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Evaluation of Content Management System
for the iSchool Information Resource
A study submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the degree of
Master of Science in Information Systems
at
THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD
by
Liyuan Zhang
September 2012
2
Abstract
Background. The literature reveals the priorities of Content Management System (CMS) in
organizations. Consider Information School (iSchool) information resources carefully, and discuss
whether CMS is a suitable solution for iSchool information resource management.
Aims. The study aims to evaluate the implementation of a pilot content management system for
the iSchool information resources. This pilot system is focus on iSchool module outlines. More
specifically, to identify a unified content strategy for module outline content management
system, implement system, and complete the evaluation process.
Methods. Data analysis was conducted on 20 postgraduate module outlines through random
selection. System evaluation used direct observation methods including in-depth interview and
questionnaire. There were 7 members of staff participated the evaluation process. 6 of them are
academic staffs while one of them is professional services staff.
Results. Based on module outline analysis, iSchool module outline content management system
was generated and installed on the university server. According to system evaluation process,
most of university lecturers usually teach several modules at the same time. The system get 4.35,
3.9 and 4.1 (1 is the lowest and 5 is the highest) on system navigation, content management and
global layout parts respectively. The main weakness of the system is that versioning extension
cannot be integrated with Joomla default frontend editing. The participants also give some
suggestions on system structure improvement.
Conclusion. The iSchool module outline content management system implemented all the
content design and satisfied most of user requirements. Although this system is only a pilot
content management system, it can offer a platform for module outline generation, updating
and publishing online currently and proves that CMS has a huge potential power for iSchool
information resources management. The system can be improved and extended in the future.
3
Acknowledgement
I would like to express my appreciation to my supervisor, Dr. John Holliday. He
gives me many valuable advices and helps me install the system to the host.
Many thanks to John Bennett, Andrew Cox, Peter Holdridge, Peter Stordy, Robert
Villa, and Alastair Allan, who help me evaluate my system and give me many useful
suggestions.
I am grateful to my parents to support me complete my Master degree.
4
Content
Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 2
Acknowledgement .......................................................................................................................... 3
List of tables .................................................................................................................................... 6
List of figures ................................................................................................................................... 7
Chapter 1 Introduction .................................................................................................................... 8
1.1 Background ........................................................................................................................ 8
1.1.1 Content management system ................................................................................ 8
1.1.2 Information School ................................................................................................. 9
1.2 Aim and objectives .......................................................................................................... 10
1.3 Project scope and constraints ......................................................................................... 10
1.4 Dissertation structure ...................................................................................................... 11
1.5 Technology and software used ........................................................................................ 13
Chapter 2 Literature review .......................................................................................................... 13
2.1 Content management system ......................................................................................... 13
2.1.1 A unified content strategy .................................................................................... 13
2.1.2 The advantages of a unified content strategy ...................................................... 14
2.1.3 Content management in organization .................................................................. 16
2.1.4 Content management system .............................................................................. 17
2.2 Feasibility study of iSchool module outline content management system ..................... 17
2.2.1 Why choose iSchool module outline CMS ............................................................ 17
2.2.2 Current iSchool module outline content strategy ................................................ 18
2.3 Content management system implementation............................................................... 19
2.3.1 General CMS implementation .............................................................................. 19
2.3.2 iSchool module outline CMS implementation...................................................... 20
Chapter 3 Methodology ................................................................................................................ 21
3.1 Combination methodology used in project ..................................................................... 21
3.2 Content design data collection methods ......................................................................... 22
3.3 System evaluation data collection methods .................................................................... 23
Chapter 4 Requirement analysis ................................................................................................... 24
4.1 Module outline content design ....................................................................................... 24
4.1.1 User identification ................................................................................................ 24
4.1.2 Content analysis ................................................................................................... 25
4.2 Technology and tools specification ................................................................................. 28
4.2.1 Current CMS market share ................................................................................... 28
4.2.2 Web development technology ............................................................................. 31
4.2.3 Joomla is the priority choice ................................................................................ 32
Chapter 5 System implementation ................................................................................................ 34
5.1 Content identification match Joomla structure............................................................... 34
5.1.1 User management ................................................................................................ 34
5.1.2 Article management ............................................................................................. 37
5.1.3 Category management ......................................................................................... 38
5.2 Joomla extensions ........................................................................................................... 39
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5.2.1 Multicategories .................................................................................................... 39
5.2.2 Versioning ............................................................................................................. 40
5.2.3 User article manager ............................................................................................ 41
5.3 CMS structure .................................................................................................................. 42
5.3.1 Menu structure..................................................................................................... 42
5.3.2 Module structure ................................................................................................. 42
5.3.3 Privilege summary ................................................................................................ 43
5.4 Template design .............................................................................................................. 44
5.5 System workflow ............................................................................................................. 45
5.6 User instructions ............................................................................................................. 46
5.6.1 System description ............................................................................................... 46
5.6.2 Instructions ........................................................................................................... 48
5.6.3 Administration ...................................................................................................... 55
Chapter 6 System evaluation ......................................................................................................... 64
6.1 Evaluation process ........................................................................................................... 64
6.2 Questionnaire .................................................................................................................. 65
6.3 Data analysis .................................................................................................................... 66
6.4 Priorities and limitations ................................................................................................. 68
6.4.1 System priorities ................................................................................................... 68
