1. A Student is a Student
Breaking Down Communication Silos
Molly Morris
PSEWEB 2015
July 28, 2015
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Three Goals
1. Improved information flow for all students
2. Consistent messaging to all students
3. Early student engagement
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Strategic Support
• identified communications as a priority area for shared service delivery
• student-centric customer service a priority
• institutional priorities of quality, student success and community
engagement
• Division of Students Strategic Plan
… Shared Services Delivery model that is predicated on the principles
of effectiveness, efficiency, quality and accountability.
VPS Academic and Administrative Process Review Response (March, 2015)“ ”
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Strategic Support
Students’ experience of the university begins when they are
considering applying to the institution and continues throughout
their studies to graduation and beyond.
Draft Institutional Integrated Resource Plan (June, 2015)
“
”• reinforces student-centric and shared services priorities to support student
success and community engagement
• Administrative Task Force Report emphasizes streamlining and
strengthening services that are currently duplicated
• communication is a service
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Where Are We Now?
futurestudents.yorku.ca currentstudents.yorku.ca
financial aid
financial advising
scholarships
awards & bursaries
transfer credit
important dates
fees
yustart.yorku.ca
enrolment
academic advising
program
requirements
applications
transcripts
program
changes
degree
requirements
housing
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But who is a student really?
Thinking
about PSE
Considering
York
Applying
to York
Offered Accepted Attending Graduating
Suspect Prospect Applicant
Future
Student
New
Student
Current
Student Graduand
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. . . and more!
High-
school
Mature
Transfer
International
Disabilities
Returning
Students
Prospect
Suspect
ApplicantFuture
New
Current
Graduand
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Why students.yorku.ca?
• Early identification as part of York family
• Continuum of activity
• Consistency of student service
• Early and ongoing engagement
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The fork in the road
future students vs. current students
future students vs. undergraduate/graduate students
future students vs. students
prospective students vs. current students
prospective students vs. undergraduate/graduate students
admissions vs. students
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If you build it . . .
Future Students
• Drupal
• internally harmonized
Current Students
• Wordpress
• gateway
RO/SFS
• HTML and Wordpress
• mostly stand-alone
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Disseminated Content
TRANSFER
CREDIT
TRANSFER
C
E
D
I
T
transfer
credit
TransferCredit
The old way
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OSAP Content Dissemination
0
500
1000
1500
2000
2500
3000
3500
4000
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Analytics: A Case Study
Current Students
77,665
Programs
2,993,963
MyFile
290,245
Future Students home page, pre 2014 redesign
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Analytics: A Case Study
From York home page to:
FS home page Programs
FS home page Requirements
FS Program page Faculty pages
NOT FS Program page Requirements
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The New(ish) FS Structure
program description
media
career information
requirements
by cohort
deadlines
degrees
meta-data
(Faculty, degrees, Session, terms)
Faculty links
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The New(ish) FS Structure - Results
10-25%
10%
27%
time spent on program and requirements pages
pageviews for extraneous pages (reduced path from
Programs to Requirements by 2-3 clicks)
unique visitors to application
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Is Bite-Size Good?
• given the duration of an average page view, users have time
to read at most 28% of the words on the page
• users scan a page for cues to the information they want and
only then fully read that piece of information
• users look at lists of information more than blocks of prose
(70% vs. 55%)
• concise scanable copywriting results in 124% better usability
Nielsen Norman Group
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Information Overload
The Web is the Trojan Horse
of information overload.
It promised information nirvana
and delivered information hell.
Gerry McGovern, Content Critical
“
”
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Information Overload
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INFe-YkHjbw
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Information Overload
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RLbYEkDW1tI
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Content Access Timeline
Activity
Prospect
Recruit
Applicant
Future
New
Current
Continuing
Graduand
Programs
Admission Requirements
Transfer Credit
Financial Aid
YU Start
Enrolment
Fees
Scholarships/Awards
Budgeting (Financial Advising)
Academic Advising
Degree Requirements (Calendar)
Sessional Dates
Grades and Exams
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Project Plan
Design
Design
Technical
• Platform
• Hardware
• Migration
Design
• Styles
• Graphics
• Layout
• Media
Content
• Tags
• Pages
• Navigation
• Targets
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Timeline
Design
Design
Design
Design
June 2015
Aug 2015
RO/SFS pages converted; content mapped
Dec 2015
Structure developed
May 2016
Beta testing and feedback
August 2016
LIVE
Consultation and
development
Drafting and design
