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Document status: This is the current version. Please ignore earlier versions.
Being revised by Paul in supporting Jane prepare key messages and presentation for F&S
What is the current situation?
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- The Victoria University website represents a single organisation. A key aspect of this is that all core sites are being integrated with the main site (referred to as the 'mainsite' or 'homesite').
- The Victoria University website is topic, task and audience based. We're moving towards having all increasing organising the website content organised on this basisaround task (and some by audience then by task), rather than by our organisational structure.
- There will be no less duplication of content duplicates: all Increasingly, information will have a single source . However, the site will provide the ability to display some content in different locations when needed (eg, news, events, staff profiles).
New initiatives
- Tyet be surfaced in multiple places according to need.
New initiatives
- The current information architecture (IA) is under review, including top menu items and second-level navigation options.
- Work to improve the site search will be undertaken as part of WIP2BAU, with priorities influenced by WIP2 need.
- Improvements to staff profiles have been proposed by the WIP2 project team, who are having discussions about this with ITSare in scope for WIP2, ITS are informed and Fronde are being engaged to do the system plumbing.
- Scoping work is underway to provide an information page that sits 'behind' every site page, and can be accessed by staff . This would provide (i.e. some of the analytics). This would provide detail on the page's purpose, target audiences, content owner, core analytics (eg, number of views of the page, average time spent on page) and similar things.
- The effectiveness of both News and Events is being considered and solutions discussed to bring about improvements.
- Keyword tagging will enable an item of content to be centrally authored then presented in relevant locations on the site ('reusable content').
- Victoria's association with related third-party sites will be made clearer, when this is appropriate.
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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 with only one school (or that wish the same solution) will be offered a blended area. Combined areas could be provided for: Faculties where this might be suitable include Law, Engineering and CS, Education, and possibly Graduate Research (this only leaves Architecture and Design (to be discussed)., Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, and VBS)
- The faculty areas and school areas will must 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 Each has a clear purpose and identified target audiences. They will , so the content should be different. They will be much simpler than the current sites.
Where content is general and outlines a standard university approach, it Content that is currently on these sites that follows a standard university approach (i.e. isn't unique or truly faculty-specific) will be located in a common the appropriate area of the mainsite, rather than duplicated across Homesite (cf distributed across different faculty areas or school areas).
For example:
- Student wellbeing well-being 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 best viewed as university owned/curated will be centrally located on the mainsite, rather than in faculty areas or school areas. Homesite (but can be surfaced on faculty and school sites as and when required). For example:
- Courses, subjects and programmes will be located in 'Future Students (might be renamed Study at Victoria' (currently 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'. Where these are postgrad (or 'graduate'), improving their content is in scope for the WIP2 project.
- Where they are 'pre-degree', improving their content of is out of scope.
- Profiles of research projects (current projects and significant past projects), research funding and research partnerships will be located in the 'Research' section. with the Centres, Institutes and Chairs, where appropriate.
- Scholarships information will be located in the Scholarships section of 'Current students' (which includes the Scholarships database) wherever possible.
- Information about the location of faculties and schools (including maps, information about getting there and parking, and similar) will live in an improved version of the area that is currently called Our campuses.
- Student study materials and other learning resources that are currently on school sites are likely to eventually live in a student learning area of the homesite. This is a longer-term project.Homesite, but this will take time.
Other content:
- Research reports are extensive and diverse, and need careful consideration. One proposal is that they are located in the Library.
- Research centres, institutes and chairs are also diverse, and will be considered located in the 'Research centres' phase of the WIP2 projectResearch hub, at least until Engagement have a better plan.
Centrally authored content:
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Faculty and school content that is on the mainsite Homesite will be clearly discoverable from within the faculty areas and school areas.
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- The faculty areas and school areas will have a new design that is engaging and appealing, matches the homesite Homesite and works well on mobile devices.
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- Most of the content that is currently on faculty and school sites will be improved as part of the project. Skilled web editors will ensure it is focused on its target audiences and written in plain language. It will be currently on faculty and school sites will be moved pretty much as is, with some trimming and some rewriting as resource allows. Attention should be given to the needs of the target audiences and therefore the writing should be in plain language, formatted for online readers, have more visual elements and be more engaging.
- 'Features' (eg, student experience and project profiles) will be rationalised: we'll plan more We will consider carefully what they cover, align them more closely with News, and include more multimedia. We'll , reuse those used on topic pages where possible, and ensure they're always recent.
- Guidance will be provided to faculties and schools to help them address some of the content management issues they mentioned at the workshops. This will include advice on content planning, and tools and techniques for keeping content current. It will draw on effective practices identified in the workshops, and expertise and prior experience within the web team.
- Findings will be shared from user sessions where Victoria students were asked which channels they prefer for getting information and updates from faculties and schools.
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