6.4.2 System limitations ................................................................................................ 69
6.5 Improvement list ............................................................................................................. 70
Chapter 7 Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 72
7.1 Summary of dissertation ................................................................................................. 72
7.2 Limitations ....................................................................................................................... 73
7.3 The future of the system ................................................................................................. 74
Bibliography .................................................................................................................................. 75
Appendix A: Module outline data statistic .................................................................................... 81
Appendix B: Questionnaire ........................................................................................................... 85
Appendix C: Ethical application form ............................................................................................ 86
Appendix D: Participant information sheet ................................................................................... 92
Appendix E: Participant consent sheet.......................................................................................... 94
Access to Dissertation Form .......................................................................................................... 95
Confirmation of Address Form ...................................................................................................... 97
Employment Details ...................................................................................................................... 98
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List of tables
Table 4.1 user identification
Table 4.2 current module outline data statistic summary
Table 4.3 the survey of CMS market share from water & stone
Table 4.4 the survey of CMS market share from W3Techs and BuildWith
Table 4.5 comparison of Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal
Table 5.1 Joomla default user groups and privilege setting
Table 5.2 user group setting
Table 5.3 system article management
Table 5.4 system menu structure
Table 5.5 system module structure
Table 5.6 system privilege allocation
Table 5.7 privilege list
Table 5.8 article edit icon
Table 5.9 article publish icon
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List of figures
Figure 5.1 module outline title
Figure 5.2 category structure
Figure 5.3 postgraduate module list webpage
Figure 5.4 system workflow
Figure 5.5 module outline components allocation
Figure 5.6 login page
Figure 5.7 edit profile
Figure 5.8 user profile editing interface
Figure 5.9 my article edit menu
Figure 5.10 my article
Figure 5.11 article list
Figure 5.12 article editing interface
Figure 5.13 article edit from frontend
Figure 5.14 backend login
Figure 5.15 user groups
Figure 5.16 add a teaching group
Figure 5.17 user management
Figure 5.18 add a new user
Figure 5.19 category manager
Figure 5.20 add a module
Figure 5.21 article manager
Figure 5.22 batch process for article copy - 1
Figure 5.23 batch process for article copy - 2
Figure 5.24 article setting
Figure 5.25 Multicategories manager
Figure 5.26 Multicategories setting
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Chapter 1 Introduction
1.1 Background
1.1.1 Content management system
There are large numbers of content items related to products, services and processes
in organizations to support their daily work. Organizations usually have their own
content strategy to manage these content items. Organization content connects many
internal and external users together. For internal users, the focus is on content
creation, updating, and publishing and user roles can be content author, editor,
publisher, and administrator. Internal content has a large effect on organization
information communication and transition. For external users, or the customer
segment, organization content is a channel through which customers can feel and
understand the organization. Rockley and Cooper (2012) argued that if the customers
are satisfied with organization content, they may be more interested in organization
products or services as well, and then become repeat customers. Hence, content
management is considered vital for any organizations.
As information technology and modern organization are developing so fast, more and
more content is being created, delivered and managed in organizations. However,
due to some management and technology problems, there is a big burden on some
organizations‟ current content management solutions. To begin with, it is obvious
that information sharing is becoming more and more significant. However, in the real
situation, some factors limit this internal communication in organizations. From the
management aspect, the main factor is “content silo trap”, which means due to the
limitation of organization structure and other pressures from working and
competition, the creation of content in different departments are isolated and
independent (Rockley and Cooper, 2012). As a result, the money paid on content
maintenance is increasing dramatically. Once information inconsistency or conflict
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occurs, the staff must update content twice in different departments. From the
perspective of customer, they may face two different versions of content and do not
know which one to trust. What is worse, an unhappy customer experience may result
in customer dissatisfaction. Moreover, the factors resulting from technical aspects
make it worse. In some organizations, content is stored based on a document system.
More precisely, the author needs to consider both content and publishing platforms
when the content is created, which, to some extent, limits portability and reuse of
organization content. In addition, for content citation, the responsibility of updating
is not clear. Hence, customers always access some out of date information.
A content management system (CMS) is such a tool with what organizations can
manage their content in a meaningful way. With a well defined unified content
strategy, a content management system can show its priority on information sharing,
efficiency increasing, and budget saving in organization.
1.1.2 Information School
The Information School (iSchool) is a department of the University of Sheffield,
founded as the Postgraduate School of Librarianship in 1963. During fifty years, the
iSchool gains huge achievement on both teaching and researching fields and ranked
the top information department six times (in the year 1986, 1989, 1992, 1996, 2001
and 2008) in the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE).
Nowadays, the Information School offers three undergraduate programmes, eight
postgraduate courses as well as some PhD/MPhil degrees, and provides 63 modules
to undergraduate and postgraduate students in the academic year 2011-2012
according to the department official website (http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/is).
As an educational organization, the Information School has large amounts of learning
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materials to support its daily teaching. Currently, these learning resources are stored
based on a standard shared windows file system (DIS). However, due to the
restrictions on file system, information updating, reusing and delivery are limited. A
content management system can be a useful tool for iSchool information resources
management.
1.2 Aim and objectives
This dissertation aims to evaluate the implementation of a pilot content management
system for the iSchool information resource. This pilot system is focused on the
iSchool module outlines. More specifically, to identify a unified content strategy for
module outlines content management system, implement this system, and complete
the evaluation process. The research objectives are:
To identify the negatives of current content strategy
To identify the advantages of CMS
To identify a suitable information resource which is the suitable content for
the pilot system
To identify the current problems related to this information resource
To create a unified content strategy for the module outline CMS in the iSchool
To analyze different CMSs and decide one for system development
To complete a feasible implementation plan and evaluation plan
To implement a pilot system – module outline content management system
To evaluate the pilot system
To analyze the evaluation results and give the future suggestions.
1.3 Project scope and constraints
This dissertation is focused on implementing a pilot content management system for
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iSchool module outlines. Hence, content design, system development and evaluation
processes are the main parts of this dissertation.
Time limitation is the key constraints since the author just has three months for this
project. In addition, the author‟s technical background may not be enough for
completing a perfect system, since the concept of content management systems is
totally new to the author.
Discuss the limitations in detail. For the data design stage, data analysis cannot cover
all the module outlines, the only thing which the author can do is try to consider and
predict as many situations as she can and complete a well structured content design.
For the system development stage, this project finally decided to use Joomla as the
CMS frame. The author needed time to learn content management theory, Joomla
structure as well as several coding languages related to the project: HTML, CSS and
PHP. It is not a small challenge to understand these technical issues. In the system
evaluation stage, the author plans to involve up to ten members of academic staff in
the iSchool to try the system and give feedback. However, there will be no time for
the author to deal with the system weaknesses which may appear from the feedback
result. Hence, a system improvement suggestion list will be generated at the end of
dissertation.
1.4 Dissertation structure
This dissertation is divided into seven chapters.
