Susie Choi, co-program coordinator for the Green Events Consulting team at Stanford University (CA), is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. She shares why and how the team began working to green campus events, with a peek at their efforts to green the Stanford Association for International Development annual conference. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Green Events Consulting (GEC) is a student initiative that was established in fall of 2010 under the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU), Stanford University’s student government. GEC’s goal is to promote sustainability on campus by helping student groups make their events as “green” as possible, focusing on the four major event-planning areas: advertising, food, purchasing and waste disposal.

We carry out our mission by assigning consultants, students we have recruited and trained for this position, to student groups participating in our program; these consultants take student groups step-by-step through the event-planning process so that they will make sustainable decisions and purchases. By advising these groups, we hope not only that their specific events will become cleaner, but also that the students themselves will learn about and understand the importance of sustainability.

GEC came about because we realized that although students are interested in hosting green events, they are unaware of the resources present on campus, the thought of implementing a more sustainable event is daunting, and they do not know where or how to start. We created our program to help students overcome these problems that we identified. GEC wants to serve the Stanford community and help students implement their ideal event, and we offer ourselves as an educational resource.

Student groups that are participating in our program include: Dance Marathon, Stanford Association for International Development, Alternative Spring Break, Relay for Life, Sigma Gamma Rho, Stanford Alpine Project, and Stanford Educational Studies Program.

We recently worked with the Stanford Association for International Development (SAID) to green its annual conference, which was on the topic of innovation in bottom-up development. There were approximately 300 attendees, and the conference was a half-day event. As mentioned earlier, we focus mainly on making the advertising, food, purchasing and waste disposal aspects of an event as sustainable as possible; in order to do so, we worked with SAID’s leadership team for the month and a half leading up to the event date.

Our work mostly involved gathering details about the event, learning what decisions if any had already been made by the team, and then pinpointing areas that could be improved. Some areas of focus included: purchasing compostable rather than disposable utensils, implementing composting at the event and purchasing organic food from local caterers. We also encouraged e-fliering and use of media outlets (e.g. Facebook and the student group’s website) as alternatives to paper fliering.

In order to come up with specific recommendations based on these general ideas, the consultants working on the SAID project conducted research and then found various options of compostable materials and caterers, as well as their prices and the cost differences between the sustainable and non-sustainable alternatives. With this data, the consultants then went back and forth with SAID’s leadership team to determine what options would be best for the event and to settle on the amount of food or the number of plates, for example, that SAID would purchase.

The bulk of GEC’s role involved pinpointing areas of the event to improve, conducting research to find sustainable alternatives, communicating with the student group regarding those alternatives and their implications, and then finalizing recommendations for the event based on what was agreed upon between SAID and GEC. The consultants also attended the event to ensure that all recommendations were implemented, to monitor waste stations and educate event attendees about the conference’s green status. The consultants also made note of any changes that could be made to next year’s event.

This account of GEC’s experience with SAID offers a glimpse into the program’s consulting process and how it assists student groups. We look forward to continuing to make a positive impact on our campus by helping other student groups on their path towards sustainability.

AASHE Note: For a comprehensive look at the team's green approaches to event planning, check out its 2011 Executive Summary Handbook of sustainable event recommendations for student groups. This guide brings additional student perspectives to Stanford’s official green event guidelines published by the Office of Sustainability in early 2010, Greening Events at Stanford: A Practice Guide for Sustainable Campus Events.

Below is the final installment of a four-blog mini-series, reposted from the Sustainability Education blog of Living Routes Director Daniel Greenberg.

While air travel certainly accounts for the lion’s share of environmental impacts associated with education abroad, if you’ve ever been to a study abroad fair you know there’s more to the story. In my last three blog posts I shared about how to green the field of study abroad in the following areas:

1. Program Design and Management
2. Student Learning
3. Staff Training and Office Management

To conclude this mini blog series, I will address the question of how study abroad organizations can minimize resource use and waste during promotion of their programs, using Living Routes, the nonprofit I direct, as a case study. As before, these recommendations stem from my work with The Forum on Education Abroad‘s Subcommittee on Sustainability Standards and our revisions to their Standards of Good Practice and Code of Ethics documents. We came up with three broad suggestions and lots of embedded ideas.

1. Direct students to websites whenever possible and create/use promotional brochures and giveaway items that are “resource-light” and made from recycled and/or compostable materials.

