Developing & Improving an ASA website:
Whole-Person
Education for Science and Faith
by Craig Rusbult, website
editor
a quick summary:
If you want to help in any way (check the Table of Contents for possibilities),
please let me know: Craig Rusbult, craig@asa3.org. Currently,
our main need is finding high-quality resources on the
web, so if you are expert in an area — or you're interested in
it and want to become more expert by studying it — we can use your help.
Table of Contents:
How can you help us, and why might you want to help? Finding
Web-Resources
Increasing the Impact Improving
our Appeal — Visual, Verbal, and Functional
Appealing to websurfers who "only want to learn
a little" but are curious
The Process of Accountability: Your Feedback and Our Responsibility
Appendix: The Audience Marketing Website
Structure Coping with Controversy
WHY might
you want to help?
It's a Wonderful Life is
my favorite movie, partly for its art (the plot, script, acting, filming,...)
but mainly for the
message: Each
of us affects other people, and life is better if we affect others
in a way that is beneficial for them.
One of the many ways for you to be a good "steward of
knowledge" is to help us improve our website so it will
be more beneficial for its
users.
HOW can
you help?
A good starting
point is to explore the website — beginning with the homepage and sitemap — so
you can see what is there, and decide whether
you want to become involved in some parts of it. In developing our website
the main productive activity, which is challenging yet enjoyable, is to search
for web-pages with good ideas and style. Or you might write a links-page (describing
the pages you've found) or a content-page with "good
ideas and style." { The main function of a content-page is
to communicate ideas. A
links-page summarizes the main ideas about
a topic, and describes the content-pages it links to. }
There is more information about how
to help in the next three sections: Finding Web Resources, Increasing
the Impact, and Giving it Appeal.
note: The three sections below, plus the "why and how" above, are quoted (sometimes with minor revisions) from Improving the Website in the Science Education Commission Newsletter (October 2004).
Filling Gaps
Currently, the
website has many under-developed areas. The homepage explains that whole-person
education "is
defined broadly so it includes a wide range of interesting ideas." This
is beneficial for users, but doing all areas well requires time, and currently
the website is underdeveloped in many areas: in Effective Teaching (with Teaching
Strategies and Teaching Activities), parts of School Options (especially for
Private Schools) and World Views (for many topics), plus The Nature of Science
(in
stories and
debates), environmental science, and more.
Since much of the website is underdeveloped,
and all of it can benefit from thoughtful evaluation, and science education
is broadly defined, you can probably find some way to
use your interests and expertise. For example, some of you have devoted your careers to Christian
schools. Compared with you, I know very little about this area, so you
would be more skilled in developing it. If you
look through the website, you'll find some areas where you are relatively expert
and your knowledge would
be useful. Or, if you're interested in a topic you can become more expert
by learning more about
it while you're developing the website.
If you find a fascinating
area
that is underdeveloped, and you can help us develop it, please let me know: Craig
Rusbult, craig@asa3.org
Searching and Deciding
Because many excellent content-pages are
already on the web, our main strategy for developing the website will be finding
these web resources and writing links-pages.
In searching for content-pages,
the key is selectivity. With a search
engine and a few minutes, it's easy to find lots of pages. It's
more difficult to find the best pages, but this is the goal. We want to recommend
only high-quality pages, so users can learn quickly and well, and they won't
be overwhelmed with too many choices. But
selectivity will not be censorship, and for controversial questions the range
of views will be wide.
Selectivity requires effort. If
you look at one page and say "I like it," this might be useful. But it's
much better if you look at 15 pages and then, after careful evaluation, you
decide "I like these 2." Or you could look at 50 pages and say "I like
these 5, here is why, and they can fulfill these functions in the website." Or
you might evaluate 50 pages and make a short-list of 10, which you submit for
discussion and evaluation. Yes, a careful selection
of resources requires more work by us, but this will make the website better
for those who will use it in the future.
Origins Questions (an important area)
In my opinion, this is the
area that is most likely to be noticed, and to make a positive impact in the
educational
community. It will be the main focus of attention in the near future. { At
the annual meeting of ASA in 2003,
two commissions — Science Education, and Creation — met together,
mainly to discuss the Origins Questions area in the website, and Robert Newman,
chair
of the Creation Commission, wrote a report
of this joint
meeting. }
Increasing the Impact
Will people use the ASA's website
for Education in Science & Faith? So
far, I haven't tried to get it more widely known and used. This will
change in the near future, sometime in 2009.