Chapter 1 is introduction. Shows the dissertation background including reasons for
using content management system, and gives a brief description of the Information
School, dissertation aim and objectives, project scope and constraints, dissertation
structure as well as technical aspects of the project.
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Chapter 2 is literature review. This chapter describes the theoretical aspects of the
dissertation. It gives a detailed explanation of content management system at the
beginning. This is followed by feasibility analysis on whether a content management
system is suitable for module outline content management. Finally, content
management system implementation steps are illustrated in both a general way and
specific to this project.
Chapter 3 is methodology. This chapter introduces the methodology used in the data
analysis part and system evaluation part. And it gives dissertation results a strong
theoretical supports.
Chapter 4 is requirement analysis. More specifically, this chapter includes content
design and tools specification parts. Both of them are the foundation of the future
system implementation.
Chapter 5 is system implementation. This chapter gives a deeper view of the whole
iSchool module outline content management system. Every section of this chapter
shows different branches of a CMS system from requirement to implementation.
Chapter 6 is system evaluation. This chapter includes evaluation process introduction,
questionnaire data statistics as well as the final evaluation results. A future system
improvement plan is generated.
Chapter 7 is conclusion. A summary of the whole dissertation is addressed here.
Dissertation aim and objectives are reviewed and limitations are pointed out. Then,
follow with an analysis on the future of the system.
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1.5 Technology and software used
Joomla 2.5.6 is used in this project as the content management system frame. The
technical requirements are PHP 5.3 +, MySQL 5.0.4 +, Apache (with mod_mysql,
mod_xml and mod_zlib) 2.x + and Microsoft IIS 7.
For this project, the author firstly installed Joomla 2.5.6 and XAMPP 1.7.7 in her
laptop for system development. And then the supervisor moved the system to his
server for evaluation.
Chapter 2 Literature review
2.1 Content management system
2.1.1 A unified content strategy
The term “content strategy” appeared in the late 1990s and Halvorson (2009) gave it
an accurate definition. He pointed out that content strategy is a plan for content, and
it covers the lifecycle of organization contents including content creation, delivery
and management. The target of a unified content strategy is to priorities organization
content management and to achieve organization objectives.
As noted in Chapter 1, a traditional content strategy is not suitable for current
competition environment. At present, there are two main limitations in organization
content strategy: multiple platform delivery problem and difficult to reuse content
(Boiko, 2004). With the Internet spreading over the world, many organizations prefer
moving their content to websites from paper based format. That is why multiple
platform delivery problems appeared. During the content creation process, authors
may want to read and reuse some earlier created materials. However, in a general
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document based file system, it is hard to search for the exact content. This is because
all the previous files are stored based on documents which is like “a black box” and
only use file name and title as the metadata for searching.
A unified content strategy can be used to deal with these problems. Firstly, content
cannot only be transferred onto website page. It should be suitable for many other
delivery platforms such as e-book, smart phone which may be used in future. A
unified content strategy separates the content storage from publishing format and
regards content as an asset in its own right (Rockley and Cooper, 2012). Secondly, as
we all know that documents cannot be effectively reused. However, content chunks
make reuse possible. Thus, it is necessary to break the document into many small
components and give each component a tag for searching in order to satisfy reusing
work. This is another main idea of a unified content strategy.
2.1.2 The advantages of a unified content strategy
In order to enhance competitive capacity and prioritize service quality, many
organizations are trying to integrate a unified content strategy with their organization
content management currently.
A unified content strategy makes multiple platform delivery possible. To date, people
can get information through various channels: products brochures, advertisement, the
Internet, and mobile phone, which means organization content should be suitable for
many related delivery platforms: PDF, different web browser, eReader, and mobile
devices. Organizations are looking for a new solution to satisfy multiple deliveries,
even agree to change the whole workflow to support it according to the research
eBooks Survey #3: Uncovering eBooks’ Real Impact, 2009-2011 on Aptara website.
For example, in a book publisher organization, the traditional process is to create
content in word format, then transplant to PDF version, finally go to print. While in
15
the XML early process, which is one kind of unified content strategy, content is from
word format to XML first and then re-assembled to PDF, e-book, and many other
formats (Rockley and Cooper, 2012). Aptara‟s survey also shows the significant of
multiple deliveries: 85 percent of publishers need to publish both print version and
e-book, 30 percent of them regard format and devices compatibility as the key issue
and need to be improved. In addition, some e-book publishers have been trying a
new content strategy to face this challenge.
A unified content strategy makes reuse much easier. Take digital products as an
example. There are many documents related to a digital camera: product instruction,
sale advertisement, troubleshooting guide, after buying services and so on. Generally,
these documents are created by different departments for different usages in the
organization. However, some information sharing can also be found among them,
such as product introduction and key parameters about voltage and standby time.
Thus, there is a potential risk on content accuracy and consistency. A unified content
strategy manages organization content as numbers of small chunks, and enables only
one author to create content chunks and gives others access permission or sharing.
In addition, a benefit from multiple platforms delivery and reuse is that time and
money spent on organization content management are dramatically decreased.
Moreover, as people can access more and more electronic information, they pay
more attention to the quality of website content rather than quantity. Rockley and
Cooper (2012) pointed out that 30 percent of content management projects failed
because of poor content quality rather than website itself. Since a widely range of
reuse is permitted and more time and money is saved from doing repeated work, a
unified content strategy enables authors to focus on the value of the content.
Therefore, there will be a huge improvement on the content quality, and more
customers‟ specific content can be created to satisfy business needs.
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2.1.3 Content management in organization
A well structured content strategy needs to be implemented in a well designed
content management system. Just as Addey and Suh (2002) said that a strong content
management system can be the original system for further publishing and reusing
process. Organization content management system is a “people-centric” activity.
There are three main sections in organization content management: asset
management, transformation and publishing (Addey and Suh, 2002).
Asset management is the foundation of content management. Asset includes both
content and workflow. The organization need to know clearly what content they have:
internal and external content, online and offline content, temporary and permanent
content, and what workflow they need, which covers the whole lifecycle of content.
