Website Certification

Annual Website Certification is the process through which units confirm that they have assessed their websites according to the requirements and guidelines defined in the University Web Policy and have developed a remediation plan to address any categories that do not comply with the standards defined in the policy.

Certification is required annually for all Rutgers websites except faculty personal webpages, individual faculty research websites, websites for faculty research labs, and student club/organization websites.

The certification process will be managed through a web application developed by the Office of Information Technology.

Certification Steps

There are three steps to the website certification process:

1.    Inventory
The inventory will provide the university with a much-needed listing of websites at Rutgers. The inventory asks for information about the technology used by a website (CMS, database, programming languages) as well as information about a site’s audience and metrics (number of visitors, pageviews). If information is not available at the time of the inventory, N/A or TBD can be used so that the inventory can be completed.
 
2.    Assessment
The assessment will indicate the current state of websites at Rutgers and provide a roadmap for remediation. It asks yes/no questions that relate to the new Rutgers Website Policy such as, whether the university logo is at the top of each page, whether the site has a link to the university search function, whether it contains restricted data, and whether it has been reviewed for accessibility.
 
3.    Status Report
The status update page summarizes the assessment and includes fields for entering a remediation plan for any areas that do not comply with the new website policy.  Specific steps that will be taken can be added and updated as websites are improved. The status report also provides a method for sharing the assessment and any remediation plans with colleagues, supervisors, and the administrative council member.

The Certification Coordinator

Administrative council members are responsible for selecting certification coordinators who will ensure that inventory and assessment information is entered in the database for each website within the council member’s area of responsibility.
 
Certification coordinators are responsible for entering, or assigning others to enter, information about each website into the database.
 
Information for the inventory and assessment database may need to be gathered from various people within an area. For instance, technical information about the website infrastructure may come from one person, while information about the content may come from a different person.

If you have been asked to be a certification coordinator, please go to the Certification Coordinator Submission Form and provide your Name, NetID Username, Email Address, Unit.

To find your unit, you should select the highest-level unit in your area.

• Central administrative units should select the highest level unit in their reporting structure (i.e.: IP&O for Transportation Services).
• Divisions/Chancellor-led administrative units should select the appropriate division.
• Academics units should select their school or college

You can choose from:

• Central Administration
• Division (Chancellor-led Unit)
• Schools and Colleges

A full guide to the inventory and assessment web application is available.

Contact Us

If you have questions, email webintegrity@rutgers.edu.