I find it sad when students leave study abroad fairs laden with reams of program materials and pockets bulging with plastic schwag, most of which will end up in the trash before the week is over. While offering boxes at the exits for students to deposit materials for re-use and recycling is helpful, the best strategy is to reduce these materials at the source. Most students research their options online anyway, so all they really need to walk away with is a bunch of URLs. Also, if your office or organization does not yet have a Facebook Page, it’s time to consider creating one.

At Living Routes, we’ve pared our marketing materials down to a tri-fold brochure and half-sheets on each of our programs. But I’m most proud of our “Sustainable Schwag.” Since, 2007, we’ve been working with Upasana Design Studio in Auroville, an international “ecovillage” in South India where Living Routes runs semester and January programs. After the tsunami in 2004, members of Upasana worked with village women to develop the Tsunamika doll, which is hand-made from scrap fabric and is a symbol of hope and resilience. We attach a small card (100 percent recycled, of course) with basic information about the dolls and Living Routes programs and have given thousands away at fairs and events. People love them because they’re so beautiful and unique and we love supporting this great organization doing really valuable village development work.

2. Practice sustainable event management.

Study abroad fairs, conferences, even information sessions can all benefit from considering their environmental impacts. A few good resources to get you started include Yale’s Office of Sustainability’s Sustainable Event Guidelines and Sustainable Communities' downloadable brochure on How to Plan a Sustainable Event. Here’s a few ideas from these resources:

• Choose a site that people can walk, bike or take a bus to.
• Work with suppliers that are committed to sustainable practices.
• Hold the event during the day to utilize natural lighting.
• Promote the event electronically and offer online registration.
• Create name tags and signage that are re-usable.
• Use local foods, provide vegan/vegetarian options, and compost organic waste.
• Educate participants and vendors about the event’s sustainability practices.

3. Seek ways to minimize the environmental impacts of staff travel.

While it is unreasonable to expect education abroad professionals not to travel, we should always be careful to minimize non-essential travel and to combine trips whenever possible. Consider virtual meetings via teleconferences, Skype, and webinars, especially in lieu of long-haul flights. And when you do travel, measure your carbon footprint and consider purchasing carbon offsets to address these impacts. While there are dozens of carbon calculators to choose from, for air travel, I recommend the ICAO’s recently released Carbon Emissions Calculator. I will address carbon offsetting in a future post, but there are many options for offsetting carbon emissions if you choose to go this route. I also found some good ideas in Taiga Company’s blog post on green travel.

In addition to being Skype addicts and using webinars to offer virtual information, orientation, and re-entry sessions about our programs, Living Routes has pioneered the practice of virtual tabling at study abroad fairs. I will offer a how-to guide in a later post, but the basic idea is to set up a computer through which students can videoconference with staff members in our office in Amherst, MA. It does have a habit of freaking out some students (Agh! You can see me?!), but we have found it to be a fun way to connect with potential students, reduce our environmental impacts, and save time and money to boot!

I hope you have enjoyed this blog series about sustainability in study abroad and have found some of these ideas useful. I’m always interested in further developing this topic so please add your ideas, suggestions and questions in the comments. Thanks!

In community,
- Daniel

Once after keynoting an event for a local university, a former English professor emailed me the following message:

“Remember, Walt Whitman promised that the natural environment--whenever threatened--is saved by the poet, not the scientist.”

This statement may not sit well with some, particularly those who have spent the majority of their academic careers studying the detrimental impacts that our civilization is having on the planet. However, messaging and marketing must supplement science as we try to promote change within our institutions. There is too much at stake for it not to.

Before I go on, let me say that I am not a PR professional nor do I have any formal marketing training. However, the good news is that I have been fortunate to work with experts in those fields and they have been kind enough to share some key elements with me. I hope I can do them justice by sharing a few tidbits with you.

Accentuate the Positive
Save the doom and gloom for the pundits on the cable news networks. Fear based messaging usually only appeals to those on the fringe. Remember your trying to build consensus and break down silos and research shows that this is best done by highlighting the opportunities around sustainability. Also, never underestimate the power of a local success story. Even if your efforts to date have been minor (such as changing a few lights bulbs) you can still build a story upon them, especially if a few dollars have been saved.

Make it Personal to Make it Relevant
I always like to start meetings and talks with a personal story. For campus audiences I like to use a story from my undergrad days. For many of us our time in College was a very enjoyable experience and you likely will not need to go too far back into your memory bank to pull out a story that the audience can relate to. For some, College was when they were first introduced to the concept of sustainability. If this was the case for you, tell this story. You may think that your story is irrelevant because campus life has changed so drastically since you were napping in the Quad. Turns out some things never change.