Next, they need to consider content change: how to deal with static content or
dynamic content, old content or totally new content. Finally, the organization should
know how to achieve the content management target. Here content design is needed
including metadata design, reusing section identification and restringing data control
(Addey and Suh, 2002).
Transformation mainly focuses on content containers and the key work is template
design. Template gives the first impression of the content to customers and it has
many different styles including but not limited on e-commerce or e-business sites,
information sites and community sites (Addey and Suh, 2002). In a content
management system, content and presentation firstly get together in the template.
Technologies such as HTML, CSS, XML, PHP, ASP etc. can be used for template
design.
Publishing a content management system covers many aspects. Commonly, it
including publish application, authentication even interaction with other systems.
Addey and Suh (2002) points out some challenges during the publishing process:
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crossing-browser problems, format changing issue, multiple language specification
and search engine priority setting. In addition, system monitor and Search Engine
Optimization (SEO) issues should also be considered carefully.
2.1.4 Content management system
A content management system is a product which includes an information repository,
templates as well as a content management interface according to Addey and Suh
(2002). A successful content management system has five principles: try to predict
content increasing, try to predict changes, standard transactions, do not shortcut
process and separate content and presentation.
A content management system is a better choice for organizations currently. However,
changing to a new system still needs time, money and courage. Even though content
management has already developed for almost thirty years, some organizations still
know less about it and cannot accurately evaluate its value (Addey and Suh, 2002).
In addition, to be the truth, there is a burden on CMS market at present, and
organization may feel it is difficult to make a decision.
2.2 Feasibility study of iSchool module outline content
management system
2.2.1 Why choose iSchool module outline CMS
Content management systems play a significant role in various areas such as industry,
government and education etc... The Information school (iSchool), as a department
of the University of Sheffield, has a wide range of learning materials to support daily
work via different channels. PowerPoint slides, tutorial or reference documents and
18
videos are frequently used in teaching. This dissertation focuses on developing a
pilot CMS system for the iSchool learning materials.
Comparing all the learning materials in the iSchool, and balancing the time limitation
and work quantity, module outline is a priority choice to be a pilot CMS. Firstly,
Module outline is rich structured. The idea of content management system aims to
manage content as small components. Module outlines consist of several content
items and are structured in a meaningful sequence, which is more suitable for CMS
rather than other materials such as PowerPoint Slides. Secondly, there is no security,
copyright or sensitive issues. Module outlines are public, shared information to all
the university members, which describe modules in a high level. No personal data
needs to be collected during the development process. Thirdly, the quantity of
module outlines is medium. Due to the time limitation, module outlines are good
choice which the project can cover nearly all the different versions and enables an
accurate evaluation for further development.
2.2.2 Current iSchool module outline content strategy
Currently, module outlines are published through MOLE as PDF format. They are
the standard documents to show the whole view of modules. A module outline
usually consists of several flexible module description items such as aims,
assessment, timetable etc. and is presented in an already identified template.
However, some problems exist since module outlines are written by so many module
coordinators and lecturers. Here are list three main negatives in current module
outline content strategy.
Firstly, the template updating cannot be controlled. For example, for the same section,
different module outlines may have different subtitles: timetable, syllabus, or
syllabus content. The Information school changed its name in recent years, however,
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the previous name „Information Studies‟ can also be found on some module outlines
currently.
Secondly, the format of flexible content items cannot be controlled. For instance, in
„Syllabus‟ part, some lecturers prefer using a table while the others show content as a
list. Even in the first part of module outline which usually uses a table to show the
basic information of the module, some inconsistencies still exist such as the row for
timetabling and online resource.
Lastly, it is difficult for content reuse. Module outlines have a high value of reuse. It
is common that a module is provided for many years. Hence, lecturers prefer
updating the module outline for the last year rather than create a totally new one.
Comparing two module outlines of the same module in different academic year, it is
easy to find some evidences of reuse. Obviously, the current module outline solution
cannot support this situation.
These three aspects are the key limitations caused by a document file based system.
In addition, module outline, as an important document to describe modules in high
level, may not only publish on MOLE as PDF, but also on many other platforms such
as mobile devices as other format. Consider the multiple platform delivery in the
future, a unified content strategy needs to be developed and a content management
system may be a solution for iSchool module outline system.
2.3 Content management system implementation
2.3.1 General CMS implementation
Implement action of a content management system is a practical work and may
follow different steps in different projects. However, for the development processes,
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the CMS experts give some common issues. Rockley and Cooper (2012) pointed out
that the whole content management system should begin with a small pilot
subsystem for evaluation and then expend to large scale system. Hackos (2002)
believes that the project manager needs to think big and work small in order to leave
the space for future improvement. Following these two points, a feasibility plan for
this project is to develop a pilot CMS for the iSchool module outline and complete
the evaluation work in the next three months.
Hackos (2002) divides CMS development into five phases in one of her books. The
process begins with the requirement assessment phase. In this stage, the project team
needs to evaluate customer experience of the current system and identifies customer
segments. Then try to mark all the current and potential content resources. Next,
focus on the content process, identify steps in content lifecycle such as how to create,
edit, manage, publish and even remove the content. A survey will be carried out on
the other organizations which own the similar content management system. The next
phase is to build an information model. In this stage, information dimension, data
type and content units are clearly defined. The team needs to consider both user
requirements and technical aspects together. At the end of this stage, a technical
solution for the project will come with the well defined information model. The third
phase is creating content plan. This stage is mainly for the content reorganization
strategy and publishing issue. The most difficult job is to find a component to
re-assemble method together with style automatically added. Then move to develop
pilot project phase. In this project, a module outline system will be developed within
two months. Rolling out is the last phase to implement the system and plan for the
large scale CMS.
2.3.2 iSchool module outline CMS implementation
Following Hackos‟s content management system development stages, consider the
21
iSchool module outline CMS project more specifically.
Firstly, identify system operators and customer segments for system roles allocation
and privilege assignment. Then, based on content analysis, divide the module outline
into several meaningful components. Next, complete the workflow layout which
covers the whole lifecycle of module outline. Secondly, match the content analysis to
a CMS tool. This stage needs to consider some technical issues. The structure of
CMS tool need to be understood clearly and in order to implement the whole system
successfully, some content design needs judgment and redesign, or even drop out.
