National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS)
From 2007 to 2014, I worked at the National Outdoor Leadership School (NOLS), progressing from a Data & Logistics Assistant to a Social Media Coordinator, and eventually to the role of Web Content Administrator. In this position, I managed web content for the entire school while also supervising the Social Media team, and helping to lead the creative department. Below, I highlight two significant web projects.
Dynamic Courses Section
Goals
To improve the actual course finder to make it more interactive and help students find "their" course.
To improve the content on the course pages to include highlights, testimonials, more photos in larger format, and video.
To add a "compare" feature so students can lay up to three courses side by side and compare them.
To develop a good "back-end" to make it easier to update information on the pages.
To offer a search function that always returns at least one course. There are no null results.
Provide tools to better “push” courses that may be seeing enrollment challenges.
Problem
Before 2014, the hundred NOLS courses each had their own static page and needed to be manually updated at least quarterly. They were also not searchable or able to be compared. We needed a CMS to help better manage the information for all of the courses.
My Role
I served as the project manager, acting as a liaison between third-party developers and the in-house creative team. I reported to both the Creative Director and the Marketing & Admissions Director. Additionally, I was responsible for collating all data, wireframing, and creating mockups, including those for the course finder, course comparison, course detail pages, and skill pages. It was a substantial undertaking.
The Result
Hundreds of hours removed from updating courses, bottleneck of Web Content Admin as the only updater removed. Dynamic search of courses available for prospective students. Enrollment up %14. All course content now part of database/CMS, making future site improvements possible.
Streamlined Online Application Process
The NOLS application process is complex, involving the collection of significant personal information and the completion of various paperwork. The existing process was unintuitive and unforgiving, leaving parents and students confused about the required information. It became evident that a complete overhaul of the process was necessary. We gathered analytics, conducted interviews with Admissions Officers, and charted the student application journey.
My role in this project encompassed the initial research, interviews, and wireframing stages. The overarching objective was to create an online platform where parents and students could log in, provide their information, track their progress, and have all their pre-course paperwork organized in one accessible location.
The impact of this project cannot be overstated. It resulted in saving thousands of hours for the Admissions Officers and increased the application completion rate by 28%, leading to an 8% rise in enrollment.
