Walkthrou to Search Engine Optimization

For it is your task to do the following task for all this pages:
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>About PGE
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>Executive Master Programmes
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>MBA Programmes
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>In-Company programmes
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>Management Courses
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>Coaching
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>Seminars
SBE>Target group>Prospective professionals>HR-Network

and their dutch equivalents.

The task is to add Meta Keywords, a title and description to each of these pages in order for google's spiders to make life easy. Here is how to do it.


1. Once on the page click here:

And this window opens:

Add the appropriate Meta-Keywords into the box with the number one.
Add the appropriate Title of the page in the box with the number two.

Hit APPLY!

Next, stay on this page an click:

Put into the empy element the description of the page.

Thats it! See the result on a fresh page in the source code here:

Some tips and tricks on the way:
After you have done this please do the same exercise for the dutch version of these pages. Start with the english one and finish all of them and switch to dutch after you have done this.
For the Meta-Tags please think for yourself and do not fill in more than 15.
For the Title please use the following template:
f.e.: For About PGE
Maastricht University School of Business and Economy (SBE) - Postgraduate Education programmes - About PGE
For the Description please us the first three or four lines of the pages text or see the example in the Frontpage.

Post Graduate Education Web Development

In my last presentation I talked about the main bus-stops of my roadmap to a more inviting online product and service cataloge. The main bus-stop I linger around for some weeks now is the post graduate education section short PGE.
For half a year I satisfied them with an online form tool which found widespread support except from ICTS. Its been used everywhere and payed for by METEOR's current or past president's credit card.
After finalizing the department websites which after all did not win much support I started on the PGE sites, starting with Executive Master Programmes. The premis is simple: 1. Keep it simple. 2. Know the CMS
If you know the CMS than you can forget about number one. Since PGE is within SBE the most proactive circle I got immediately something out of them. In the form of a powerpoint:

Starting from this and with the content from the "old" sites I made magic happen. Real magic! Not the occult practices often showcased by fraudulent apologetics of this craft. One person recently asked me what am I doing at SBE:

“I’m making websites with magic,” I explain, and I’m asked, “Real magic?” By real magic people mean miracles, thaumaturgical acts, and supernatural powers. “No,” I answer: “Conjuring tricks, not real magic.” Real magic, in other words, refers to the magic that is not real, while the magic that is real, that can actually be done, is not real magic.

The main difference to the previouse project (Department websites) is that PGE's program is bilingual. This means that for every page a second version of the page was created as to avoid confusion and to make all programmes available independend of the visitor's language setting. The reason behind this supifying act is that the CMS does not allow to set links from take say a dutch version of a page to an english version of another page.

This is in fact no inconvenience but an example of Heideggers aphorism "If you have a hammer, everything looks like a nail". A real inconvenience is the usability of GX. Using IE9.0 that chrashes everytime I try to hit the SAVE button is the main source for the delay in all operations (Besides the fact that one cannot work between 11 - 4 without avoiding frustration over the prehistoric tool itself). Firefox does not allow me to access the MediaRepository thus make it equally dull to work with stone and chisel.

After the first anxiety is overcome the rest works to satisfy everybody with no expectations whatsoever. In a first attempt to put everything online that is not nailed down to the ground the next approach is more down to earth. Every MBA programme has a short introduction, the most imporant information (start time, location, cost) and three major menu items (Contact me, download brochure, apply online). Some additional information is supplied in the brandingblock areas.

The management courses follow the same pattern and are characterized by a deep fragementation of knowledgesilos which would left every renaissance humanist question the purpose of education in todays transformative times. Coaching and Seminar sections are equally pimped and the HR Network added.

The frontpage is a product of Gliffy and does the trick needed to satisfy the expectations. The left hand navigation features the Social Media Channels, contact details and subscription to the newsletter of PGE. The newsletter subscription are handled like my washings. And the Social Media Channels are to be managed all from one spot called hootsuite. The news articles will be realized by GX and the events with Google calendar. The problem with Google Calendar is the limited design opportunities and GX has this annoying more news> at the bottom that automatically leads to the main news repository of the university. How to solve this latter problem is still a mystery as it was a year ago when conceiving the deparmental websites.

The next steps are rather mundane:

1. The text and all functionalities of the webforms need to be checked and fixed
2. Testimonials need to be added together with some fancies that have low priority like an animated programme title.
3. Google Analytic code needs to be added and reports automated
4. Meta-Tags needs to be thought of and added
5. URL's need to be remapped to the new pages before they can go live

Stanford Experiment: First session over and homework done

If one thing is certain then it is some peoples dedication. Here is a good example of how the attempt to open up a rather dry theme to fresh minds. The system runs smoothly without any problems. I finished the second unit in less than an hour including the homework. It was far less extensive than I expected and consisted of six video quizzes where I could choose between different options and filled out some numbers. The multiple choice questions where easier than the ones who's answer dependes on counting the path an agent takes through a space space.
The interactive nature is inviting and the authentic style of the videos might seem unprofessional but invite more participation than polished high definition productions seen at Crossknowledge. The audio quality is good and of crucial importance. What is annoying is the mono channel which bursts into my left ear while my right one is still bombarded by the sounds of the cave iam sitting in. The video quality is good and sufficient for this type of content. The best of all are the corrections posted below the videos which close the gap traditionally very wide between students and teachers. Pointing out misstakes rather than hidding them away is certainly the best if you create an "open" education model as did Sebastian and Peter.
A short side note shall be allowed here. I stumbled over the khanacademy.org forgeting that his founder was also on TED a while ago here:

Stanford's Experiment: A class of 100.000+

What's the disruptive quality of technological change is in fact a deflation of existing hardware using software by the elegancy of design. A good example of this is Stanfords Introduction to Artificial Intelligence online course. As one of three free online courses it sets forth Stanford's effort to provide education to the public. Students enrolling in Stanford pay roughly 50.000US for an undergraduate course. The same course is taught now for 1-2% of the costs using for the most part free to use applications. The deal is simple: You get everything for free except the experience of studying at Stanford. And how does it work and feel is part of this series of posts while I follow this course myself.

Lets start

The simplicity of the website cannot be overestimated. Registering for the course is as simple as open up a cup of soup package. The registration process demands nothing but the name and an email adress. A confirmation email with a link to finalize the registration process is all that it takes. Together with two questions of your own competency and interest it was all that it takes to enroll in this service.

First Look

Sympathy is as important as professionalism. The first logon shows a simple weblog where news and updates inform about some bugs in the system together with apologies for them. The next big bloc are the courses.
All are on youtube and consist of 1-2 minute interactive video clips. After a general introduction some multiple choice question make the experience very native.



Questions are answered by email and an explenation is given to all of this. This is particulary helpful and makes the experience of interactivity work.

The next menu item is: Progress. A progress bar showing the completenes and correctness of your courses and answers. Very cool....


Time: Unite one: 30 minutes

Technical Details of the Platform
Once registered you can setup a link to your facebook, twitter and google+ account.

Discussion
Discussion of 100.000+ people dont take place on the platform but usea studygroup at Reddit and a dedicated q&a community. Meetups are also organized online via an external service here.

Scientific Shop Window

The project to open up UM's thesis and publication archive is in the beta-phase. Still crawling to my email box :)

The links are deleted.

Admission Process Enmystified

Today another presentation about the admission process enlightend the morning. The news are few but of importance. Faculties now choose 100% of the students themselves (with a small hole in the wall for dutch students with exceptional achievement). More see at Simone's presentation:

Presentation at webco meeting 4th of october