Discussion paper for CSP Reference Group

Owned by Paul Seiler (Unlicensed)
Last updated: Jun 12, 2015 by Chrissi Dean (Unlicensed)Version comment
2 min read

 

Subjects and their clustering (i.e. areas of study)

Introduction

WIPII is proposing that the main navigation path for Future Students is

Subjects => Programmes => Courses

 

As such, we undertook some analysis to identify what our subjects we currently offer and how well they suit this marketing or recruitment purpose.

Number of subjects

The first finding was that we have a lot of subjects. Even starting with only those subject listed on the website, there are too many. Although this could be defined as primarily an interface design issue, even with an improved design 124 is a large number. A few more can easily be removed, as they are alternative terms and “out of date” entries.

We also have a large number of subjects listed in our publications, which seem to be largely derived from the 130 course code prefaces mastered in Banner). Although the number is similar there are many strange anomalies and mismatches.

Further, we have subjects listed on the school pages but without a corresponding offering to either of the above (e.g. performance music, petroleum geoscience, just to take a couple from the p’s).

In total, removing duplicates, obvious alternative terms and “out of date” offerings we have so far identified 126 subjects (there may be more and certainly an experienced staff member could rule more as synonyms/alternative terms).

Questions on subjects

This raises a few questions that we would like to discuss with you?

  • Can 17/18 year olds distinguish the difference between them all?
  • Can we find appropriate content (for the new WIPII subject page) for each of them?
  • Can we effectively promote/market this many subjects without distracting from or watering down the message on any one?
  • Can we resource keeping all this content current?

User research/testing

Subjects, as currently used, appears a closer fit the teaching or academic need than to the marketing and recruitment one. Further, our core subject offering seems at odds with the mental model of most target users (i.e. Future Students). We therefore decided to test this buy asking school students (as the largest source of Future Students) to gather these subjects in to like clusters or groups, This work has only just started but the preliminary results has identified the following:

  •  (Paul to add preliminary findings if we have them in time)

Area of study

Our working term for these subject clusters is “areas of study” (they could also be though of as an area of interest, topic or domain). For example, if one grouped the cards "Classic performance", "Composition", "Jazz", "Music", "Music Studies", "Music Therapy" and "Performance Music" together the area of study could be named "Music". However, some people light have placed "Classical Studies in this group and placed "Composition" together with "Culture and Context (Design)" and named this group Art.

We propose altering the main navigation flow to be:

Areas of study => Subjects (if necessary/required) => Programmes => Courses

 

Any user can, of course, search for a subject, programme or course and navigate straight to it. However, we intend to scaffold the main navigation route.

  • Chrissi Dean (Unlicensed) Lets discuss in mid sprint 13, but before the group meets, so there is time to make any final changes.