Slides used by Martin Bazley as part of training day at Great North Museum Hancock on 21 March 2013

1. E-Learning: getting started
with online learning
Great North Museum Hancock
21 March 2013
Martin Bazley

2. Overview
Looking at some websites
Why do we need to learn to write for the web?
Introducing Wordpress.com
Digital video - why do it?
Digital video -how do it?
Other useful stuff, cheap or free and easy to do

3. Header inc banner ––establishes visual identity
Header inc banner establishes visual identity
Main navigation ––contents summary, links to sections
Main navigation contents summary, links to sections
Section (context-
Section (context-
sensitive)
sensitive) Right hand column ––
Right hand column
navigation ––
navigation links to relevant
links to relevant
contents summary
contents summary items within site,
items within site,
Main content area
Main content area
and links
and links sometimes outside it
sometimes outside it

4. Website examples
http://eastanglianlife.org.uk/discover/
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Visiting-us/
http://www.nhm.ac.uk/visit-us/booking/index.html
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/educators/plan_and_book_a_visit/book_a_visit.aspx
http://www.vam.ac.uk/
http://www.amazon.co.uk/
http://jameelcentre.ashmolean.org/

5. People use the web differently…

6. … from the way they use books, object
labels, magazines, newspapers,
information screens, etc

7. For most people the web is a predominantly
visual medium

8. We are all different and some people like to read
all the text on a web page before deciding what
to do next, even though a lot of it might be pretty
redundant but most people – or at
least most regular users of the web – rather than
just
reading through them in detail
scan the web pages they are
using, or at least the ones where they are still
trying to work out where to go next

10. • Users won't read your text
thoroughly word-by-word.
Exhaustive reading is rare, especially
when browsing.
Yes, some people will read more, but most
won't.

11. • The first two paragraphs must state
the most important information .
There's some hope that users will actually
read this material – though they'll probably
read more of the first paragraph than the
second.

12. • Start subheadings, paragraphs, and
bullet points with information-
carrying words that users will notice
when scanning down the left side of your
content in the final stem of their F-
behaviour.
They'll read the third word on a line much
less often than the first two words.

13. If they have to work at it for example if they cannot see what
they are looking for, or if it doesn’t make sense to them at first glance then
most people – or at least many people who do a lot of searching or
browsing on the web just decide that this particular site is not for them,
and anyway they have a long list of other search results or ideas to try and
so they go elsewhere

14. Exercise: Make this web page better

16. About website structure,
ways people use the web and
implications for writing for the web

17. Certain types of websites impose
linear user journeys:
TheTrainline.com
Cinema ticket bookings
Self assessment tax return online

18. In most websites, although there are some
linear elements …

20. … people like to have other pathways
available to them…

21. … and most journeys are
very non-linear

22. Also, most people reach your website via
Google
Only 20% arrive at your website on the
home page

23. Most may not have had your site in mind
when searching

24. 30% of them go to home page to ‘try and
work out what this site is about’

25. So each page on the site must quickly:
(a) engage users and
(b) give sense of what site is about –
otherwise most will leave

26. ‘Writing for the web’ is not just about text…

27. … but also choosing the right images
… layouts
… graphical look and feel
…website structure
etc etc

28. Key point of Image clearly
paragraph/ related to text
section
Broken into
short paras

29. Short video guides
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?
v=AoU2yANNxRs&eurl=http://inside.123-
reg.co.uk/archives/video-writing-your-web-copy
• Writing web headlines
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zBg7dJIfHM0

30. Home page: key functions
• Offer overview:
– Show user what the site can do for them
– Show user what is in the site:
• The structure at a glance
• Content highlights or samples
• Engagement:
– make user want to continue browsing
– www.manchestergalleries.org/

31. Article page: key functions
• Engage the user – make them want to consume
the article
• Signposting:
– Show user what else is nearby in the site
• The structure at a glance
– Show user what else the site offers them
– www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=73
– www.manchestergalleries.org/

32. Short writing exercises

33. Short writing exercises

34. Short writing exercises

35. Home page: key functions
• Offer overview:
– Show user what the site can do for them
– Show user what is in the site:
• The structure at a glance
• Content highlights or samples
• Engagement:
– make user want to continue browsing

36. Article page: key functions
• Engage the user – make them want to consume
the article
• Signposting:
– Show user what else is nearby in the site
• The structure at a glance
– Show user what else the site offers them
– www.mylearning.org/overview.asp?journeyid=73
– www.manchestergalleries.org/

37. Website users

38. Website users
• Who uses your website?
• Why would they want to use it?
• How would they find it?
• What do they get out of it?
• What do they dislike about it?

39. How do you get it right for
everyone?
• Answer:
• You can’t get it right for everyone.
• You have to make choices, and stick to
them:
• Who is it for?
• What..
• How…

40. Who for…?
What for?
How will they use it?

41. Learning resource: iterative planning
content   curriculum
(find a match)
Learning activities   Learning outcomes
(find a match)
Filtered by your specific audience needs

42. Who for…?
What for?
How will they use it?

43. Who for what for ...
• Who for? (audience)
Need to be clear from start
• mum + 2 children looking for something to do this
weekend
• teachers of yr5/6 in local area with whiteboards
• men interested in gadgets

44. Who for what for ...
• What ‘real-world’ outcomes?
What will they do as a result of using the site?
• make a donation
• plan a visit to a museum
• buy a train ticket
• think differently about learning disability

45. Who for what for ...
• How will they use it? (user experience)
What do they actually do on the site?
• browse and read articles
• working alone or in pairs? (learning resources)
• lean forward or sit back?
• Browsing, following, searching…
• Also Where, When and Why?

