So to say yesterday was hectic would be an understatement. While we weren’t hit with a major natural disaster here, we did have some severe weather which made it difficult to complete some of the things that need to be done for the full launch of the eduStyle Awards nominations. So let me give you an update of where we are at and how the process looks this year.

Pre-qualifying phase

The eduStyle Awards, by design, require involvement from the community. While that has made for diversity in the sites nominated it has also lead to an administrative nightmare to manage. Last year we had over 2000 nominations to filter through. This year we have changed the process slightly to minimize the load for us. The changes still reflect the will of the community, but should simplify the nomination process and limit the load on us in building a list of nominees. So here is the first major change, sites are pre-qualified to be included in the nomination phase. Here is what your site needed to make it through the pre-qualification:

1. To have been submitted between April 30th 2009 and March 30th 2010 AND:
   1. have either a minimum of 3 “my style” votes after subtracting the “not my style” votes OR
   2. if they don’t have 3 votes to  have been submitted after February 15th 2010 OR
   3. have been selected as a Noteworthy site

To have 3 my style votes is an indication that to some level the community likes the site. Sites submitted before February 15th have had lots of time for the community to voice their opinion. We feel that we have been generous with these requirements. What this means for us is that instead of over 1000 qualified sites there are approximately 450 of the best sites in higher-ed. This should also make it easier for the community to find and nominated sites as we have been able to put together a page listing the qualified sites.

*Update: We’re reasonable people. If you have a concern about your site not being included in this year’s awards, please contact us and we’ll try to accommodate.

Special Cases

Best Higher-Ed Blog Award & Best Higher-Ed Blog Award – Rookie of the Year

Because these awards are for sites that are not necessarily maintained by a college or university, the process is slightly different. To nominate a blog for either of these awards please visit the Best Higher-Ed Blog Nomination Page. To qualify for the rookie of the year award the blog must have started in the last 2 years (between April 15, 2008 and now).

Best Mobile Site & Best Email Campaign or Newsletter

We’re still working to get these into the gallery, watch for them in the next few days.

Sites that are not yet approved

We’re also working to get these added to the gallery and when approved they will immediately make it into the eligible site listing page. If you have submitted one of these sites, watch for an email from us to let you know it has been approved.

Things have started to roll for the 3rd Annual eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards. In order to qualify for this year’s awards you’ll need to submit your site by March 30th. This year there are a few notable additions which have required us to make some changes to our submission form. We have added categories for Best Email Newsletter/Campaign and Best Mobile Site. You’ll see the new categories available on the eduStyle submission form. Make sure you select the right one, we get literally hundreds of new site submission in the weeks leading up to the awards and we don’t want to miss yours. In order to submit an email newsletter/campaign, you’ll need a web version of it available to submit. To submit a mobile site you’ll need to upload a screenshot of the site (how to take a screenshot on an iPhone/iPod Touch or Android Phone).

Nominations being April 15th. The details of that process will be posted then.

If you are company, please consider helping us by sponsoring the awards. There are real time & expenses involved in doing the awards and your support can help us continue this important annual event and keep it as open as possible. It is also a great opportunity to show your support for the community of 4200 higher-ed web professionals represented by eduStyle. There a limited number of slots available.

Now go submit your favorite higher-ed sites.

The winners of the 2009 eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards, sponsored by finalsite, and CollegeWebEditor.com Blog Awards were announced yesterday at the eduWEB Conference in Chicago. Congratulations to all of the nominees and winners. With over 2000 nominations this year, these sites represent the best of higher-ed web design.

See the full list of eduStyle Award winners.

Thanks to Innogage and Jadu there is video of the event.

Reactions

In the coming months we’ll be posting some interviews so you can get some of the back story of what went into these amazing sites. A few of the winners have posted some of their reactions to winning:

• American University
• Washtenaw Community College
• .eduGuru
• You can follow some of the reaction on Twitter.

UPDATE

• Reaction from one of Imperial College Bloggers
• College of William & Mary

We have an amazing list nominees and judges for the 2nd Annual eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards. This year’s  response to the People’s Choice voting has been incredible (we passed last year’s totals in 4 days). Thanks to everyone who has been helping us by spreading the word. Due to an amazing list of nominees we still have some really close races in many of the categories and the winners will be decided by votes cast today. So if you haven’t voted, your vote could be the decider. So go vote and spread the word so that we can honor the best of higher-ed web design.

