Upper Canada College Prep School Website

The building of the UCC Prep website involved the talents of many people - students and faculty at UCC as well as artists and programmers from our advertising/webdesign firm, The James Gang. Franke James was invited to be the webdesign teacher for the ground-breaking Options 95-96 "webdesign" program.

The WWW Goal

Originally the site was going to be just a few pages about the Prep which the boys in the webdesign Option could create during class time. However, with David Bacon's encouragement it quickly grew. We envisioned a site which would communicate the dynamic environment, personality and history of the Prep. To meet the needs of UCC it also would have to act as an information resource for existing and prospective students.

The Webteam

The boys in the program (dubbed the webteam) were active in the conceptual thinking and planning of the site. Starting in November 1995, they spent several classes "surfing" around to educational institutions such as Cornell, Harvard and MIT. They also visited top-rated entertainment sites like MTV (and a few others you can well imagine). It was a challenge to reign in their enthusiasm for surfing - but they had a job to do!

What appeared to be casual surfing actually did pay off. The ideas that emerged were both imaginative and strategically on-target. And although the website is fairly large there are still many more ideas to incorporate.

The Prep website is divided into six sections.

• UCC History
• Virtual Tour
• Student Activities
• Meet the Faculty
• The Curriculum
• Search Tool

Below are just a few of the ideas from the webteam, and how they were instrumental in creating the final product:

#1. "I want all the loose papers that UCC gives me posted on the website. That way when I lose them, I'll know where to find them." Anthony G.

Anthony's concept spurred us to post the UCC Information Handbook (which is given to Prep parents at the start of every year). At one level the posting of the handbook can be seen simply as a convenience for the students and parents. However, if it proves to be popular, it could conceivably reduce the number of printed copies required - possibly saving a few trees and money for UCC. In adapting the handbook for the web we leveraged the web's hypermedia capability. We created a search engine which allows visitors to go quickly to the information they need without scrolling through lengthy lists.

#2. "You've got to have a virtual tour of the school." Mike B.

Mike's idea (echoed by the team as a whole) was clearly a winner. The Prep website represents a great opportunity to showcase the school to prospective students, their parents and the academic community around the world. Using a hand-held videocamera we were given a tour of the school by Andrew and Anthony. There was much laughter and a few gags as we walked through the classrooms. (Both kids have potential careers as talk show hosts in the future!) The video footage provided digital photos for the pages. The boys' comments were incorporated into the text, with a few additional facts added where necessary.

#3. "We need something really cool like those clickable maps of the school grounds at Cornell." Kris J.

Although we haven't created clickable maps yet - we have added a certain "wow" factor with the latest quicktime virtual reality software (QTVR). The QTVR Winter Panorama allows the visitor a 360 degree view of the exterior of the school, controllable with the mouse. Beyond the benefit of seeing the grounds there is another purpose in mind. By using the latest tools, such as QTVR, we underscore Upper Canada College's commitment to providing a leading-edge education.

#4. "We should do teacher interviews so kids will know who they might be taught by if they come here." Zack G.

Zack's idea was right on target. Faculty interviews would help to communicate the "personality" of the school. Together we wrote a questionnaire which was e-mailed to the teachers. The boys also went out with a digital camera (and a professional photographer for support) and took pictures of the faculty. Richard and Oliver were a great help in organizing the pictures for archival to CD-ROM. Together with photos from the UCC Archives, we have created the faculty area.

#5. "We should put up our creative writing and show some of our art that Mr. Pemberton has put up around the school." Anthony G.

The student activities area is the place for the boys to showcase their work on the website. It features the webteam's own pages, as well as a Creative Writing area, and links to the Norval Tour and Virtual Tour. This is an ideal area for UCC clubs and teams to post information about upcoming events. Or scores from games played. And the list of possibilities continues.

#6. "The UCC Prep shop has to go up on the web. We could sell stuff all over the world, to Old Boys and everybody." Andrew F.

With entrepreneurial minds like Andrew's, UCC has it's work cut out for it! And a fine future.