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PURPOSE OF SITE

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EVALUATION

Developing a departmental website

Click on one of the boxes to explore the key

questions and issues involved in this stage of the

process

PURPOSE OF SITE

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THE FRAMEWORK

OR STRUCTURE

CONTENT OF THE SITE

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Developing a departmental website KEY QUESTIONS

OBSERVATIONS

WHAT is our website for?

WHY do we need a departmental website?

WHO will use it?

Click on a key question to access observations…

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PURPOSE OF SITE

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OR STRUCTURE

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OBSERVATIONS

WHAT is our website for?

It seems like a strange question, but do you want your site to be a store of information, links to other websites and resources or an

interactive site, with activities that allow students to assess their progress and determine next steps. It may be a site

dedicated to improving coursework, or it might cover the entire scheme of work.

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WHO will use it?

Is your site going to cater for all year groups, and all abilities within? The site may be for teachers or parents to support learning. It

might be wise to start with one year group as a test run, and iron out any issues.

Remember that, just like textbooks, you need to concentrate on reading ages, text density, font type and size. Bear in mind that younger students need to get to the right place within

3-4 clicks and a breadcrumb trail showing where they have come from – this will stop

them getting lost.

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WHY do we need a departmental website?

You need to be committed to making the site work – to get senior management backing, it should be part of departmental improvement planning. Be realistic and break the work into small achievable chunks. Is ICT access (at

school and home) good enough to make this development worthwhile? Can your site offer something (content, interactivity, structure, cross-curricular skills or tasks) that you are

not already offering?

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OBSERVATIONS

HOW do students access the site?

WHERE can students access the site?

WHO is in charge of site/network?

WHERE will the site files be stored?


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HOW do students

access the site?

Will students be able to have regular PC access within Geography time, or can you book ICT rooms regularly. Has your school done an ICT access survey – do you know

how many students have access to PCs and the internet at home? If students do not have access at home, are there any alternatives to bridge this digital divide? If you host your site on the intranet, it will not be accessible from home. A portal may be needed, perhaps with

password security to limit access – remember – some of your resources have

copyright issues that do not allow publication on the internet.

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WHERE will the site files be stored?

This is an important question. Once a site starts to grow, it can take up large volumes

of memory. It would be better to have a central school PC to store files, especially if

the content can be backed up regularly. If the hard drive crashes, you will still have a copy. It is possible to host your own site privately,

via your internet provider, but only small storage spaces are provided. Additional

space will cost money and monthly payments would be needed.

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WHERE can students access

the site?

In an ideal world, students will have regular one-to-one PC access in Geography

lessons, in free time at school (lunch, after-school) and at home. If students cannot

access the site, is there any point in having one? It might be strategically worthwhile

developing a small site and then convincing senior management that access needs to be improved. If students are accessing the site when teachers are not their to support, the site needs to be easy to use and navigate.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHO is in charge of

site/network?

There are legal issues here. If something unsuitable is put on the site, who is

accountable? The person in charge must be accountable and regularly check the site

content. Some schools actively encourage student contribution to school websites, but content must be overseen by a member of staff. Ideally your network manager will be responsible and you can schedule regular meeting to discuss next steps and issues.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHAT will the structure look like?

WHO designs the structure?

HOW do I design/create my structure?

WHY has this structure been adopted?


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WHAT will the structure look

like?

Do you want the site ordered thematically or by key stage/year group, or a combination of both? Lists of resources or activities will not

be used effectively. Content should be structured by relevance, difficulty, format.

This will ensure students are not discouraged from using the site through having to wade through irrelevant files. Structure will be logical, either following course structure or by splitting files into resources, activities, assessments and

extension work. It must be easily navigable, and ideally used navigation trails.

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WHY has this structure been

adopted?

It might be a good idea to trial your structure with some students. Discuss with them sites

that they have found easy to use and ask them how they think your suggested

structure could be improved. Many students are regular users of the internet and have a

vast knowledge of aesthetics and navigation/link techniques. Some of these

may be too complex for you to try, although a web designer would be able to do this.

