Websites

Main Website

The web team manages and updates the College’s main website:

coe.uga.edu

Note: Personnel additions/removals, changes to titles, or changes to offices/departments/unit affiliations must come directly and only from human resources.

Submit a web request

Internal Resources

The web team manages and updates the College’s internal resources website:

resources.coe.uga.edu

Website service-level agreement

The web team handles most routine content updates within 24 hours. However, due to external factors, these turnaround times may be extended without notice. As the complexity of a request increases, so does the required time to turn around your request.

Please Note: Your request may be handled without any communication except a confirmation of resolution. This is an efficiency measure as the web team receives dozens of web requests each day. Please review any changes and email the web team if you find any errors or oversights.

Please contact the web team for guidance if you have additional questions about web support.

Turnaround times

Examples of requests that will be handled within 3 business days:

Existing text changes or corrections
Switching out existing photos (without editing the photos)
Adding or replacing downloadable documents

Examples of requests that might take up to two weeks:

Updating forms
Creating tables of data (e.g. event schedules)
Rewriting larger sections of content

Complex updates or projects may require further discussion and the timeframe is dependent on the current workload of the web team. Examples of complex requests:

Creating new webpages
Creating a new form(s)
Bulk changes to an existing website
Changes delivered on paper

Making a Request

Use of the web request form is required to request updates to the Mary Frances Early College of Education website. Website change requests are not accepted via email. The web team will ask that you resubmit your request using the web request form. This process allows our team to track the status of your project and meet your needs in a timely manner.

All instructions for changes, including any new/updated text as it should appear on the page(s), must be typed/pasted into the “Request Details” field. The length of the text does not matter—the form can take it.

Please only send us the final wording and links that should be shown on the page and don’t use Word or PDF documents to detail updates/changes, as copying/pasting from those is extremely problematic for our website.

The only document attachments we accept are for items that will be published as downloads on your page. Do NOT attach documents that include instructions or text changes you would like to make.

Attachments

We do not post Word/editable files to our website, and our online form reflects this in its ability to accept files for upload. If we receive your changes as sketches and/or requests written or typed out on paper, this will considerably delay the turnaround for your changes. Training is available if you need assistance with using the web request form.

FERPA and privacy / safety of students

To ensure FERPA compliance and meet privacy and safety best practices, written and signed consent must be received before we post any student photos or non-directory information. You must indicate on the web request form if your request includes publishing student information and/or photos. When selecting that option, the COE Web Team will directly contact the student(s) to acquire their permission.

Refer to the UGA FERPA website for questions about what is considered protected, private information, and what is not.

Accessibility Requirements

Per federal law and the University System of Georgia web content guidelines, a text equivalent for every non-text element must be provided. Any videos requested to be posted on the College’s website must include high-quality closed captioning, and any audio clips must be accompanied by a written transcript. These supplements will allow alternate experiences for audio and visually-impaired site visitors. If you need a captioning service, UGA MarComm recommends Rev.com.

Web style guidelines

Headings / Paragraphs / Lists

Never use directional cues in the text, such as “sign up below” or “refer to the list on the right” because if the layout changes (e.g. mobile devices), these cues will be wrong.
No duplicate content. If ever there exist two or more pages with nearly identical content, steps should be taken to consolidate information into a single source.
Never type in all caps. If text needs to be in all caps (like in a heading), it will be accomplished with proper code for styling that way.
Follow appropriate capitalization rules for proper nouns, job titles, etc. Generally, this means a job title is capitalized if it’s in a list, but not if it’s part of a sentence.
Avoid acronyms. After the full title is established followed by the acronym in parentheses, then the acronym may be used on the same page. However, for maximum search engine benefit, avoid acronyms in all situations (unless the acronym carries a national reputation).