Thirdly, move to template design which is related to content presentation. A
successful design should have a high quality on accessibility, satiability, reliability
portability, and scalability. Fourthly, implement the module outline system according
to the design and complete the evaluation process. Finally, roll out the system and
give the future advice based on the evaluation results.
Chapter 3 Methodology
3.1 Combination methodology used in project
This project uses many data collection and data analysis methodologies. For data
analysis, it is closely connected to content management system theory and will be
discussed in section 4.1 (module outline content design) and chapter 6 (system
evaluation). This chapter will focus on data collection methodologies used in this
project.
Qualitative research data collection methodologies are used in this project. According
to Marshall (2006), these methods can be commonly divided into four categories:
participating directly, observation directly, interviewing, and document and material
analysis. Under these four categories, there are many much detailed primary and
22
secondary methods relate to a specific case.
Just as Marshall (2006) pointed out that a project usually needs multiple research
methods to support the study, this project combines several data collection
methodologies during the two main data collection stages: content design and system
evaluation.
3.2 Content design data collection methods
Observation is the foundation of research data collection methodologies (Marshall,
2006).In order to understand the project context and background, the author searched
the university official website to gain information on the iSchool history, course
introduction, module description, people and regulations. This type of information is
useful to content and website based content management design.
Interviewing is “a conversation with a purpose” (Kahn and Cannell, 1957: p.149).
In-depth interviewing was conducted with the supervisor to discuss the lifecycle of
module outlines and the specific workflow of administrator and lecturers. This step
was used for content management system user group assignment and workflow
design.
Document analysis is the main method for content design since the system is used for
content management. All the module outlines were collected by the supervisor. In
this project, the author selects 20 of them randomly for data statistic and analysis.
Data statistic is mainly focused on three aspects: component structure, content type
and component title. The first two are used for content design and system editor
choice, while the last one estimates the consistency of current content strategy. For
the data analysis, please refer to section 4.1.2 content analysis.
23
3.3 System evaluation data collection methods
Direct observation methods are used in the system evaluation stage, including
interview and questionnaire.
Interview has three types according to Patton (2002): informal interview, interview
with a guide, and open-ended interview. It is obvious that user involvement is vital
for system evaluation. Hence, it is necessary to conduct an interview with users to
discuss the system directly. Since a questionnaire is also used in this stage, the
interview should belong to open-ended ones. In this way, the author can gain more
system feedback and field information in a widely perspectives. During the interview,
effective communication is really important. Hence, the author needs to prepare
some system related documents to look up (please refer to section 6.1).
A questionnaire is a common methodology for system evaluation and it is used to test
usefulness and reliability. An excellent questionnaire should be simple, clear and well
organized (Marshall, 2006). A questionnaire usually includes different types of
questions and can be “open questions” or “closed questions”. According to
Questionnaire design published by Loughborough University, the order of questions
should be from the general to the detailed, from closed to opened. Questionnaire
design is introduced in section 6.2.
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Chapter 4 Requirement analysis
4.1 Module outline content design
4.1.1 User identification
The Information School provides a numbers of modules for both undergraduate and
postgraduate students. Every module is taught by a teaching group which involves
one module coordinator and several other lecturers. A teaching group is responsible
for module outline generation, updating and publishing. Hence, the iSchool module
outline system should involve four types of users as follows:
Administrator: when the iSchool decides to provide a new module, the administrator
is the person who actually operates this process. The main work is to create module
outline components and assign them to the related lecturers according to the module
information. This system offers a platform for the administrators to manage all the
module outlines offered by the iSchool. In addition, the administrator also does some
maintenance work in some cases, including system updating and template changing.
A lecturer can teach several modules and their roles can be module coordinator or
other lecturer. The module coordinator is the head of a teaching group. The main
responsibility is to generate, update and publish the module outline. Other lecturers
belong to the teaching group and own the permission to access the related module
outline to make some changes. This system enables lecturers to manage their module
outlines online.
Student: can be regard as public access person. Student can use this system to search
for module outline information.
Here is a summary of user identification as well as hopefully privilege assignment in
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the target open source content management system (Table 4.1):
Table 4.1 user identification
User type Descriptions Privilege
Administrator Add a new module Create
Maintenance work All privilege
Module coordinator Update a module Update
Publish a module Publish
Other lecturers Update a module Update
Publish a module Publish
Student Search for module None
4.1.2 Content analysis
The iSchool provides 47 postgraduate modules and 16 undergraduate modules in the
academic year 2011-2012 according to the university official website. There are 20
module outlines collected before analysis process began. The following table (Table
4.2) is a summary of data statistic, for more specific information please refer to
Appendix A: Module outline data statistic.
Table 4.2 current module outline data statistic summary
Component name Percentage Content type
Module overview 100% Table 100%
Module aims 100% Text 100%
Learning objectives 95% Text 100%
Learning methods 95% Text 100%
Assessments 100% Text 40% , Table + Text 60%
Syllabus 100% Text 25%, Table 75%
Reading list 90% Text 100%
Other components 50% Text 100%
26
It is clearly that most of module outlines include seven parts: module overview,
module aims, learning objectives, learning methods, assessment, syllabus, and
reading list. Half of them including other information such as coursework details,
module description. In addition, department regulations on coursework submission
are the same among all the modules and appear in “Assessment” part. Considering
the CMS principles, this is separated into a new part called “Regulations” to keep
content consistency.
For content type, nearly all the content is organized in table and text (including
ordered and unordered list). Hence, an edit tool which includes table generation is
vital for this system.
During the data analysis, many evidences can be found that for the same part,
different module outlines use different subtitles. In the target system, these titles are
controlled by administrators and all the module outlines should have the same
subtitles.
To sum up, a normal module outline should include ten components, and the order is
the same as it is shown on real module outline:
Module outline title: should be shown on the top of module outline and the module
outlines in iSchool should have the same title. The structure is: [university name]
[department name] [document name] [academic year]. For example, the module
outline title for this year should be “The University of Sheffield. The Information
School Module Outline 2011-2012”.
