Authentic Literacy and Language (ALL) for Science: SEPA Website Supplement

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Project Summary Baylor College of Medicine will develop new features, expand the user community and enhance functionality of the website serving the Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) program as part of the parent project entitled, Authentic Literacy and Language (ALL) for Science. The proposed web-development activities are within the scope of the parent grant, which is creating new STEM and literacy curricular materials for dissemination on Baylor’s educational website, BioEd Online. The ALL for Science parent project includes a strong web programming, editing and design team, and a rigorous plan for the evaluation of web-based components and dissemination. We will follow processes described in our original specific aims to expand services offered by the SEPA Website (hosting, content, media, graphic design, and dissemination). Through the activities listed below, we will improve the quality and increase the number of the resources available on the site. 1. Expand the faceted search function already deployed in the Resources Section of the site to other sections, to enable refinement of keyword searches and greater access by users to all data on the site, including geographic map data. 2. Increase the size of the user community by expanding social media integration to attract a broader user audience and promote visibility of the SEPA website; and by reaching out directly to project principal investigators for news items, publications and educational resources or media for inclusion on the site. 3. Establishment of a formal publication schedule for a newsletter based upon content of the website to be distributed by email to SEPA project personnel and other interested users. 4. Pro-actively develop and implement updates to the website design, accessibility and programming in response to feedback from SEPA project personnel and other users; changes in available software and hosting tools; and new trends in website functions and personalization. User statistics from Google Analytics and Bluehost will be employed to improve site performance and expand the number of visitors. Baylor’s team monitors search engine algorithms and updates the SEPA website regularly to optimize site rankings. Formative evaluations include web traffic and utilization statistics, focused surveys and reviews of user comments posted at the website. As priorities and programs change, the website team will adjust site functionality and design to address user needs, as well as promote science education and public health literacy resources on the site.