Last week a group of Web workers from across the university got together to talk about projects, what they hope to learn, and most importantly how they hope to impact the university in the next year.

The goal of the meeting, which will now occur monthly, is to get all the Web developers from around campus in the same room together to solve programs and increase coordination. This first meeting did just that, below is a wrap up and my thoughts.

Some current projects

• Enhancements to the university CMS
• Campus map will have the location of the campus shuttles soon
• A redesign of the College of Education & Fine, Performing & Communication Arts websites is in progress
• Internal tools to extend Salesforce
• WAMS, an advising appointment management system is launching soon
• New Student Orientation
• College of Liberal Art & Sciences is 95% done moving in to a new CMS
• Student portal being re-engineered
• Informy - Mashup of Formy data with student record information
• eCommerce - Central system for selling items on campus
• Admissions dashboard enhancements
• WayneBuy
• Facility space management tool
• Finishing up the new Engineering website
• Commencement streaming
• Mobile advisor application
• Student rewards, check-in at events with OneCard swipe or scan

Hoping to learn in the next year

• Different MVC frameworks
• Mobile and responsive design
• Mojolicious, a Perl framework
• JS client side frameworks
• Web interfaces
• More ASP.net, photoshop & video editing
• Predictive analytics, SBSS, machine learning
• Python and machine learning
• Javascript frameworks to build single page apps
• IA skills and content strategy, Web writing
• Javascript, PHP, Google Analytics
• More native iOS and Android, JS client-side stuff
• CSS3/transitions, responsive

Impact on the university

Across the board everyone has the same outlook on how they hope to impact the university in the next year. The hope is to impact the student experience, make it easier, or more enjoyable. Because so much of the student experience is going digital, this group is positioned to do exactly that. They have the ability to make or break the student experience.

What's next

The next Web Workers meeting is set for Dec. 20, the topics include Frontend UI elements (framework independent)  and a discussion about Web authentication. If you're on campus and do frontend Web development or design, we would love if you could join. Just let us know at web@wayne.edu.