Meetings and Training for Website Collaborators
We provide support, consultation, and advice to our campus partners working with content on the website, also known as website collaborators. Together we build, maintain, and enhance vital web properties that reflect CMU's brand and follow best practices for digital communications.
Collaborator meeting schedule
Website collaborators are invited to join the digital strategy team for bi-monthly collaborative meeting to review recent updates and share feedback. Meetings are held via Teams. Contact your digital strategist for a meeting invite.
Sitefinity training
Training for our website's content management system, Sitefinity, is available monthly. Training for new website collaborators is required before you can work on web pages and content items. We also offer training topics to help you enhance your skills using images, documents, forms, and optimizing your web pages to improve the user journey.
Reasons to attend web trainings
- Your content deserves the best possible presentation (and users expect it).
- Change happens (to processes, policies, best practices and technologies).
- Data-driven improvement (analytics/survey results guide training priorities and approach).
- Save time/frustration (strategists do not reject properly authored/executed submissions).
- Take advantage of CMU's investment in and commitment to developing digital skills.
Website training for new collaborators
This is a 2.5-hour training session on using our new content management system, Sitefinity, to edit, create, and maintain your web pages. This training is required for new collaborators (who have not received any Sitefinity training yet and will be working on department or college web pages).
You'll learn:
*How to use the website Playbook as your source of instruction for working within Sitefinity.
*How to create a new webpage or edit an existing page using widgets and layouts.
*How to upload images and documents to the website.
*The workflow process for approval and publishing of page and content items.
*An opportunity to practice during the training to create a new webpage.
The training is held in person at Park Library room 209 and computers will be available for your use.
Sitefinity Refresher
Intended for existing collaborators, this training will consist of a 15-minute overview of the Page Build Checklist and 45 minutes of Q&A with the digital strategist.
Accessibility and ADA Compliance 101
This one-hour training is beginner-level and introduces the importance of website accessibility and Americans with Disabilities Act compliance.
You will learn:
- What website accessibility means.
- Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1.
- How ADA compliance affects the user experience.
This is an in-person training at Park Library. Accessibility and ADA Compliance 201 will be offered at a later date and offer more tactical training on accessibility and Sitefinity.
Mobile-First Design
This one-hour training is beginner-intermediate level and provides a detailed overview of the mobile-first design philosophy and how to apply it to your cmich.edu content.
You will learn:
- Why you should design with a mobile-first mindset.
- Best practices for mobile-first design.
- How to display content based on mobile device usage.
This training is being offered on Microsoft Teams.
The Basics of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
This one-hour training is intermediate to advanced level.
You'll learn:
- How the use of page titles, headings, first paragraph content, search engine optimization title and meta description all contribute to users finding your web pages.
- Best practices for increasing page views and user engagement on your web pages.
- How the digital team can provide you with analytics to examine your pages' performance and make data-driven decisions about web content.
This training is in-person and will focus on steps you can take to improve traffic to your web pages and help the user journey.
Computers will be provided to use during the training.