Structure should shadow students natural process for learning or the course that they

follow.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHO designs the structure?

In an ideal world, the structure is designed by a trio of teacher, student and web

designer, informed by a knowledge of how successful websites work. It may be that your school has subscribed to a package

that allows a generic departmental website to be customised to your requirements. The job

description of your network manager, ICT technician, web designer or teacher i/c ICT

may include the development of departmental websites. If so, use their

expertise to develop a structure that meets your and, more importantly, the students

needs.

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HOW do I design/create my structure?

If you are doing this on your own, there are a number of options available to you. At the

simplest level, Microsoft Word, Publisher and PowerPoint files can be saved as webpages. Hyperlinks can be inserted into documents. If

you have any time to spare, Microsoft FrontPage is an effective way of writing

webpages. It uses a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) approach – you format a page as you want it and then it converts the pages into html – the language of the web. You just

have to tell it where to publish the files to. You can become competent in FrontPage with

about 4-5 hours experimenting.

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WHAT will be included?

WHO maintains and inputs content?

WHEN do we update content?

WHERE do I get content from?


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PURPOSE OF SITE

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EVALUATION


OBSERVATIONS

WHAT will be

included?

Content should be structured by relevance, difficulty, format or style of presentation. This

will ensure students are not discouraged from using the site through having to wade

through irrelevant files. Free software called Hot Potatoes (from half-baked software)

available as a free download allows a teacher to design crosswords, quizzes, tests,

cloze procedures and sentence start and finish matching exercises. These can then be accessed via the website, and will make your

site more interactive.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHERE do I get content

from?

It may be that you have already got a large number of files on your PC that you want to

upload to your website. You may have resources that you have purchased from a company. These can be published to your departmental site only if you have a site

licence and access is limited to students in your school. Otherwise you will break

copyright laws. There is no reason why students work cannot be published, provided that you have got their permission and you

have checked it for accuracy and suitability.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHO maintains and inputs content?

This could be done by individual teachers or a person in charge of website development. Regular time needs to be allocated to keep

the site up to date. It may be that web address links to external sites have changed (expired). If you have access to a specialist who is helping out with the site, a database

structured site is easier to maintain and update than a page structured site.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHEN do we update content?

Regular times need to be allocated for updating content. Ideally teachers upload resources as they produce them, but you

may wish to keep a folder of useful links and files. Termly update sessions would allow

time to keep your site current.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHY evaluate the effectiveness of the site?

WHEN should evaluation take place?

WHAT format should the evaluation take?

WHO evaluates site effectiveness?


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OBSERVATIONS

WHY evaluate the effectiveness

of the site?

As with all developments in Geography, it is important to reflect on what is working well and what can be improved. If the site has been developed as part of departmental

improvement planning, then this could be done during the review of this. This is a

necessary part of the evolution of the site if it is to continue to be an effective tool for

student learning.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHO evaluates site effectiveness?

If evaluation is to be effective, review should be done by users of the site. Students can

be consulted, either informally through discussion or via a questionnaire (either

paper-based or online!) At this stage it may be useful asking an external specialist or

critical friend to offer potential improvements. The effectiveness of the site is far more than the number of hits it receives – you need to

get into how the site is being used, why students switch off and which parts are more

popular than others.

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OBSERVATIONS

WHEN should evaluation take

place?

This should be more regular earlier in the establishment of the site. It could be part of departmental review or form the focus of a departmental meeting. If possible a before and after picture should be developed and impact on attainment, options and student

study habits explored.

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OR STRUCTURE

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EVALUATION


OBSERVATIONS

WHAT format should the evaluation

take?

This could be a questionnaire or informal discussion. As part of any action research,

evaluation involves designing a way of collecting opinions, presenting and analysing

responses. Views should be taken from a representative sample of web site users and,

as importantly, non-users. It may be that a questionnaire is completed online and a link

to it may be found on the website.

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