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Creating Web-Pages in Education on a Limited Budget: Strategies for
Success in Cooperative Extension
Robert G. Brannan
Extension Family and Consumer Sciences
Kansas State University
rbrannan@oz.oznet.ksu.edu
Mary McPhail Gray
Extension Family and Consumer Sciences
Kansas State University
mgray@oz.oznet.ksu.edu
The Kansas Cooperative Extension Service provides practical, researched-based information and
educational programs to address critical issues facing individuals, families, agricultural producers, business
operators and communities in our state. Extension Family and Consumer Sciences mission is to link education
with life experience to help Kansas citizens improve their lives, their families, and their communities.
Creating a World Wide Web presence for Kansas Extension Family and Consumer Sciences (FACS)
in this era of lower budgets has been a challenge to state specialists committed to maximizing their
effectiveness through this new technique. Development of a single homepage through a commercial service
would cost between $200-$700 and the resources for this work are not available. However, five strategies for
producing low-cost web pages have been identified and used with differing degrees of success to produce FACS
Web-pages that enhance the delivery of education and information.
Strategy #1: The “Do It Yourself” Approach
The easiest way for faculty to produce web documents at low cost is to do it themselves. The approach
involves two important factors that the faculty member must consider: They must be predisposed to learn
HTML and they must have the time to do the work. It is difficult to quantify the amount of time needed to
adequately learn HTML and implement web pages; it will vary from individual to individual and from
institution to institution.
There are major advantages afforded a faculty member who utilizes this approach. First of all, the
choice of what work gets done rests solely with the faculty member and they have total control over content
and style. However, there are also several disadvantages. This type of project involves a major time
commitment. Also, it is difficult to add work of this complexity to faculty that already feel over-committed.
Lastly, maintenance and upkeep of the page will likely be the sole responsibility of the creator.
An example of this approach found within Extension FACS is The Wonderwise Parent by Dr. Charles
Smith, Extension State Leader for Family Studies and Human Services. Dr. Smith authored his page
(http://www.ksu.edu/wwparent/begin.html) over a six-week period. He had no previous knowledge of HTML,
but was able to develop pages that have received recognition from the Magellan Group, the Mental Health Net,
and NBNSOFT.
Strategy 2: Full-time, Dedicated Support Person
Another strategy used to generate web pages is to rely on a full-time, dedicated support person. This
technician will be experienced in HTML, and will be ready to create web pages. Faculty will be able to
schedule work with the technician on a first-come first-served basis. In order to hire and support such a
person, salary, benefits, and equipment have to be budgeted. However, this person has the potential to be
spread too thin. Scheduling could become political, which would reduce overall effectiveness.