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What can Digital Connecticut College be used for?
Digital Connecticut College can be used by faculty, staff, and students to host any type of non-commercial website within a personalized domain (yourdomainname.digital.conncoll.edu). Websites hosted by Digital Connecticut College are most commonly built using WordPress, but other applications for open source web applications are also available. Examples of the types of websites hosted through Digital Connecticut College include:
- Individual student projects
- Club or organization websites
- Class projects
- Faculty research and scholarship sites
- Faculty and staff professional websites
- Departmental websites and blogs
What support can Libraries & Information Technology provide? Who builds and maintains the sites?
L&IT can provide training on basic domain set-up and basic WordPress use. L&IT is not able to provide graphic design, web design, or custom programming services. When creating a new domain or website, domain owners should create a plan for website maintenance, designate an individual to keep the site content updated, or plan to delete the site after a specified period of time.
How much storage space is available for each Domain?
Each domain is allotted a maximum of 1GB of storage. Domain owners are encouraged to host large files, such as video, on alternative platforms such as Media Space or YouTube. Domain owners are also encouraged to reduce image file sizes before uploading them for use on their sites.
What is the format of the URL for sites hosted on Digital Connecticut College?
Each domain owner can select their own top-level domain name in the format domainname.digital.conncoll.edu. Multiple websites can be hosted under one domain: each domain can have one site URL at the top-level domain (e.g. domainname.digital.conncoll.edu) and additional sites as subfolders under the top-level domain name (e.g. domainname.digital.conncoll.edu/sitename).
For custom, external .com or .org site URLs, the name can be purchased ($15/year as of September 2024) through Reclaim Hosting (the hosting service for Digital Connecticut College) or, if already purchased through another provider, can be transferred to Reclaim Hosting.
Are there content restrictions?
All hosted sites must abide by the College’s Appropriate Use Policy. This policy states, in part: “Users who publish web pages or similar information resources on the College computers or computer system shall take full responsibility for what they publish, shall abide by this policy and other College policies, shall comply with all applicable laws, and shall not publish commercial advertisements without prior written authorization. Links to commercial sites are permitted, but advertisements are not. Users shall not accept any form of remuneration in return for placing anything on their web pages or similar facilities.”
What happens when a domain owner leaves the college?
When a student, faculty or staff member graduates or leaves the college, any domains used to host personal or individual websites will remain active for one year. After that year, the domain owner may choose to move their site to an individual Reclaim Hosting account ($45/year as of September 2024) or to another hosting provider.
If a student, faculty, or staff member is the owner of a domain for a site that is collectively managed (such as a Department, Club or Organization website), that site should be transferred to another owner.
Emeriti faculty may continue to host their sites on Digital Connecticut College after leaving the college, in accordance with the Appropriate Use policy.