Creating a Well-Defined
District Web Site:
A Checklist for Administrators
A Seven Step Guide for ers. Create a planning committee that
Administrators ensures the district portal is comprehen-
School districts are encouraging sive and has the endorsement of all parties
administrators and teachers to create involved.
Web pages to support curriculum goals
and advance communications. How- Step 2: Evaluation of Needs
ever, according to a recent study, only a Before a district can implement an
fraction of teachers have the necessary effective Web portal, it must identify
skills to get their own Web sites online, its needs thoroughly. Through Internet
or use the Internet as an integral part research, personal interviews with staff
By Mohsen Attaran, Ph.D., of their teaching style. In most districts, that will be using the site, and profes-
Professor of Operations sional technical advice, the planning
Management, California State teacher’s Web sites are scattered either on
commercial hosts or on different district- committee should develop a precise road
University, Bakersfield map that will guide their entire process
managed hosting locations with little
regard for uniformity, common look and towards success and fulfillment of their
feel, and consistent school identity. actual needs.
■ ■ ■ Despite all the energy, money and
effort spent by school districts trying Step 3: Avoid the Quick Fix
Despite all the energy, to make their organizations’ Web site The district must avoid the quick-fix
mentality. Developing a well-designed
money and effort spent efforts successful, reaping the benefits of a
portal is a strategic decision requiring a
well-defined Web portal is still an unful-
by school districts filled promise for many school district well-planned process. A piece-by-piece
patch job will not provide consistency
trying to make their administrators. Training and encouraging
or ease of use and in fact could be a very
teachers to create Web pages to improve
organizations’ Web communication within the school commu- costly undertaking that in the end will
frustrate everyone involved.
site efforts successful, nity and between the school community
and parents poses a host of difficult issues
reaping the benefits of a and challenges for administrators. The Step 4: Have a Proactive Plan
A well-designed district portal should
well-defined Web portal following tips are offered to help design a
encourage communication between teach-
functional, consistent, and well-designed
is still an unfulfilled Web presence for school districts. ers, between the district and the parent
community, and between teachers and
promise for many school students. Have a plan in place that will
Step 1: Top Management
district administrators. Involvement motivate and guide teachers, students
Top management should play a strong and parents towards adapting the new
■ ■ ■
role in the district portal planning process technology and taking full advantage of
because creating a well-designed portal the online medium. The plan should also
requires input from the IT department, identify who will be in charge of imple-
various functional departments within the mentation.
district, site administrators, and teach-
Winter 2005 • DataBus 25
Step 5: Tap outside
professional services
Consider outsourcing the devel-
opment process to a qualified
company that provides experience
and expertise in designing communica-
tion portals for school districts.
Step 6: Use E-Rate
Starting July 1, 2004, Web hosting is “E-ratable.” Web
hosting is funded as a priority one service, so your district will
pay only a fraction of the actual hosting costs according to your A Checklist for Success
district’s e-rate funding percentage. Be sure to request “Web The following actions will help you create a well-defined
Hosting” on your form 470. district portal and eliminate the critical mistakes made in the
design/implementation process:
Step 7: Appropriate Training
If you outsource the development process, be sure that the ✓ Promote a Consistent District Identity: Make sure your dis-
company you are working with provides training, technical trict Web site, including all schools sites, maintains consistent
assistance and documentation. If you are developing your own standards. That includes “look and feel” content presentations
communication portal, make sure your IT staff has a plan to edu- and overall presentation.
cate your entire district on the new technology.
✓ Flexibility in Site Design and Functionality: Your district/
school portal should have unique site designs resembling the
theme of your site/district. The Web portal including its sys-
tems operations should be tailored to your unique functional
process.
✓ Robust and Flexible Architecture: Make sure the portal is
“browser independent” (Microsoft and Netscape) and that it
is Mac and PC compatible.
✓ Web Friendly: The district Web portal should be easy to use
and provide navigation tools to let site users find information
quickly and easily.
✓ Promote Active Participation by Teachers and Staff: Your
district/school portal should provide an easy-to-use, template-
driven tool for teachers and staff to create their own Web
sites.
✓ Rapid Startup Time: The technology you choose should allow
your district/school sites to launch the new portal after a few
short weeks, rather than months of development time.
✓ Easy to Learn and Train: Your teachers and staff should be
able to manage their own sites as easy as filling out simple
forms and clicking on options without requiring technical
skills.
✓ Minimize Technology Costs: Eliminate the need for hiring
a permanent Web czar and system and database administra-
tors by outsourcing your Web portal. Technology costs can be
minimized by purchase or by affordable lease or annual soft-
ware maintenance subscriptions.
✓ Multiple Hosting Options: Make sure hosting can be at your
district or out-sourced to selected vendor hosting sites.
26 DataBus • Winter 2005
✓ Scaleable Design: Make sure your Web por-
tal allows sites to add new modules without
major development costs. This will guarantee
the portal can scale to handle future modifi-
cations or addition of new modules.
✓ Vendor Flexibility: A successful product
depends on the vendor’s willingness to mod-
ify their portal through an iterative process
according to the present needs and specifica-
tions and as needs and deficiencies become
apparent during the testing phase.
✓ Protect against legal liability: Utilize secure
content management methods to protect your
firm from exposure to legal liability. Screen-
ing e-mails for sexually explicit content and
filtering unwanted spam e-mail are recom-
mended.
Mohsen Attaran (mattaran@csubak.edu) is
the author/co-author of three books, more than
80 papers and 10 commercial software pack-
ages. As president of Interactive Educational
Services, Inc., Professor Attaran serves as an
educational consultant for the National Tax
Sheltered Accounts Association Educational
Institute and for the National Institute for
Pension Administrators. He provides e-Busi-
ness solutions to local education entities and
to local/national firms. He can be reached at
mohsen_attaran@firstclass1.csubak.edu.
Winter 2005 • DataBus 27