FIT2055 Web content management - Semester 2, 2012

This unit covers principles and practice of the emergent field of web content management. It focuses on developing organisation systems for websites or intranets that are responsive to business imperatives and user needs, and that facilitate effective retrieval of information. Particular emphasis is given to developing practical skills in these areas and to applying a range of popular tools, techniques, software commonly used for web content management.

Mode of Delivery

Sunway (Day)

Contact Hours

2 hrs lectures/wk, 2 hrs laboratories/wk

Workload

Students will be expected to spend a total of 12 hours per week during semester on this unit as follows:

Lectures: two-hour lecture and
Tutorial/Lab Sessions: A two-hour laboratory, which may require advance preparation
A minimum of 2-3 hours of personal study per one hour of contact time in order to satisfy the reading and assignment expectations.

Unit Relationships

Prohibitions

FIT2080

Chief Examiner

Campus Lecturer

Academic Overview

Outcomes

At the completion of this unit students will have -

A knowledge and understanding of:

• the principles and practice of the emergent field of web content management;
• the relative roles and responsibilities of webmasters and other professionals in a web or intranet development project;
• user information needs and information seeking behaviours within the web environment.
• information retrieval principles (eg precision, recall, relevance, specificity) and their application in the web environment;
• issues and challenges in organising information for effective retrieval on web sites and intranets;
• organisation systems, schemes and structures for web/ intranet content management, and how these organisation systems are represented in the key components of web information architecture;
• the application of information design and usability principles to labelling, navigation and search functions on a web site or intranet;
• commonalities and differences in information architectures in public web, intranet and extranet environments;
• phases and processes in planning and implementing a web content management project or program;
• tools, techniques, and software that are commonly used for web content management.

Developed attitudes that enable them to appreciate:

• the range of specialist expertise amongst professionals involved in a web site/ intranet development project, and the importance of effective communication and collaboration amongst these groups;
• the centrality of the user in defining an information architecture for a web site or intranet and the difficulties users experience in finding relevant information on the web;
• that business imperatives and user requirements are the key drivers of web content management, but that reconciling the two may be no easy task;
• that findability is a critical factor in determining web usability, and the role effective organisation systems play in this process;
• that effective organisation systems tend to be largely invisible to web or intranet users.
• their own growing confidence in their information retrieval skills.

Developed skills in:

• conducting a business requirements analysis and a user needs analysis, in connection with developing an information architecture for a web site or intranet;
• developing an effective information architecture for a web site or intranet, taking into consideration unique business and user information requirements, and information retrieval, information design and usability principles and guidelines;
• constructing a taxonomy; applying facet analysis to thesaurus construction; and designing a metadata schema for a web site or intranet;
• planning, designing, documenting, testing and evaluating labelling, navigation and search systems for a web site or intranet;
• utilising a range of tools and techniques (eg blueprints, wireframes, card sorting, affinity diagrams, content maps, personas), and software in the process of developing the information architecture for a web site or intranet;
• undertaking usability/findability testing of users using prototypes and a range of evaluation techniques and interpreting findings;
• evaluating information architectures, and software products for web content management.

Graduate Attributes

Assessment Summary

Examination (3 hours): 50%; In-semester assessment: 50%

Assessment Task	Value	Due Date
Web Content Management Practical	10%	Week 5
Content Inventory and Taxonomy	15%	Week 8
Website Review	10%	Week 11
Project Plan	15%	Week 12
Examination 1	50%	To be advised

Teaching Approach

Feedback

Our feedback to You

• Informal feedback on progress in labs/tutes
• Graded assignments with comments
• Interviews

Your feedback to Us

Previous Student Evaluations of this unit

This unit was completely revised in 2011 to make it more intellectually stimulating and increase its practical value.  For Semester 2, 2012 we have adopted new software for our lab practicals and assignments that is a much better concrete implementation of the abstract principles covered in the lectures and study guides, which will strengthen the link between theory and practice.

Required Resources

Access to the unit website
Access to the computer labs or computing resources in the standard configuration.

