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Web Charter Draft

 

Standard Charter For Ministry Of Education Web Channels

1.  Guidelines

1.1  Introduction

This is a discussion guide for use with the web channel charter template. The final charter document will form the base of discussion about new web developments with RMSG and therefore needs to set out clearly the points that follow.

1.2  Name of the channel

What is the name and the url of the channel? Urls are extremely important for visitors in finding and remembering your site. Questions you may wish to consider include:

How well does the url express the purpose/content of the site? How well does the url fit in with the urls of other related sites?

Output: An url (domain name) and a name for offline reference to the site.

1.3  Purpose of the web channel

This section could also be described as the “vision” you have for your channel and may answer the question “What do we want to achieve overall?”

Output: A short (16 words or less) statement setting out the core purpose of the channel.

1.4  Objectives

As well as the overall purpose, there are likely to be a set (6 or less) of clear objectives (or goals) for your website. These goals should be quite specific as they, along with the purpose, will be one of the key standards by which you can assess the effectiveness of your channel.

It is highly likely that your objectives will include specifics on how your channel will contribute to:

• The mission: To raise achievement and reduce disparity
• The vital outcomes: Effective teaching, Family and community engagement, Quality providers
• Business strategies
• The shifts in thinking or behaviour that you are trying to generate

Output: A set of objectives for the channel

1.5  Audiences

The audience (or audiences) for the channel should be tightly specified. You are likely to refer to the Ministry’s audience classification:

• Students/learners
• Families and communities
• Educational leaders and administrators
• Governance bodies
• Teachers and tutors
• Researchers
• Government ministers
• Government agencies
• Sector interest groups/Industry bodies
• New Zealand public
• Ministry staff

Your audience may also be one or more-sub audiences within these overarching categories.

You may also want to consider unintended audiences in this exercise. For example, you may not be aiming at a media audiences, but wish to acknowledge awareness that this audience could be present.

Output: The target audience(s) that your channel is aimed at.

1.6  Content and services

This section sets out the scope of the content your channel will offer, and any services (eg. transactions, online communities) that are available on the channel. It also sets out the process by which content is placed in the channel.

Scope of content

Describes the type and scope of content that will be available through this channel. Being clear about the content for your own channel will help prevent the same content appearing in two places, and also make relationships between channels clear from a content point-of-view.

Questions to ask are:

• What will be included?
• Where are the boundaries of our content?
• Is there content that will definitely be excluded?
• What other channels have similar content?

It can be helpful to do a table of “Included” and “Excluded” content to demonstrate the scope of content on your channel.

Output: Either a clear description, or a table of proposed content for the channel.

Non-ministry content

Many MoE channels are run in partnership with other organisations in the education sector. They may include content that is not MoE content. Many sites also have links to non-MoE content.

Questions to ask are:

• How much is the information in this to be viewed as “official” MoE information?
• Do we need to differentiate between MoE information and information from other sources?
• Do we need quality assurance processes around links we provide from our channel?
• How does our use of non-MoE material/services affect the way our channel is branded? (See also the “Brand” section)

Output: Statement on management of non-Ministry content, any risks around that and how those risks will be managed.

Content management

How is your content to be published, approved, reviewed, updated, metalogued, archived, deleted and so on. A Content Management Policy is under development which will set out core standards/guidance for managing content.

Are there any requirements you have over and above the Content Management Policy requirements?

Looking at content management is a good opportunity to assess part of the ongoing requirements for maintaining a quality channel.

Output: A description of the content management process for the channel.

Tone and style of content

What is the proposed tone of your channel? This is likely to relate both the purpose of the channel and to the target audience.

For example, a channel targeted at teenage learners will use different language and have a different tone to a channel aimed at educational researchers.

Policies/standards/guidelines: Writing Guidelines (these are draft at this stage)

Output: A short description of the general style of content

1.7  Brand – look and feel

How is your channel to be perceived by the audience in terms of its brand – both in how it looks and the overall impression it gives them of the Ministry?

Questions to ask are:

• How much of a “Ministry” channel is this to appear?
• Are there co-owners who also need branding?
• How will the logo/colours/design be used?

1.8  Policies/standards/guidelines: Corporate Identity Guidelines

Output: A description of how the channel will be positioned in terms of MoE’s or other brand/identity.

Relationships with other sites Here is where you assess which communication channels your channel has a close relationship with. It may be that your channels have:

• Audiences in common
• Inter-related content which requires linking
• A portal-site relationship requiring ongoing maintenance
• Branding relationships eg. co-branding

Stating the channels which are closely related to your own will assist in protecting the integrity of links, related content and visitor travel paths in the process of any changes or revisions. Related sites may be either Ministry sites, or sites of other education agencies.

