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March 21, 2005 WEB DESIGN CLASS BENEFITS BUSINESSES, STUDENTS AND COLLEGE SALINA – A partnership between Kansas State University at Salina and some local businesses is helping the bottom line for business owners and bringing real-world experience to students. Bill Genereux, assistant professor of Web development technology at K-State at Salina, has taken advantage of some interest from community businesses while designing class projects for his Web II course. One such project is the sale of a 1989 Mercury Cougar on the eBay online auction service. “This is a good example for students of what kind of research it takes to put a simple Web page together,” Genereux said. “Most of the time, professionals don’t exactly have the choice of what they’re doing a site for, so they have to learn about the product, service or organizations. This was great experience for students in that process.” The car was donated by Salina’s Midwest eServices, which has partnered with the Web class in the past. In December, students sold comic books donated by the company’s owner David Rose. Genereux said Rose most recently offered the car to the college students to sell, with the agreement that K-State would keep the profit, putting that money toward scholarships or lab equipment. As part of the class project, students researched the vehicle, including its resale value, model information and other details needed to market the sale online. In addition, the students wrote the content for the advertisement and created a Web page to feature photos and information about the car. The vehicle will go up for auction this Thursday. An additional project Genereux has assigned his students is the creation of a Web site for another local business, Franklin Custom Boot and Saddle. Although the company does a majority of its sales at trade shows and through word of mouth, Genereux said the owners, Howard and Heather Franklin, began to discover the need for a presence online, as well. That’s where K-State at Salina students came in – after a meeting with the owners, students are in the process of creating a site to showcase the services that the company provides. “For students, the experience of working with a client is very important,” Genereux said. “Especially for a class project, it’s learning how to communicate the client’s message and goals in a way that is meaningful to both the client and to the end-user. And those skills are critical to what they will need to be able to do as a professional.”
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