User:Vtaylor/WE experience

suggestions for how new users interact with WE - expectations, functionality, help, support


 * Google search of WikiEducator - instead of or as an alternative to MediaWiki standard search


 * build a simple organizational structure for the lesson plans to tie them directly to educational standards such that teachers could start from standards and use menu-driven screens to locate appropriate lesson plans. -- there should be some WE functionality to provide and/or support this - need to be better ways to find and adopt content http://www.wikieducator.org/Wikis_as_collaborative_teaching_tools_in_science_education


 * reviews - for all WikiEducators to contribute - process / templates for reviews to be added to robust, searchable OER index. related WE workgroups, projects Template:OER_Metadata, Categories, easy visitor access


 * just use MERLOT http://www.merlot.org/ and not replicate a good working system ?? automated linkage so WikiEducator reviews populate MERLOT - example - includes ratings, "classic" designation, description, link, other useful information http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=90081


 * WE Google group discussions - content, categories, access

Visitor / Resident
 * visitors / residents - presentation
 * WE visitors - who, from where, what do they do, what do they want
 * what do WE think visitors expect / need / want / do / find

... from discussion "Visitor" experience

Visitor experience should be
 * friendly - not overwhelming
 * informative - about, tour, suggestions
 * constructive - what's available, what can be accomplished
 * appropriate - just looking, browsing, searching
 * showcase - content, users

Visitors are coming to WikiEducator for
 * OERs - specific subject, grade level, peer review, rating, comments, context and usage
 * examples of collaborative writing
 * community of practice
 * place to host content
 * wiki for content development
 * tutorials - L4C

Models - examples and what's to like about them
 * Wikipedia - great front page, generates interest, showcases one interesting article, dynamic - changes daily, lots of links in groups without a lot of explanation - lots of explanation on next level pages, many pages are generated programatically so they are always current
 * Connexions - OER repository - good search, clear primary functions, authoring

Suggestions, upgrades for WikiEducator
 * search / categorization - make it easier to find the OERs that are ready for sharing
 * showcase good content
 * simplify current front page - overwhelming, too much information
 * improve access to "usual" information - about, contact, mission
 * blog, newsletter - help direct visitors to specific areas of interest
 * robust help - tutorials, in-context pages, fully indexed

More ideas


 * search options - buy, build - technical resources, cost
 * use of categories for dynamic pages and indices
 * automated updates - programatically generated pages, auto-refresh
 * dynamic content - cycles through series of featured articles


 * track visitor action, save searches, learn visitor needs
 * templates - consistent input for more reliable query results

Highlights of discussion

 * Wayne - we're not doing enough to welcome and support the visitor "experience". Looking at our site statistics, 84% of our traffic is sourced from search engines finding our pages.

The visitor percentage may be a little overstated given that Mediawiki's standard search engine is not the best in the world and many educators search WikiEducator using Google by including "Wikieducator" in the google search query. From our statistics, this practice would account for about 2% of our traffic sourced from search engines -- consequently, we have a high percentage of "visitors" coming to WikiEducator through search engines.

On average -- users coming to WikiEducator via search engines visit approximately 2.5 pages per visit (compared with an average of 18 pages per visit for users including "WikiEducator" in the search query.)

enough :-(.
 * Are WE doing enough for "visitors"? --  No, I don't think we're doing


 * Can WE do better? -- Yes, WE can always do better :-)

Earlier this year -- I posted a few open questions to our list thinking about whether we need to do any work on redesigning our landing page to improve the visitor experience - see: http://tinyurl.com/ya2y4p9

Perhaps we need to revisit these ideas and think about establishing a workgroup to improve our visitor experience and to make recommendations for improving our landing pages and support for visitors to WE?