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By Jim Trageser
Continuing our tour of local university web sites, this week we'll visit National University, Coleman College and Point Loma Nazarene College.
Coleman College is in large part responsible for San Diego's role as a leader in the computer industry; for the last three decades, Cole Furr's nonprofit school has been offering two- and four-year degrees in computer science and other technological fields.
The school's Web site is a lot slicker than its campus, housed as it is in an old bowling alley. The main menu is a 52k GIF file; it loads quickly but is still eye-catching. From the main menu, one can get to locations offering info on admissions, courses, career opportunities and hiring Coleman graduates.
The most interesting page on this website for nonstudents is the "Showcase" link off the main menu; it features recent work by students that professors feel is of outstanding quality. In late December, there was an overview of the history of hypertext by Marin Sevigny, from early theories about how it might be implemented as far back as World War II, through its current explosion as the World Wide Web. (And showing how far hypertext has come in information retrieval, the footnotes are all linked to sites on the 'Net where the works cited are posted for public viewing.)
Located on what is surely one of the most beautiful campuses on the entire Earth, Point Loma Nazarene is a private religious institution that offers a four-year liberal-arts education.
The main page takes a bit to load, what with a 100k jpg graphic. And then it tries to launch an mpeg file, but it never came up on my browser.
From the main menu, you can get to admissions policies, class info, and the catalog. Unlike the Coleman site, you can actually see upfront what the tuition is at PLNC. And the online catalog is comprehensive – from degree requirements to actual course descriptions (although how an accredited university can offer a two-part course on American lit without featuring Hemingway is beyond me). The library's catalog is also available online.
There isn't a whole lot here of interest to anyone beyond students or prospective students, but with all the stunning photograhs of the panoramic campus, it's certainly one of the most beautiful sits on the Web. The tour of the campus available from the "General Information" link off the main page is worth the few minutes it takes to load the graphics, especially if you've never been on campus. There is an aerial view of the campus looking west over the ocean that is definite wallpaper material.
Like Coleman College, National University is a nonprofit institution focused on adult students, offering a preponderance of night classes. There's a lengthy main menu at the above address that gets you just about anywhere you might want to go – academic departments, faculty lists, alumni association, library.
However, the online catalog – of great interest to prospective students – is not on the main menu. You have to go through several links.
If you're thinking of applying for National, this is a good place to start.