Beyond that I also like to use a prop. On of my favorites is a package of disposable cups designed to look like reusable coffee mugs. The package boast an “EcoSmart label” but upon further inspection it turns out that the cups use only 12% post consumer recycled material. The audience gets a good laugh out of this but more importunity they begin to understand the risks associated with greenwashing, which will become a serious issue as more and more campuses are embracing sustainability.

Embrace social media
Its unlikely anyone can question the power of social media as a tool for change, the recent events in North Africa and the Middle East have made the case clear. For some, social media can be intimidating, for others it’s a distraction. But the need to understand and effectively use social media is clear. Take for instance this simple fact - today’s college freshmen have been using facebook since their days in middle school. Also remember facebook started on a college campus and was specifically designed for college students. Students can now pass short blurbs of information on from their computers, televisions, phones, and iPads and soon they may be updating their status through their cars. If you believe this Superbowl commercial, one day they may even be able to control their status through jedi-type mind tricks.

One of the most effective and creative ways that I have seen social media used is through the use of Twitter. I was giving a talk to a student government group once and while I was in the midst of my talk I noticed that the entire group seemed to be on their phones. I figured there must be some party that night and everyone was passing directions via text. Turns out, they were using Twitter to comment on my talk. Some were even suggesting recommendations on how the campus could become more sustainable. After the meeting I was able to review what was tweeted through my twitter account because a hashtag had been assigned by the group. I can’t stress how valuable this was. I was able to gather stakeholder input from students who otherwise wouldn’t speak up, I had a unique source of collective notes from the meeting, and I was able to see where my message hit home and where it missed the boat.

A few other things to consider. Keep your messages concise. Cross promotion and visuals are key. Repetition is required. Try not to get too technical and always end each message with a call to action.

Creating an effective message is not easy and this is about the time when people start asking themselves “how am I going to manage all this.” Keep an eye out for my next post where I plan to share effective strategies for managing the sustainability workload.

Brad McAllister, one of this month’s guest bloggers, is a partner and managing director at WAP Sustainability. He holds a B.S in ecology from the University of Georgia and an M.S in environmental science from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Brad is an adjunct professor of Enterprise Sustainability at the Institute for Sustainable Practice at Lipscomb University and a member of the Climate Project.You can read Brad's earlier posts here and here.

STARS is an ever-evolving system which provides colleges and universities with a tool to track their progress toward sustainability and provides the public the opportunity to see what is happening in higher education with regard to sustainability. Built into STARS is a process for ongoing development so that the program is current and best meets the needs of STARS Participants and the public. Seventy Technical Advisors provide input and make recommendations for continuous improvement. These Technical Advisors, professionals from higher education institutions, businesses, and non-profit organizations, are organized into nineteen work groups, each work group having responsibility for one of the STARS subcategories, such as Curriculum, Energy, and Investment. These work groups provide input to the STARS staff and make recommendations for the STARS Steering Committee’s consideration and approval.

There are three levels of periodic changes in the STARS development process: Administrative Updates, Minor Substantive Changes, and Major Revisions. Administrative Updates are made no more often than quarterly and include changes such as making clarifications to credits and correcting typographical errors. Minor Substantive Changes are made no more often than once a year, and these may include changes to criteria and reporting fields which do not change the scoring of credits. STARS 1.1 was released in February 2011 and is the first set of Minor Substantive Changes made to STARS. Major Revisions are made no more often than once every two years, and these may include adding or removing credits, restructuring STARS, and changing scoring of credits. The STARS staff and Technical Advisors are currently developing STARS 2.0, which will be the first set of Major Revisions and will be released sometime after mid-2012.

Some of the priorities the STARS Steering Committee has identified for the development of STARS 2.0 include redefining “institutional boundary,” credit reallocation and point weighting, and making the Education and Research category more robust. The STARS technical development policy provides for a public comment period for Major Revisions. A public comment period on proposed changes for STARS 2.0 is planned for fall 2011.

Below is the third installment of a four-blog mini-series, reposted from the Sustainability Education blog of Living Routes Director Daniel Greenberg. Stay tuned for the final installment next week.

Behind every student studying abroad, there are dedicated staff from his or her home institution assisting with everything from program applications, financial aid, credit transfer, visas, medical preparations, cultural orientations, packing lists, and even (occasionally) luggage tags. So, when we consider ways to make education abroad more sustainable, let’s remember those who stay behind to help create these life-changing opportunities.

