American University's Web site
American University has won the Web Marketing Association’
Previous winners in the education category include National Geographic’s “Discover Antarctica” page in 2006, and Disney Online’s “Hot Shot Business” site in 2005. In its 13th year, the Web award program recognizes the individual achievement behind the creation of today’s top Web sites in 96 industries. The awards define what Internet marketing professionals should strive for in their website marketing and design efforts.
American University’s Web site features news, success stories and profiles, site-wide global navigation, a virtual campus tour, user-generated content through a wiki called AUpedia, and a university master calendar. The Web Marketing Association rated it high for its innovation, design and ease of use.
“Our site is a window into the exciting happenings at American University each day,” said Terry Flannery, executive director of communications and marketing at AU. “Our intention is to continually engage our many audiences with information that draws them into an ongoing relationship with us.”
Since the launch in March 2009, AU’s Web Site has won awards from eduStyle for Best Overall Website and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education for best homepage.
“American University has produced a transformational site and created a collaborative meeting place for students, faculty, staff and visitors that should be the envy of the higher education community,” said Bob Cellucci, senior vice president at PaperThin, who supported American University’s entry in the competition. “It was exciting to work with a team who had a clear vision of what they wanted to accomplish and we’re very proud to have been part of the process.”
“Even though we have been cited as an industry benchmark, the work on the site continues and improvements are being rolled out,” said David Swartz, an assistant vice president and chief information officer at AU. “Much is being planned to further enhance AU’s web presence and to make it easier for our community to access and share needed information.”
New York–based firm HUGE (http://www.hugeinc.com/
DiscoverAU, with its “Virtual Campus Experience” produced and streamed by Realview TV (http://www.realviewtv.com/
To create the site’s functionality, AU turned to content management company PaperThin, Inc. (http://www.paperthin.com/
This Web 2.0 launch was the result of a two-year campus-wide collaborative process, led by an expert group of leaders from the university’s information technology and marketing communication areas with assistance from industry partners.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
