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Home CompetenciesRegis
University
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Problem | Analysis
| Rationale | Results
| Evidence of Value | Reflections
| Responsibilities |
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| PROBLEM |
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| When I began working at Regis,
the University was in the final phase of converting their
website from the old server (named "INsite”) to
a new server with a brand new look. While the rest of the
University was in the final stage of this process, the Teacher
Education department had continued to fight the move from
day one. After a month of working at Regis, I was notified
that the ITS department was going to shut down the INsite
server in 30 days. Thus the problem was, our department had
less than 30 days to migrate all of its content from the old
web pages to the new. |
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| ANALYSIS |
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| Due to the nature of the problem,
I first began to investigate why our department resisted switching
to the new server. What I discovered was that the university
switched from a system in which each individual department
had complete control over the look and feel of their department’s
pages to a system in which only certain people can update
each page, with only certain type’s of content, and
certain tools. That is, the university now had selected content
managers in each department who were going to be in charge
with updating their departments web pages; however, they could
no longer use FrontPage to do this, they were now asked to
work in an content management system which required at least
a basic knowledge of HTML; finally to add insult to injury,
only certain types of content or images were allowed on the
new site. To complicate maters further, our department consisted
of a number of faculty members who hated and resisted change.
The Teacher Education faculty didn’t understand why
they were being forced to switch to a new site in which they
had no control over the first two levels of navigation. Finally,
the department lacked the staff and the skills to complete
the project.
With all of this in mind, I began to think about the users.
This included both students and faculty/staff. These groups
ranged in age from 21-70 years in age; the majority were
female and apprehensive about computers. According to our
faculty, our students number one need was to make a seamless
transition from the old server to the new (i.e., a faculty
member or a student should not have to think or search for
anything on our new site). Secondly, they wanted to ensure
that the content on the website was up-to-date.
Therefore, my goal was simple: 1. To move all of the content
from the old site to the new site; 2. Update out of date
content along the way.
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| RATIONALE |
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Due to the lack of time and
my users needs, I decided to simply mimic the new site as
much as possible to the old one. While I would have preferred
to experiment with reorganizing the information architecture,
I believed that simply duplicating the layout of the old
site would lead to the least amount of confusion--thus resulting
in a "seamless" transition.
My first step was to meet the ITS department;
our department had alienated some individuals in the ITS
department in the past, thus I felt it was imperative that
we start off on a good foot. After meeting them and learning
the content management system they had developed for the
university, I asked for copy of all of the Teacher Education
files on the old server. I learned that ITS wanted all of
our content to be hand coded into the new content management
system--as opposed to cutting and pasting the code from
an HTML editor. Their rationale was that our pages were
previously developed with FrontPage which generates clunky
code and adds to the file size and impacts download speeds.
In the interest of time, though, I started copying the FrontPage
generated code into Dreamweaver, using the "Cleanup
Word HTML" command and then pasting the new code into
the content management system. While I knew I couldn't dedicate
every waking hour on this project, I decide to set aside
four hours a day to work on the migration of the content.
I had frequent meetings with a few key faculty members to
help proofread the content. Finally, I decided to develop
a job aid to help our faculty and students visually understand
the layout of the site of the new site.
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| RESULTS |
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Overall, the migration was
a success, in that all of the content was transferred from
the old server to the new one. We held a faculty meeting
for the faculty to critique the initial stages of the transition.
To their surprise, they found out that the new site looked
very similar to the old site. However, what I discovered
was that many of the faculty didn’t know the layout
of the old site as well as they thought and that people
often do not read carefully when working on the web. That
is, they often were unable to locate things that were in
the exact same spot as the old site. This was also true
of the students. I would get questions asking where the
Undergraduate "Modules and Overviews" were located,
and I would explain that they were located at the same place
as our old site--right below the Undergraduate Heading,
there is a link for "Modules and Overviews".
To further help with this transition,
we held a session at our fall seminar to help train students
how to navigate our new site. We also sent out the job aid
with our bimonthly newsletter. This
document served as a graphical representation
of the site as well as a cyber map if saved to one's desktop.
While there were some phone calls and frustration in the
beginning, overall the transition was smooth.
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| EVIDENCE OF VALUE |
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| The evidence of value can be
seen by the fact that all of the content of the Teacher Education
pages was successfully transferred to the new server within
30 days thus preventing any down time of the Teacher Education
pages. Further, all of the work done with the faculty and
our ITS department to update the content decreased student
inquiries and questions regarding the site by 50%. |
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| REFLECTIONS |
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This is one of those rare
instances in life in which I would not change a single thing
about the way I approached this project. I set my goals
small and realistic; that is, I simply wanted to transfer
the site and update as much content as possible in thirty
days. I did this successfully. Another key thing I did in
this project was that I concentrated on my professional
relationships with the ITS department and with my current
faculty and their role in helping this project be successful.
I couldn't have completed this in time without the support
of both groups.
Now, almost a year later, my faculty have forgotten about
this ordeal and the old site; therefore, I have begun to
make some changes to the traditional layout of our content
slowly and have incorporated key faculty members in the
decision process. What I have learned about our faculty
is that while they resist change, they do much better with
gradual change. |
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| RESPONSIBILITIES |
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Responsibility #1:Continued
improvement of professional practice that requires critical
inquiry, professional development, and reflective practice
This project required that I take part in the professional
community of practice that involved not only the ITS department
but also my faculty. If it wasn't for my critical inquiry
of the problem and the culture of Regis, I would have not
have succeed at bringing all parties together to successfully
complete this project.
Responsibility #2: Design instruction of human
performance strategy to meet the needs of learners.
This project was a success because it involved a front-end
analysis that focused on the users needs. I wanted to change
the information architecture of the Teacher Education pages;
however, after an analysis of my users and the problem,
it became apparent that the most successful approach would
be to simply duplicate the old site as much as possible.
Responsibility #3: Uses a variety of media
to deliver instruction to students and to engage student
in learning.
The Teacher Education website consists of HTML based Web
pages and Adobe pdf files (in fact, the Teacher Education
department has more pdfs than any other department on campus).
The job aid used to support the transition was a Microsoft
Word product and the bi-monthly newsletter was a electronic
newsletter used to communicate the changes to the students.
Responsibility #4: Understands how to capitalize
on the capacities and abilities of each learner.
The fact that the information architecture was simply duplicated
from the old site is a clear example of how the users capacities
and abilities were taken into consideration. The University
had originally separated the Teacher Education pages into
Undergraduate and Graduate sections, however after considering
our users abilities, it was decided to design one homepage
for all current Teacher Education students (both Undergraduate
and Graduate). Furthermore, the job aid was designed to
serve as a cyber map by saving it to one's desktop to help
the users have a point and click entry to the Teacher Education
pages.
Responsibility #5: Manages complex projects
and resources in support of learning
This project required careful management of over 500 web
pages and pdfs. I dedicated four hours a day to this project
for thirty days. I concentrated at first on developing the
new homepage and updating the most important content first.
I also sought ITS' assistance in listing all of the Teacher
Education files and assisting in some of the migration of
content. Finally, I began to add footers to every pdf, stating
the last time it was updated, and to setup a clear directory
to save the original files.
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Last
Updated: July 18, 2003 |
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