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Web co-ordinators' forum notes
25/6 April 2000
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programme
for the forum
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Process
On the mornings of 25th and 26th April 2000, Web Co-ordinators
met to discuss the draft Web Roles document, and a proposed Training
and Staff Development plan to support staff in the Web Co-ordinator
and Web Editor roles.
A total of 31 staff attended out of the 101 members of the Web
Co-ordinators mailing list who received the invitation to the event.
This was a good turnout, given the timing of the event (around the
Easter break) and the short notice given to invitees.
The programme for the event allowed time for staff to discuss the
documents in small groups for 20mins, before feeding back their
opinions and suggestions in a plenary setting. Prompt questions
were provided to help small group discussions and notes were made
from the plenary discussions.
Prompt questions for the web roles document:
- How do the roles outlined compare with your current position
?
- What is a realistic time allowance for the roles of the WC &
WE ?
- How could this work in your context ?
Prompt questions for the proposed training and support
provision:
- Are the proposed knowledge / skills appropriate?
- Is the support and training proposed sufficient?
- What would you like to see in a Web Co-ordinators' (& Web
Editors'?) forum ?
Feedback - Maintaining the University' s web presence: the roles
involved
There was a welcoming of the role defining process - it was thought
to be important in addressing their concerns.
The roles of Web Co-ordinator and Web Editor were very often undertaken
by one person but in those cases where that was not true, the day-to-day
responsibility for the site was thought better placed with the Web
Editor.
Issues of concern:
- there was a wide variety of routes to becoming web co-ordinator
- " Nobody officially approached me, I've grown into the role"
to "I had a memo from my HoD telling me I was the web officer"
- other staff were unaware of the time taken to do the job(s)
- other staff didn't appreciate how difficult it was to produce
content
- other staff don't respond to requests for info
- the HoS doesn't always recognise that the web site needs doing
- those managing the process need some experience to be able to
manage appropriately (not asking for unreasonable layouts etc.)
- HoS interferes with page layout
- in larger Schools tensions are emerging as ideas of good web
site management differ between Depts, there may be no overall
web co-ordinator, and the HoS is not interested
- some debate about the term "web editor" having journalistic
connotations - but publisher, author, maintainer and producer
no better
Suggestions for improvement:
- HoS must establish systems to get all relevant staff involved
in providing content - need more emphasis on their responsibility
to make things happen
- HoS need information on how to manage web sites, and implement
systems - RS to investigate incorporating this into the HoS residential
staff development event (1hr?).
- Schools need a committee for web content or School web team
and / or
- Schools need a web representative on research and teaching committees
- awareness and involvement throughout the School would aid quality
- more central provision would be helpful (if centre provides
minimum School info required, then smaller Depts need not provide
their own site)
- allocate additional staff to Schools from central team
- a method of requesting expertise from the central team for project
work would be useful (like TEO's rapid response / strategic development
arrangements for CAL?)
- new responsibilities need new resources
- Reg's & Bursar's - should there be a co-ordinator at central
admin level?
- TEO to add web site to TQA checklist given driving force of
QAA ?
- Academics' input includes use of CAL and course management software
Guidance requested on:
- how many web co-ordinators / web editors for a School of a particular
size?
- how much time to spend (but how long is a piece of string?)?
- perhaps time expected to maintain a Corp ID site of x pages,
using DreamWeaver.
- suggestions of management models for HoS
- procedures and payment rates for Schools employing PostGrads
to do the editing
Feedback - Training & support for web co-ordinators
The original Training and Staff Development plan proposed basic
skills and knowledge levels required of Web Co-ordinators and Web
Editors, accompanied by training and staff development opportunities
to allow staff to reach and exceed these minimum specifications.
The core proposals included:
- the regular staging of a Web Co-ordinators' forum to allow
exchange of ideas and to encourage policy discussions, and technical
seminars, with a separate Web Editors' programme to cover hands-on
technical skills
- a web site to support the community and provide resources
- new courses on using DreamWeaver 3 at a basic level, and at
a more advanced level after pre-requisite courses introducing
the coding concepts behind the more advanced functions.
Suggestions received for the WC / WE forums:
- Don't segregate Web Co-ordinators' and Web Editors' events -
invite all and allow choice of events to attend ( a widely held
opinion in part due to the number of staff undertaking both roles)
- hold a regular (2 or 3 times per year) forum on policy matters
- poll the WCs / WEs before holding the forum for content
- focus on education rather than training - awareness not technical
skills
- use a mixture of lunchtime and longer sessions
Training requests:
- add courses on graphical considerations - graphic design, page
design, page layout, colours etc.
- disappointed that Intermediate HTML course dropped (but content
of the course still included in forum events)
- add php and database access via the web
- differing methods of learning preferred therefore courses need
to account for these preferences (not insisting on learning HTML
/ other coding before DreamWeaver)
- add direct page editing on granby
- add using SGML
Comments on training courses outside the proposed web area:
- alter the Getting Started on the Web and the Searching the web
courses (ISD) to account for browser differences
- add a session on using newsgroups (ISD?)
Support requested:
- downloadable templates from the central web team
- a larger library of images
- a library of scripts to use in web sites
- crib sheets on the proposed web site
- written pro-formas for agreements regarding publishing staff
photos on the web
- prospectuses, invite feedback and discuss link
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