When we decide that we want to
attract more users, how should we do it? Do you have ideas for doing
this effectively? Do
you have training and experience in marketing, or an intuitive feel for it? Are
you a socially adept networker, skilled at gracefully "advertising" a website
to your colleagues? Do you know how to write effective emails that will
get return-links from web editors whose pages we cite? Do you know how
to make a page rank high in Google and other search engines? All of these
skills will be useful for increasing the educational impact and ministry value
of the website.
Giving it Appeal
Part of our marketing will be
intrinsic, by making the website more verbally and visually appealing.
Visual Appeal: We
want to make a good "first impression" and this includes the gut-level emotional
appeal of "looking good" to a viewer. Do you have ideas for
improving this? Do you have training, experience, or intuition for graphic
design and page layout? Are
you (or is someone you know) a clever cartoonist? And are you willing
to help as a volunteer? { I've contributed thousands of hours as
an unpaid volunteer because I view this work as participation in a beneficial
ministry, and we won't be able to pay
you, either. }
Verbal Appeal: Writing
should combine solid content and fluent style, with interesting
ideas expressed briefly and clearly, illustrated by examples, analogies, or
stories. While finding or writing content-pages, imagine yourself as
a reader who is asking "Why should I read this?", and give yourself
(as a reader) a reason to begin reading and to continue. Is the process interesting?
(Is it fun now, while I'm reading?) Will it be useful? (Will it
make my life better in the future?) Potential readers will ask these
questions — Is it fun, and will it be useful? — when deciding how
to use their time, so we should try to find or write pages — especially
at the beginning of each sub-area in the home page and introductory pages — that
are interesting and connect with felt needs. { Later, I'll
provide links to pages about Writing for the Web.
} {examples of stories I've written}
Functional
Appeal: To
develop
a website with useful content-and-structure, we can imagine
ourselves as a particular person (in one segment of a much larger potential
audience)
and ask "what am I looking for" and then make
it easy to recognize
that this is available
and findable. more about Functional Appeal
INFORMATION
OVERLOAD? The web makes
it possible to offer "levels of
learning" with options for those who want to invest 1 minute, or 10 minutes,
1 hour, 5 hours, or more. Currently, this website is more useful for those
who are enthusiastic about learning and want to learn a lot. But it's weak
for "drawing in" casual websurfers who are not already motivated
to learn.
How can we
make the website more appealing (visually, verbally, and functionally) for websurfers
who
only
want
to
learn
a
little,
or aren't convinced
they
want to learn anything? One way is to
develop "Read Me First" pages that
are easy to read, and fun, with
stories and graphics, with enough content to educate
(and motivate so a reader wants to learn more) but not to overwhelm with too
many
ideas. Then,
near the top of each home-page and links-page we should make prominent "Read
Me First" links, thus making it easy for readers to find
these
intro-pages. One way (of several possible) to describe "read me first"
pages, in a way that is familiar to websurfers, is to make FAQs with
questions that grab attention (with dramatic flair and by matching what viewers
want to learn and hope to find) and quick "answers" that are fun,
And maybe the home-pages and links-pages
could also be rewritten in a more "popular" style, as in the read-me-first
introductory pages.
Hopefully, in the near future we can invest the time and effort that is needed
to transform our
goals
into
realities.
THE PROCESS OF ACCOUNTABILITY —
YOUR FEEDBACK
and OUR RESPONSIBILITY
• from the newsletter:
Improving
the Website
Why
am I asking for help? My
goals are improved quality and accountability.
Quality: Our website will be useful
for ministry and outreach, if it has quality. I think the current website
is excellent in some ways, but in other ways it needs to be improved. We
should make it better, and you can help.
Accountability: When the ASA is
represented in official media — in its journal, and in newsletters, email
discussion groups, bulletin board forums, and websites (of the ASA or its affiliates
or commissions) — this should be done in a way that is consistent with
ASA policies, and that honors God. Until now, I've made most decisions
about the ASA Science Education Website without external accountability. But
the Science Education Commission is all of us, so you should be part of the
process.
