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Document status: Most recent version but currently under revision to prepare key messages and presentation for F&S
What is the current situation?
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- The design is 'tired'.
- The design needs to be simpler.
- The aesthetics and user experience aren't good or attractive.
- Needs to be more current, engaging and simple.
Content
- There's too much content. Pages can get buried and forgotten about. Maintaining the sites is time consuming. It's difficult to keep time-sensitive information current. Content maintenance is a big issue: we've found spelling mistakes that weren't picked up, links that don't go anywhere.
- Pages are too wordy. They need to be much simpler. They need to be more visual and use current technology - such as more video and podcasts.
- Lack of time and resources for web content. Need more content writing resource.
- Content management works best when it's led by one person.
- If you're not going to use Squiz often, it's hard to use.
- Regular content planning meetings work well for web and social media, especially when there's input and engagement from academic staff.
IA
It's hard to find things. You go looking for something and you can't find it. Need to be able to find information faster.
Staff profiles
- Maintaining staff profiles is a pain.
- The staff directory is a problem - people don't know how to fix it and don't know that they are supposed to keep it up to date.
Channels
- We've got too many channels of information. Students are missing information even though they are being told it in a million different ways. They don't know which place they should go to.
- It would be good to have linkages to official social media channels.
- Some of our social media channels aren't well managed.
Analytics
- Faculties and schools want to see analytics, including data about conversions.
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Search
- The site search doesn't give useful results.
Google AnalyticsAnalytics
A Google Analytics report for 1 March to 31 May 2015 showed us that audiences are using faculty and school sites primarily to access the following information.
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- Who to contact
- Staff profiles
- Subjects and programmes - undergrad and postgrad (this traffic is likely to come in via the site and external search)
- Admin info for current students (eg, facilities, building access hours, academic transcripts, faculty handbook, forms)
- Accessing centres and institutes.
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School site:
- Who to contact
- Staff profiles
- Subjects, programmes and courses - undergrad and postgrad
- Scholarships and awards and exchanges
- News
- Events
- Student profiles - eg, research students
- Accessing centres and institutes.
User sessions
Victoria
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The Victoria University website represents a single organisation. A key aspect of this is that stand-alone sites are being phased out.
The Victoria University website is topic, task and audience based. We're moving towards having all the website information organised on this basis, rather than by our organisational structure.
There will be no content duplicates: all 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
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A new approach for faculty and school sites
Structure
- There will no longer be distinct sites, but there will be an area or subsection for each faculty and each school (unless they are combined, or wish to be combined on the web, in which case there will be 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 and school areas will be located in About us > Faculties and schools.
- Faculty areas and school areas will be different from each other: 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 approach, it will be located in a common area of the mainsite, rather than duplicated across faculty areas or across school areas.
- Content that is of high interest to Victoria's audiences will be centrally located on the mainsite. Strong linkages will ensure it remains findable for audiences from within the faculty and school areas.
- Information about subjects, programmes and courses will be located in ‘Future students’. The structure, presentation and content will be improved.
- Information about diplomas, certificates and professional development courses will also be located in 'Future students'. Improving the content is out of scope for the current project.
- Information about research centres and institutes, research projects, research funding and research partnerships will be located in the 'Research' section.
- Information about student wellbeing and support is located in 'Current students': generic information in faculty and school sites will be integrated with this.
- Information about the location of Victoria's campuses, where to find faculties and schools within campuses, and what facilities are available will live in an improved version of the area that is currently called Our campuses.
- Some content will be centrally 'authored', then pulled through to faculty areas and school areas (as appropriate). This content includes news, events and staff profiles.
Design
- The faculty areas and school areas will have a new design that is engaging and appealing, matches the homesite and works well on mobile devices.
Content
- Content will be improved as part of the redevelopment. It will be written for online readers, focused on its target audiences, have more visual elements and be more engaging.
- Consideration is being given to the proposal that an 'account manager' web publishing model may be more effective for publishing faculty and school content than the current distributive model.
