On November 30, 2021, Covenant launched their new website. There is a new look and a new format. Covenant students use the website to access class information, assignments, printing, and other resources, and for some the change in layout is confusing. With the new format, students as well as faculty were introduced to a new way to find an efficient route to access what they needed.
On the website, there are lots of promotional photos, videos of staff, and statistics as you scroll the home page. But this seems to be somewhat unattractive to the students of Covenant who desire it to be usable and easily accessible for their academic tools.
“The concept was proposed a year ago and it is a recruiting site,” said Covenant College’s Marketing Director John Horton. “The previous site was a complex and mainly programmed site, so any changes that had to be made were a cumbersome thing to change. But this new site is easy to use on the back end, customizes easily for prospective students for a fluid user journey, and now has people behind the scenes so that we can reach people that have zero history with Covenant,” said Horton.
He said that the old website had no personal aspects to it, and this is what Covenant is trying to construct for future students. “Before, there was news for on-campus viewers, but now, we’re interested in telling the ascent story.”
Some opinions were shared about this new site from on-campus users that were surprised at the changes. “That new website is for promotion rather than practicality. It is for viewers, not for us,” said English professor Cliff Foreman.
When you get on the website, the options for where to go if you are a student or faculty member attempting to access Canvas, Banner, or Covenant Resources seem a little hidden. “At this point, I’ve bookmarked the resources page and don’t even mind the rest of the website,” said Abigail Baity ‘25.
“Now you have to either bookmark the student resources page, or search for the specific page in the google search bar,” said Annie Payne ‘23. “It is for prospective students. But why not have two websites? Or two URL’s? One for promotional reasons and then one for students and faculty to be able to maneuver well?” Payne said.
The Marketing team is interested in working closely with admissions to get people to Covenant who want to be there, and while the team admits that students and faculty have a harder time finding things as a result of the changes, they made a statement saying that they recognize the challenge. Since this website is new and they are going through a transition, they know that this is a process. They added that there are feedback forms available on the campus community section on the website, and that they are open to comments.
“Minor changes are going to be easier with the new website, and will allow our team to communicate more and share the load,” said Digital Marketing Assistant Brittany Lloyd. “We desire to meet the needs of off-campus as well as on-campus users.”
The Marketing team will be able to acquire data as time goes on and detect what people are having the most trouble accessing, and this is also a new helpful aspect to the new website. It is built to analyze what needs improvement and help the user navigate easier and easier each time.