In this third installment of a four-part blog series, I will focus on sustainability standards for staff training and office management that were developed by a subcommittee of The Forum on Education Abroad and offered as revisions to their Standards of Good Practice and Code of Ethics documents.

The general question we tried to answer was:

How [can a study abroad] organization create and maintain policies and relationships that support environmentally responsible office and on-site program management?

We came up with three general suggestions and lots of ideas.

1. Maintain clear environmental standards (e.g. recycling, purchasing, travel, energy conservation and efficiency) and conduct regular staff trainings in order to monitor and best implement these standards.

Creating environmental office standards is not unique to study abroad and there are many excellent resources available. A good place to start is the World Resources Institute’s Working 9 to 5 on Climate Change: An Office Guide. In addition, while more focused on entire campuses, the Sustainability Tracking, Assessment and Rating System (STARS) developed by AASHE also has a lot of great ideas. Two other resources of note are an Australian guide to buying and using environmentally friendly office equipment and the City of Portland’s Office of Sustainable Development’s Green Office Guide. For a broader view on these issues, check out Wikipedia’s entry on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). I have yet to come across specific examples of environmental standards or staff trainings within study abroad offices, so please let me know if you find any (or are now inspired to create some!) and I will include them in a future blog entry.

2. Collaborate with sustainability initiatives (on- or off-campus) when appropriate.

According to AASHE’s just released 2010 Higher Education Sustainability Staffing Survey, there has been “an exponential growth of campus sustainability in recent years.” While this is wonderful news, it should be noted that most initiatives focus on campus facilities and operations. Off-campus student travel is largely off-the-map when it comes to greening colleges and universities. Collaborating with your school’s Sustainability Office or Coordinator (if there is one) helps fill a gap many didn’t even know exists and connects you to a local network of resources and support. Perhaps there are grant or carbon offsetting opportunities that would apply to students going abroad. If your school doesn’t have a Sustainability Office or Coordinator, reach out to eco-minded faculty or campus groups. Ask your students if you don’t know of any.

Thinking more broadly, I invite you to join the Sustainability Abroad Listserv, which currently has 431 subscribers who support each other in this nexus between sustainability and education abroad. I also encourage you to subscribe to the Global Editions of the AASHE Bulletin and the Chronicle of Higher Education. And of course, subscribing to this blog couldn’t hurt (hint, hint).

3. Work towards minimizing the environmental, economic and social impacts of office activities.

Many common suggestions (e.g. recycle, carpool, use CFLs and low-flow faucets) can be found in the above resources, but here are a few that are more unique or relevant:

• Form an office committee to research, lead and monitor your sustainable practices.

• Pose weekly or monthly “Green Challenges” to staff (and students abroad!) encouraging them to climb stairs instead of riding elevators, eat locally-produced food, or bring reusable rather than disposable containers to work.

• Communicate electronically when possible. For example, at Living Routes, the study abroad organization I direct, we encourage students to apply for programs and read PDFs of handbooks online.

• If you want to go even further, consider using a non-printable PDF format developed by World Wildlife Fund. We considered this at Living Routes, but there was concern that it would annoy students. I’d be interested in hearing experiences of others who have tried using this format.

• Solicit returning students to host talks or discussions on interesting environmental topics.

• Keep a donated bicycle at the office as alternative transportation.

• Set up staff volunteer days toward conservation activities, such as trail building or weed removal. For example, staff at Living Routes recently enjoyed helping develop a permaculture garden at UMass-Amherst.

Sustainability in study abroad is still a very young field, so new resources and ideas are showing up almost daily. Please add your thoughts, questions and any resources or practices you are aware of in the comments so we can continue to learn together.

Results shown are in US Pounds. To view measurements in Metric Kilograms, view the overall rankings on the Results page.

Darlene Seto, graduate student at the Institute for Resources, Environment, and Sustainability at the University of British Columbia, is featured in this installment of the AASHE Bulletin Sustainability Student Diary series. Her current graduate work revolves around diversity and engagement in alternative food systems. This blog was originally posted on the Getting to GREENR blog, which supports GREENR, an interdisciplinary web portal for environmental and sustainability studies. AASHE welcomes questions and invites feedback on each Sustainability Student Diary entry. Submit diary entries of your own for consideration to bulletin@aashe.org.

