Preparing a Web-based Accreditation Application

General

This website template can be used to present your application for CIPS Accreditation in a compact form, eliminating or reducing the need for paper documents.

Many of the documents required for an accreditation application are likely to be available on-line at your university, in which case you can simply include appropriate URLs. Documents not available on-line can be scanned and converted to PDFs (see tools, below) if they are small enough to make that feasible. Large documents not available on-line will have to be sent to CIPS in paper form.

Procedure

  1. You can customise the following cosmetic items in the template if you wish:

    (a) navigation bar and banner background ("graphics/background.jpg")
    (b) the site style sheet ("style.css")

    Don't forget to change the university logo ("graphics/logo.png")
  2. Enter information into the questionnaire page.
  3. Use templates and samples provided to create pages for other required or useful documents.
  4. Customise the navigation sidebar by deleting, adding or changing iems in the various pop-up menus to suit your application.
  5. Enter URLs for documents that are part of your application website, and for documents available on-line (e.g. calendars)
  6. Post your website (everything in the "Application" directory) in a password-protected location. This can be very helpful during the process of soliciting information from your colleagues, since they can get a clear picture of the structure of the information they are being asked to provide. You can also send the URL of the final version to CIPS so that any last minute changes (which should, of course, be minimal) are available to the site visit committee.
  7. Burn "start.html" and the "Application" directory on to 4 CDs and send to the CIPS office together with four copies of any paper documents that form part of your application.

Tools you may need

  1. An HTML editor (e.g. Adobe GoLive)
  2. A means to generate PDF documents from word processor documents or scans
  3. A graphics editor (e.g. Photoshop)
  4. A scanner

Documents

Listed below are documents other than those for which templates or examples are provided .

Some of these items are required for the application, as indicated. The others are ones that you might consider including. You might also choose to include documents not described here.

The following list is organised according to the items in the navigation side bar.

Programs

A graph showing the prerequisite relationships between your courses.

Calendars

[REQUIRED] If your university provides calendars (undergraduate and/or graduate) or handbooks online, provide pointers to them from the "Calendars" popup. Otherwise you will need to provide paper copies of these documents.

Staffing

[REQUIRED] If your faculty members are employed under a collective agreement, include a pointer from the "Staffing" popup to that agreement if it is available online. Otherwise you will need to submit paper copies.

Support

Include documents (or pointers to online documents) which describe academic support facilities provided to students; for example:

Industrial Outreach

Include documents (or pointers to online documents) describing any programs that foster linkages between your department and industry.

Other

Include any other documents (or pointers to online documents) which you feel are relevant, for example: