{"id":92,"date":"2018-04-13T16:07:33","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T16:07:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/corporate.wordpress.soton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/?p=92"},"modified":"2018-04-13T16:13:39","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T16:13:39","slug":"were-building-better-course-pages-heres-how-you-can-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/2018\/04\/13\/were-building-better-course-pages-heres-how-you-can-help\/","title":{"rendered":"We&#8217;re building better course pages, here&#8217;s how you can help"},"content":{"rendered":"<h3><strong>Sign up for <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/drpkvf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">early preview<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>We&#8217;re making some significant changes to course pages. <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/drpkvf\">Click here to subscribe for an early preview and updates<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Where we are<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Since the completion of OneWeb\u2019s user needs workshops and initial consultation, we\u2019ve been busy coming up with many options on how to proceed with the project, as quickly as we can. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Our course pages play a vital part in the University\u2019s strategic goal to be recognised as an international centre of research and teaching excellence. We also know that the quality of our website plays an essential role in delivering on this vision. Course pages generate 21% of the overall traffic to our website and have an attached complexity in terms of roles and responsibilities, content publishing workflows and even semantics.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So, to begin with, we will be looking to build a new kind of course page. One that is:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">built around the needs of our external users<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">mindful of other online experiences users have encountered (learnt behaviour)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">easily accessible to our users via their smartphones, anywhere in the world <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">written in plain English and jargon-free, with baked-in Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) so is easy to find \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">compliant with industry regulations <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">clear about roles and responsibilities. To enable all our subject matter experts (eg content owners) to know where they stand and how to access information<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019re looking to building this from the ground up to be the kind of content and information that our current and prospective students expect regardless of their cohort.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What we intend to do <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Over a 12-week period, we are going to test an approach to user-centric content and governance by transforming a sample of our course pages. The goal will be to see if the new approach leads to more efficient content development and higher quality content that works better for our users.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone wp-image-83\" src=\"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2018\/04\/Course-Pilot_User_Testing.png\" alt=\"An example course page from our user testing \" width=\"600\" height=\"400\" \/> <span style=\"font-size: 10pt\">An example course page from our user testing<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">What\u2019s in and out of scope: <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Included in the scope of this pilot will be:<\/span><\/p>\n<h4><b>Governance workflow and process<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Simpler process for publishing course content with consistency for: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">roles, responsibilities and ownership regardless of faculty, school, or department, including permissions which show who publishes what<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">adding, modifying and retiring processes \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">how we describe courses in the marketplace. For example, market proposition <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Content strategy<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Every content item must meet a defined user need<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">deciding what to publish and when based on data and user testing <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Information architecture (IA)<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Content arranged around defined, measurable user journeys for multiple cohorts<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">test a skeleton IA that can be implemented <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">descriptive web page addresses (URLs) that are short and easy to remember <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4><b>Build and design<\/b><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Build a basic prototype for testing <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">consistent content patterns throughout course page templates, which responds to any screen size<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">optimised for readability and CMA compliant <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">minimum of WCAG AA standard accessibility<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Not included in the scope of the pilot phase are:<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Content on subdomains of southampton.ac.uk or soton.ac.uk managed using applications other than SitePublisher CMS and\/or Drupal CMS. It includes: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">tools and transactions (eg student records, room booking)<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">online version of the prospectus and subject brochures <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">personal home pages or staff profiles <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">supplementary publishing platforms <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">any other integrations (eg social media) <\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Delivery <\/span><\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Delivery of this phase will take place over May &#8211; July 2018. The delivery will be split into several stages: <\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">establish governance model based on data from OneWeb\u2019s discovery phase and user testing <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">test specific user journeys with multiple cohorts \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">develop a whole IA for testing <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">create sample content for each faculty <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">build a prototype <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">test with users <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">iterate <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">test again <\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">final recommendation report, which could be used as a reference point when deciding whether to move to the next phase. \u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>How can you help?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Each faculty will be required to appoint a single point of contact (SPOC) to coordinate their efforts around course content. These individuals are the \u2018voice of the faculty\u2019 for the Digital team and should have the delegated authority to coordinate and collate all comments from the faculty on each piece of course content and supply them to the Digital team, and also to advise and inform the faculty\/school\/department. We will contact the Heads of Faculty Operations to identify a suitable SPOC. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Progress will be reported to the OneWeb Advisory Group (OWAG). This is a pan-University group, so every part of the University will help to steer the project. In addition, this work will be overseen by the Digital team and tracked through use of project delivery boards and documentation stored on SharePoint. Any frontend code changes for components will be held in the <a href=\"http:\/\/uos.io\/\">University\u2019s technical guidelines<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>What\u2019s next?<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Delivery of this vision requires collective effort. So let\u2019s work together and build course pages we can be proud of. We\u2019ve not got all the answers, but we are working with our internal and external stakeholders to get this right. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">That\u2019s why we\u2019re also going to open up this preview service to the course pages early. We\u2019re also going to take it to the OneWeb Advisory Group to scrutinise our work.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">You\u2019ll be able to view and comment on the course pages. We\u2019re also planning to carry out some educational and challenging workshops to ensure we get our internal processes right. Our team will be on hand to answer any questions you have and sort out any issues.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>How to track progress<\/h3>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We\u2019re keen to work in a transparent way and would like to hear from anyone who wants better results for the University. All you need to do is <\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/drpkvf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><b>join our mailing list<\/b><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">. We\u2019ll get in touch when we\u2019re ready for you to preview or look at any new features.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sign up for early preview\u00a0 We&#8217;re making some significant changes to course pages. Click here to subscribe for an early preview and updates. Where we are Since the completion of OneWeb\u2019s user needs workshops and initial consultation, we\u2019ve been busy coming up with many options on how to proceed with the project, as quickly as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":185,"featured_media":95,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-92","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-alpha","category-courses","category-oneweb"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/27\/2018\/04\/blog-featured-image.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/paLsBb-1u","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/185"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":94,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92\/revisions\/94"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.southampton.ac.uk\/blog\/digitalteam\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}