Following up on my last post about making sustainable change as a student, I just finished reading a newly released book called "The Nature of College" by James Farrell, a professor at St. Olaf College in Minnesota. The book questions the way that nature is traditionally perceived on college campuses – how to go beyond the trees, and manicured lawns and gardens. As the opening prelude notes:

“College is a place where students could think twice about American culture and ecosystems, but most students still don’t despite the fact that people are causing climate change—transforming the good earth into a different planet.”

By exploring the life of the average college student, Farrell finds that nature is everywhere; that between the cafeteria food, clothing choices, computer time, parties and more, the life of a student in fact, connects a lot more intimately to nature – and to a sustainable society – than appears at first glance. For example, though time spent on Facebook and other social networking sites may increase social connections, as an anthropocentric (person based) and disconnected form of reality, it may not actually be good in motivating people to take action for sustainability. "The Nature of College," by reconceptualising “campus ecology,” champions another way for students to transform environmentalism into everyday life, and all in all, is a pretty good read as a primer for environment studies.

The idea, I think, follows up on a previous post by Professor Bruce Hull, which talks about acts of sustainability on campus. He says in it, “We can’t just talk and teach sustainability, we must live it and learn how to make it happen.”

Talking to friends, it seems like it’s an idea that is starting to get taken up at colleges and universities across North America.

Mark Werner, a graduate of St. Olaf’s Environment Studies and Philosophy program, and a former participant in Farrell’s own Campus Ecology course (which formed the basis of the book), is a proponent of the value of such forms of learning. One of the things they did in-class, he recalls, is annotate the campus, attaching cards with quotes, statistics, or other information about sustainability on campus, ranging from things like the energy savings from double-paned windows to the pounds of food waste generated by the school cafeteria. Spreading the fruits of their knowledge to the greater campus community, he says, motivated students to start taking action in their own learning around campus, in and outside of the classroom.

At my own campus at the University of British Columbia, one of the newest courses on offer is Applied Sustainability: UBC as a Living Laboratory, which will be open to students across different faculties, and combines theory and knowledge with practical projects that will be geared towards greening the university’s own operations. By having students act, in essence, as consultants for the university, both groups benefit from the project, while driving sustainability action on the ground. What’s also great is that students themselves are helping to design the course, providing a valuable learning experience and providing student perspective to the course syllabus. A fellow environment studies graduate student in my department, Victor Acuna, has been one of individuals. For him, the opportunity has acted as both a rewarding way to contribute to the university initiative, as well as as a personal challenge in terms of communication, as a non-native English language speaker.

It’s remarkable to see these changes happening across North America, and to see my friends and fellow students as champions of them. All I can say is: continue on!

By now, we hope that you've noticed that the AASHE site has undergone a transformation. In January, we relaunched the AASHE website with a major reorganization of content and a new design.

So far, we have received a lot of positive responses to the new website. Although there are many factors at play when determining the success of a web project, we think that the following made the biggest difference in the success of this project: our design partner - ATEN Design Group, the methods we used to involve stakeholders throughout the process, and our continued use of the Drupal content management system.

Design Partner: ATEN Design Group

AASHE started working with ATEN Design Group, a web strategy, design, and development company based in Denver, last summer. We were really impressed with ATEN's experience working with nonprofits and their openness to an inclusive process. One of the great features of the new design is that it is extremely flexible and extensible. Common design patterns are used throughout the site and can be easily reused in the future. For more information about the unique role design played in this project and ATEN's innovative use of javascript, please check out their blog post about our project.

ATEN was a great partner throughout the redesign process. Ken, the primary designer on the project, did a wonderful job incorporating feedback from stakeholders into his designs and showing us ways to improve the design and development process on our end. ATEN also introduced us to Basecamp, which we are now using for other AASHE projects.

The Redesign Process

One of our major concerns before we started even looking for a design company to work with on the redesign was making sure that all AASHE stakeholders had the opportunity to participate in the redesign process. We believe that our continued commitment to an inclusive process made a big difference in the success of this project.

Internally, it had been clear for some time that the AASHE website could be considered cluttered and outdated. The AASHE navigation and homepage content had remained relatively consistent since 2007. However, as an organization, AASHE’s major programs have evolved and its membership has grown considerably. We wanted to make sure that all of our programs were represented on the new site and that content was easier to find. In addition, we wanted to make sure that it was a lot easier for our members to browse the AASHE Resource Center. We also wanted to be sure to feature the more interactive parts of our website, the forums and blog.

