Indiana University East received eduStyle’s People’s Choice Award for Best Integration of Social/Networking. eduStyle awards the best in higher education website design and development.

IU East updated its homepage in fall 2009 to prominently feature social networking sites including YouTube videos, campus photos through Flickr, Twitter updates and student blogs. IU East uses the format to encourage visitors to www.iue.edu to connect to the university.

The award was presented to Rob Zinkan, executive director of External Affairs, and John Dalton, director of Communications and Marketing, during the eduWEB Conference held July 26-28 in Chicago.

“When we relaunched the website, we were really ahead of the conventional thinking at the time with social media integration on the homepage,” Dalton said.  “I am glad to see our peers and peer institutions recognizing that.”

IU East was also a Finalist in the category Best Home Page.
eduStyle, according to its website, is a web design gallery dedicated to higher education websites and powered by higher education web design professionals. Websites are submitted for participants to review and comment on the design allowing higher ed professionals to learn from and to be inspired by the work being done by their peers.

IU East has received 18 regional, national and international awards in the last year for excellence in communications, marketing, fundraising and special events.