- Guidance will be provided to faculties and schools on which channels to use for different types of communication with current students. It will draw on effective practices identified in the workshops, our own knowledge of Victoria's channels, and sessions held with current students.
- Guidance will be provided to faculties and schools on content management. It 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 project team.
- Features ('profiles') will be rationalised: we'll plan more carefully what they cover, align them more closely with News and include more multimedia. We'll ensure they're always recent.
The Faculty of Graduate Research will be addressed in the postgrad phase of WIP 2 (phase 3).
School area
Purpose
- Provide a profile of the school and its activities, demonstrating its strengths and distinctiveness.
- Provide a base for school-specific study and research information and materials for current students.
Primary audiences
Audience | Information needs |
|---|---|
Prospective staff | Is this somewhere I'd like to work? What do they do? Who else works here? |
Prospective students, including international students, and their influencers | Understand the strengths and features of the school. Why would I choose to study here? What would it be like being a student here? |
| Prospective research partners (industry and business, government (central, local), other universities) | Understand the strengths and features of the school. Why would I work with them? Who are their people? What are their areas of expertise? |
| Current students - both coursework and research | Study and research material and information that is distinct to the school/programme. |
| Academic visitors | Eg: Law. Facilities - what's here and what they can use. People/research. Costs. Events. Location, parking etc. |
| Alumni, including potential donors* | What achievements and milestones have occurred at the school? What events (eg, lectures, conferences) are coming up? What reports and publications have been published recently? |
*It is proposed that the content for this audience goes over to the Victoria alumni site in the future.
IA
| About | Student info |
Content
Home
| Intro | Intro block - brief. Linking to main intro in 'About us' |
| Contacts | Contact block - who to contact |
| News | Including features that cover research projects, student achievements etc |
| Events | Lectures, conferences etc |
| Links: | Areas of study - linking to topics/programmes/courses in 'Future students' Research - linking to area in research Centres and institutes Faculty site |
About / About the school
| Introduction | Strengths, unique features. Vibrant, exciting, makes an emotional connection. Like a walk down Cuba St? Include a video tour? One page only. Consider including a 1-minute video from HOS. |
| Location and facilities | Link to Our campuses. The content in Our campuses will be extended to include information about where to find faculties and schools within campuses, what general facilities are available, building/floor access, health and safety, and similar areas. Any 'local' information that is specific to the school and wouldn't fit on the mainsite can be added to this page. |
| Students | A small collection of features covering the university experience of recent students. Different from News. |
| Staff | People finder tool? All staff associated with the school. |
| Alumni | Information for alumni (as on current school sites - eg, newsletters). How to sign up. Link to main alumni site. Information about alumni. A small collection of features covering the university experience of recent students. Different from News. |
| Positions | Eg, Academic Visitors' Programme, Fellows, Curator in Residence (School of Art History). |
| Partners | Accreditation, affiliations, prof bodies, industry assns and partnerships, sponsors, donors. |
| Structure | Boards, committees etc. Org chart |
| Publications | Relevant publications - eg: School Prospectus, Faculty Handbook. |
| Key links: | Research Contact us (main menu)
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Student info
Purpose: School-specific info for current students by coursework and research students that wouldn't fit into the generic content on the homesite.
Content will vary by school - below is indicative only.
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Eg:
- Computer facilities and services, how to get help
- Labs, libraries, studios and equipment - eg, School of Chem (electron microscope and more), Geo (labs, collections), Classics (museum), Law Library (location, contact, hours, about).
- How to use them. Documentation and help files. May have an online booking system.
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Study and research resources - eg: databases, software, online written resources. Example: School of Linguistics
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Student study groups
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(Amend nav label as relevant to the content)
Will only be required by a few schools - eg, ECS
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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).
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Links
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Current students - including:
> Prizes
Victoria University of Wellington Students' Association (VUWSA)
Research section - including:
- Research projects (in Research expertise)
- Research reports (in Research publications).
