Overview
Domains @ Colgate provides managed web hosting services for scholarly and academic use. This service, is intended to address both practical needs for the coordinated hosting of web domains for a more reliable and consistent user experience, as well as support innovative approaches to teaching, learning, scholarship and creative work. Within each domain, a user can install applications to support a range of publishing options and development of curricular projects. Some key use cases include the following:
- assist faculty in understanding the wide range of web-based applications they can install and use to support teaching and learning.
- offer the resources and support for creating dynamic spaces on the web for teaching (course sites), research (lab sites), new forms of scholarly publication (digital /multimedia formats), and collaboration (inter-institutional).
- partnering with faculty members to encourage and support their experimentation and creativity for using the web in academically interesting ways.
- foster a sense of digital imagination that can inform future research, teaching and course development efforts.
- partner with faculty members who want to engage their students in curricular opportunities to use the web in academically meaningful ways. Connection and reflection are key elements of learning, and students can be supported to connect their learning in unique ways across course-based projects that showcase their interests and learning experiences on the web.
Availability & Use
Requests for access to use Domains @ Colgate is limited to current Colgate faculty members for teaching and research related purposes. Approval for student use is limited to direct curricular application (coursework, undergraduate research, faculty directed work, etc.), and requires the support of a faculty member, who is considered the data owner for the domain. Use of the domains service is governed by Colgate’s Acceptable Use Policy (http://www.colgate.edu/offices-and-services/information-technology/privacy-and-security/acceptable-use-policy).
Request & Approval
When a user browses to http://colgate.domains and fills out the Request Form, the form is sent to the ITS service desk and directly routed to the staff who administer Colgate Domains. Members of the Colgate Domains queue are composed of Services and Shared Infrastructure and Learning and Applied Innovation team members. Upon review of the request, the ITS team member will verify that the user is a current Colgate faculty member by using the Colgate directory. When a new site is created, their new domain is named, http://username.colgate.domains. For instances where faculty members want students to have their own domains (for academic / research purposes), faculty members can follow a similar process as above and provide the names of student users for account creation.
Managing Domains
Twice a year, prior to the start of each academic term, the Services and Shared Infrastructure team will export a listing of domains. Since all the domains will begin with a Colgate username, it will be trivial to match those domains to current Colgate users. For the list of domains who do not match to a current Colgate user, ITS will create an archive on Google drive and remove the website from the Domains platform. When a faculty member leaves the university, they can request to take their website(s) with them and ITS will provide them a compressed file of their cpanel account. In instances where, there is a site with legacy content of institutional value that is not longer active, ITS will work with the University Archivist to explore ways to store and archive the site.
Currently, there is no service to scan for websites that are operating in a way that is inconsistent with the Policy on Acceptable Use of Electronic Resources. Any Colgate student, faculty, or staff can create a website using the Google Sites platform. Domains@Colgate would operate just like the monitoring of Google Sites. If any website is reported that is operating outside the Acceptable User of Electronic Resources, ITS will suspend the Domains@Colgate account.
