Tips for faculty webpages

This page is dedicated to all the people I've been encouraging to get a website.

It's along the lines of: if I can do it, so can you.

This is my first website. I don't have previous computer experience beyond learning how to use one. (Well, the B.A. in journalism helped.)

I've had e-mail fan letters from off-campus and job offers from people who found the site (I was retained as an expert witness in a near-drowning lawsuit, which the good guys won. I have been a guest lecturer at Santa Clara University and taught for Los Gatos Recreation, the Fremont Union High School District and others).

In late 2009 this website received its three millionth hit.

The History of swimming page I wrote to cover part of the curriculum for my swim classes is getting over 2,000 hits a month. Instructors at a Texas College and an eastern secondary school linked to my page on the history of swimming as homework for their students.

CSU Stanislaus linked to Oxygen Administration Quick Facts for a math project.

An online traffic school linked to a Outdoor Club page on driving in bad weather.

An English As A Second Language school in Paris, France linked to swimming vocabulary as a homework assignment.

Baylor University and Capitol City Medical Training Center linked to Common Mistakes in CPR.

Isn't it time you got a website?

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Enough sales pitch? Here are some tips:

Many people type 'Welcome to my homepage' or 'Welcome to this website' as the first line at the top of their homepage. But if a student or team member selects such a site as a 'favorite' the words in their list of favorites will be 'Welcome to.' If you write a first line that starts with your name, such as "Jane Faculty welcomes you..." then your name will be identified on their list of favorites.

De Anza has a page of photos of the college you can use. Find them at: http://faculty.deanza.edu/support/resources/deanzaphotos

I first learned how to make a word blue or green or ... at a website from the University of Brighton, UK: http://snowwhite.it.brighton.ac.uk/~mas/mas/courses/html/html1.html

Warning, some colors, like lime are not very readable on a white background, but purple or teal are okay if you don't use them too much.

(If you put your mouse on the rainbow colored line above or below, you will find that the title I gave it when I put it on my pages was 'moving rainbow line'. This is because it was originally an animated (moving) GIF. But when I narrowed it to fit on my pages it lost the animation. It turns out that when you re-size an animation it loses its movement and becomes the first image of the various images.)

The first photo most of us download to our sites is of De Anza from the De Anza website, so it is the correct size. The second one I tried to move to my site more than filled the screen (actually, only a corner of it was on the screen). I had scanned it and tried to move it directly. Soon enough I learned to resize the scanned photos using Photoshop Elements. If you right click on an online photo and go to properties you can see the dimensions in pixels.

Remember, if you use too many large sized images, your page will take a long time for some people to download.

If you need an overhead photo of something for your page and the item is portable, take it to the stadium and put in on the ground at the soccer field side, then climb the bleachers and take the photo. Two examples are at: How to pitch the Cabela eight-person tent

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Personally check out other recommended websites before you link to them. Many of the sites recommended in our Wellness Center 'Instructor's Resource Guide' have good information, but they really exist mostly to sell some product or book. After you link, check to see that your link functions. Recheck links occasionally or just before you assign homework from them.

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I've been pleased at how quickly most sites have responded to my email requests for permission to use photos from their websites. Some (like the National Park Service) limit which I can use, others have said it's okay as long as they are not used for commercial purposes. Some ask for attribution, others don't. The maker of a product said "as long as ______ and its products are portrayed in a positive light, and the _____and ____ are being recommended for their intended purposes, permission granted."

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On August 17, 2002 I got an e-mail from the inventor of a product I had mentioned in my backpacking advice page. He let me know that the area code for a referral phone number I mentioned on the page had changed and thanked me for my good work. I imagine many people search for their products/services/names regularly to see if they are being mentioned.

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When I look at the referrals to my site I note that many people search at a search engine for the answers to Red Cross tests, or at least sample questions, so I wrote a page of the same advice I give my students before an exam. It's at:

How to pass a Red Cross written test

and it had 8,600 hits as of June 2005, 40,000 by October 2007 and 133,000 by March 2010.

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Were you working on your site and got a stiff neck? Try out the info at the De Anza ergonomics task force at:

http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/faculty/workplace/ergonomics.html

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I wised up and put in a complete index to the site in January 2003 when students complained that I have too many pages that aren't listed on the left hand column. I started by copying the complete list of Stories on to a new blank page and deleted the dates, etc. Then all I had to do was put quotation marks around each one and organize them. The result is at Site Index .

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I made a page for myself of various colors so I could see what various colors actually look like at my pages when used for text. It's at: HTML color codes

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NOLO Press has a section on Internet Law.

Go to: http://www.nolo.com/index.cfm

go to patents, copyright and click on software and web development

Some of the most important rules there are:

1. Assume Others' Work Is Protected

3. When In Doubt, Seek Permission

and it has links to copyright collectives or clearinghouses

http://www.chillingeffects.org/

"A joint project of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, University of San Francisco, University of Maine, George Washington School of Law, and Santa Clara University School of Law clinics.

Do you know your online rights? Have you received a letter asking you to remove information from a Web site or to stop engaging in an activity? Are you concerned about liability for information that someone else posted to your online forum? If so, this site is for you."

MERLOT is a "free and open resource designed primarily for faculty and students of higher education. Links to online learning materials are collected here along with annotations such as peer reviews and assignments."

http://www.merlot.org/Home.po

The index to De Anza professors' web sites (over 275 of them as of early 2005, over 300 in 2010) is at:

http://faculty.deanza.edu/

PageRank at Google explained

http://www.google.com/technology/

Who links to you

http://www.google.com/help/features.html#link

Detailed maps of the campus with the exact location of each room, are at: http://www.deanza.fhda.edu/map/detailmaps.html

You can add a link to specific quad maps at pages for each of your classes.

According to Google: "Following these guidelines will help Google find, index, and rank your site, which is the best way to ensure you'll be included in Google's results."

http://www.google.com/webmasters/guidelines.html

I've made a few borders like the ones above and below. They can be found at: clipart borders

Photoshop Elements filters One photograph of wildflowers growing from a crack in rock using different Adobe Photoshop Elements filters.

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You might also be interested in:

Student attitudes about disruptive behavior

portal tricks and tips

searchable faculty websites

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Important notes from the portal about confidentiallity that also apply to your website:

"Student educational records are considered confidential and may not be released to a third party without the written consent of the student. Do not share non-directory information from a student's education record such as grades or class schedules with parents--even if the student is under eighteen years of age. Refer the parents to the Office of Admissions and Records."

http://ets.fhda.edu/call_center/portalFERPA

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Evan Esar (1899 - 1995)