We are now the stage to look at the broader student online experience.<\/p>\n
Below is an overview of some of our activities at the moment and the challenges we\u2019re tackling.<\/p>\n
The existing landscape<\/h2>\n
We\u2019ve been meeting colleagues around the university to learn about the current student experience, online and off.<\/p>\n
There is a range of complicated processes that students go through during their time at Kent – from administration, study support, health and wellbeing to the practicalities of living away from home. It\u2019s a lot to take in.<\/p>\n
We discussed the experiences and challenges our colleagues have in providing this information online to support students.<\/p>\n
Challenges included:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Avoiding duplication<\/li>\n
- Working with outdated templates and tools<\/li>\n
- Difficulty in maintaining lots of content<\/li>\n
- Inconsistency of voice, tone and quality<\/li>\n
- Organisational rather than service focus<\/li>\n
- Lack of central governance<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Different teams have different workflows, responsibilities and skill levels. Occasionally departments coordinate their content, but generally there\u2019s a devolved approach.<\/p>\n
Some of these challenges are already being tackled as part of the \u201cKentWeb\u201d project.<\/p>\n
Looking at analytics, we know that students are searching and finding content. It can be ambiguous finding the single source of truth. The risk is that services may be lost to them.<\/p>\n
For example, if a current student searches for \u201cStudy support\u201d on the website, they may receive these starting points:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
All similar, but different.<\/p>\n
We want to make it easier for students to find the content they need and for departments to manage it.<\/p>\n
University information – Student Guide<\/h2>\n
The Student Guide has been the central point to go to for student content.<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019re off the site, you back into the random flow of the website. There is a lack of continuity and it can feel disjointed. Occasionally content may also be duplicated.<\/p>\n
It has the second highest amount of pageviews for the website (2,342,592 over a year). Likely because it\u2019s the default page when opening a student PC.<\/p>\n
Vast amount of traffic clicks away to timetables and other student systems with only small fraction exploring further student services.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll need to work with Corporate Communication to figure out how the Student Guide could be realigned as part of this process.<\/p>\n
Student\/school specific – Moodle<\/h2>\n
With school content for current students being moved to Moodle, it is becoming the area for specific module\/school information for current students.<\/p>\n
Moodle already has a personalised dashboard and includes communication tools – news, calendar, individual messaging. Accessibility features and mobile support are also important benefits.<\/p>\n
Moodle is also piloting \u2018Blackboard Ally\u2019 – a tool which helps improve accessibility for uploaded documents and provides alternative formats.<\/p>\n
Creating guidelines to help schools add current student content could help result in more consistent and better-structured information within Moodle.<\/p>\n
Learning from pilots, such as myDot virtual student advisor<\/a>, could also help feed into future strategies for Moodle.<\/p>\n
Other student systems<\/h2>\n
Student systems form a vital part of the online experience (of which Moodle is one). These have the most daily interaction with students.<\/p>\n
Email, timetables, SDS\/KentVision, LibrarySearch are some of the key services.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ve been looking at improvements to LibrarySearch which includes fixing usability issues and improving the user interface.<\/p>\n
A review will also need to be done following on from previous work to improve student systems <\/a> .<\/p>\n
Information architecture for tasks and services<\/h2>\n
How do we structure information around services in a complex institution?<\/p>\n
- \n
- Site Editor can help control consistency and layouts<\/li>\n
- The Staff Guide project has parallels from which we can learn<\/li>\n
- A clearer distinction between organisational department information and services could help<\/li>\n
- How do we manage student and staff information which is relevant to both?<\/li>\n
- How do we create a maintainable structure?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
We\u2019ll be looking at various prototypes. We plan to work with Student Services and Corporate Communications to explore approaches.<\/p>\n
Well-governed content<\/h2>\n
We want to keep future content consistent and professional. Strategies to focus on less content of a higher quality need to be developed.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll need:<\/p>\n
- \n
- Web governance, standards and policies<\/li>\n
- Adequate skills for creating online content<\/li>\n
- Training to provide these skills<\/li>\n
- Editorial groups across departments to align their content<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
Professional departments<\/h2>\n
How can we better represent professional departments? Student and staff services are often usually represented within an organisational structure on the website.<\/p>\n
We\u2019ll be exploring concepts to see if there are any better ways to separate the organisational information (vision, strategies, people etc) from the the services provided to students.<\/p>\n
Further feedback from students<\/h2>\n