The new Women in STEM LLC website is a major update to Engaged Learning’s web presence for Women in STEM. The new site will replace the existing single page Women in STEM website developed by OVPUE IT in 2016. The new site features visual improvements and countless accessibility updates. The site was created by Kelsey Blaylock from Engaged Learning’s Media Team with assistance from OVPUE IT.
Hutton Honors College Roommates Matching Application
OVPUE IT released version 1 of the Hutton Honors College Roommates Matching application last week. The tool is designed to help honors students find roommates, either in Honors Residential Communities (HRCs) or in non-honors housing. The tool allows students to share their major, their housing preferences, lifestyle information, and any additional information, then post their “profile” to a public listing to view others’ information and reach out via email to anyone they’re interested in potentially rooming with.
In less than a week, over 140 students have begun or published profiles and over 50 contacts have been sent.
Performance & Accessibility Updates
Last quarter, we ran our first round of performance and accessibility tests on OVPUE websites using Google’s Lighthouse evaluation tool and found several websites that required attention. By making minor tweaks to the settings of individual websites or the files used for images, we were able to improve quite a few websites. This week, we ran another round of performance and accessibility audits for each website in the OVPUE web portfolio.
Below is a summary of the change from last quarter in “Overall Performance”, “Accessibility”, “Best practices”, and “SEO” (search engine optimization) for each OVPUE website.
On average, “Overall Performance” on desktop increased by 19.97% and updates from IU Communications and OVPUE IT have resulted in a 10.66% increase in the “Best Practices” metric. More modest gains can be seen in all other areas with the exception of “Overall Performance” on mobile. The very minor decrease in this score could be a result of individual decisions made on a few low-scoring sites. These performance issues can now be addressed by OVPUE IT.
In addition to these overall metrics, we can compare more specific metrics like how many assets are requested by the average page load (decreased by 83%), how much data is requested overall over the network (decreased by 8-9%), and how quickly JavaScript becomes accessible (decreased by 75% on mobile).
We are looking forward to exploring this data further and identifying areas where OVPUE’s websites can improve in the future.
ACP Students Application
The applications team has been working closely with Kyle (OVPUE IT support) and representatives from ACP on a new tool for monitoring ACP students throughout their application and registration process. The workflow for new students currently involves several systems with spreadsheets, local and remote databases, and hundreds of paper documents–while we can’t replace all of these with a single application, we’re trying to streamline the process and make it easier for ACP to see the overall status of each semester’s new and returning students (and identify which students require attention).
The new application will combine automated daily reporting from IU’s data warehouse with simple import and update functionality for student data. The application will automatically process applications, account setup, and term activations when possible.
Maxwell Hall Advising Checkin
The Advising Checkin application is currently in development with an optimistic release planned in mid-January for use by University Division, Students in Transition, and Health Professions and Prelaw Center. The application will manage student arrivals for scheduled appointments (through Student Appointment Scheduler and otherwise) as well as drop-in advising.
Students will be able to sign in as a guest, type their username, or scan their Crimson Card to log in:
Performance & Accessibility Auditing for OVPUE Websites
OVPUE IT has been working on ways to continuously monitor websites and applications and establish benchmarks for metrics like performance, accessibility, search engine optimization (SEO), and usability for several years. The Lighthouse audit tool developed by Google and recently incorporated into the Google Chrome browser allows us to start the process of running regular, automated tests across the ~30 OVPUE departmental websites.
Explore Programs Version 4.0
Over the last three months, we’ve devoted some time to a visual and accessibility refresh of University Division’s Explore Programs tool.
Usability Improvements:
- New “Reset” button to clear out all interests selected
- Indicators show when a collapsed group contains selected interests
- The heading of the interest selection panel updates to show how many interests are selected
- The match level legend shows only when it is relevant (i.e., when interests have been selected)
Accessibility Improvements:
- Colors have been reviewed and updated to meet WCAG accessibility requirements
- Keyboard-only access has been improved throughout the application
- Aria (screen reader) enhancements make it easier for students with visual impairments to use the tool
- Search Engine Optimization is improved 9%; Performance remains at 100% in standards-based audits
National Scholarships and Awards Website
The new National Scholarships and Awards website is a major update to Engaged Learning’s competitive awards web presence. The new site will replace the aging IUCARE website developed by yours truly back in 2013. The new site features major visual improvements and countless accessibility updates–in fact, it meets all accessibility guidelines available through our automated tests.
Completed Projects from the Third Quarter of 2018
The third quarter of 2018 was a busy one for the development team. Twelve projects were prioritized for development in June, by the end of September, we plan to have completed eight projects (two of which were prioritized by the PSC) and have made significant progress on seven others (6 of which were prioritized by the PSC).
OVPUE Events System
The OVPUE Events System automatically manages event registrations, display, communications, and HTML emails for any OVPUE department. Currently in use for the Hutton Honors College and NSA.