Course Review

1) Is this your first completely online subject?

Yes / No

2) What do you enjoy about the use of blogs during the subject? (Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.)

I enjoyed how the questions were developed to prompt me to go and find additional information. Many topics I dind’t know a lot about so it required me to research different

3) Do you feel group work via blogs is a productive way to work through the course concepts (e.g., Web 2.0, Information Architecture, Content Management, etc.)?Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 = Strongly disagree to 10 = Strongly agree)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

4) What do you enjoy about the use of Facebook during the subject? (Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.)

I’m don’t spend much time on Facebook so the use of Facebook for the course didn’t really affect my outcome.

5) Do you feel that the use of social networking enhanced your sense of being part of the class community given that there was no real-time interaction within the subject (i.e., lectures, tutorials)?Please indicate on a scale of 1 to 10 (where 1 = Strongly disagree to 10 = Strongly agree)

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

6) What would you recommend to enhance the experience of a student in an online environment? (Please provide a few sentences or bullet points.)

I would have liked an introductory tutorial or lecture in week 1. I think one face-to-face introduction would have allowed me to create more context for the course from the first week.

Google Page Rank

What is Google Page Rank?

Google PageRank is an algorithm that reviews and assigns a value for your content. PageRank is one of the most important factors in organically getting traffic to your site.

Google PageRank Fast Facts:

• Named after Larry Page who created the algorithm at Stanford University in 1996;
• Trademarked to Google;
• The algorithm assigns a numerical weighting to each element of the sites content;
• PageRank has been influenced by citation analysis, early developed by Eugene Garfield in the 1950s at the University of Pennsylvania;
• PageRank uses probability to represent the chances of a person clicking on links and arriving at a particular page;
• The probability is expressed as a numeric value between 0 and 1.
• A 0.2 probability is expressed as the percentage of 20% of ending up on the page.

The Algorithm

This is the orignial formula published by Larry Page and Sergey Brin in 1996:

PR(A) = (1-d) + d (PR(T1)/C(T1) + … + PR(Tn)/C(Tn))

where:

• PR(A) is the PageRank of page A;
• PR(Ti) is the PageRank of pages Ti which link to page A;
• C(Ti) is the number of outbound links on page Ti;
• D is a damping factor between 0 and 1

Mathematical PageRanks for a simple network, expressed as percentages

 

 

Online Education Website

With the current push towards compliance within business, managers and directors have a real need to outsource training for employees as a cost effective and efficient way to ensure their employees are trained and familiar with industry and workplace standards.

The benefits of outsourcing training online include:

1. No travel time requirements for employees to attend courses;
2. Courses can be taken periodically without the need for temporary or contract workers to fill positions;
3. Users have the ability to sign in pay for the course, complete and receive their statement of attendance instantaneously;
4. The cost of delivering online courses is minimal in comparison to face-to-face alternatives allowing online training providers to keep the prices down for individual business.

Online Education Audience

The anticipated audience for online education courses including general OHS, Fit for Work and AOD courses, include:

1. Mixed gender;
2. Usually employees of small-to-medium sized business;
3. Full-time employees often in office jobs; and
4. Blue to White collar generally middle class.

Site Design and set-up requirements

The website will be designed to allow users to browse course offering and read the blog without needing to be enrolled or a user of the site. All courses will require a unique ID and Password with payment required on enrolment.

Site blueprint can be seen below:

Site Wireframes are available here: Online Education Wireframes

Metadata Matrix

Vocab	Description	Examples
Course	The courses available on the site	Course types.
Enrol	A user can provide their details to enrol in a course	Course details, personnel details, course payment
Member	A user that has already enrolled in a course	Member page, information about enrolled courses and previously completed courses
Course Content	The system will allow the enrolled user to access their course content	Course content including videos, quiz tests and reading material.
Completion	Pass or fail as a result of the assessment	A list of completed courses and those requiring re-assessment.

Design documentation of a website

Morville Chapter 12 – Design Documentation

The information in this blog post has been retrieved from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3^rd edition.

