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- Each faculty and each school will have an area (or subsection or space) rather than a distinct site.
- Faculties and schools that are combined, or wish to be combined on the web, will have a blended area. See attachment for how these could be presented in a flattened IA. Combined areas could be provided for: Law, Engineering and CS, Architecture and Design, and Faculty of Education/School of Education: Te Kura Māori (to be discussed).
- The faculty areas and school areas will be located in About us > Faculties and schools.
- The faculty areas and school areas will be different from one another: they won't have duplicate content, and each of the two types of area will be tightly focused on a clear purpose and identified target audiences. They will be much simpler than the current sites.
- Where content represents a standard university approach, it will be located in a common area of the mainsite, rather than duplicated across faculty areas or school areas. For example:
- Student wellbeing and support will be located in 'Current students'.
- Alumni will be located in a new 'engagement hub' that is being planned.
- Overseas exchanges will be located in 'Victoria Abroad'.
- Content that is of high interest to Victoria's audiences will be centrally located on the mainsite, rather than in faculty areas or school areas. For example:
- Courses, subjects and programmes will be located in 'Study at Victoria' (now called 'Future students’). The structure, presentation and content will be improved.
- Diplomas, certificates and professional development courses will also be located in 'Study at Victoria'. Improving the content is out of scope for the current project.
- Research centres and institutes, profiles of research projects (current projects and significant past projects), research funding and research partnerships will be located in the 'Research' section.
- Research reports are extensive and diverse, and need careful consideration. One proposal is that they are located in the Library.
- Information about the location of Victoria's campuses, where to find faculties and schools within campuses, and higher-level content about facilities will live in an improved version of the area that is currently called Our campuses.
- Student study materials and other resources may eventually live in a student learning area of the homesite. This is a longer-term project.
- Content that demonstrates the work faculties and schools do will remain be clearly discoverable from within the faculty areas and school areas. This is particularly important for courses, subjects and programmes; research; and research centres. Two methods will be used to achieve this:
- Keyword tagging will enable some content types to be authored centrally, then pulled through to faculty areas and school areas.
- Clear links to related content will be integrated into the design.
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| Facilities | Eg:
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| Resources | Study and research resources - eg: databases, software, online written resources. Example: School of Linguistics |
| Study groups | Student study groups |
| Work experience and internships | (Amend nav label as relevant to the content) Will only be required by a few schools - eg, ECS |
| Forms and downloads | More an admin area. Forms and other key documents for students to access easily. May not be required by all schools. Must be relevant to school role (ie, don't include faculty forms and downloads). |
Links | Current students - eg:
> Prizes
Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association (VUWSA)
Research section - including:
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Notes:
This approach is flexible: important 'local' content for current students that is currently on school sites can be included in 'Student info' (although eventually it may be incorporated into the homesite).
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- Law has 'local' content on overseas exchanges: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/law/study/overseas-exchanges
- VBS has 'local' content on case competitions: http://www.victoria.ac.nz/vbs/study-careers/student-opportunities/case-competition
Student study materials and other resources may eventually live in a student learning area of the homesite.
New page: We will create a new page in Current students > New students telling them what channels to use to get updates, how to sign up to them, etc. Make sure they know all they need to about BB, Fbk, Vic email addresses, and so on.
Faculty area
Purpose
- Provide a profile of the faculty, including its purpose, roles and responsibilities; structure and affiliations.
- Provide faculty-specific administrative material for current students.
Primary audiences
Audience | Information needs |
|---|---|
| Current students - both coursework and research | Find out about Student and Academic Services - what they can help with, how to contact them. Find out about specific faculty regulations for areas such as enrolment, exams and assessments, graduation. |
Prospective staff | Understand the strengths and features of the faculty. Is this somewhere I'd like to work? Who else works here? |
IA
| About | Student help |
Content
Home
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Contact block
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Research
Centres and institutes
Areas of study
About / About us
| Introduction | Introduction from Dean: purpose and role of faculty. What sets our faculty apart. Punchy, marketing focus. Consider video where appropriate. Link to faculty handbook. |
| Location | Link to Our campuses. |
| Staff / Faculty staff | People finder tool? All staff associated with the school. |
| Mission, vision and values | If required |
| Committees and boards | If required |
| Affiliations | If relevant at faculty level (rather than school level) |
Dean's list | Deans list, Deans award. |
Student help
Blue text identifies scope to include admin info for specific topics if it's distinct to the faculty (eg, see Faculty of Law on assessments and exams). Generic faculty 'rules' and FAQ-type info should be moved into 'Current students'. Cross-linking will be important.
