Originally completed 11-28-01 by the Mission College Instructional Technology Committee. Approved 12-01 by the Mission College Academic Senate. Also refer to WVMCCD Computer and Technology Use Policy at http://www.wvmccd.cc.ca.us/wvmccd/use.html for acceptable practices.

Premise

Create pages following these guidelines. It is understood that in time more employees will have FTP access for making changes to their department or program pages. However, initial design review of new Web sites is through the Webmaster before posting.

Purpose/Goal

Provide students with universal access to information including details about courses, services and activities as a student-centered institution with a focus on teaching and learning. In so doing, the ultimate intent is to attract and retain students. Web pages supported by Mission College reflect the college goals contained in the Mission College Mission Statement at http://www.missioncollege.org/gen_info/about.html.

Tone of Site
Create pages that are academic-oriented, encouraging, friendly, clean, and professional.

Content

Template
Request a template from the Webmaster. Divide the page into sections into which go headings, images and text. Arrange elements in a consistent manner, using columns and rows as needed.

Style Sheet
The Mission College style sheet and instructions are available for use with instructions from the Webmaster. It works in conjunction with templates. When possible, use columns to keep 8 to 15 words per line, since text is most readable that way.

Department or Program Page Elements:

• Place Mission College in the title because this is what appears in the "bookmark" or "favorite".
• If desired, include author of the page in the HTML source as a comment.
• Include Mission College name and address.
• Include phone contact and "mailto:" E-mail contact to department contact person to allow for feedback.
• At the bottom and/or top of each page, place relative links to the Mission College Home Page, and to the department/program home page.
• Check all links for functionality regularly.
• Include date of last revision or update, at least yearly.

Copyright Issues
Copyright and trademark laws apply to electronic publishing, as well as to print publishing. Electronic publications are subject to the same college policies and standards as print publications. Obtain and save written permission to publish copyrighted information, graphics, images, audio, or photographs.

Page or file name
Name files using 14 or fewer lowercase characters, and no unusual characters (underscore is OK) or spaces. If revising or updating a page, retain the same file name when it is reasonable to do so because all site links to the present page will then continue to function. When creating a new site, title the home page index.html or default.html.

Images
Images load more slowly than text. Pages will load faster if the following guidelines are followed:

• Repeat images when possible instead of changing them slightly.
• Reduce the total number of websafe colors in gifs.
• Optimize images for file size reduction.
• Use smaller images when practical.
• Specify the image's height and width in the code.
• Give each image an ALT tag with descriptive text explaining the image. For spacer gifs, bullets, and other incidental images, use an empty ALT tag (ALT=" ").

• Ensure that pages work and print well on both Windows and Mac platforms in recent versions of Netscape Navigator and Microsoft Internet Explorer.
• When possible, test the pages using a dial-up modem.
• Test each page with graphics off in the browser and also with an accessibility checker, such as Bobby at http://bobby.watchfire.com/bobby/html/en/index.jsp, a free service provided by CAST to improve access for individuals with disabilities.
  
  The Web content must satisfy U.S. Section 508 Guidelines. Web publishers must make a good faith effort to conform to the standards for accessibility under Section 508 of the Rehabilitative Act.
  
  The Section 508 criteria for web-based technology and information at http://www.section508.gov/final_summary.html#web are based on access guidelines developed by the Web Accessibility Initiative of the World Wide Web Consortium at http://www.w3.org/WAI/.