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Information about undergraduate degrees is currently located located in Study at Victoria > Programmes and courses > Undergraduates > Individual degree listings.
- The ‘Undergraduate degree information’ piece of WIP2 work proposes to research user needs (completed), then review and improve
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- the content
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The content work includes:
- Review and improvement of the individual programme pages. (This is the main focus of the work: details are in the content strategy and plan below.)
- Review and improvement of the pages that explain ‘how a degree works’ - ie:
- Conjoint and double degrees
- How degrees are structured Planning your degree and courses (which also appears under ‘Plan your career’)on each degree page. Some technical improvements are included in the overall solution.
- This piece of work does not include postgrad 'degree' information, which should be reviewed when postgrad needs are considered in Phase 3 of WIP2.
Interrelationships
- This piece of work must be carried out in consultation with the BAU team - and particularly, with reference to IA decisions relevant to the area.
- Wider conversations have been started to address the difficulties that secondary students have with our terminology issue: decisions out of that will be highly relevant to this piece of work.
- This work has WIP2 interrelationships with Topics and Course information.
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Work on courses, subjects (topics) and programmes is the first priority of the WIP2 team and is underway now.
Where?
Information about undergraduate degrees is currently located in 'Study at Victoria' (called ‘Future students’ in the top menu) > Programmes and courses > Undergraduates > Individual degree listings.
A project that is underway to improve the site information architecture (IA) will define the future location of undergraduate degree pages (with input from the WIP2 team).
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- The students were stumped by the information about putting a degree together (points, semesters) and courses (course codes, course options) that is currently on subject and programme pages.
- While the Victoria website has related pages that provide information about how a degree works, such as ‘Planning your degree and courses’ and ‘How degrees are structured’, not all students easily found this information. The students that did find this information (and ‘Exploring career options’) tended to scan but not read the pages, which have valuable content but are wordy. (Improving these pages is out of scope for WIP2.)
User testing: current students
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The project team discussed programme information for school leavers with student liaison officers on several occasions during July/August 2015.
- The student liaison officers noted that they get lots of enquiries from secondary students who can't find programme information on the Victoria website - or find the information but can't understand it.
- They also mentioned that students who plan their programmes without the direct assistance of someone from Victoria are likely to have difficulty in their first year as a result of the choices they’ve made (eg, with the workload or complexity of subjects).
The student liaison officers saw the website as supporting rather than replacing their interactions with secondary students. They were clear that their ideal process is for all prospective students to contact them for help with course planning before enrolling.
A faculty representative at a programme information session noted that as well as providing specific planning advice, the faculty are sometimes able to ‘bend the rules’ to help make programme options suit an individual student’s needs - something that only personal contact can provide.
How?
The content strategy and plan below describes the content approach for individual undergraduate degree pages.
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- Undergraduate degree pages are the primary online source of information about each of Victoria’s undergraduate ‘programmes’. They provide support the work of student advisors by providing prospective undergrad students with understandable information about each programmerelevant programmes, enabling the prospective student to select the degree that is most suited to them.
- In combination with topic pages, undergraduate degree pages aim to increase new enrolments.
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Content | Description | Answers the question: |
‘Talk to us’ |
| How can I get help or advice to work this out? |
Intro (description metadata field) | Overview. Short and snappy. No more than 2-3 sentences.160 characters. | Why would I enrol in this degree? |
About the degree | Informational. May include video.
Also consider including:
| What are the interesting features of this degree? What do I need to note? |
Degree requirements | Duration Courses (core, mandatory, electives). Needs to show the degree over its duration (not just the first year). Transferring students: contact us for course planning advice. Degree examples? | What would I study? What are the course options? How would I put it together? |
Degree options | Majors, minors, conjoint, double. May flow on from info above. Link to ‘Planning your degree’ and other related pages in the section. | What are the options for putting my degree together? |
Entry requirements | Notes:
Try to also include:
Links
| What are the entry requirements? |
Other content areas |
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Further study |
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| Marketing content | The pages are primarily informational. However, they may include small amounts of marketing content, such as short student testimonials or snippets from future degree marketing campaigns. This is optional. | |
Call to action / big links | Talk to us (see contact block above) - includes come to an open day or info evening Apply/enrol |
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Secondary links | Scholarships Fees Areas Explore areas of study and related careers (pathway back link to Topics)
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Content approach
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