Before we started looking for a redesign partner, a group of AASHE staff put together a charter document that outlined the objectives of the redesign project. At AASHE, we use a charter template before beginning most projects that we are publicly sharing for the first time here. The template is based on recommendations from The Principles of Project Management.

Our primary goal was to redesign the functionality and look of the AASHE homepage and provide redesigned templates for other website pages in a way that:

• Clearly communicated to those unfamiliar with AASHE what AASHE does and what its main programs are
• Looked professional, clean, uncluttered, and meets the standards of peer organizations
• Let users navigate to popular parts of the site in one click from the homepage
• Highlighted all of the AASHE programs without overwhelming users with information
• Clearly communicated how to join AASHE
• Provided a clear path to sign up for the AASHE Conference and STARS

As part of our charter document, we also developed a plan for involving staff, board, members and others throughout the design process. In particular we identified key decision points throughout the redesign process and then planned for gathering input from our stakeholders at these points.

These decision points included:

• choosing members, staff, and non-members to interview during the discovery process
• reviewing and approving wireframes
• reviewing and providing feedback on first and second-round designs
• approving the final designs
• evaluating the site before launch

We collected most of our feedback through Google forms where we were able to ask targeted questions that were designed to assess whether the project would meet the objectives outlined above. A smaller team of AASHE staff selected to represent each of the AASHE programs and a board member were responsible for prioritizing feedback and determining whether we were ready to move onto the next decision point.

Whenever possible throughout the process, we tried to make research-based design decisions. For example, our navigation was developed after ATEN carefully analyzed the results of a card-sorting exercise. In addition, we decided to reorganize sections of the site after conducting usability tests with users familiar and unfamiliar with AASHE. ATEN conducted in-person usability tests at their offices in Denver. Later in the process, we used Feedback Army to answer quick usability questions about the new site.

We believe that by integrating user testing and research throughout the process, we were able to avoid some of the natural conflict that arises during a redesign process and also develop a better new site.

Drupal

The AASHE site has been powered by Drupal since 2009. Drupal is an open source content management system that was created and is continuously improved by developers, designers, and others around the world. Switching to Drupal in 2009 has allowed AASHE to tap into an amazing array of resources. There are thousands of Drupal sites out there, including the White House website. As a result of using Drupal, AASHE can quickly roll out interactive features like the Bulletin database, forums, wiki, and blog, without having to spend hours and hours doing custom programming. We also benefit from having thousands of people around the world testing Drupal modules and reporting bug fixes and security issues. Whenever possible, we try to report bugs and submit improvements to Drupal core and contributed code so that we can be part of the effort to make Drupal even better.

As part of the redesign, we realized that there were also times when we were overriding code Drupal functionality for aesthetic but not necessarily user-research backed reasons. During this process, we internally set a principle that we should only override Drupal core and contributed module functionality when doing so is in line with AASHE's mission, vision, and goals and will not present an undue burden to maintain over the next few years. As a result of this decision, we were able to eliminate a lot of confusing, difficult to maintain, code.

During the development process, we also realized that we weren't taking advantage of some of the new, very useful modules like Context, Menu Block, and Less. During the migration process, we extensively used Node Export and Migrate, as well as some custom scripts. As part of the development process, we also were able to eliminate a lot of modules that were no longer in use.

Additionally, as part of our site development, we switch from using Subversion for tracking code changes to Mercurial. Now, all AASHE web projects use Mercurial for version control. For those not familiar with version control, it's a method of allowing developers to work together on a project, share their code, and easily merge, revert, and add to shared code.

Finally, as part of the development process, we switched from using a WYSIWYG editor, CKEditor, to a markdown editor, BUEditor. Transitioning to Markdown has not been easy but we think that the switch will benefit AASHE in the long-run. The major advantages of using Markdown instead of a WYIWYG editor is that it is easier to standardize the display of text on the website and to separate content from presentation. The switch also allows us to avoid creating a lot of "bad HTML," a common problem with WYSIWYG editors. For more information about the benefits of Markdown over WYSIWYG editors, please review this blog post by ATEN.

Summary

We are in the process of doing more user testing to evaluate how well the new design meet the objectives established for this project. As a result, you may see slight changes to the AASHE website over the next few months. In addition, with ATEN's help, we are working of updating the design of our newsletters to reflect the new website design.

We are encouraged by the initial response to the website, and committed to continuing to use an inclusive process and Drupal for future projects. If you have questions about this web project or the site development process, please feel free to contact us at webmaster@aashe.org or post a comment below.