University at Buffalo (UB)
Want to level up your skills? Attend a training class hosted by the Marketing, Communications and Digital Engagement team (MCDE).
The MCDE team hosts training classes on a variety of topics aimed at enhancing and elevating the skills of team members in the units we support. Our classes cover various topics, including support for university products and services, brand compliance, accessibility guidelines and more.
Ready to dive in? Just sign up for any of the upcoming sessions we have lined up. Please note that some classes require prerequisites.
Course Description
Refresh your knowledge of UB’s brand standards and how to apply them to your work.
What You Will Learn
We will begin by diving into the fundamental principles of the UB brand—colors, fonts, lockup usage, to name a few. Then, we will review some of the “red flags” that signal work is not on-brand and provide suggestions and resources to equip you with the knowledge and tools needed to implement brand-compliant marketing materials on your own effectively.
During the second half of this course, attendees are encouraged to bring marketing pieces they have created to review opportunities to elevate the brand in their work. This time will allow attendees to ask specific questions about marketing materials they are currently working on.
Who Should Attend
Anyone creating or approving marketing materials.
Duration: Sixty minutes: 30 minutes of instruction followed by a 30-minute hands-on workshop.
Venue: In-person, classroom style.
Prerequisite(s): None.
Course last revised and updated: 1/10/2024.
Course Description
Learn how to get started with Google Analytics (GA4) and your unit's website reporting metrics.
What You Will Learn
The basics and various reporting options of GA4. You will gain an understanding of what web analytics has to offer and why it is important to frequently review your site's analytics. You will learn how to access your web analytics and how to navigate through each of the standard reports in GA4. Upon completion of this course, you will be granted access to your site's Google Analytics.
Who Should Attend
Anyone with a role in managing and maintaining a website should be aware of the site's performance. Further, anyone involved in a content audit project, information architecture (site navigation) restructuring project, or a site redesign/rebuild should attend.
Duration: One hour: 15-minute slide presentation, 30-minute walkthrough demo and 15-minutes for Q&A. Session overrun padding has been included.
Venue: Online via Zoom.
Prerequisite(s): None.
Course last revised and updated: 1/10/2024.
Course Description
Learn some of the more in-depth reporting and analyses capabilities in Google Analytics (GA4).
What You Will Learn
Details on each of the standard reporting options and custom reports created by MCDE in your GA4 property. Upon completion of this course, you will be able make more informed and well educated assessments and decisions on the performance of your website.
Who Should Attend
Anyone with a role in managing and maintaining a website should be aware of the site's performance. Further, anyone involved in a content audit project, information architecture (site navigation) restructuring project, or a site redesign/rebuild should attend.
Duration: One hour: 45-minute walkthrough demo and 15-minutes for Q&A. Session overrun padding has been included.
Venue: Online via Zoom.
Prerequisite(s): MCDE's Google Analytics (GA4) - Getting Started.
Course last revised and updated: 3/21/2024.
Course Description
Learn how to improve your website by 20% in just five minutes! We’ll share the steps to completing a quick web page analysis that we recently completed ourselves during a High Ed Web Conference session.
What You Will Learn
In this exercise, we will walk through the following elements of a webpage: title, headings, readability, CTA, findability and brand alignment. While none of these topics alone are groundbreaking, putting them on a rubric you can use gives you a starting point. Optimizing these six elements of any page can make it more usable, accessible and searchable. It’s a quick and easy gut check with the potential to make a significant impact.
Who Should Attend
Anyone who has access to make updates to a VPAA website or is responsible for creating and/or approving website content.
Duration: One hour: 30 minutes of instruction followed by 30 minutes of a hands-on workshop.
Venue: In-person, classroom style. Bring your laptop to get the most out of the session!
Prerequisites: Completion of UBCMS training is preferred but not required.
Course last revised and updated: 2/22/2024.
Course Description
Stick around after GA—Getting Started and participate in a hands-on session to make your UB email address function as a Google Account.
Who Should Attend
Anyone wanting to activate their @buffalo.edu email address as a Google account.
Duration: 15 minutes.
Venue: Online via Zoom.
Prerequisite(s): None.
Course last revised and updated: 2/23/2024.
Course Description
Have you ever wanted to make your hyperlink pre-populate a formatted email message? How about generating an Outlook calendar event? Want to make it easier for a mobile device user to call you when they click on your link? Then this quick and easy course is for you!
What You Will Learn
Learn each of the three basic types of hyperlinks and how to code them to produce rich target results.
Who Should Attend
Anyone who creates and generates web links on web pages and in email messages.
Duration: 30 minutes: 10-minute slide presentation, 15-minute walkthrough demo, and 5 minutes for Q&A. Session overrun padding has been included.
Venue: Online via Zoom.
Prerequisite(s): None.
Course last revised and updated: 3/27/2024.
Course Description
Learn some of our latest productivity tips and tricks in the UBCMS.
What You Will Learn
Important and useful capabilities in the UBCMS that were not included as part of the initial self-paced training course production.
Who Should Attend
Anyone with a role in updating a VPAA or VPEM website must attend this session prior to being given access to maintain a UBCMS website.
Duration: One hour: 15-minute slide presentation, 30-minute walkthrough demo and 15-minutes for Q&A.
Venue: Online via Zoom.
Prerequisite(s): DCT's UBCMS Self-Paced Training course.
Course last revised and updated: 2/20/2024.
Course Description
Learn how to properly code web links for emails, web pages, text messages and QR codes in order to help inform campaign activity when reviewing Google Analytics reports.
What You Will Learn
Each of the 5 UTM code specifications, tools you can use to produce effective QR codes and suggested ways to inventory and stay organized around your digital campaigns.
Who Should Attend
Anyone involved in digital campaign promotion designed to funnel traffic to a university website.
Venue: Online via Zoom.
Duration: Thirty minutes: 5-minute introduction, 20-minute instruction and 5 minutes for Q&A. Session overrun padding has been included.
Prerequisite(s): None.
Course last revised and updated: 1/10/2024.
Have an idea or need for additional training classes? Reach out to an MCDE team member with your suggestion.
Planning a new project or working on an existing one and need some expert guidance? Stop by and visit an MCDE team specialist who can advise you on how best to handle your marketing and digital challenges.
Every Wednesday from 2-3 p.m.
B41 Lockwood Library, ground floor.
No appointment is necessary!
Open office hours are meant to provide feedback and guidance on projects. The MCDE team will not be providing design or development services during this time. If you need support on a new project, please submit a work order through the service desk for consideration.
Spread the word! Please share this form with your colleagues so they can enhance their skills, too, and be sure to check back often as new classes are frequently added.