- Centres, Institutes and Chairs
Notes
Other areas with important 'local' content for current students can be added to this subsection as needed - although eventually this may be incorporated into the homesite.
Examples:
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Content to be moved:
- Content on clubs to go here
- Scholarships to go here
- Prizes to go here (needs improvement) - eg, Linguistics, Maths.
To be moved into the Research section of the homesite:
- All profiles of research projects (extensive) - take across current projects and significant past projects
- All research reports (extensive and diverse) - consider principles of open information (provide access to full versions whenever possible).
To be moved into the new Postgrad info on the homesite - info on Research with a student focus - eg:
- Research grants and funding (info for students on what's available. Info on tools such as the Oracle Grants Management System).
- Research groups (info for students on what's available in the school. See School of Chem.)
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.
| 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. |
Notes
Academic transcripts and Certs of Completion: provide form on 'Forms' page. Link to relevant page in Current students.
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:
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students
In July 2015 the WIP2 web project team held sessions with six current Victoria students from a range of study areas. Five were undergraduate and one was postgraduate.
- All the students had very low engagement with the 'Vic website' (a term they used to include F&S sites). These students reported that they use the 'Vic website' to meet a very narrow range of needs: find a person, get course info or access a shortcut to a tool (via the header menu). One student indicated that he also uses the Vic website to access information on dates, grades, timetables and similar - this content is in 'Current students'.
- When accessing staff profiles, students used search and therefore didn't visit the home page of the faculty or school site where the profile was located. They thus missed news, events and other features on the home page.
- The students identified email and BlackBoard as their preferred channels for information from Victoria, with all students also following relevant pages on Facebook.
- The undergraduate students didn't understand that faculty and school sites existed as separate sites. When we pointed out to one student that she was on a separate school site, she commented: “This should all be one thing – school, faculty and Victoria. And it is all the same thing. We are one university and there is no reason why it can’t all be together."
- The postgraduate student had greater awareness of separate faculty and school sites, but said she only used the school site for staff info - so she could find out the room number for a staff member. Occasionally she might look at pics of staff members "to see who they are"; or might use staff profiles to find out "which Dean to talk to for which thing". She didn't use faculty or school sites, or the Victoria website, for anything else.
- Three students stated that they didn't trust the web content because it might be inaccurate or out of date: they would email or phone someone to check.
Secondary school students
In July 2015 the WIP2 web project team held sessions with six secondary school students from years 12 and 13 who had identified as being interesting in going to university. Students from a range of interest areas were selected.
Relevant findings:
- Search results were sometimes swamped with results from F&S sites, which could be confusing.
- Students weren't sure about the roles of faculties and of schools.
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Victoria University website: where it's going
- 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 increasing organising the website content around task (and some by audience then by task), rather than by our organisational structure.
- There will be less duplication of content: Increasingly, information will have a single source yet 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 BAU, with priorities influenced by WIP2 need.
- Improvements to staff profiles are 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 (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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A new approach for faculty and school web content
The WIP2 project team has been asked to recommend an improved approach to presenting faculty and school content online.
Structure
- Each faculty and each school will have an area (or subsection or space) rather than a distinct site.
- Faculties with only one school (or that wish the same solution) will be offered a blended area. Faculties where this might be suitable include Law, Engineering, Education, and Graduate Research (this only leaves Architecture and Design, Humanities and Social Sciences, Science, and VBS)
- The faculty areas and school areas must be different from one another: Each has a clear purpose and identified target audiences, so the content should be different. They will be much simpler than the current sites.
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 the appropriate area of Homesite (cf distributed across different faculty areas or school areas).
For example:
- Student 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 best viewed as university owned/curated will be centrally located on 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).
- Diplomas, certificates and professional development courses will also be located in 'Study at Victoria'.
- Profiles of research projects (current projects and significant past projects), research funding and research partnerships will be located 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 Homesite, but this will take time.
Other content:
- Research reports are extensive and diverse, and need careful consideration. They could be located in the Library, or in the Research hub, or stay attached to their faculties and schools.