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Enrolment
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Changes to courses
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Faculty area
Purpose
- Provide a profile of the faculty, including its purpose, roles and responsibilities; structure and affiliations.
- Provide faculty-specific administrative material for current students.
Primary audiences
Audience | Information needs |
|---|---|
| Current students - both coursework and research | Find out about Student and Academic Services - what they can help with, how to contact them. Find out about specific faculty regulations for areas such as enrolment, exams and assessments, graduation. |
Prospective staff | Understand the strengths and features of the faculty. Is this somewhere I'd like to work? Who else works here? |
IA
| About | Student help |
Content
Home
| Intro | Intro block - brief. Linking to main intro in 'About us' |
| Who to contact | Contact block |
| Our schools | 'Quicklinks' to schools |
| Links: | Research Centres and institutes Areas of study |
About / About us
| Introduction | Purpose and role of faculty. What sets our faculty apart. Punchy, marketing focus. Consider video where appropriate. Link to faculty handbook. |
| Location | Link to Our campuses. Include faculty-specific info about facilities if necessary. |
| Staff / Faculty staff | People finder tool? All staff associated with the school. Not presented in a table. |
| Mission, vision and values | If required |
| Committees and boards | If required |
| Affiliations | If relevant at faculty level (rather than school level) |
Dean's list | Dean's list, Dean's award. |
Student help
Student admin:
- The blue text below indicates examples of 'student admin' content.
- Generic faculty 'rules' and FAQ-type info should be moved into 'Current students'. The existing page there for academic transcripts and certs of completion provides an example: Transcripts and certs. (Links would go to the Forms page on a faculty site.)
- Where this type of information is distinct to the faculty, it can be provided in 'Student help' on the faculty site (eg, see Faculty of Law on assessments and exams).
| Who to talk to | Faculty staff: Student and Academic Services - who, what, when (counter hours), where. |
Enrolment |
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| Fees | |
Changes to courses |
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| Planning your degree | |
| Assignments | |
| Examinations | |
| Graduation | |
| Forms | As on faculty sites now - large number of downloads. Include form(s) for academic transcripts and certs of completion. |
| Links | Current students - specific links for all relevant areas. |
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Academic transcripts and Certs of Completion: provide form on 'Forms' page. Link to relevant page in Current students.
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Summary
- Sections/areas, not separate sites.
- Much smaller and simpler - audience focused, clearly defined purpose.
- Content much more integrated with mainsite. Content exposed in key areas of site where visitors are looking at related material.
- No content duplication.
- Flexible approach - 'local' content that has no logical home on mainsite remains on school site.
- Aligned with mainsite approach for content being organised by task, topic or user group - not by organisational structure.
- Proposal to move away from distributive publishing, towards an account manager web publishing model. Needs lots of discussion! Current issues are poor quality publishing, writing (endemic) and content management; and the amount of training and ongoing support needed.
Some key changes:
- Courses, subjects and programmes will be located (only) in Future students. (The plan is to rename this section 'Study at Victoria'.)
- Dips, certs etc will be located in Future students.
- Research projects, centres and institutes, research funding and partnership info (ie, outward focused) will be in an improved Research section.
- Info for research students will be located in the postgrad 'area' or with related PG content (depending on how this pans out in phase 3).
- Wellbeing and other 'student support' content will be integrated into Current students.
- Location/facilities info will be moved into an improved 'Our campuses' area (via Maps).
Talk points
- This review is about faculties' and schools' web content, rather than faculty and school sites.
- Much of the existing content will be integrated with the mainsite. clearly defined purpose.
- Content much more integrated with mainsite. Content exposed in key areas of site where visitors are looking at related material.
- No content duplication.
- Flexible approach - 'local' content that has no logical home on mainsite remains on school site.
- Aligned with mainsite approach for content being organised by task, topic or user group - not by organisational structure.
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