Module overview: this component gives a brief overview of a module. It uses a table
to list some module basic information including module title, module code, online
teaching resources, pre-requisites, status, credits, semester, timetabling, module
coordinator, other lecturers and version date.
27
Module aim: it shows the aims of a module just as component title said. The content
type is text and usually consists of one or more paragraphs.
Learning objectives: this part lists the learning objectives of a module. Lecturers
usually prefer using lists to show this part.
Learning methods: to specific how to run a module may include the teaching
methods and learning channels. The content type of this part is text.
Assessment: gives assessment methods of a module. It usually includes assessment
description, submit date, submit method, word count, feedback available date and so
on. This component may also involve more detailed assessment information and
marking scheme. Content type includes text, table and list.
Regulations: this part is related to department policy, and gives the link to
submission penalty, and word account calculation policy. This part is the same
among all modules.
Syllabus: is timetable of a module. Students can gain lecture information through this
part. It is usually shown in one table, while some lecturers may also used list for this
part.
Reading list: shows the reading materials of the module. The content type is text.
Additional information: since the system may not cover all components needed by
lecturers, this component is free for lecturers to edit. In addition, the structure of
module outline may change in the future; including this part leaves the space for
further improvement.
28
4.2 Technology and tools specification
4.2.1 Current CMS market share
Open source is a widely used approach for content management system development.
There are numbers of open source CMSs all over the world currently. According to
2010 Open Source CMS Market Share Report and 2011 Open Source CMS Market Share Report
from water & stone, a digital organization, the big three CMS are Wordpress, Joomla
and Drupal.
Table 4.3 the survey of CMS market share from water & stone
CMS download survey from “water and stone”
Average weekly
download in 2010
Average weekly
download in 2011
Wordpress 983625 644880
Joomla 113836 86547
Drupal 33671 22836
Concrete5 - 3017
CMS installation survey from “water & stone”
Installation in 2010 Installation in 2011
Wordpress 25.3% 34.2%
Joomla 32.4% 18.5%
Drupal 14.3% 19.8%
Concrete5 1.5% 19.3%
Table 4.3 summarize CMS surveys from “water & stone” including around 20 open
source CMS, and more than 4000 persons participate in this survey. For download
data, the average download figures of Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal per week in
2010 are 983625, 113836, and 33671 respectively. In 2011, even though all of these
figures showed a decreasing trend to some extent, the big three still firmly kept their
29
ranking. For installation survey, the number of Wordpress increased from 25.3% to
34.2% and Drupal also increased by 5.5%. However, the number of Joomla
installation decreased from 32.4% to 18.5%, even less than Concreate5 (19.3%). The
use of Concrete5 grows dramatically on both download rate and installation
percentage. The weekly download number of Concrete5 is 3017 in 2011 while it is
not appeared in top 20 in 2010.
Table 4.4 the survey of CMS market share from W3Techs and BuildWith
W3Techs BuiltWith
Sample source The Alexa One Million The Quantcast One Million
Wordpress 53.6% 42.7%
Joomla 9.6% 16.7%
Drupal 6.4% 3.1%
W3Techs and BuildWith are two digital organizations. Both of them conduct several
surveys of CMS technology market sharing among one million websites. The sample
of W3Techs is Alexa‟s one million websites. According to Usage Statistics and
Market Share of Content Management Systems for Websites survey from W3Techs,
Wordpress stands at the top rate (53.6%), followed by Joomla and Drupal (9.6% and
6.4%, respectively). A similar survey CMS Technology Web Usage Statistics from
BuiltWith is based on the Quantcast one million websites. Though the figures are a
little different, the top three are the same as W3Techs‟ survey (Table 4.4).
Additional information can also support the big three‟s wide use. The report open
sources CMS market share report 2011 generated by water & stone shows Wordpress,
Joomla and Drupal get the highest score for google search engine support. Even the
numbers of books in print which are used to explain the big three CMS technologies
are also ranked top three (Wordpress owns 161, Joomla owns 88 and Drupal owns 71)
from Amazon.com book list analysis.
30
It can be seen obviously from these figures that the CMS market is changing every
minute and Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal account for a large CMS market share
currently. Here is a comparison of these three CMS (Table 4.5):
Table 4.5 comparison of Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal
Wordpress Joomla Drupal
Platform PHP PHP PHP
Database MySQL MySQL MySQL
Description Wordpress is really easy for
learning and using. And it can
generate a website quickly
since its Structure is simple.
Many features can be used to
enhance the website functions.
In addition, it has a good
compatibility with Microsoft
word document.
Good website design
ability is needed for
Joomla website
development. Developers
can use Joomla
extensions to expend
project functions.
Drupal is a well structured
CMS and requires
experienced person to
develop. The developer
need to know both technical
knowledge and Drupal
structure.
Popular
website
http://blog.us.playstation.com/
http://business.blogs.cnn.com/
http://newsroom.mtv.com/
http://www.monacoyacht
show.com/index.php?/en/
http://www.gsas.harvard.
edu/
https://nookdeveloper.bar
nesandnoble.com/
http://www.emmys.com/
http://www.whitehouse.gov
/
http://www.universalmusic.
com/
Homepage www.wordpress.org www.joomla.org www.drupal.org
For more detailed comparison CMSs among different aspects, please refer to:
http://www.cmsmatrix.org/matrix/cms-matrix and
http://socialcompare.com/en/comparison/popular-content-management-system-cms-c
omparison-table
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4.2.2 Web development technology
Wordpress, Joomla and Drupal use a PHP platform and MySQL database. The big
three are open source CMS. Hence, PHP and MySQL become the priority choices. It
is no doubt that PHP and MySQL have perfect quality and wide use over the world.
PHP (Hypertext Preprocessor) is a popular scripting language for dynamic website
development. Rasmus Lerdorf initially generated PHP in 1994 and many talented
persons improved it later (Welling and Thomson, 2008). PHP can be embedded in
HTML pages and executed when the web page is accessed. PHP is open source
technology under PHP licence, which enables the public to access, use, modify and
publish the source code for free. This licence has a little difference with GNU
General Public License (GPL) only on the usage of the name “PHP” limitation. Until
now, PHP has been released in 5 versions, and the latest version is 5.4.5 published on
19th
July, 2012.
