District Administration - March 2009 - (Page 36)

How Well Does This Web Site LEARN WHAT OUR WEB ANALYST SAYS IS RIGHT AND WRONG WITH THIS DISTRICT SITE Greenville County (S.C.) Schools www.greenville.k12.sc.us/index.asp By Laura R. Bona WITH 120 SCHOOL BUILDINGS, the Greenville County Schools is the largest public school system in South Carolina. It includes almost 69,000 students and just over 5,000 teachers. Design A great deal of content is presented on this site in an organized, compartmentalized manner. e look and feel is crisp and clean. e home page oﬀers “News and Notes,” a section for the featured video, and “Quick Links.” Two rotating text areas (both at top left) call out other featured information. e individual school sites sport diﬀerent designs, but they are listed from a well laid out directory listing, so there is no user confusion. e district logo (appearing at the top left on the main district site pages) does not serve double duty as a direct link back to the home page. However, there is a prominent “Home” link at the top left throughout most of the site. Navigation e top navigation bar has nine consistent choices, including one for the site’s home page and a search box. ere is a secondary nav bar that appears when cursoring over a given section link. e “Quick Links” right-side nav box is handily and helpfully customized to the various site sections (for example, “Departments,” “Parents,” “Teachers” and “Students”). Again, secondary nav links are provided as appropriate. e search functionality is powered by Google, and for the most part it delivers relevant and accurate results. ere is no site map oﬀered on the main district site, 36 March 2009 A great deal of content is presented on this site in an organized, compartmentalized manner. The look and feel is crisp and clean. but some of the individual school sites provide them. Usability A wide array of information is oﬀered on this site, applicable to all types of potential visitors. In addition, that information is highly accessible and intuitively presented. At the time of this review, there was a smattering of broken links. is site is not optimized for access by disabled users. School-to-Home Interaction e “Parents” section is exceptional. ere is “Parent Express,” a downloadable backto-school guide chock-full of relevant tid- bits, a “How ings Work” overview of district policies and procedures, and myriad other resources. e interactive “Parent Portal” enables easy access to student grades, attendance records, coursework and more. “ e School Channel,” a cable TV channel, provides an additional way for parents, students and other members of the community to access information. An extremely thorough “Contact Us” section for the district is provided, covering every possible manner of communication access. In addition, contact details for most of the district departments (such as administration, communications and ﬁnance) are available. District Administration http://www.greenville.k12.sc.us/index.asp

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of District Administration - March 2009

District Administration - March 2009
Contents
Editor’s Letter
News Update
Health & Fitness
Online Learning
Conversations
District Profile
Administrator Profile
The College Promise
Do Economic Rewards Work?
The SIFication of America
Disciplining Students with Disabilities
How Well Does This Web Site Work?
Tech Disruptions
New Products
Product Focus
New Books
Research Center

District Administration - March 2009