The new IVCC website is now live online after nearly three years in development.

IVCC students just started their 2019 Fall semester, and while doing so, they have also experienced the new, modern IVCC website.

“It has been about 15 years since IVCC has had a new website,” said Patrice Hess, Director of Learning Resources.

Launching this new site is a big step for IVCC.

“A lot of people put in a tremendous amount of work,” said Dawn Lockwood, an Educational Technologist.

This past year faculty, staff, and departments have been designing their new sites, and have been creating them with a modern look.

“[The website] was a shift in thinking for a lot of departments,” said Lockwood. “We’re not doing big paragraphs that describe things, we’re doing short bullet points and messages.”

With the new website, IVCC hopes to impress community members and potential future students as well.

“The homepage is kind of like coming in the front door of IVCC,” said Lockwood.

Instead of the old website with just a homepage full of hyperlinks, the new homepage features media, buttons, and minimal amounts of text.

While most agree the new homepage looks nice, some students have expressed frustrations about its interface.

“I like how the new site looks much better, but it can be confusing to navigate,” one IVCC student said. “I just want to be able to quickly get where needed.”

In response, Lockwood recommends students bookmark frequently used pages such as Blackboard, WebAdvisor, and their student email so students can quickly access these sites.

Students can also quickly access the sites by navigating to “I am a..” at the top of the website, or by scrolling down on the homepage.

Lockwood has received positive responses from faculty members about the new website.

Another focus of the new site was mobile optimization, according to Lockwood.

“The old site was so difficult to navigate on a mobile device and this [site] is so clean and neat,” said Mary Smith, an Education Technologist.

Compared to the old mobile version of the site, current students seem to be enjoying the new mobile version.

However, not everyone is loving the new mobile version of the website.

After using the mobile version of the site for a minutes, a future potential student remarked, “I would rather have a bad looking website that works and navigates easily, rather than having a visually pleasing website that is difficult to navigate.”

Never having been to the old or new IVCC website before, this potential student was confused while navigating from page to page.

“Embedding the college’s social media Facebook or Instagram feed is not of out the question for the future,” Hess said when asked whether the college’s social media feeds would be directly displayed on the website.

The launch of the new website is a move in the right direction for IVCC, as it reminds others that the college is committed to recruiting new students and keeping community members informed.

At the same time, it must ensure that current students are not confused when using the site. While some are expressing frustrations, most seem to be liking the new, modern site.

“With anything, change is difficult,” Lockwood said.

Students are encouraged to submit their feedback on the new website by visiting www.ivcc.edu/studentservices/feedback.php.