2002-03 Psi Chi Website Award Winners
Now in its second year, the Psi Chi Website Award annually recognizes and awards the three best Psi Chi chapter websites. As part of the award, Psi Chi is pleased to summarize each winning chapter's website here. For full information, go online and browse each chapter's site in depth. This year's 2002-03 award winners are listed alphabetically as follows:
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
www.csupomona.edu/~psichi
University of Houston
www.uh.edu/psichi
University of Texas at Arlington
www.uta.edu/student_orgs/psichi
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
www.csupomona.edu/~psichi
California State Polytechnic University, Pomona Psi Chi created its website to be an extension of the honor society. The site details and goes beyond what officers mention at meetings to help members better understand and feel more comfortable with the philosophy, history, benefits, events, and officers of the chapter.
The site begins with an energetic welcome page that uses attractive fonts. After entering the site, visitors see a professional homepage with a navigation bar to the left. The use of Psi Chi's colors (blue and gold) and the fade effects on the navigation bar as well as the color background on each page give the site an "active" feel.
Cal Poly Pomona also utilizes an "Interactive Calendar," which is a third-party service provided by Yahoo! This service was chosen because the calendar can be updated from any computer anywhere and does not require technical knowledge of HTML. If there are any last-minute revisions regarding chapter meetings or events, such changes can immediately be inputted on this calendar by chapter officers.
Website users can "meet" the chapter's officers on the site's "Meet the Officers" page, which is designed to introduce the chapter's officers and advisor by matching each person's picture with her or his name, office title, and e-mail address. This page allows members to directly contact specific officers and become more aware of who is who in the chapter.
Other unique features of the site are:
-- The Pictorial page, a picture archive of past chapter events for those who did and did not attend the events.
-- The Research/lnternship Opportunities page, a page listing all full-time and part-time psychology professors, each professor's research/clinical interests, and how students might contact each professor to get more involved in their field of interest.
-- The Discussion Board page, a forum for members, officers, and alumni to stay connected, ask questions, network, make comments, and suggest new ideas. This page allows chapter officers to reply promptly to any inquiries that are posted and provides another tool to report schedule changes, deadlines, or new events.
The chapter website for Cal State Polytechnic University, Pomona makes excellent use of attractive fonts, special effects (the "Psi Chi" in the oval, upper left, fades in and out), and easy navigation.
University of Houston
www.uh.edu/psichi
University of Houston (UH) Psi Chi redesigned its website to give a more personalized feel for the chapter with an overall professional appearance, as well as to give the mission of Psi Chi an online "face." The chapter wanted its website to educate students inside and outside the University of Houston and to promote the mission of Psi Chi on a global scale. In the redesign, great care was taken to limit the amount of time needed to load page content. Cross-browser compatibility, ease of use, and navigation were all improved, along with a new streamlined delivery of information as a centerpiece for the entire project.
Due to the numerous cross-platform issues experienced by many websites today, great care was taken to create a new UH Psi Chi website that managed the differences between browsers and operating systems, and to promote a website that remained static in appearance, but was dynamic and adjustable in its functionality. The site uses programming languages such as DHTML, JavaScript, CGI, PHP, Perl, and NeoWebScripting. The chapter also took great pains to make sure prospective members could access information and apply for membership online as well as submit committee applications electronically while on the website. These innovative functions, along with itinerary, newsletter, message board, and links pages, were some of the reasons why this website was chosen as a 2002-03 Psi Chi Website Award winner.
The University of Houston Psi Chi website, using a static lefthand menu and attractive frame, provides easy-to-use access to chapter information.
University of Texas at Arlington
www.uta.edu/student_orgs/psichi
This website supports the mission of Psi Chi by helping students interact with Psi Chi in a way that keeps students informed about their academic and organizational environment and encourages students to participate in their chapter. The philosophy of the site is to "get the information out there, keep it current, and encourage students to get involved." Technology used on the site includes CGI/Perl, JavaScript, Macromedia Flash, and XML. The site itself is clean looking and designed to be updated quickly. The usa-bility of the site is enhanced by similar navigation and formatting on each page.
The University of Texas at Arlington (UTA) Psi Chi site is unique in that it provides online activities in addition to supporting the services that UTA Psi Chi provides. Online services include book exchange pages, a printable newsletter, informal e-mail advising and mentoring, photos, a calendar, and organizational and psychology news. The site is integral in referring people to the services of UTA's active chapter and therefore serves as an advertising kiosk and electronic bulletin board for current and prospective members about the chapter's ongoing activities. The site is also uniquely interactive as it continually invites feedback and updating. The newest part of the website allows visitors to learn more about the UTA psychology convention and to register online for the convention.
The website also informs its users of the academic activities and psychological research going on at UTA, and encourages student participation in such activities. There are several descriptive pages about UTA research along with tips about how to get involved in it. For example, there is a page about faculty research interests that allows faculty the opportunity to advertise positions to interested students.
In addition, the site provides information about the UTA psychology curriculum to help students do self-advising, and a forum for students to give feedback about the UTA Psychology Department and Psi Chi chapter.
The chapter website for the University of Texas at Arlington uses a combination of tabs, text, and graphics to present a wide variety of offerings to chapter members.