College of the Canyons Web Site Development Guidelines

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1 College of the Canyons Web Site Development Guidelines These guidelines define the requirements and recommendations of web sites that are hosted on the College of the Canyons web server. These guidelines have been drafted by the Web Committee, a subcommittee of the Technology Committee of College of the Canyons. The most recent revision of these guidelines will be posted to the College of the Canyons intranet at: It should also be noted that all aspects of the district s Computer and Network Use for Faculty, Staff, and Administrators board policy 815 will be enforced by the district. More information on Board Policy 815 can be found here: 1. Requirements 1.1. Accessibility Section 508 All web pages must adhere to Section 508 guidelines. Questions relating to Section 508 or the Rehabilitation Act should be directed to Scott McAfee, Access Coordinator for College of the Canyons, at (661) Information Currency It is the responsibility of the content owner to maintain the content and keep it updated. Content must be regularly updated and outdated content removed from the server. If outdated content is to remain on th server, it must be labeled as outdated or archival in nature Design Administrative Office Web sites in the path are considered to be administrative office web sites. These sites shall be designed using a standard header and footer template approved by the Web Committee Academic Department Web sites in the path are considered to be academic department web sites. The college does not enforce design requirements or restrictions on these sites other than those listed in this document. However, it is highly

2 recommended that these web sites include the following design elements on all pages within the site: A College of the Canyons logo hyperlinked to Name of the college and Department Additionally, it is highly recommended that these web sites contain such elements as: List of faculty in the department Contact information Faculty Web sites in the path are considered to be faculty web sites. The college does not enforce design requirements or restrictions on these sites other than those listed in this document. However, it is highly recommended that these web sites include the following design elements on all pages within the site: A College of the Canyons logo hyperlinked to Name of the college, department and instructor Standard Template IT can provide a standard header/footer template that has been approved by Web committee for use with all College of the Canyons web sites. This template is maintained by IT and its design is periodically updated. When these updates are made to the template, all pages that utilize the template will have the new design automatically applied. It should be noted that any web page(s)/site(s) that do not utilize the standard header/footer template OR utilize a design that only mimics the standard template will NOT have its design automatically updated when the standard template design is updated. It will be the responsibility of the owner of the web page/site to update or fund the update of the design of the page/site to reflect the new design of the standard template Hyperlinks to External Web Sites All hyperlinks on the web site that lead visitors to external web sites/pages that are not part of the user s site must be clearly identified. The general purpose is to make visitors aware that the destination page is no longer a part of the user s web site. The larger purpose is to inform visitors when they are leaving a College of the Canyons web site. 2. Restrictions

3 2.1. Copyright All content on the College of the Canyons web site is for the personal, professional and/or educational use of students, staff, scholars and/or the general public. Commercial use or publication is strictly prohibited. College of the Canyons does not assume responsibility for or endorse the content of any other web site reached via a link displayed on the college s web site. Authors of content in the college s web site and those who store resources on college servers are responsible for updating and maintaining that content. Infringement of copyright laws and obscene, harassing, or threatening materials on college servers can be in violation of district policy, local, state, national or international laws and can be subject to litigation by the appropriate law enforcement agency. While the district owns and maintains the servers that host college web pages, information that violates laws could expose those responsible to considerable personal liability. At a minimum, follow the rules below: Written permission must be obtained from the content owner and kept on file for all copyrighted or trademarked materials in any form. Model releases providing consent must be obtained and kept on file for all images (i.e. photographs, drawings, paintings or other derivatives) and audio, video or movies of students or others. The Public Information Office has model release forms available for this purpose. There should be no pages containing commercial activities or advertisements not related to the mission of the college. It is prohibited to post information in public areas of the web site, confidential or otherwise, pertaining to other individuals who do not want the information posted. It is prohibited to post any images or data that are libelous, discriminatory, abusive, profane, harassing, or sexually offensive or in conflict with Santa Clarita Community College District Board Policy File Size There are currently no restrictions on the size of each web site. However, the server is a shared resource among all areas of the college. Therefore, it is expected that you will not abuse the server by storing abnormally large content in a web site. Media content should be resized and compressed in order to reduce file sizes for distribution over the Internet. Photos should be saved in JPEG format while all other images should be saved in GIF or PNG formats. Video files must be carefully analyzed for the best compression and delivery method. Please consult with Computer Support Services and/or Audio Visual for further assistance.

4 Special permission to store files on the web server that exceed 50 MB in size must be obtained prior to uploading the content to the server. Documents that you post for download should be made available in formats that are readily accessible to visitors. For example, if you wish to provide your syllabi as a separate downloadable document, it should be saved as a PDF, which is a file format that does not require visitors to purchase additional software. Providing the same document in a Word or Publisher format generally requires purchase of that software and is therefore prohibitive Personal File Storage The use of the web server for personal file storage is strictly prohibited. You may only save content to the server that is intended for use by a group of end users. For example, you can save your syllabi on the web server if you are intending to make that content available to your students but you cannot store your tests on the web server unless you are planning to make those available to some group in addition to yourself Use of Commercial Logos Use of commercial logos is strictly prohibited unless prior permission has been obtained from the logo owner to display the logo on the web site and use of the logo on the college web site has been approved by the Public Information Office. 3. Recommendations 3.1. Linking to Commercial Web Sites Linking to commercial web sites is strictly prohibited except in instances where the commercial entity is somehow directly involved in supporting the college and/or the college is making use of professional services offered through the commercial entity and there is a requirement to link to the commercial site to use those services. It is highly recommended that users consult with the Public Information Office before providing links to commercial web sites Focus on the Content The primary purpose of the web site is to disseminate information to the users of the site. To this end, a reasonable limit should be placed on elements that may distract users from the content of the site or otherwise overshadow the primary purpose. 4. District s Responsibilities 4.1. Backups Although College of the Canyons performs data backups of the web server on a regular basis, the college makes no guarantees about the recoverability of any content that you upload to the server. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the content owner to backup the data routinely.

5 4.2. Security College of the Canyons makes no guarantees regarding the security of your data. The college web server is publicly accessible and as such, is subject to potential security breaches and data loss. It is not recommended that you store any sort of sensitive data on the web server Standard Template Life Cycle The college will form a subcommittee responsible for routinely adding and updating templates to the approved template library. Suggestions for designs and layouts to be included in the approved template library can be made to this subcommittee. The subcommittee will ensure that all templates meet the college s design and accessibility requirements. For more information: Copyright: Technical: Section 508: John Green, x3684 Help Desk, x3953 Scott McAfee, x3356