NAU’s academic web presence isn’t one website. It’s a collection of connected web environments, each designed to serve a different purpose.<\/p>\n
For prospective students and other visitors, those distinctions may not be obvious. They simply experience NAU online\u2014moving from one site to another as they discover academic opportunities, learn more about programs and colleges, and seek the information they need to take their next step.<\/p>\n
That’s why we’re thinking about NAU’s academic websites as an ecosystem<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The goal isn’t to put the same information everywhere. It’s to give each web property a clear purpose, create stronger connections between them, and make it easier for visitors to find the right information at the right time.<\/p>\n One way to think about the academic web ecosystem is through three broad experiences: discovery, connection, and deeper engagement<\/strong>.<\/p>\n These aren’t rigid stages, and visitors won’t always move through them in the same order. Someone might begin with a department website, arrive directly at Degree Search from Google, or visit a college site after already knowing which program interests them.<\/p>\n But the framework helps us think about what someone needs at different points in their experience.<\/p>\n During discovery<\/strong>, visitors are exploring possibilities. They may be learning about NAU, browsing academic areas, or searching for programs that match their interests.<\/p>\n As they begin to connect<\/strong>, they’re looking more closely at an academic area or program. They want to understand what makes it distinctive and whether it feels like the right fit.<\/p>\n With deeper engagement<\/strong>, they’re ready for more. They may want to meet the faculty, explore research and hands-on experiences, understand the academic community, investigate detailed requirements, or take a next step.<\/p>\n Different parts of NAU’s web ecosystem support different parts of that experience.<\/p>\n At the broadest level, nau.edu<\/strong> introduces prospective students to NAU and its academic opportunities.<\/p>\n College-level recruitment pages and other prospective-student content can build awareness, introduce areas of study, and help visitors begin exploring what’s possible at NAU.<\/p>\n The goal at this level isn’t to provide every detail about every academic program. It’s to generate interest and connect prospective students with the resources that can help them explore further.<\/p>\n Degree Search<\/strong> moves from broad discovery toward individual program exploration.<\/p>\n Its job is to help prospective students answer a fundamental question: Is this program right for me?<\/strong><\/p>\n Updated Degree Search pages provide concise, student-centered information about what students will learn, what makes a program distinctive, career possibilities, research and applied learning, and other experiences that can help them compare their options.<\/p>\n Degree Search isn’t intended to recreate the academic catalog or contain every story a program could tell. It provides enough information to help a student understand the opportunity\u2014and connects them to deeper resources when they’re ready.<\/p>\n College websites serve a broader purpose than individual program recruitment.<\/p>\n They provide an outward-facing view of the college\u2014its identity, priorities, research and innovation, accomplishments, partnerships, news, events, and impact.<\/p>\n That makes them valuable for audiences that extend beyond prospective students, including alumni, donors, community partners, prospective faculty, and others who want to understand or maintain a connection with the college.<\/p>\n Rather than recreating Degree Search for every program, college sites can help visitors understand the larger academic community those programs are part of.<\/p>\n Department and school websites provide an opportunity to go deeper.<\/p>\n A prospective student who has discovered an interesting program may now want to know: Who will teach me? What kind of research is happening here? What facilities will I use? What experiences are available outside the classroom? What does it actually feel like to study this subject at NAU?<\/p>\n Department and school sites can answer those questions through information about faculty, research, facilities, student experiences, partnerships, events, resources, and the academic community surrounding their programs.<\/p>\n This is where visitors can move beyond understanding what a program is<\/strong> and begin exploring what it’s like to be part of it<\/strong>.<\/p>\n Within department and school sites, Academic Program Pages<\/strong> will eventually provide deeper, program-specific storytelling.<\/p>\n Rather than repeating the concise information available in Degree Search, these pages can expand the story through faculty, student, and alumni perspectives; research and experiential learning; internships, clinical experiences, fieldwork, or study abroad; career preparation; student organizations; photos and video; and other content that brings the program experience to life.<\/p>\n The distinction is important.<\/p>\n Degree Search helps a student ask, \u201cIs this program right for me?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n An Academic Profile Page can help answer, \u201cWhat is it like to study this program at NAU?\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n As students move deeper into their exploration, they also need access to detailed, authoritative academic information.<\/p>\n That’s the role of the academic catalog<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The catalog remains the source for official curriculum, degree requirements, admissions requirements, academic policies, and other formal program information.<\/p>\n Those details are essential\u2014but they don’t need to be recreated across every website a student visits. Connecting students to the catalog when they’re ready for that level of information allows other parts of the ecosystem to focus on discovery, storytelling, and engagement.<\/p>\n A connected ecosystem doesn’t mean every visitor follows the same path. And it doesn’t mean every website should look or function exactly the same.<\/p>\n It means each site understands its role.<\/p>\n When those roles are clear, we can reduce duplicated content, create more consistent navigation, and make stronger connections between web properties. Academic units can focus their time and resources on the content that belongs on their sites rather than maintaining multiple versions of information available elsewhere.<\/p>\n Most importantly, visitors don’t have to understand NAU’s organizational or web structure to find what they need.<\/p>\n Wherever they enter the ecosystem, the experience should help them understand where they are, find useful information, and see where they can go next.<\/p>\n One ecosystem. Distinct purposes. Shared expertise. Connected experiences.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NAU’s academic web presence isn’t one website. It’s a collection of connected web environments, each designed to serve a different purpose. For prospective students and other visitors, those distinctions may not be obvious. They simply experience NAU online\u2014moving from one site to another as they discover academic opportunities, learn more about programs and colleges, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2870,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8,11],"tags":[44,47,45,48,43,46,49],"class_list":["post-491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-strategy","category-web","tag-academic-catalog","tag-colleges","tag-degree-search","tag-department","tag-nau-websites","tag-program-pages","tag-school-websites"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2870"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":494,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491\/revisions\/494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/in.nau.edu\/academic-affairs-marketing\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Discovery, connection, and deeper engagement<\/h2>\n
nau.edu: introducing possibilities<\/h2>\n
Degree Search: exploring academic fit<\/h2>\n
College sites: connecting with the broader community<\/h2>\n
Department and school sites: exploring the academic community<\/h2>\n
Academic Program Pages: engaging with a specific program<\/h2>\n
The academic catalog: the authoritative details<\/h2>\n
One ecosystem, distinct purposes<\/h2>\n