- Research centres, institutes and chairs will be located in the Research hub, at least until Engagement have a better plan.
Centrally authored content:
- Some types of content will be 'authored' centrally, then pulled through to faculty areas and school areas (and other relevant locations) via keyword tagging. This includes faculty and school news and events; and all staff profiles.
Linkages
Faculty and school content that is on the Homesite will be clearly discoverable from within the faculty areas and school areas.
- Graphic/promo links will be integrated into the design.
- Text links will be integrated into the content.
Design
- The faculty areas and school areas will have a new design that is engaging and appealing, either utilising an appropriate presentation layer technology (e.g. we used Angular JS for Topics and Degrees) or, if this doesn't pan out using responsive templates in Squiz (similar to Homesite).
Content improvement
- Most of the content that is 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 will consider carefully what they cover, align them more closely with News, include more multimedia, 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.
The Faculty of Graduate Research will be addressed in the postgrad phase of WIP 2 (phase 3). This is because in that phase we will look specifically at the information needs of postgrad students.
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School area
Purpose
- Provide a profile of the school and its activities, demonstrating its strengths and relevance to the key audience groups (see table below).
- Provide a base for school-specific study and research material and information for current students (longer term, this may live in a student learning area of Homesite).
- Surface Homesite content as appropriate in a school setting.
Audiences
Audience | Information needs |
|---|---|
| Current students - both coursework and research | Study and research material and information that is distinct to the school/programme. |
Prospective students, including international and postgraduate students, and their influencers | Understand the strengths and features of the school. Why would I choose to study here? What would it be like being a student here? |
Prospective staff | Is this somewhere I'd like to work? What do they do? Who else works here? |
| Prospective research partners (industry and business, government (central, local), other universities) | Understand the strengths and features of the school. Why would I work with them? Who are their people? What are their areas of expertise? |
Home
| Introduction | Brief intro block, linking to Introduction page in About Us section |
| Our services | Overview of services school offers (what is taught (via a topics/subjects widget) and what is researched (content or a filtered search result?)), with rest on About Us section. |
| Our people | People finder widget for academic and general staff, as well as research-focused PG students |
| Contact us | Block with key contact details. |
| News | Research projects, student achievements etc. Surfacing from Homesite based on tags |
| Events | Seminars, conferences, careers events, lectures etc. Surfacing from Homesite based on tags |
Content
The content outline below represents a general example of what a school area might contain. While some content will be in all school areas (eg, Introduction, What we do), other content won't be required by all schools - and some schools may have additional content needs.
About us
| Introduction | Strengths, unique features. Vibrant, exciting, makes an emotional connection. Like a walk down Cuba St? Include a video tour? Consider including a 1-minute video from HOS. |
| Our services | A fuller version of what is in the Home section/page.Link to Homesite content when ever possible (eg: Subjects/topics; UG Degrees and PG programmes; Research projects; Centres, institutes and chairs). May be a series of visual 'promo' links. Could have a course widget to show courses taught by the school (or staff in the school). |
| Research capability | Profile of areas in which research is under taken and can be supported. Links to examples, staff profiles, etc |
| Location and facilities | Link to Our campuses on the homesite. Retain info about facilities, building/floor access, health and safety, and similar (although potentially this should be located in 'Current students'), but maybe have an overview here and the detail in the Student Information section |
| Students | A small collection of features covering the university experience of recent students. Are these stories? Projects? |
| Alumni | Medium term plan is to move much/all alumni information to the new 'engagement hub' and link to it. However, a short-medium term solution might be required to retain it on the new school site. |
| Positions | Appointments and important positions outside the normal management chart (e.g. Academic Visitors' Programme, Fellows, Curator in Residence (School of Art History). |
| Partners | Accreditation, affiliations, professional bodies, industry associations and partnerships, sponsors, donors. |
| Forms | If any. Could be improved (to be online forms) and moved to Current Students in future |
| Publications | Links to core publications (e.g. School Prospectus, Faculty Handbook) Does this include research reports/publications (that are not by an individual (therefore in staff profiles) or a centre/institute/chair (therefore in Research hub) if they can't go to the library? |
Student information
Purpose: School-specific information for current students by coursework and research students.