Overview

Considers the processes, documentation and design considerations for the Information Architect while designing a site.

Diagramming

During the design phases of a website it is important to clearly represent the intended design to the client. This enables the client to visualize the process and make and changes as early as possible during the design phase.  The following is considered to be good practices:

1. Provide a number of views of the information architecture; and
2. Develop the views for the specific audience being the user and the client.

Blueprints

The purpose of blueprints is to visually show in a basic manner the relationships between pages and content within a website. The process of creating blueprints allows the content to be structured in a formal and practical sense.

For an example of a blueprint refer to Online Education Website Post

Wireframes

Wireframes effectively show the client the templates and general look and feel of individual page types. Wireframes can be developed in a number of different ways:

• Low Fidelity – No graphical elements and no real content;
• Medium Fidelity – Provide a higher amount of detail;
• High Fidelity – Extremely detailed look at the sites template or look. Usually created as the last step before involving a graphic designer.

For an example of a low to medium fidelity wireframe diagram refer to Online Education Website Post.

Organisation Systems – An Overview

Morville Chapter 5 – Organisation Systems

The information in this blog post has been retrieved from Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 3^rd edition, Morville, P & Rosenfeld, L, 2006.

Overview

‘Our understanding of the world is largely determined by our ability to organize inforamtion’ (Morville, P & Rosenfeld, L . 2006, p. 53). As part of our daily lives we organize the information presented to use to provide context to enable decision-making and choices.

Information Architects work as information organizers to enable users, clients and other find answers to their problems or questions. The Internet and other media outlets are forcing society to become information organisers on a daily basis making some people feel like they are experiencing an ‘information overload’.

Main Points to Consider when organizing information:

Ambiguity

Ambiguity makes classification systems difficult with the many ways people can interpret our language are expressions.

The main thing to remember about eliminating ambiguities is:

• Ensuring definitions are created for category terms; and
• Define what should be put into each category.

Heterogeneity – An object or several objects made up of unrelated parts.

Organizing Website and Intranets

The way information or content is organized on a website is one of the greatest factors when determining the sites success. Users will not return to a cluttered and disorganized website.

Organization systems include:

1. Organisation scheme– shared characteristics of content items can be classified into exact and ambiguous schemese. Types of schemes used include:
   1. Alphabetical – usually used for dictionaries and indexes;
   2. Chronological – Information that can be categorised into the date published or released including news items, etc;
   3. Geographical – Information that can be categorized by place;
   4.  Topic – organizing information by topic or subject is considered to be ambiguous due to a number of different factors arising from perception.
   5. Task – An ambiguous way to categorize processes and tasks.
   6. Audience – A common way to categorize when 2 or more audience types are easily determined e.g. business or personal customers.
2. Organisation structures– types of relationships between content items and groups.
3. 1. Hierarchy (Top–Down) – parent-child relationships used to structure websites and information. Hierarchy is a simple and effective way to organize websites.
   2. Database Model (Bottom-Up) – This type of organizational structure is developed for ease of use and speed.

A day in the life … Information Architect

An Information Architect plays the role of the ‘organiser’ during the web development process. Information Architects main focus is to organise the functionality of the site and content in a way that enhances the users experience while interacting with the site.

The Information Architecture Institute defines Information Architecture as “the art and science of organizing and labeling web sites, intranets, online communities and software to support usability and findability.”

Job Description

As an Information Architect you will plan and design the presentation of information for our web development projects. As an Information Architect you should be happy to work as part of a team and behind the scenes.

As an Information Architect you will be able to:

• Consider the needs of the client;
• Consider the requirements of the users; and
• Present the content an navigation in a way the meets the needs of the user and the client.

Responsibilities:

An information architect has a number of responsibilities during the creation of a website, including:

1. Research the audience and the business to ensure a positive user experience;
2. Analyse information and content requirements for the site;
3. Develop a websites organisational structures;
4. Develop wireframes, site maps, etc; and
5. Develop labeling/navigation/site structures.

