We must will shortly take our subject grouping proposal to faculties for consultation. Having done as much as we could in the project team, including rework based on student feedback from 50+ students, we now need to share the findings with key staff in the faculties (and schools) for and listen to their inputfeedback. The following key messages should help set the scene and keep the conversations constructive, as there is a danger that the discussion over such significant change gets bogged down in opinions and looses focus on the objective.
- Our guiding objective has been "findability" (could also be thought of as usability or understandable), especially for senior secondary school students (, as they are considered our primary audience group), meaning . This how directly and accurately can they find specific subjects (, of their choice , and in tasks set by us and also subjects to study to work in a certain career/field). This could also be thought of as usability or understandable.In maximising the findability we believe we will increase the probability that people read more, as they should have easily found what they are looking for, some of which were career/vocation oriented (e.g. What subject would you study if you wished to be a primary school teacher?).
- The level at which any particular subject name first appears is no judgement of whether or not it is import. Ratherits importance. Rather, it reflects answers to questions such as "Does it really belong in a group with other things?" and "Where do school students look for it?"
- We have used sensible/logical groupings of subjects under the working title of "topic". These topics pages will answer the questions research shows this audience has when deciding on what to study, be concise and well written, show as well as tell.
- Some topics have been grouped under the working title of "mega-topic", We are currently unsure how much content, if any, will be provided at this level.
- In some cases there is a reasonable resemblance to a Faculty or School, but often this is less than perfect (which is okay with us and users)this was by "chance" and not by design.
- We acknowledge that search is a viable option, as is starting somewhere other than topic. WIP will address both these points in future work.
- We have worked long and hard with the information available to us, being the current subject listings for the web and in publications, the 2015 Calendar, and the subject descriptions on both Homesite and Faculty and School sites.
- We have conducted user research with school students aspiring to university study in the near future.
- The taxonomy itself does not illustrate the soft and hard linking options available to us, so (until we have prototypes) these are recorded in a table and will be shared in consultation
- We will have made mistakes, omissions, and been unaware of changes in the pipeline and F&S staff can help correct these mistakes.
- Our calls are all open to challenge, in that we are not experts in these fields.