Don't let the name dissuade you. Faculty in any Iowa State college may use a website template service -- at no cost -- coordinated by the CALS/LAS web team since 2018 in a partnership with IT Services.
It makes sense for efficiency and scalability. The team's bread and butter is developing department and center websites for units in the college of Agriculture and Life Sciences and Liberal Arts and Sciences. The computer code for that service is modular and, in fact, the same code used to build the free faculty sites, officially known as ISU Sites.
"This is very efficient for Iowa State. We put a lot of time up front into automation and scalability," said John VanDyk, strategic lead for the website projects. "There's a lot of overlap between the two website services, with certain features turned on for the faculty sites.
Learn more
ISU Sites walk-in workshop
Feb. 6, 10-11 a.m.
206 Durham Center
"The code spins up a site and sends you an email with a unique link. So, from our perspective the difference between one site and 20 sites isn't much," he added.
Faculty sites follow the university's web theme, and site owners receive a monthly assessment for digital accessibility from Siteimprove. Team members also isolate and fix accessibility snags as they arise and share the upgrade systemwide.
"We want ISU's online presence to be the best it can be," said project manager Misty Treanor. She said the platform is designed for people without a lot of technical experience who know how to log in, click an edit button and upload files.
Connect with students
Content strategist Hannah Schultes said the websites are one way faculty can share their story with students, current or prospective.
"This site is something you own. You can shape the classroom experience or the lab experience you'd like to share with students," she said. "For example, including photos from your lab or of grad students at a symposium is appealing.
"Don't let 'Rate My Professor' be your only story," Schultes said.
In addition to meeting digital accessibility and university brand standards, she said faculty websites:
- Keep the user experience consistent with department and center websites.
- Provide three options for pre-built templates.
- Send the site owner an auto-generated, monthly report on their user analytics and accessibility score.
- Let the faculty member control the content. In some departments, faculty can't tweak their page on the department website.
- Include support from the CALS/LAS web team.
Get started
Treanor said about 25% of ISU faculty have an ISU site -- and 100% isn't the goal.
"We know not everyone needs their own faculty site. Sometimes your page on the department website is enough to serve your needs," she said. "These pages don't have to be complicated, but they do let you decide what you want to feature."
For those who want to give it a try, a single page site can be completed in about 20 minutes in an automated process:
- On the ISU Sites page, click the "Log in" button to use your Net ID.
- Click "Manage my sites" and "create new site."
- Choose the website type you need, from three options: Simple (single page), advanced or full-scale. A guide provides examples and helps you with that choice.
- Within three minutes you'll receive an email with a link for your site.
- Log in to your site and get started. If you haven't hidden your contact information in the ISU directory, it automatically will load into your profile.
- Choose the "edit" mode and follow the directions, section by section, to add photos and other information.
A 4-minute video includes how-to instructions with visuals.
