Back in September, I blogged about the new GYBC Website Templates and the progress that is being made with the corporate website redevelopment.
The website is a key channel to support the shift of customer contact from face-to-face and telephone contact to the web. In order to aid in the shift, the journey of our customer, findability and accessibility of the site’s content needs to be improved. It can be seen from the Sitemorse Local Government Website Benchmarking Report that the website is not performing to its optimum capabilities and this is one of the drivers in the sites redevelopment and the continual improvement process.
So far, the project has included infrastructure replacement and installation of the latest release of our corporate CMS - Open Text Live Link Web Content Management Presentation Server.
We are currently working on a total redevelopment of the website’s code base, look and feel. The website is being totally recoded to meet the WCAG 1.0 AA standard and will include some new functionality. The redevelopment has been focused around accessibility, usability and findability - this includes improved site search and navigation.
The new site will have a Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) based layout. The presentation, content and behavioural layers will be seperated to aid in future maintenance and development. This also reduces the impact of bandwidth constraints on the site as the CSS’ are cached locally on the client and not reloaded on each page refresh. All the xHTML code is currently validating successfully using the W3C HTML and CSS validation tools as well as meeting all of the priority 1, 2 and 3 WCAG 1.0 automated checkpoints. The templates have been tested in all of the popular user agents as recorded in our analytics data as well as different operating systems and at varying screen resolutions. Different font sizes can be selected by the customer as well as text-only and varying contrast pages managed through the implementation of dynamic frameworks.
The new site will adopt a fixed width design, text-to-speech functionality and improved navigation based around the Local Government Navigation List (LGNL). Customer satisfaction will also be measured with the implementation of Govmetric. Naming conventions will be implemented that will aid in improving the organic search engine optimisation and search results. The content will be no further than three clicks from the landing page, certain information, as such as licensing, will be contained in more than one section. Customers will be advised of services not provided by the Local Authority and redirected to the website containing this information.
The new site is due to be launched next year with a public beta available prior to the go-live.
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Yesterday, I participated in an online tutorial using the FirstClass Conferencing software implemented by the Open University and provided by Open Text. Coincidentally, Open Text also supply the corporate CMS used at work - LiveLink WCM Presentation Server.
The tutorial group were split into two equal sized groups. One group participated yesterday morning, with the remainder undertaking the same exercise on the 3rd December 2008. Within my group, there were approximately half-a-dozen students. We were tasked to debate and conclude the following question:
To what extent are virtual worlds replacing the real one?
Initially, we commenced the tutorial with some general banter to familiarise ourself with the environment. This was a new experience for many of us and also the first time that many of the tutor group members had communicated with each other.
When answering the question, numerous ideas were raised. The majority of the discussion focused around entertainment, an area where virtual worlds are having a major impact on real world life. During the debate, we raised interaction as a key element and also the social impacts that the virtual world has on real world life. In particular, I raised the article about the Second Life affair leading to a real life divorce. The article is available here and here, if you haven’t already read about this. After aproximately 45 minutes, we concluded that the virtual world won’t replace the real world, instead, it will enhance certain areas; for example, communications and marketing.
During the debate, our tutor was online and monitoring the discussions taking place. Our tutor was available to provide support, encouragement and guidance as necessary. The discussion progressed well and stayed on track - crucially, we didn’t stall at any point during the tutorial. Participation in the tutorial was a required element of our next Tutor Marked Assignment due in January 2009.
I’m now well into Block Two of my first course and tomorrow I will be participating in my first online tutorial. The Tutor Group has been split into two ‘teams’. The team that I have been assigned to are undertaking a pre-assigned exercise in tomorrow’s tutorial, with the remainder of the group undertaking this on Wednesday.
Over the next week, I will begin to complete my first Computer Marked Assignment (CMA). The course is progressing well and I’m finding that I have already achieved a suitable balance between work, study and family life. I will shortly commence work on my CMA and intend to have my second Tutor Marked Assignment completed and submitted prior to Christmas. Therefore allowing me to have a nice two week break from work and study over the festive season. Having reviewed the requirements of the Tutor Marked Assignment, the questions are focused around areas that I am quite comfortable with.
The study is broken down nicely into well planned and structure sessions; the majority of which are currently online. I’m finding that I am completing a session within an hour to an hour-and-a-half. At the end of each session, I review my knowledge to reinforce what I have just learned.
The most recent sessions have been developing maths skills. Some of the questions are asking you to calculate the download duration for a specific sized file over a fixed speed connection etc. It’s been quite a while since I have used maths in this manner. However maths is a subject that I am confident in and therefore this shouldn’t be all too difficult. My final level one, 30 credit course is a choice of one of two focused directly around mathematics - Open Mathematics (MU120) or Using Mathematics (MST121).
I have recently received my next set of printed course materials and study guides that are due to be used from January onwards. These materials are for Blocks 3 and 4, Information and Entertainment and Health, Transport and Government respectively.
I have also enrolled on my next course which is due to commence in February 2009 and completes in October 2009. This is a 30 credit level one course entitled Data, Computing and Information (M150) and is the last generic level one course for both the BSc Information and Communications Technologies and BSc Computing with Business. I then need to make a final decision as to which pathway I wish to proceed along…
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