University Homepage

The University's primary homepage (www.odu.edu) serves the digital "front door" of the University. It is an externally-focused page purposed for the recruitment of students, faculty and staff.

Homepage Interactive

The homepage interactive (the scrolling feature at the top of the homepage) serves as vehicle for featured storytelling. The majority of interactive content is externally focused and must fall into one of the following categories:

• Student spotlight
• Academic programs
• Classroom action
• Student life
• Hampton Roads
• University-wide events (President's Lecture Series, State of the University and Commencement)
• Cultural celebration months
• Special annual occasions (Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Week of Welcome, 9/11, holidays)
• Campus safety
• Social campaigns
• University highlight packages

The interactive is not used to promote specific, singular events, except for those explicitly listed above.

Content for the interactive is scheduled well in advance, with individual panels running from Monday morning to the following Monday morning.

Requests for Interactive Content

Suggestions for content for feature on the homepage interactive are considered on a case-by-case basis. The proposed content must fit one of the categories listed above.

To submit a suggestion, email the Director of University Web & Digital Communication (list at right) with the following information:

• Overview of the suggested content
• Description of the content of no more than 140 characters
• High resolution photo representing the content
  • Must be in PNG or JPG format
  • Must be landscape orientation
  • Must have "whitespace" in the upper-right, lower-right or lower-left corner
    (Whitespace means that one of those corners can be covered by the title, description and call to action without blocking an important part of the image)
    
• Suggested call to action
• Target audience
• Requested start date (must be a Monday)

Requests must be received a minimum of two weeks before the requested start date.

If you have a specific event that you'd like to promote:

• Be sure it's on the University Master Calendar (the master calendar averages 250 unique pageviews per day)
• Try to find other similarly-themed events and submit them as a suggestionf for the interactive as a bundle package - for example, if you're looking to promote a event you're hosting, see what other departments are also hosting events around the same time and see if a common theme could be formed and submit them as something like "[Theme] at ODU"