The aim of the “a unified web experience for education” project is to create a modern service website that provides support and guides students in choosing courses and programmes, and also frees up staff members’ time and creativity. The vision is that the University’s education website is to be a service website focusing on prospective students. The project, which started earlier in December, is expected to run for 18 months.
Major deficiencies in current course and programme presentations
At present, prospective students perceive information about the educational offering at Lund University as fragmented, overwhelming, incomplete and difficult in terms of making course and programme comparisons. The wide variation in the content and volume of material also leads to unequal presentations for those who want to choose between different courses and programmes. Potential students are also requesting more “friendly” and descriptive content, preferably in video format as well as more visualisations in the presentation of courses and programmes.
Improvement potential in internal working methods
Internal work on education-related information has also been shown to have considerable potential for improvement. Representatives from all the faculties have described working in silos, unclear roles and work processes, a high degree of ad hoc work and inadequate system support. The presentation of courses and programmes is also published twice or three times on different websites within the University. This leads to inefficiency and jeopardises the quality assurance of information on education.
New design, content, technology and working method
The new web solution will bring together all information about courses and programmes for prospective students on the main websites lu.se and lunduniversity.lu.se.
This project will therefore develop the design and content for how the entire University presents its courses and programmes online, as well as an associated IT solution. In addition, the project will develop a virtual organisation with common processes for managing information on education intended for potential students.
The guiding principles for work on the project will be co-creation and establishing the support of both students and organisation representatives. There is a strong determination to work together more with a common direction among the LU staff members who expressed opinions in workshops, interviews and during the exhibition that focused on the journey for prospective students at the Skissernas Museum.
The project is in the start-up phase
Project preparations have just started with the recent appointment of a project group and project manager, Lars Rasch from LDC. Together, they will establish the forms for work, internally and with external suppliers, as well as produce an overall project plan. A network of people with relevant roles from different parts of the organisation will be set up for consultations during the project. The project owner is the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and Chair of the Education Board, Lena Eskilsson.
The project will provide frequent information and offer opportunities for dialogue concerning the work.