Content will vary by school - below is indicative only.
(Note that longer term, study and research material and resources may live in a student learning area of the homesite.)
| Facilities | Details behind overview in About Us section above. Includes:
|
| Resources | Study and research resources - eg: databases, software, online written resources. Example: School of Linguistics |
| Study groups | Student study groups. Is this also where we put research groups (even though it seems buried)? |
| Work experience and internships | (Amend nav label as relevant to the content) Will only be required by a few schools - eg, ECS |
Links
(A tentative list) | Areas of study (topics, degrees, postgrad programmes): Although this might need a smarter widget if we wanted to surface them in the school site, rather than link away. Centres, Institutes and Chairs: Research information including Research projects (in Research expertise?) and Research reports (maybe cared for by the Library?) 'Current students' - eg: Student services and support / New students / Wellbeing / Clubs Social media sites (eg, Facebook) |
Questions
- Is Student Information better labelled Supporting students in study and research?
- Is Resources different or does it include Publications? Facilities? Forms?
- What do we do when facilities are not necessarily for teaching/students but either for research or available to industry (e.g. specialised equipment)?
- Where do we plan to put outputs from (historic) research funding?
- Publications and forms seem to fit as well in Student Information as in About Us. Are there a subset there and others on About Us? references?
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Faculty area
Purpose
- Provide a profile of the faculty demonstrating its strengths and relevance to the key audience groups (see table below)
- Present the value add functions the faculty offers, both on behalf of its composite schools and in activities that cross school boundaries. This includes responsibilities, structure (i.e. schools) and affiliations.
- Surface Homesite content as appropriate in a school setting.
- Surface school content as appropriate (e.g. an aggregation of some content from composite schools (e.g. news, events, staff)
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. |
| Industry/external stakeholders | Building channels for research and funding We heard this but how true is it? |
Prospective staff | Understand the strengths and features of the faculty. Is this somewhere I'd like to work? Who else works here? |
Home
| Introduction | Intro block - brief. Linking to main intro in 'About us'. |
Our services | Overview of services faculty offers (what is administered and managed 'Quicklinks' to schools. 'Quicklinks' to research centres, institutes and chairs. Do we (via widgets and filtered search results) also show what is taught and researched by the schools in the faculty? Could save user time searching, but would it be misleading? |
| Our people | People finder widget for academic and general staff. Could have option to expand search to cover all staff and research-focused PG students in the composite schools. |
| Contact Us | Contact block, including Student and Academic Services. |
| News | Research projects, student achievements etc. Surfacing from Homesite based on tags Could include items created by the composite schools, especially if cross-school (and maybe engagement or alumni) focused? |
| Events | Seminars, conferences, careers events, lectures etc. Surfacing from Homesite based on tags Could include items created by the composite schools, especially if cross-school (and maybe engagement or alumni) focused? |
Content
The content outline below represents a general example of what a school area might contain. While some content will be in all school areas (eg, Introduction, What we do), other content won't be required by all schools - and some schools may have additional content needs.
About Us
| Introduction | More official/prestigious (than school), covering purpose/role., strategic objectives, strengths and features. Maybe organisation chart. |
| Location and facilities | Link to Our campuses. Retain info about facilities, building/floor access, health and safety, and similar (although potentially this should be located in 'Current students'), but maybe have an overview here and the detail in the Student Information section. |
| Research capability | Profile of areas in which research is under taken and can be supported. Links to examples, staff profiles, etc |
| Mission, vision and values | If required |
| Committees and boards | If required. Complex information needs to be simplified or 'flattened' out (i.e. not nested too deeply). |
| Partners | Accreditation, affiliations, professional bodies, industry associations and partnerships, sponsors, donors. If relevant at faculty level (rather than school level) |
Dean's list | Dean's list, Dean's award. |
| Forms | As on faculty sites now (where there are large number) Could be improved (to be online forms) and moved to Current Students in future |
| Publications | Links to core publications (e.g. School Prospectus, Faculty Handbook) Does this include research reports/publications (that are not by an individual (therefore in staff profiles) or a centre/institute/chair (therefore in Research hub) if they can't go to the library? |
Links
| (A tentative list) | Areas of study (topics, degrees, postgrad programmes) Research Centres, institutes and chairs (if located elsewhere) |
| Social media sites (eg, Facebook) |
Questions
- Should we consider a model where more of the action/glamour is at a faculty level (by including the aggregation of news and events from units within a faculty) and leave schools to handle supporting students? Why do we want a lite faculty site and have many more active school sites?
