Status: 

Interviews

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Related: 

Topic page: Content strategy

Writing for Victoria's international audiences

In OneDrive

The topic pages are set up in a shared OneDrive area. There is a template document there (called Template) that you should review as it has helpful notes about writing the page, and some relevant content examples that you can re-use or modify.

Many topics have the Careers - and sometimes the subjects - pre-written from existing publications and other resources. Various people around the place have done this work to give us a head start - it helps a lot. You may need to modify this content a little after the interview - the interview is the authoritative version.

Setting up the interview

We are writing new content. To create this, we'll carry re carrying out short one-to-one interviews with key people in schools.

We'll ask the faculty manager to help us identify who to work with. We'll request the following:

• Overview, vision: HOS 
• Specialisations/subjects: A senior academic staff member for each subject. (If there is anyone who is an expert in more than one subject, then that would be ideal...)

What we'll need from them:

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the main subject-matter expert (SME) in the relevant school.

Notify the comms advisor for the faculty that you will be carrying out interviews and make sure they know what the project is about. They will guide you on how to go about approaching people - they may advise you to ask the faculty or school manager for names of interviewees. Also let the comms advisor know that after the interview, you might get them to help with sourcing media or writing lecturer profiles.

Make sure you interview a senior academic person - programme director, senior lecturer or head of school - someone who has the authority to review and sign off the content later. (For complex topics, you may need to interview several people.) Don't interview a faculty or school administrator, such as a faculty or school manager - we need subject-matter experts. 

What you need from the SME:

• • Interview (book 1 hour).
  • Review the draft and provide feedback (all interviewees).
  • Approve the final version (HOS). 

We'll record the interviews unobtrusively (but with consent). 

We'll give them information about the interview in advance, including an overview of our questions.

There will be some tasks to be done after the meeting - see end of document.

Interview process flowchart:

See Attachments page

Review and sign off

• The subject experts will review the content for each subject area, and the related Careers content.
• The Vic Careers Team will then review the Careers content. 
• The HOS (or lead interviewee) will then review the whole topic page. When they're happy with it, they'll approve it - recording this in an email which will be filed.   

Managing the review process

We'll be communicating the following message, to help manage the scope of the review:

The topic page has been tightly written for online readers, with a focus on the target audience and a marketing approach. While feedback about the tone/style is welcome, what we are seeking from your review is confirmation that:

• it reflects Victoria’s strengths in this discipline (as relevant to a secondary student)
• the wording is accurate (while allowing for the use of ‘everyday’ language that makes sense to a secondary student)
• you’re happy with the way the media items (stories and project examples) have come together.

We'll also communicate this message, to help manage the number of reviewers:

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Interview questions

As with our research with students, this can be much more conversational than it appears here.

Key questions to kick off our conversations are in bold. Prompts are beneath. 

About (general - topic level)

What is special about studying <X> at Victoria?

We aim to hear about 2-4 points of difference. 

• What puts Victoria ahead of other universities, in relation to this area of study?
• What are Victoria's strengths in this area of study?
• What does Victoria have to offer prospective students who are interested in <X>?

Other prompts

How about...

• The learning environment/location/facilities
• Opportunities students will have to work with potential employers (real projects, networking, internship programmes, placements...)
• Staff - anyone particularly awesome? 
• Special events (eg, trips, competitions, exhibitions, productions) 
• Accreditation or affiliations
• Wellington angle.

Tell us about your students - what are they like?

• What are the issues they take out of the lecture theatre (lab/studio) and think about?
• What what do they learn – as in understand? 
• How does studying <X> change them? 
• How do they experience studying <X>? 
• What are some of the great comments you're always hearing from students about studying <X>?

What we're looking for

Content that we can use to create strong intros - like these from Stanford University: 

• Chemists at Stanford imagine a world in which AIDS is a curable disease and the next generation of energy comes from sheets of matter no thicker than a single atom.
• Maths students at Stanford carry a problem out of the classroom and into their day, thinking about it in the library or their dorm rooms, scribbling on chalkboards and napkins as they work toward a solution.
• When is humanitarian intervention justified? What motivates foreign aid policies? Does democracy work? These are some of the questions Stanford political science students grapple with as they push beyond punditry and headlines to understand the complex political systems of our globalized world.

Subject level

About the subject

What is <X>? 

• Eg, the dictionary definition. <X> is the study of...
• What does this subject include? 
• Are there any big misconceptions about this subject?
• What's interesting about <X>?

Victoria's strengths

What are Victoria's strengths in <X>?

• What is unique about <X> at Victoria?
• What do we have to offer students who enrol in <X>?

Student experience

What's it like to study <X> at Victoria, from a student's perspective?

• Why would I choose to study <X>? / Why would I pick this over another major?
• What skills will I gain?

What kind of person (school leaver) might be interested in <X>?

• Personality traits
• School subjects
• Learning style
• Hobbies they enjoy.

Note: Avoid getting into discussions about dry, non-marketable content such as graduate attributes.