Hyperlinks

Always use meaningful text for links. Never use “click here”. Rather, use “email the web team” or “sign up for our mailing list” as your link text.
Never explicitly show a web URL in text. Always link a URL behind the meaningful text that describes the destination page.
Never explicitly show an email address in the text. Always link an email address behind meaningful text such as “email Jared Brown.”
Only open a link in a new window when the link takes the user away from coe.uga.edu. If the link text doesn’t adequately describe the destination page, a title attribute should be used to create meaningful text on hover. (Hovering refers to putting the mouse cursor over a web element but not clicking).

Contact Information

Name prefixes should not be used except on directory profiles.
Use this format for displaying phone numbers: 706-542-0000.
Never show an email address in the text. Instead, link a name or an action phrase (for example: “email us”).
Use departmental email addresses instead of individual email addresses where possible. This reduces maintenance risk during faculty/staff turnover.
The first mention of any Mary Frances Early College of Education faculty/staff member on a webpage should be hyperlinked to their directory profile.
Links to faculty/staff emails should not be used. Instead, a link to their profile should be provided and profile information kept up-to-date.

Files / Downloads

Word documents must be converted to PDF before posting on the website. Reason: PDF is a universally available format; Microsoft Office is not accessible to all users. Fillable PDFs may be created for documents that a user needs to download, fill out, and submit electronically.
All PDFs must be verified to meet accessibility requirements set forth by the federal government in what’s called “Section 508” in the popular vernacular.
Filenames:
- Should not contain underscores. Replace underscores with spaces or hyphens.
- Should not contain special characters. This includes periods, apostrophes, colons, ampersands, etc.
- Should be descriptive but concise. Once downloaded, will a user know what it is when it’s on their computer among unrelated files? Best practice: Filenames should be all lowercase for consistency and ease of reference.
- Should not contain time-related data such as the date of revision. In other words, do not name a file with such terms as FINAL or V2. Also avoid, where not necessary, dates, like 2055-csse-application.pdf.
  
  Exception: When multiple files exist for date-sensitive information (example: two versions of a program of study when students who began their program according to the older version have yet to graduate).

Guidelines for College Research and Outreach Webpages

The Mary Frances Early College of Education’s Marketing and Communications Office provides web pages within our primary site (coe.uga.edu) for faculty members to include information about grants, research, and outreach projects, provided that the projects have a legitimate connection with the College. The information on these pages can be refreshed from time to time but should not require frequent updates like news posts or blog-like information. While there are some limitations and guidelines regarding how this content is displayed on the page, there are many benefits to this approach:

There is no cost to the grant or research program.
The Marketing and Communications team maintains the page, meaning less work for you or your team.
Web page content will be edited using W3C web standards and web accessibility best practices.
Content automatically adheres to UGA and COE branding guidelines.
Content will link to any appropriate content already on the COE website (e.g., faculty profiles, departmental web pages, etc.).
The content will benefit in search engine rankings by being directly connected to the official COE and UGA websites.
The webpage URL will contain official COE affiliation like coe.uga.edu/yourprogram instead of, for example, yourprogram.wordpress.com.
Your page will be secure and contain no advertisements, unlike some third-party options.

While exceptions are rare, some sites may justify using a non-COE web platform. The web team is happy to meet with you to discuss your needs and if the COE website can accommodate them. If not, a non-COE web platform may be advised. In these instances, the faculty/department will be responsible for any costs incurred (e.g., for a CMS platform, hosting, etc.). Additionally, the Marketing and Communications Office will not provide any technical, editorial, or design support for such sites, and the following guidelines must be followed:

Guidelines for Third-Party Websites

Obtain permission from Scott Ardoin for research and center/institute websites.
Use the official UGA Color Palette and fonts whenever possible.
Include the following text in your website’s footer area:
The content and opinions expressed on this web page do not necessarily reflect the views of nor are they endorsed by the University of Georgia or the University System of Georgia.
Before the website is live, please send it to the College’s web team for review and approval. The web team will review sites annually to ensure they comply with UGA and COE branding guidelines.

To request a new grant or research project page or to discuss your options, please submit a communications request form and select “webpage” as the project type.