 

The Fine Print…..

I have never fully read the privacy policy or terms of service for Facebook…. until today. I don’t think anyone ever really takes the time to read these or the warnings at the start of movies that you can’t skip.

How will Facebook use my information?

Facebook receives a lot of information about all of us that have signed up to the site with the other hundreds of million users. The information Facebook receives usually includes:

• Name;
• Email;
• Birthday;
• Gender; and
• the hundreds of status posts, images, videos etc you we choose to post.

Facebook‘s website claims to use the information we provide in the following ways:

• Keeping Facebook products, services and integrations safe and secure;
• Protecting Facebook’s or others’ rights or property;
• Provide users you with location features and services;
• Measuring the effectiveness of ads you may see;
• Other internal operations, including troubleshooting, data analysis, testing, research and service improvement.

Although Facebook attempts to keep your information safe they make a strong statement to advise they cannot control the information other share about you.

Facebook does seem to place enough emphasis on security of users information and their site but the thing users need to remember is they are tracking your use and activities.

I am comfortable with the privacy of my information that I provide to Facebook. The simple rule to remember when using social media is – IF YOU DON’T WANT ANYONE TO KNOW ABOUT IT, DON”T SHARE IT!!!

The Huffington Post

The Huffington post is a blog type american news site featuring a wide variety of news topics.

See below the table describing the navigational structure of the Huffington Post.

Top of Page

Label	Destination Heading Label	Destinations <Title> label
Texas	Huff Post Texas	Texas : Pictures, Videos, Breaking News
Armchair Detective	Huff Post Armchair Detective	TNT’s Armchair Detective, HuffPost Crime
iPhone App	The Huffington Post (Apple)	App Store – The Huffington Post
iPad App	Huffington Post for iPad	Huffington Post for iPad for iPad on the iTunes App Store
Andriod Phone App	Huffington Post for Android	Huffington Post for Android – Android Apps on Google Play
Andriod Tablet App	Huffington Post Tablet	Huffington Post (Tablet) – Android Apps on Google Play
More	Big News Pages	Huffington Post’s Big News Pages

Main Navigation

Label	Destination Heading Label	Destinations <Title> label
Front Page (Home)	The Huffington Post	Breaking News and Opinion on The Huffington Post
Politics	Huff Post Politics	U.S. Political News, Opinion and Analysis – HuffPost Politics
Business	Huff Post Business	Business and Finance News, Opinion and Analysis – HuffPost Business
Entertainment	Huff Post Entertainment	Entertainment News, Photos and Videos – HuffPost Entertainment
Tech	Huff Post Tech	Tech and Internet Industry News – HuffPost Tech
Media	Huff Post Media	Media News, Opinion and Analysis – HuffPost Media
World	Huff Post World	World News, Foreign Policy and International Affairs – HuffPost World
Healthy Living	Huff Post Healthy Living	Healthy Lifestyle Advice, News and Community – HuffPost Healthy Living
Style	Huff Post Style	Fashion News, Celebrity Style and Fashion Trends – HuffPost Style
Highlights	Huff Post Highlights	HuffPost Highlights
Live	Huff Post Live	HuffPost Live

1.        What labels you did not like and why, and suggest improvements.

Overall I like the way the Huffington Post is organised. The navigation system is nothing new for news style blogs but effective in achieving a category style blog.

2.        Whether there were any inconsistencies in the labelling system between the pages (in terms of style, presentation, syntax, granularity, comprehensiveness and audience).

The Huffington Post has been able to create a consistent category type labelling system across the site. The Huffington Post is really easy to use with navigation across the site being transparent to the user. The style across the pages enable the Huffington Post to have a solid ‘brand’ which may explain the popularity and revenue generation of the site. The Huffington Post’s use of their name across pages makes page names such as HuffNews, Huff Business, etc makes pages look like their own ‘Home’ while staying true to the Huffington Post labelling system.

