If you have logged onto Cleveland State Community College’s website recently, you may have noticed some big changes. CSCC has launched a new website. It has been five years since the college has revitalized its website.
The new website was inspired by the college’s participation in the Pathways Project led by the American Association of Community Colleges. CSCC is one of 30 colleges in the United States and the only one in Tennessee chosen for this project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The Pathways Project will allow CSCC to provide guided pathways for students that promote success and completion.
“Because of our restructuring of the academic programs for the Pathways Project, we were basically changing everything that had to do with academics on the website," stated Tony Bartolo, director of Communications. “We decided if we were going to change almost half of the website, why not just go ahead and change the whole site?”
“Cleveland State has launched an institutional reform during this celebratory 50th year,” stated Denise King, vice president for Academic Affairs. “We have excelled in the mission we undertook with our founding in 1967 – to expand access to higher education through a variety of classes, programs and services from which students could choose as they explore potential educational paths. However, today’s students have different needs. They want to enter and complete programs that confer economically valuable certificates and degrees as quickly and efficiently as possible; they don’t have time for lengthy exploration. Also, our local employers need highly skilled workers as soon as they can get them. Therefore, Cleveland State is remaking itself in a guided pathways model.”
According to Ms. King, the guided pathways model is built upon three important ideas. First, Cleveland State has paid attention to the entire student experience, both programs of study and their intake process. Second, they are not just tinkering with discrete aspects of the student experience, but have built a framework that unifies everything they do around the central goal of helping students choose, enter, and complete a program of study aligned with students’ goals for employment and further education. Third, they’ve begun with student end goals for careers and further education in mind and “backward mapped” programs and supports to ensure that students are prepared to thrive in employment and education at the next level.
Mr. Bartolo stated, “This is a new, modern website in terms of look and feel. It has a more modern design, and the information is structured differently. We feel it’s more organized, and it’s a responsive website in that the information reorients itself based on whatever device you are using. It’s just going to be a better experience for the end user and for our students because things are so much easier to find now.”
According to Mr. Bartolo, there was an internal website committee that assisted in the revitalization that consisted of himself, John Dezember, web developer, Robert Brandon, dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, Ashley Raburn, director of Dynamic Instruction and Jeff Reep, senior graphic designer. In addition, the committee sought help from Hannon Hill, an outside company that integrated CSCC’s design into their content management system.
Mr. Dezember stated, “Hannon Hill was a great company to work with. They understood what we needed for the academic area, and they executed it well. They delivered on time under a very tight schedule.”
“John (Dezember) was a major player and he did a great job,” stated Mr. Bartolo. “I think the committee worked really well together. It was a lot of hard work, but we have been very pleased with the outcome and the feedback has been great.”
Ms. King stated, “As the college launches a new website that is remade in the pathways model, and continues to put into place reforms in orientation, advising and success efforts, students entering in 2017 have more evidence than ever before to identify Cleveland State as the college that puts them first.”
To check out the new website, visit www.clevelandstatecc.edu.