PHP has many advantages compared with its competitors such as Perl, Microsoft
ASP.NET and JSP (JavaServer Pages). To begin with, PHP is free for using and can
be downloaded conveniently through the Internet. Then, the speed of PHP is much
faster than other languages according to the assessment from Zend Technologies.
Next, it is easy to learn PHP since its grammar is based on C and Perl, and PHP also
shows strong support for object oriented programming especially in the latest version.
Moreover, PHP offers internal interfaces for many databases such as MySQL, Oracle,
FilePro and so on. In addition, PHP has a good portability and suitable for different
operate systems including Windows, UNIX etc. (Welling and Thomson, 2008).
MySQL is one type of relational database management system (RDBMS) which is
famous for its speed and stability. It was published in 1996 and was become the most
popular open source database over the world currently. Many web products such as
YouTube, Flickr are based on MySQL.
32
The main competitors of MySQL are Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle and Postgre SQL.
It is no doubt that MySQL is the fastest one. Early in 2002, a report from eWeek
about an assessment among five databases showed that MySQL and Oracle own the
highest level quality. However, compared with Oracle, MySQL is much cheaper and
less complex (Welling and Thomson, 2008). MySQL is released under GNU General
Public License (GPL) or proprietary EULA which means the users can use it for free
or only pay a little money in some special cases. MySQL can be used under both
UNIX and Windows. The latest version is 5.5.27.
4.2.3 Joomla is the priority choice
Before developing a module outline content management system, suitable open
source CMS solution needed to be identified. Based on the previous analysis, it
should be one of the big three: Wordpress, Joomla, and Drupal.
To start with, Drupal is the most complex one. Developers need to spend much time
on understanding Drupal‟s structure and redesign project workflow to match it, and it
is not easy to change some processes or add developer‟s ideas in Drupal unless the
developer is really experienced. Then, Wordpress is the most famous one among
nearly all the research reports. The most important reason is the structure of
Wordpress is really simple and easy to learn, and can generate a website quickly
based on a clear idea and numbers of existing templates and plug-ins. However, the
default structure of Wordpress is too simple. For the module outline content
management system, which needs a more complex workflow and user management,
developers sometimes cannot find an exactly plug-in for a step in workflow and have
to write it themselves. Hence, three months are not enough.
Finally, Joomla is the choice since it can balance easy to learn and well structured.
Another reason is its version changing in the beginning of this year which makes
33
Joomla much strong, useful and suitable for this project. To be the truth, using
Joomla also has both positive and negative aspects. However, the negative ones can
be controlled and accepted. This section is focus on the advantages of Joomla. How
to control and change Joomla to meet the needs of iSchool module outline content
management system will be shown on next chapter.
The first version of Joomla is 1.0 which was released in 2005 as a branch of Mambo,
then during the next six years, version 1.5, 1.6, 1.7 were published with new
functions. In January of this year, Joomla 2.5 was released with Long Term Support
(LTS). This version changing is vital to make Joomla become the best choice of
module outline content management system.
To begin with, the category structure of Joomla is totally changed. In another LTS
version Joomla 1.5, menu only has three levels which were called section, category
and article. That is to say, if a website has more than three levels of menu, the menus
must be regrouped when using Joomla. This rule, to some extent, limits the structure
and scale of a website. In Joomla 2.5, “section” no longer exists, developers can add
as many as levels they want in category, since category enables unlimited nesting.
Then, user management is more flexible. In Joomla 1.5, there are five types of
front-end roles and three types of backend roles. Every role has its strict privilege
and every user should be allocated to one of these roles. Since different organizations
have different user group definition, using Joomla 1.5 may force some changes on
organization user identification. Joomla 2.5 uses the same default user group setting
as version 1.5. However, the privilege asset is depended on developers. In addition,
developer can add new user groups with different privileges to match organization‟s
needs.
Then, batch processing makes process more efficiently. It is obviously that a content
management system always includes amount of content chunks and most of them
34
have the same structure and workflow. In Joomla 2.5, article copy and move process
can be done by batch processing and save much time on repeating the same work. In
addition, batch processing is also used on access level allocation.
Moreover, there are many other changes on Joomla 2.5 such as smart search is added,
the consistency of user interface is improved, and template design becomes more
changeable. All these changes show that user‟s requirements on open source content
management system are in a much higher level and Joomla is becoming more and
more perfect and useful.
Chapter 5 System implementation
5.1 Content identification match Joomla structure
5.1.1 User management
Joomla user manager includes two parts: user and user group. Every user belongs to
one or more user groups. User privilege setting is based on user groups. Developers
can add their own user groups by themselves. The most important point needed to be
considered is that user groups must be nested with Joomla default group setting.
Joomla has eight user groups by default: five of them are front-end roles while the
other three have backend privilege (Table 5.1):
Table 5.1 Joomla default user groups and privilege setting
Role Privilege
Front-end
Public None
Registered Login
Edit own profile
See the content which is special for registers
35
Author Own all the privileges of registered
Create article
Modify own articles
Editor Own all the privileges of author
Modify all articles
Publisher Own all the privileges of editor
Publish articles
Backend
Manager Add new article
Article manager
Category manager
Media manager
Edit profile
See system information
Administrator Add new article
Article manager
Category manager
Media manager
Menu manager
User manager
Module manager
Language manager
Template manager
Edit profile
Super user All
The iSchool module outline content management system is a small scale system.
Hence, system management and maintenance work can be done by one or two
persons. And the role setting for backend is also simple. It is obvious that the role
36
“super user” is a good choice for all the administrator work.
Then, discuss lecturers‟ role setting. According to user identification in chapter 4,
every module is taught by a teaching group including several lecturers in iSchool. To
implement it in Joomla: a real teaching group can match a new defined user group in
Joomla and the lecturers are related to users in the system. In addition, all the
members in a teaching group have the same privileges just like user privilege
allocation based on user groups in Joomla. The new defined user group can follow
the name: [module code] [module name], for example “INF6017 Content
Management Systems”.