Careers

We don't need to cover this in detail: most information is on the Careers website. 

What are the career opportunities like in this field? 

• What are the main roles people are going into at the moment? What do they do in these roles?
• Who are they working for (eg, government, firms...)
• What’s the market/workforce like at the moment? Are graduates getting relevant jobs?
• How do they become professionally registered/affiliated etc - what do they need to do?
• How are Victoria graduates regarded by employers? 
• Fun facts - if any spring to mind.

Note: Avoid getting into discussions about dry, non-marketable content such as how students will learn teamwork skills. 

Post-interview tasks

People and stories

• Student experiences
• Student work examples
• Alumni stories
• Lecturer profiles (Do you have any stand-out teachers on staff? Perhaps someone who has won an education award or who students rate well? Do they have a profile?)

Approaching faculties and schools

Engagement approach

See Attachments page for the planned approach to engagement

Email text

The emails that will be used are in the documents below:

Email 1: Set up interviews

Email 2: Book meeting with HOS

Emails 3 and 4: Review and approval

Socialising the topic page concept

Before we start content work with faculties and schools, the WIP2 project manager will meet with them to explain the broader project, topic groupings and the concept of the topic page. The notes below may help - please also see the topic page content strategy.

About the project

We're working to improve information about subjects and programmes on Victoria's website.

Our research

We assessed existing Subject pages on the Victoria website and in our publications, and noted the following:

• Most provide very little space (between a couple of sentences and a few paragraphs) to tell students why they should study that discipline at Victoria.
• There are over 140 subject pages that prospective students must look through.

We reviewed the websites of other universities to see how they approach discipline information online.

We talked to school leavers to understand what they want to know when they visit a university website.

We created a content strategy for online subject information that better meets their information needs and allows us to engage and inspire them. 

What's changing?

Subjects are being grouped with other subjects into thematic pages we call 'topic' pages. These provide a compelling overview of what Victoria has to offer in the discipline, detail on each subject that sits within it, and information on careers.

The information about degree and major rules that is currently on subject pages will be moved to the relevant degree pages, so students don't need to be across multiple locations to figure out how their degree will work. 

Topic pages will be simple and engaging. They will provide a clear information pathway to relevant degrees, or to course planning advice.

Topic pages with multiple subjects have four sections: A general 'About' section; a 'Subjects' section with information about each individual subject; 'Careers' (by subject); and 'People and stories'. 

The subjects section may be omitted on topic pages that describe just one subject.

Example topic page

(Don't share this without Chrissi's permission)

View filenameTopic page example by screenshots.docxheight250Send the email below to the SME - then call them if there is no response. Book out a time in their calendar - you can usually meet in their office.

At the start of the interview

Spend a few minutes giving them an overview of the project, but don’t go into it in depth - that communication is happening alongside the interview process by Jane and Paul.

This is what I say: Thank you for taking the time to meet with me. I’m part of a project that is writing much better content for the Victoria website, for prospective undergraduate students who are thinking of studying here. [Show them current subject pages - three paras at the top - “we want to give you more space to market and explain what you teach”.] Show them the new Explore page and explain mega topics and topic groupings. Tell them the links will go to the new topic pages. Describe how a topic page works - describe each of the four tabs/pages and what it’s for.

Introduce the personas - Mattie and Henry. Stand one or both of them up on the desk - I tend to use Mattie. Throughout the interview, say to the academic: “Tell Mattie - talk to him” “How would you explain to Mattie what xxx is” (etc).

If you strike someone who is resistant or negative in some way, take time to explain the project and get them on board - you can always come back and do the interview another time. If that doesn’t work, politely leave, then inform Jane.

Ask if you can record the interview. Explain that you won’t be quoting them - it’s just so you don’t have to write notes. I use a laptop (the MS record feature) as my main method, and I use a dictaphone as a backup. Plug in the laptop when you first arrive and set it up while you chat about the project - otherwise you’ll be waiting for it to fire up.

Let them know that the draft will come to them for review. 

During the interview

Use the interview questions (below). Make sure you cover all areas, but don’t let the interview go on for too long. Think about what you need, to write the page.

Be positive and interested. 

Remind them to talk to Mattie (or Henry).

After the interview

Save the recording.

Thank them.

Transcribe the interview as soon as possible. I recommend putting the transcript in a separate document and saving that to the Topic page folder in OneDrive.

Use a copy of the transcript to write the page. Draw on the content from our publications if you need to - but the interview is the authoritative source.

Gathering media 

The comms advisor will be able to help you find student work examples and other media. They might be happy to interview a lecturer and create a lecturer profile.

• If they're creating a lecturer profile, don't forget to ask for a photo to go with it. 
• If they're providing student work examples, ask them to also provide an outline of the project, a caption for each image, and signed permission forms from the students.

Contacts:

Review and sign off

Flowchart showing the review process

Review email and checklist for SME:

Sign off email and checklist for SME: