We will shortly take our subject grouping proposal to faculties for consultation. Having done as much as we could in the project team, including rework based on feedback from 50+ students, we now need to share the findings with key staff in the faculties (and schools) and listen to their feedback. The following key messages should help set the scene and keep the conversations constructive, as there is a danger that the discussion over such significant change gets bogged down in opinions and looses focus on the objective.
- This consultation draft of subject grouping represented our best efforts based on the information available to us (current subject listings for the web and in publications, the 2015 Calendar, and the subject descriptions on both Homesite and Faculty and School sites).
- We will have made mistakes or imperfect calls, be they omissions, erorrs, oversights, misunderstandings or because of information we either missed or did not have access to
- The purpose of these discussions is to allow faculty managers (and a small number of key staff) to improve our draft. Our calls are all open to challenge, as we are not experts in any of these fields.
- The grouping of subjects is primarily a marking initiative. As such our guiding objective has been "findability" (could also be thought of as usability or understandable), especially for senior secondary school students, as they are considered our primary audience group. This how directly and accurately can they find specific subjects, of their choice and in tasks set by us, some of which were career/vocation oriented (e.g. What subject would you study if you wished to be a primary school teacher?).
- We have conducted user research with 50+ school students aspiring to university study in the near future, both to validate and shape the groupings and labels.
- The level at which any particular subject name first appears is no judgement of its importance. Rather, it reflects answers to questions such as "Does it really belong in a group with other things?" and "Where do school students look for it?"
- We have used sensible/logical groupings of subjects under the working title of "topic". These topics pages will answer the questions research shows this audience has when deciding on what to study, be concise and well written, show as well as tell.
- Some topics have been grouped under the working title of "mega-topic", We are currently unsure how much content, if any, will be provided at this level.
- In some cases there is a reasonable resemblance to a Faculty or School, but this was by "chance" and not by design.
- We acknowledge that search is a viable option, as is starting somewhere other than topic (e.g. a faculty site or a programme page). WIP will ensure that both these paths/approaches also work well for users.
- The taxonomy itself does not illustrate the soft and hard linking options available to us, so (until we have prototypes) these are recorded in a table and will be shared in consultation.