What to put in your home page (a simple guide)
Before reading any further, please understand that these are only suggestions as to
what your home page should include. I have seen a number of faculty and graduate student
home pages, and this page is an attempt at representing them in a generic format. With
time, I hope to make this page a more authoritative compendium on the topic, and I am open
to your suggestions and constructive criticisms.
Define at the outset what your home page should accomplish, for this will make it more
concise. Keep in mind who you expect to look at your home page and what sort of
information they will want. While it might be amusing to dedicate a good deal of space to an inventory of what's in your
desk, people who are looking for something more useful in your home page may get
frustrated and wonder why you have so much time on your hands.
Remember that your home page need not be your only page. It can simply contain some
basic information with links to as many other pages as you'd like to create. In this
manner, visitors to your home page can quickly locate what they need when you include an
extensive array of information, such as a selected list of your publications, syllabi from
classes you teach, and, if you want to show off, a list of every compact disc you own.
The information to include in your home page is organized somewhat hierarchically,
according to a subjective scale of the importance and/or potential usefulness of the
information. Further subdivisions deal with the depth of information to provide.
Suggestions are also made as to what belongs on your main home page and what should be a
separate page linked from the home page. Again, this is all very subjective, and I welcome
your comments and suggestions.
Contact information (home page)
Best:
- Name and title
- Photograph
- Office location and telephone
- Mailing address
- Electronic mail addresses, with MAILTO: links
- Semester schedule including office hours
- Lab locations and lab hours, if applicable
Minimum:
- Name and title
- Office location and telephone
- Mailing address
- Electronic mail address
Professional background
Best (separate pages/pages):
- Academic background
- Professional experience (or skills, if you have little experience)
- Professional associations (with hyperlinks)
Minimum (home page):
Research
Best (separate page/pages):
- Description of research interests
- List of publications
- Catalogue of conference presentations
- Links to text of unpublished reports/working papers
- List of grants received
Minimum (home page):
- Description of research interests
- List of selected publications and conference presentations
Teaching
Best (separate page/pages)
- Course meeting times and locations
- Course syllabi
- Class announcements
- Past exams
- Past projects
Minimum
- Course meeting times and locations (home page)
- Course syllabi (separate pages)
Personal (separate page)
- This is where you can let loose and show everyone the other side of your personality.
The content and depth of personal information you should include depend on how much time
you have and how interested you are in revealing this information. You could put in a list
of links pointing to Web pages for your favorite hobby, like sports or cooking. You could have
amusing research on the use of grapes
as fireworks. It's up to you.
Back to TIP homepage
Last modified Oct-02-1995 by R.
Jason Weiss
If you have comments, suggestions, or corrections, please send e-mail to weiss@unomaha.edu
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