Website Responsibilities

Individual Department/Unit Responsibilities

The WCMS gives each office direct access to edit and publish its website content. Every office is responsible for the maintenance and accuracy of its content.

Every office (unit, department, college, school, etc.) must have one designated "content owner" (see Content Management Roles below). Every office must also have at least one "content manager."

A list of offices, content owners, content managers and their liaisons in University Web & Digital Communication is maintained at www.odu.edu/website/liaisons.

Content managers can access their office's pages in the WCMS and make edits at any time. When they are ready to publish a page, they simply activate the page through the WCMS' in-page control panel. Within a few seconds, the updated page is publish to the live website. There is no approval process for page activation (publication) for content managers.

Content owners and/or managers are responsible for providing updates to directory information. Owners and managers in academic departments should be especially mindful of providing updates when roles such as department chair, program advisor or program director change. You must submit these changes using the directory update forms in the Web Solutions Center.

There are processes in place for certain WCMS actions such as directory maintenance, new page creation and uploading digital assets. Please see WCMS Processes for additional information.

Content Management Roles

Administrator

Administrators are members of the University Web Team who are responsible for the site structure, tagging taxonomy and operation of the WCMS. Only administrators can create pages or alter a page's tags (except for news and events).

Content Owner

Each unit must have one and only one content owner. The content owner is responsible for:

• Ensuring the accuracy and timeliness of the unit's website content
• Coordinating content updates among the unit's content managers
• Approving access rights both for people from his/her unit and for others outside the unit who have requested access to the unit's permissions group(s)
• Ensuring that the unit has an adequate number of persons trained to maintain the unit's content
• Communicating within their own unit about website changes, policies and best practices
  

While it is preferable that the content owner be trained on the WCMS (making him/her a content manager also), it is not required.

Content Manager

Content managers are the primary editors of a unit's website content. Managers can view content, edit content and activate (publish) content. Managers cannot create new pages, alter a page's tags, directly edit the directory page or edit the index of content page.

Content Contributor

Content contributors assist managers with the editing of a unit's website content. Contributors can view content and edit content, but they cannot activate (publish). Contributors must have an owner or administrator review and activate their changes. Contributors cannot create new pages, alter a page's tags, directly edit the directory page or edit the index of content page.