Buseco WebCT templates The quality of visual design and information layout, while providing a powerful symbolic representation of the quality of Faculty teaching (and therefore an important marketing function), also has a direct impact on the useability of sites.

Buseco WebCT templates Benefits include: For students Consistent experience of sites For staff Ease and speed of site development/production For administrators Assist measurement of quality

Buseco WebCT templates Minimum required content set Consistent approach to core links and functions Standardised use of specific icons Restricted use of icons Standardised naming conventions Control over resource-intensive or “excluded” functions Integrated visual style

Buseco WebCT templates Problem The default use of icons to represent every topic, function or page within WebCT is less than ideal. Visual metaphors are not readily available for many academic topics, especially those more abstract or technical. The pressure to use an icon for every topic frequently seems to lead to poor choices. The connection between icon and topic can be obscure or ambiguous. The standard layout of icons in WebCT as an arbitrary grid does not provide strong hierarchical support to the structure of content.

Buseco WebCT templates Solution We are working to move away from the arbitrary grid in the content area to a more hierarchical organisation of topics, using a combination of layout, typography and supportive graphics where effective.

Buseco WebCT templates We are aiming to eventually to provide a range of site templates: Basic Document and reference material delivery. No discussions. No changes during the course of semester (or at least predictable, infrequent updates). These sites do not require regular logins by students, but rather are available on an as-needed basis. Advanced Interactions and interventions, discussion groups, new material posted regularly. These sites require a high degree of student participation and regular logins.

Buseco WebCT templates Intention Incorporate two or three levels of sophistication in terms of learning expectations and technology competence, to be applied at different year levels of study. Undergraduate sites would aim to support the progressive development of independent learning skills. Postgraduate sites would aim to develop a greater depth of technological skill.

Buseco WebCT templates Towards Vista (WebCT 4) and IMS Preliminary sightings of Vista indicate that many of the core functions and features are more tightly integrated with the interface, however the actual content delivery pages still appear to use the arbitrary grid of icons in the current clumsy fashion. It will be important that our revised approach to the use of icons and content navigation translates effectively to Vista. We are investigating incorporation of metadata into the template specification.