3.        Examine at least two other similar or competing web sites.  How similar are the labelling systems?  Is any one site clearly the winner (and if so, why)?

News.com.au

News.com.au is a similar style blogging platform that categories new items in a similar way. The labelling system is quite similar with news items categories by state and content.

Ninemsn.com.au

Ninemsn.com.au is also a news type blogging platform. Ninemsn has more of a focus on entertainment, fashion etc. The labelling system is similar but only has one news category with a variety of lifestyle, entertainment etc.

A B C…Alphabetical Ordering

Alphabetical ordering system:

• .38 Special

• #!%&: Creating Comic Books

• $35 a Day Through Europe

• 1001 Arabian Nights

• The 1-2-3 of Magic

• Albany, New York

• El Paso, Texas

• H20: The Beauty of Water

• The Hague, Netherlands

• The Lord of the Rings

• Plzen, Czech Republic

• Saint Nicholas, Belgium

• St. Louis, Missouri

• New York, New York

• Newark, New Jersey

• XVIIme siècle

Question 1 – Did you put The Hague under T or H?

I placed ‘The Hague’ under ‘H’ because The is considered to be a common word used.

Question 2 – Did you put El Paso under E or P?

I placed EL Paso under ‘E’ because I don’t consider it to be as common under alphabetical ordering as words like The.

Question 3 – Which came first, Newark or New York?

In the above list New York was placed before Newark because New York is two words.

Question 4 – Does St. Louis come before or after Saint Nicholas?

Saint Nicholas was placed first in the list because Saint was spelt completely and SA comes before ST in the alphabet.

Question 5 – How did you handle numbers, punctuation, and special characters?

I placed numbers, punctuation and special charaters in the following order:

•  Punctuation;
• Special Characters; and
• Numbers.

Question 6 – Assuming the italicised terms are book titles, what might be a more useful way to organise this list?

Ordering books by author may be a more effective way to list the books.

Question 7 – If the cities represent places you’ve visited and the book titles are ones you’ve read, how could chronology be used to order the list in a more meaningful way?

To ensure the accurate meanings of the data above I would separate the lists into the following  categroies:

• Books; and
• Places I’ve Visited.

I believe alphabetical ordering can often be interpreted in a number of different ways dependant on an individuals perspective. Consider the following quote “We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”-Anais Nin.

What is Ning?

Before I decided to write this blog post I had no idea what Ning was!

During the process of evaluating Ning in comparison to Myspace and Facebook I didn’t create a profile because another social networking account is the last thing I need! Instead I took to the blogs for feedback which was a great way to find out what users really think and what the attraction towards Ning is.

A summary of my Social Media Experiences to date.

Myspace:

The first social networking site I ever signed up for! I had finish highschool so I seemed like a good way to reconnect with some people I went to highschool with.

The Verdit

Everything seemed to be customizable and I can recall hideous profile songs, moods and background images that all combinded to create a unique personal experience for users.

The Purpose

Myspace was a great platform for musicians even more so than I believe Facebook is today.

Facebook:

I signed up for Facebook after the site had began motion here in Australia with the other millions of people that thought it was a great idea. Ohh the memories, since then I have had:

• sheep thrown at me;
• people inviting me to build a farm;
• random people ‘poke’ me; and
• Tetris competitions.

Although this all seems crazy I’m still with the millions of others who ssign on at least once a week.

The Verdict

I do like Facebook and think it has a place in modern social media. I do worry about the people that are constantly checking their updates and pages

The Purpose

Connecting with you network through the sharing of updates, photos and videos.

What is Ning?

Ning is a paid social networking platform with a very specific and mature product offering. Ning allows its users to:

• Create a profitable social networking site;
• Use one of the many customisable themes;
• Organise events;
• Get people talking;
• Integrate with Facebook, Twitter etc.

The Verdict

Ning seems to be in a class that is different to many social media sites with no free options available. The product offering seems to be well planned and executed for users.

The Purport

I believe Ning is a more attractive offer for online business communities, clubs etc.

What do you think of Ning?