Tell your friends on Twitter

We’re pleased to announce the nominees for the 2nd Annual eduStyle Higher-Ed Web Awards. The nominees include 41 sites representing 29 schools and 5 blogs in 20 categories. The final list of categories and nominees were created based on the number and quality of nominations as well as votes and comments received over the last year. Most sites didn’t make it. Many categories didn’t reach our minimum threshold for nominations. So the list you see truly represents the best of higher-ed from the last year. Congratulations to the nominees.

For the next month our judges will be reviewing the list of nominees and making their selections for the award winning sites. At the same time we invite you to voice your opinion by voting for the People’s Choice Awards. May the best sites win.

Since 1998, finalsite has been bringing interactive web design & software to leading independent schools & educational organizations around the world. finalsite currently serves over 250 independent schools and colleges a total of nearly 700 schools & educational organizations around the world. We’re pleased to welcome them on as the primary sponsor of the 2009 eduStyle Awards. Without the support of great companies like finalsite it would be impossible for us to dedicate the time needed to make eduStyle a success. So please check out the amazing services they offer and thank them for supporting the eduStyle Awards.

For more information or a free demonstration contact finalsite:
education@finalsite.com | www.finalsite.com

You can follow them on twitter at www.twitter.com/finalsite

We’re almost 2 weeks into the nominations for the 2nd eduStyle Awards and the nominations are rolling in steadily. Thanks to everyone who has submitted and nominated a site over the last couple of weeks. We’re trying to keep up with the submissions, but it may take an extra day or two to get to yours. If you have submitted a redesign, don’t panic if it doesn’t show as redesigned right away, we’re trying to keep up and it will show up as soon as we catch up.

Anyway, with all of the nominations we have noticed that some of the top sites over the last year have not been nominated for any awards yet. You’ll be helping the whole community and the quality of the awards if you take a minute and nominate a few of the best sites for awards. Here are some places to find some good award worthy sites:

Noteworthy Sites

Each month two sites are selected as Noteworthy based on the votes of the users of the site. Here are some of the most recent Noteworthy sites:

Popular Sites

Top sites over the last year based on number of votes for the site:

Redesigned Sites

Sites that have been reported as redesigned:

We’re pleased to announce the judges for the 2nd Annual eduStyle Higher Ed Web Awards. For a list of judges visit the Judges page on the Awards section of the site.

We’re pleased to announce that the nominations for the 2nd Annual eduStyle Higher Ed Web Awards open today. There are 31 categories you can nominate your site in including Best Overall Website, Best Visual Design, Best Integration of Social Media, and many more. For more information on how to nominate a site for an eduStyle Award visit the “how to nominate” page on the eduStyle Awards section of the website. The final list of award categories will be determined based on the number and quality of nominations in each category, so if you want to see your category make it to the awards phase make sure you encourage your friends to nominate sites.

We’re also pleased to announce an exciting new category presented in partnership with CollegeWebEditor.com, the Best Higher Ed Blog. This category is the first eduStyle award to be giving to a site not affiliated with a school. It will be presented to the best blog on any topic in higher ed. The nominations for this category will be handled differently than the rest of the awards. Watch for details on how to nominate your favorite blog in the next few days.

Let the nominations begin.

We’re pleased to announce that the eduStyle Awards will be returning to the eduWEB Conference. The conference is in Chicago this year and is shaping up to be great and we’re excited to be a part of it again. The opening Keynote Speaker is Dimitri Glazkov a Software Engineer at  GOOGLE working on Chromium and WebKit and there are tracks on Marketing Communications, Design & Development, and a Guest Track Titled Getting It Done! (Moderated by: Karlyn Morissette, Dartmouth College & Matt Herzberger, Texas A&M University).

We’re on track to open up nominations for the awards on Mar 1st. So now is the time to get your websites submitted to the gallery (Login required). Over the next weeks/months we’ll be launching the awards website, announcing the categories, and announcing the judges so stay tuned for more information. You can subscribe to the RSS feed for the blog, signup to our monthly email, or follow us on twitter to stay in touch as things develop.

We need your support to make these awards possible. If you are able, please consider supporting them.