Promoting Summer Courses the Harvard Way

Ahh the tangled web we weave. So I’m scrolling though kottke.org and become interested in his post about JK Rowling’s Harvard commencement address. I follow that link to Harvard Magazine‘s website which includes the video, and notice the Summer Enrollment promotion they’ve placed in their ad space:

Upon further investigation, Harvard has one of the best Summer Course sites I’ve ever seen. Check it out.

From personal experience, we’re in the middle of promoting the summer program at our university, and I’m woefully aware of all the things we WANTED to do but didn’t have the time or manpower to overcome. Particularly I’m impressed and jealous of the “find a course” page. Simplicity at it’s best. Multiple pathways for prospective students to find the course they’re looking for:

Ultimately a web team can present and promote a concept, but the trouble can begin when a student wants to go beyond that and take action. In this case, find a course. At many universities they’ve got to overcome and navigate the often confusing and extremely unusable internal campus app, and thats just to FIND a course.

In this case, Harvard is doing an awesome job. Everything appears to be crystal clear and readily available. Those developers are major-league, (as is their budget, surely) and I’m down here in pee-wee-baseball-league, admiring them from a considerable distance.