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l<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g with<strong>in</strong> the web page is also an important consideration <strong>in</strong> order to improve navigation with<strong>in</strong> the<br />

document. Another advantage of us<strong>in</strong>g l<strong>in</strong>k<strong>in</strong>g is provid<strong>in</strong>g non-l<strong>in</strong>ear access to a variety of <strong>in</strong><strong>format</strong>ion <strong>in</strong> a<br />

seamless fashion.<br />

Unfortunately, regardless of the improv<strong>in</strong>g and user friendly <strong>in</strong>ternet brows<strong>in</strong>g software and applications,<br />

many people have not had the time nor the <strong>in</strong>cl<strong>in</strong>ation to learn a new language (<strong>in</strong> this case HTML). Locally,<br />

at Northern Arizona University a new UNIX mach<strong>in</strong>e was purchased and <strong>in</strong>tegrated <strong>in</strong>to the campus<br />

comput<strong>in</strong>g environment. This mach<strong>in</strong>e provides faculty and staff with the opportunity to make their personal<br />

home pages public. Regardless of access to this UNIX server, a small percentage of N.A.U.’s faculty and staff<br />

have published their personal home pages. This presented our office with a challenge: that of provid<strong>in</strong>g<br />

solutions to typical problems and barriers faced by faculty us<strong>in</strong>g new <strong>in</strong>structional technologies. These<br />

problems and barriers <strong>in</strong>clude lack of time to develop a home page, and skill limitations <strong>in</strong> areas such as<br />

HTML tagg<strong>in</strong>g, <strong>in</strong><strong>format</strong>ion design, graphics design, creat<strong>in</strong>g an efficient home page, as well as design<strong>in</strong>g<br />

pedagogical strategies for web based <strong>in</strong>struction. OID has brought together a team that <strong>in</strong>corporates all of<br />

these skills to create an exceptional template. This template helps faculty not only respond to their perceived<br />

needs, but also challenges them to th<strong>in</strong>k more creatively about us<strong>in</strong>g this new environment for <strong>in</strong>struction.<br />

As the project evolved we designed five different templates specifically for academic function. There are<br />

m<strong>in</strong>or variations <strong>in</strong> graphic appearance, for example <strong>in</strong> button design and color selection. We also collaborated<br />

closely with the campus comput<strong>in</strong>g technology services department to produce the templates. This aided our<br />

design process by ensur<strong>in</strong>g the templates were efficient <strong>in</strong> terms of graphic download time and their<br />

appearance. The size and quality of the images used <strong>in</strong> these templates were also considered <strong>in</strong> order to<br />

provide end users with functional and attractive home pages.<br />

Conclusion<br />

Learn<strong>in</strong>g to edit and modify the Academic Home Page template provides faculty with opportunities to learn<br />

HTML and at the same time create a fully functional site for their students’ use. The OID team comb<strong>in</strong>ed<br />

skills <strong>in</strong> many different areas to create an effective set of templates for academic use. This collaborative effort<br />

resulted <strong>in</strong> a much richer set of templates.

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