...< eliminating everything between the introduction above and conclusion below >...
Evaluating the Website
You can explore part of the website
or all, and provide feedback about anything you want: look-and-feel,
navigation structure, logical structure, idea quality, writing style, page
layout and
graphics, or choice of content-pages. When you're evaluating, honesty
is important. If you think some aspects of the website are good, I'll
be happy to hear this. If you think other parts need improving, I'll
want to hear this, too. Why? So we can make the website better
for its users. In the long run, you'll be doing me (and ASA) a favor
if we fix a weakness early, before it's seen by more people.
• And here is a counterbalancing principle, illustrated by a story:
The Miller, His Son, and Their Donkey
"I shall have to sell that donkey
of ours," said a
miller to his son. "I cannot afford to keep him through the winter. I
will take him to town this very morning to see if I can find a buyer. You
may go with
me." In
a little while the miller, his son, and the donkey were on their way to town.
They had not gone far when they met some
girls going to a party. They were talking and laughing as they went along. One
of them said, "Look at that
man and boy driving a donkey. One of them surely might ride."
The miller heard what they said, and quickly
made his son mount the donkey, while he walked along at its side.
After a while they came to a group of
old men who were talking very earnestly. "There," said
one, "I was just saying that boys and girls have no respect for the aged. You
see it is true in this case. See that boy riding while his old father
has to walk."
"Get down, my son," said his
father, "and I will ride." So they
went on.
They next met some women coming from town. "Why!" they
cried, "your
poor little boy is nearly tired out. How can you ride and make him walk?" So
the miller made his son ride on the donkey behind him.
They were now in town. A man coming
down the street called to the miller, "Why
do you make your donkey carry such a load? You can carry him better than
he can carry you."
At this the miller and his son got off
the donkey. They tied the donkey's legs together, turned him over on
his back; and began to carry him.
A crowd soon gathered to see the strange
sight. As they were crossing a bridge the donkey became frightened at
the hooting of the crowd. He broke loose, fell
into the river, and was drowned.
The miller was angry and ashamed. He
said, "There! I have tried to please everybody and have only made
a fool of myself. After
this I shall do as I think
best and let people say what they will."
(from Fifty Famous Fables, edited by
Lida Brown McMurry)
• the overall result:
Our Responsibility
I place a high value
on your
feedback and evaluations,
and
my
thinking will be influenced by what you say. But as editor I'm
ultimately
responsible
for the website's content and quality, so usually
I'll have to make the final decisions. (*) Knowing
this — that I will have to make my own decisions — you can feel
free to say what you
want. / * But
my decisions will be accountable to some
people within ASA. The details — of who these people are,
and
what
the "process
of
accountability" will be — these things are being discussed, and
this will continue during 2009.
APPENDIX But even if our website is visited,
it may not be used unless the initial impressions (in the home
page and introductory pages) convince a viewer — due to verbal
and visual appeal, feeling comfortable with the structure and navigation
tools, and sensing a connection with felt needs — that exploring
the website will be a fun and/or useful experience,
that it will be worth an investment of valuable time. The structure of a website should help make it functional appealling by clearly showing viewers that "something they want to explore" is available and findable. { Of course, the content should include things they'll want to explore, and we should provide the verbal/visual appeal that motivates viewers so they'll want to explore. } The structure of a
website should allow an effective expression of its content. Structure and Navigation Eventually, there will be
a comprehensive sitemap for the website. But in the near future
a temporary sitemap (An Introduction
to the Areas) will show only areas and sub-areas, but not the categories
within sub-areas. But some areas will provide more details. For
example, in Origins Questions you can see the area structure (with
3 sub-areas and 11 categories) in the navigation-table at the top of this
page. Relational
Organizations Who is
speaking? But individual ASA members
do adopt positions, which are expressed in the website when one of us
writes a page and also when we link to a page. Therefore, each
page (including each links-page) will list its author, in order to avoid
an implication — which would be a logical conclusion if no author
is listed — that a page represents the views of ASA (as an organization)
instead of just the views of an author or editor. This will also
allow more freedom of expression for writers, who can say what they want,
including claims (made as individuals) that "Many members of ASA
think..." or that "Most members..." or even (if it seems
appropriate to assume there should be no dissenters) that "ASA..." Pages from
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