- Where do we show research centres that are attached to faculty (not school) level?
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Summary of approach
- Sections/areas, not separate sites.
- Much smaller and simpler - audience focused, clearly defined purpose.
- Content much more integrated/aligned with Homesite (i.e. strong links to and even content surfaced from Homesite.
- Focus is on the audience context for showing content and building a relationship between existing content, not the duplication of it.
- Flexible approach - 'local' content that has no logical home on Homesite remains on school site.
- Aligned with Homesite approach for content increasingly being organised by task, topic or user group - not by organisational structure.
- Encourage people to think about F&S content (rather than F&S 'sites').
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Risks
| Risk | Description of risk and consequence | Likelihood | Impact | Mitigation | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Consultation could be long and slow, with many objections | Based on recent experience with the subject groupings, the consultation process could be slow, maybe very slow. This consumes time and resources, as well as the possibility that it introduces changes in a disjointed/non-integrated way. | H | M | Start early, so timelines are not adversely impacted. Shield most of the team by using only the BA and PM, plus COMT management. Attempt to use 1-2-1's with senior people (e.g. PVCs), existing forums for others (faculty manager, school managers, faculty management teams, etc), and casual or relational/network conversations with those we know and work closely with. |
| 2 | True buy-in from faculties and schools is not gained prior to starting work | Despite obtaining approval and socialising the approach, f&s staff may understand or accept the approach. There are both many stakeholders and many layers (organisation hierarchy). This may lead to repeated rounds of negotiation (taking time and stressing relationships) and even lead to f&s doing their own thing (outside/around the website). | H | M | Ground our approach to communications/consultation in:
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| 3 | Approach takes a long time to implement | Improving and relocating the content on f&s sites is a big job. This may mean that some sites don't change for some time, continuing to have an old design and content. | M | M
| Planned and prioritised approach to the required work. Set and manage expectations carefully. Request more project content resource. |
| 4 | Loss of 'online identity' for faculties and schools | As content that is currently on f&s sites is merged or moved the new f&s sites will be much smaller/leaner/lighter. This may lead to f&s staff feeling that their importance as organisational entities is diminished. | M | M | Use all three consultation approaches listed in risk 1 above. Demonstration versions, as covered in risk 2 above
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| 5 | Diminished sense of content ownership across faculties and schools | Same cause as with Risk 4 above. This may lead to a reduced sense of ownership of the content, resulting in to slower updating / information out of date. | M | M
| Gain true buy-in to the approach during the initial consultation (education) and while working with faculties and schools on the content changes. Develop strong web author/editor networks to ensure people remain connected. |
| 6 | Complexity around page ownership and page edit permissions | As more content currently on f&s sites is integrated into existing homesite pages page ownership could become unclear and authoring permissions may become more complex | M | M
| Plan content management with the Web BAU team. Train and communicate effectively. |
| 7 | The Faculty of Engineering may be resistant to moving away from using a wiki for web publishing | The Faculty of Engineering (and school) uses a wiki to author and display some of their website content and be resistant to having to move some of their activities to university-standard methods. This may lead to the Web Team having to support two models, one for only one faculty and one school | H | L-M
| COMT management to initiate this conversation with the faculty management, trying to find a good way forward. Separation of presentation layer from content management offers flexible options not previously available.
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