Output: List of channels that inter-relate to this channel with a short description of the nature of the relationship

1.9  Visitor experience

Are there specific aspects of the visitor experience to your site above and beyond the requirements of the e-govt guidelines? You can download the e-govt guidelines at: http://www.e-government.govt.nz/docs/web-guidelines-2-1

These set out standards such as accessibility, response times etc

You may also wish to consider other Ministry sites that the same audience may use when determining elements of the user experience.

Questions you may wish to ask include:

• How will the navigation work?
• How will the navigation be set out?
• How will the search work?
• What will the search return be like?
• What two-way channels are there?
• What standards/processes will you set for dealing with communication “IN”?

Output: A short statement of the central components of the visitor experience.

1.10  Responding to Queries

All websites will contain contact details as specified by the SSC’s e-Government guidelines. Responding to queries that are sent from the website pages are the responsibility of website owners or the nominated person or business unit.

Output: A statement about how queries will be managed.

1.11  Access/Promotion

How will people know your web channel is there? One of the key elements of website effectiveness is bringing people to your site. Another is how easy it is for them to access your site.

Key questions are:

• What plan do you have to make sure your target audience knows where your channel is and what it offers?
• Are there other means of accessing the channel such as mobile phones?

Output: A short description of the plan to promote the channel

1.12  Monitoring effectiveness

For sites to deliver on the investment in them, they need to be effective. There are many elements of website effectiveness. You need to decide what measures you will use to determine how effective your site is.

Some ways to measure effectiveness are:

• Audience surveys
• Site statistics
• Usability research
• Measurement of site fulfilment (eg. How many queries were responded to in the target time)
• A site audit: the steps of the site audit are likely to be set at development stage

A note on site statistics: Most web statistics packages should offer the following stats as basic:

Monthly statistical reports showing:

• Visitor numbers
• Duration of visits
• Number of pages viewed per visit
• External vs MoE internal visit numbers
• Entry points and exits
• Views for each page
• Top 20 most visited pages
• 20 least visited pages
• Number of searches carried out on site
• Top 30 search terms found
• Top 30 search terms not found
• Referring sites
• Terms used on external search engines to access the site
• Time of day/day of week usage pattern
• Type of browser accessing the site
• Visitor hosts
• Number of queries generated on each page

1.13  Output: A statement of what measures and methods will be used to assess the effectiveness of the site.

Governance Setting accountabilities and roles is an important part of creating and maintaining an effective web channel.

Questions to ask include:

• Who is the “owner” of the site? (This could be an individual, an editorial board or a governance group.)
• Are there third parties involved in the site, for instance as funders, managers, hosts, content developers etc?
• What contractual arrangements are there relating to the channel?
• Who will take on the roles of editor, author, approver, publisher, web master and host – and how are their accountabilities communicated?

Output: A short description of the ownership of the site and what roles/resource will be involved in maintaining it.

1.14  Compliance with standards and regulations

Owners of web channels need to ensure that their channel meets all relevant standards and regulations set by government (refer to New Zealand Government Web Guidelines Version 2.1). In addition to the egovt guidelines, there is legislation around copyright, consumer protection and intellectual property rights etc that may apply.

If in doubt, talk to the Legal unit about what regulations may apply to your channel.

Output: A short statement which confirms that relevant standards have been considered and complied with.

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1.15  TEMPLATE: Charter For A Web Channel

Name of channel	An url (domain name) and a name for offline reference to the site
Channel purpose	A short (16 words or less) statement setting out the core purpose of the channel
Channel objectives	A set of objectives for the channel
Audiences	The target audience(s) that your channel is aimed at
Content: Scope	Either a clear description, or a table of proposed content for the channel
Content: non-MoE	Statement on management of non-Ministry content, any risks around that and how those risks will be managed
Content: Management	A description of the content management process for the channel
Content: Tone and style	A short description of the general style of content
Brand	A description of how the channel will be positioned in terms of MoE’s or other brand/identity
Related sites	List of channels that inter-relate to this channel with a short description of the nature of the relationship
Visitor experience	A short statement of the central components of the visitor experience and how contact will be managed
Access/promotion	A short description of the plan to promote the channel
Monitoring effectiveness	A statement of what measures and methods will be used to assess the effectiveness of the site
Governance	A short description of the ownership of the site and what roles/resource will be involved in maintaining it
Compliance	A short statement which confirms that relevant standards have been considered and complied with

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2.  Draft Documents

• Standard Charter For Ministry Of Education Web Channels - Revision 2nd May 2005 - Original Word Document Δ
• MoE Channel Charter - Revision February 05 - Original Word Document Δ