should occur quarterly, semiannually, or annually.

As often as they occur:

  • Add News stories and announcements
  • Add Events when they are scheduled
  • Add Research items when faculty or students tell you about them
  • Update program descriptions and other pages when policies change

Every month:

  • Change items in promotional or featured content areas
  • Add at least one News story or announcement; see News Story Ideas if you need ideas for what to write about or how to solicit stories.

Every quarter:

  • Update office hours or remind users to update their posted hours
  • Review Research section and remove/edit any user-contributed items that don't belong
  • Import Course Lists for each curriculum area (after updating in Time Schedule Construction)
    • (Winter) Import next autumn
    • (Summer) Import next winter
    • (Fall) Import next spring and summer
  • Customize Course Sections with descriptions and other details as necessary, after import

Twice a year:

  • (Summer, Winter) Review and change large Images used on front page
  • (Summer, Winter) Solicit News from faculty and students - awards, activities of interest, new courses
  • (Fall, Spring) Solicit Research items from faculty and students - new books, articles, projects, dissertations, etc.

Once a year:

  • (Summer) Review and update faculty/staff/student profiles
  • (Summer) Review and update program pages
  • (Fall) Review and update study abroad pages
  • (Fall) Review and update about pages (including support us and stay connected)
  • (Winter) Review and update resource pages
  • (Spring) Send an e-newsletter (every quarter would be even better)

A&S Web Framework Team will:

  • Add Academic Calendar dates (Holidays, Dates of Instruction) to the calendar
  • Remove course feeds for past courses (automatically removed one year after initially added)
  • Add Reg ID codes for user profiles (hope to automate this in the future)