46. Examples of teacher feedback
• Vimeo videos
• http://vimeo.com/18888798 Key ideas
• http://vimeo.com/18892401 Lesson starter
• http://vimeo.com/18867252 Timesaver

47. Who for what for ...
• Website appraisal
– For each example note first impressions
• Who is it for?
• What does it offer them?
• How will they use it?

48. Elements of online learning resources
These are the first
Increasing cost and complexity
Increasing cost and complexity
things to provide, and
Image(s) + caption(s) do not require high
levels of IT expertise or
Key question(s) / short activities investment
Background teacher notes / pupil activity sheets
Zoomable images First two can be done quite easily
The others will mean investment
Video of money and /or expert time
Two case studies:
Interactive 1. with interactive
2. with video
aet r o u es u t s o M
aet r of ll uf es u t s o M
More complex functionality
f f

49. How can we get a sense of who our online
visitors are and what they do with our online
content?
How do we gather data to help us improve
what we do?
How do we measure success from the
user's point of view, and / or against our own
objectives and constraints?
For example, how justify investment (or lack
of it) in social networks etc?

50. Reasons for doing audience research:
Evaluation
• Did your project/product/service do what
you wanted it to do?
• Provide information for stakeholders
• Gauge audience satisfaction

51. Reasons for doing audience research:
Promotion
• Improve your offer for your target
audiences
• Increase usage
• Widen access

52. Reasons for doing audience research:
Planning
• Inform development of a new
product/service
• Inform business planning
• Prove interest in a related activity

53. Data gathering tools
• Qualitative: focus groups, “free text”
questions in surveys, interviews
• Quantitative: web statistics, “multiple
choice” questions in surveys, visitor
tracking
• Observational: user testing, ethnographic

54. Define audience
Plan methodology
research goal
Use results to guide Collect data
changes
Analyse data

55. Define audience research
Plan methodology
goal
Use results to guide Collect data
changes
Analyse data

56. Define audience research
Plan methodology
goal
Use results to guide Collect data
changes
Analyse data

57. Define audience research
Plan methodology
goal
Use results to guide Collect data
changes
Analyse data

58. Define audience research
Plan methodology
goal
Use results to guide Collect data
changes
Analyse data

59. Define audience
Plan methodology
research goal
Use results to guide Collect data
changes
Analyse data

60. Strengths and weaknesses of different
data gathering techniques

61. Data gathering techniques
User testing
- early in development and again near end
Online questionnaires
– emailed to people or linked from website
Focus groups
- best near beginning of project, or at
redevelopment stage
Visitor surveys
- link online and real visits
Web stats
- useful for long term trends /events etc

62. Need to distinguish between:
Diagnostics
– making a project or service better
Reporting
– to funders, or for advocacy

63. Online questionnaires
(+) once set up they gather numerical and
qualitative data with no further effort –
given time can build up large datasets
(+) the datasets can be easily exported and
manipulated, can be sampled at various times,
and structured queries can yield useful results
(–) respondents are self-selected and this will skew
results – best to compare with similar data from
other sources, like visitor surveys
(–) the number and nature of responses may
depend on how the online questionnaire is
displayed and promoted on the website

64. Focus groups
(+) can explore specific issues in more
depth, yielding rich feedback
(+) possible to control participant
composition to ensure representative
(–) comparatively time-consuming
(expensive) to organise and analyse
(–) yield qualitative data only - small
numbers mean numerical comparisons
are unreliable

65. Visitor surveys
(+) possible to control participant
composition to ensure representative
(–) comparatively time-consuming
(expensive) to organise and analyse
(–) responses can be affected by various
factors including interviewer, weather on
the day, day of the week, etc, reducing
validity of numerical comparisons between
museums

66. Web stats
(+) Easy to gather data – can decide what to
do with it later
(+) Person-independent data generated - it
is the interpretation, rather than the data
themselves, which is subjective. This
means others can review the same data
and verify or amend initial conclusions
reached

67. Web stats
(–) Different systems generate different data
for the same web activity – for example no
of unique visits measured via Google
Analytics is generally lower than that
derived via server log files
(–) Metrics are complicated and require
specialist knowledge to appreciate them
fully

68. Web stats
(–) As the amount of off-website web activity
increases (e.g. Web 2.0 style interactions)
the validity of website stats decreases,
especially for reporting purposes, but also
for diagnostics
(–) Agreeing a common format for
presentation of data and analysis requires
collaborative working to be meaningful

69. Online surveys
SurveyMonkey
www.surveymonkey.com

70. Web stats
Google Analytics

71. Learn GA: short intro videos etc
https://www.google.com/analytics/iq.html

72. The best way to learn GA
is to use it:
www.google.com/analytics/

73. Web stats: Focus on trends
rather than absolute values

74. The ‘long tail’
An example of a power law graph showing popularity
ranking. To the right is the long tail; to the left are the
few that dominate. Notice that the areas of both
regions match. [Wikipedia: Long Tail]

75. The ‘long tail’
The tail becomes bigger and longer in new markets (depicted in
red). In other words, whereas traditional retailers have focused
on the area to the left of the chart, online bookstores derive
more sales from the area to the right.[Wikipedia: Long Tail]

76. SCA guidance
http://sca.jiscinvolve.org/wp/audience-publications/
Good overview
Step by step approach
Culture 24 Let’s Get Real
http://weareculture24.org.uk/projects/action-research/

77. Using New Media to engage with
audiences - handbook
Quick overview of techniques

78. More information / advice / ideas
Martin Bazley
0780 3580 737
www.martinbazley.com