Students will use the following software during the course of this unit. This software will be provided in the labs and is freely available from the following web sites:

• Hippo CMS - http://www.onehippo.com/en/products/cms/try
• Pencil - http:/pencil.evolus.vn/
• FreeMind - http://www.edrawsoft.com/freemind.php
• SessionTester -http://sessiontester.openqa.org/download.html
• StickySorter -http://www.downloadcrew.com/article/23100-stickysorter =or=
  http://www.microsoft.com/portugal/educacao/suiteaprendizagem/stickySorter.html (click instalar)

Unit Schedule

Week	Activities	Assessment
0		No formal assessment is undertaken in week 0
1	Overview
2	Web content: Creation and management
3	Information literacy: Metadata
4	Information literacy: Information retrieval principles
5	Web content: Tagging, search-engine optimisation	Assignment 1 - Web Content Management Practical - CMS Demonstrations in the Lab
6	Information literacy: Controlled vocabularies
7	User Centred Design: Controlled vocabularies
8	User Centred Design: Evaluation techniques	Assignment 2 - Content inventory and taxonomy
9	User Centred Design: Accessibility
10	User Centred Design: Project management
11	Enterprise information management: Microsoft sharepoint	Assignment 3 - Website experience reviews
12	Professional and policy issues	Assignment 4 - Project plan
	SWOT VAC	No formal assessment or activities are undertaken in SWOT VAC
	Examination period	LINK to Assessment Policy: http://policy.monash.edu.au/policy-bank/ academic/education/assessment/ assessment-in-coursework-policy.html

*Unit Schedule details will be maintained and communicated to you via your MUSO (Blackboard or Moodle) learning system.

Assessment Requirements

Assessment Policy

Faculty Policy - Unit Assessment Hurdles (http://www.infotech.monash.edu.au/resources/staff/edgov/policies/assessment-examinations/unit-assessment-hurdles.html)

Academic Integrity - Please see the Demystifying Citing and Referencing tutorial at http://lib.monash.edu/tutorials/citing/

Assessment Tasks

Participation

• Assessment task 1

  Title:

  Web Content Management Practical

  Description:

  This assignment involves demonstrating an understanding of CMS roles and workflow. Students will complete the assignment as individuals or in pairs.

  Weighting:

  10%

  Criteria for assessment:

  Demonstrating knowledge and capability of:

  1. Assigning user privileges (role: Administrator)
  2. Creating a document template (role: Information Architect)
  3. Adding content (role: Author)
  4. Approving and publishing (role: Editor)

  Demonstrations will be done in a lab tutorial session. Individual contribution to group work will be assessed by interview at that time.

  Due date:

  Week 5

• Assessment task 2

  Title:

  Content Inventory and Taxonomy

  Description:

  This assignment involves doing two key activities in the development of an Information Architecture. Students will complete the assignment as individuals or in pairs.

  Weighting:

  15%

  Criteria for assessment:

  1. Are all of the assignment specifications addressed by the student?
  2. Are the key concepts understood?
  3. Are all the relevant sources of knowledge used and understood?
  4. Are there elements that are special or original, i.e., is there more than just the basic requirements?

  The "Project approach" section of the submission (detailed in the assignment specification that will be distributed) will be used to assess individual contribution to group work.

  Due date:

  Week 8

• Assessment task 3

  Title:

  Website Review

  Description:

  This assignment involves a critical evaluation of website usability and search capabilities.

  Weighting:

  10%

  Criteria for assessment:

  1. Are all of the assignment specifications addressed by the student?
  2. Are the key concepts understood?
  3. Are all the relevant sources of knowledge used and understood?
  4. Are there elements that are special or original, i.e., is there more than just the basic requirements?
  5. Have up-to-date sources of information been used, and acknowledged fully and correctly?

  Due date:

  Week 11

• Assessment task 4

  Title:

  Project Plan

  Description:

  This assignment is to formulate a preliminary, informal plan for a web content management implementation project that emphasises tasks to be achieved, people to be involved in each task, the sequence of tasks, and quality criteria.

  Weighting:

  15%

  Criteria for assessment:

  1. Granularity and completeness of the task list
  2. Concurrency of tasks
  3. Identification of appropriate people and skills for each task
  4. Statement of goals or acceptance criteria for each task

  Due date:

  Week 12

Examinations

• Examination 1

  Weighting:

  50%

  Length:

  3 hours

  Type (open/closed book):

  Closed book

  Electronic devices allowed in the exam:

  None

Assignment submission

Online submission

If Electronic Submission has been approved for your unit, please submit your work via the VLE site for this unit, which you can access via links in the my.monash portal.

Extensions and penalties

Returning assignments

Other Information

Policies

Student services