Next, the level of the new defined user group needs to be decided. Since the lecturers‟
privileges are: edit their own articles and publish their own articles. Hence, the user
group should be the sub group of “Author” with additional group privilege: publish
their own articles.
The following table (Table 5.2) shows all the relations discussed above:
Table 5.2 user group setting
Real user type Group in system Privilege
Administrator Super user Create article
All privilege
Module coordinator [module code] [module name] Update article
Publish article
Other lecturers [module code] [module name] Update article
Publish article
Student Public None
37
5.1.2 Article management
According to chapter 4, module outline includes ten components. Module outline
title is the same among all the modules and it is changed every year since it shows
the academic year information as follows (Figure 5.1):
Figure 5.1 module outline title
Hence, use one article to store module outline title information and every module
shares this article at the top of module outline. In this way, the administrator only
needs to change the academic year once and all the module outline title are updated.
Regulation component act as the same role with module outline title, the solution is
also the same. In addition, if a module has some additional requirements on
coursework submission, lecturers can write them down in the assessment part. The
other eight components are free for editing and publishing by lecturers in the related
teaching group.
In Joomla, every module outline component is corresponding to an article. Ten
articles which show all the information needed by a module outline belong to a
category called [module code] [module name]. Since one article can only be assigned
to one author in Joomla, the author of module outline components should be the
module coordinator in the teaching group. Other lecturers own the permission of
updating and publishing. The following table (Table 5.3) is a summary of article
management:
The University of Sheffield
The Information School
Module Outline 2011-2012
38
Table 5.3 system article management
Component Author Privilege owner
Module outline title Administrator Administrator
Module overview Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
Module aims Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
Learning objectives Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
Learning methods Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
Assessment Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
Regulations Administrator Administrator
Syllabus Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
References Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
Additional information Module coordinator Members in the teaching group
5.1.3 Category management
In the previous section, it is said that ten related articles belong to one category:
[module code] [module name]. And this is the lowest level of category including all
content which a module outline needs. Since the iSchool provides both postgraduate
and undergraduate modules, all the modules are divided into two categories:
postgraduate module and undergraduate module.
From another view, every module can belong to one or more programmes, a
programme should belong to either postgraduate programme or undergraduate
programme. Thus the related categories are also created.
In addition, some articles are difficult to assigned to a specific category, just put them
in to “Uncategorised”. For example, in order to create module outline component
much easier, the administrator may write some sample articles first, them copy then
to the target module category. And in this way, work efficiency is dramatically
39
increasing.
The following chart shows the category structure of iSchool module outline content
management system (the structure for postgraduate and undergraduate are the same):
Figure 5.2 category structure
5.2 Joomla extensions
5.2.1 Multicategories
In order to keep content consistency, all the modules supported by the iSchool share
module outline title component and regulations component. However, in Joomla, the
article can only be assigned to only one category. That is to say, content sharing
between different modules cannot be implemented only using Joomla default
functions.
40
Multicategories is an extension developed by Mike Milkman (http://milkdev.com/),
which allows developers to assign one article to many categories in Joomla. That is
to say, it gives a view of this article to many other categories. In iSchool module
outline content management system, the two shared articles “module outline title”
and “regulations” belong to “postgraduate sample component” category and are
assigned to all the modules by Multicategories.
This extension is well compatible with Joomla core and gets a high rating among all
the related extensions. The only problem is that if name and level changing happens
on the original articles and categories, the related mutilcategories setting will
automatically clear and needs to be assigned again. In addition, if the name of article
is too long, the interface of multicategories looks a little odd. However, it is not
caused by the extension but by Joomla itself and does not affect on any functions.
5.2.2 Versioning
Revision is a default function in Wordpress. Though Joomla does not include this
component, there are many Joomla extensions which support it currently. Revision is
such an important function mainly because the lifecycle of content. During the
update stage, the content is changed many times. A well designed content
management system can keep all these version changes for tracking, backup and
loading.
As analyzed in previous chapter, module outline reuse is a frequent operation. In
some cases, module outline has many versions delivered in different time scale and
segments. For example, a module outline may have two versions if it opens in both
spring and autumn semester. In addition, the module related to dissertation writing
may open to both postgraduate and PhD students. Hence, revision function is
necessary in iSchool module outline content management system.
41
Simple content versioning is a top ranking revision extensions developed by Michael
Fatica (http://www.fatica.net/products/simple-content-versioning.html). It enables the
system to record all the article versions. Users can view, reload versions of an article
by clicking the button below the text area in editing page, they can also compare
them by selecting two versions. The limitation of this extension is that article version
saving function can only be used in the backend. However, if it combines with the
user article manager extension (see 5.2.3), version saving can be successfully
implemented in website front-end. Article version management is located in the
components menu, and administrator is responsible for it.
5.2.3 User article manager
iSchool module outline content management system expectably has up to one
hundred registered users. One or two of them are responsible for administration and
maintenance work while the others are normal user and own the permission of
updating and publishing module outline components. All of them should have an
individual page where they can edit personal information and edit articles.
Joomla can implement this function with the help of “user article manager” extension,
which is developed by Rob Sykes (http://joomlacode.org/gf/project/fual2/). This
extension works well on previous Joomla versions as well as the latest one Joomla
2.5.6. After installing and configuring, the extension can be linked with a Login
Form, and shows the articles owned by the related author or all the articles in the
system in front-end. It is convenient for users to search for and edit the target module
outline components. In addition, users can save a version of article in front-end
through this interface.
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5.3 CMS structure
5.3.1 Menu structure
iSchool module outline content management system has four menus. “Top” menu is
the main menu, and the menu items in top menu show all the branches in the system.
“PGT module list” and “UGT module list” menu are two menus with similar
structure, and show all the module outlines in a meaningful way to both public and
registered users. “usermenu” is only available for registered users who are
responsible for module outline editing and publishing. Table 5.4 shows menus, menu
items and links in the system:
Table 5.4 system menu structure
Menu Menu item Menu item type Link
Top Home Single article Homepage
Undergraduate Menu item Alias A~Z List (GUT)
Postgraduate Menu item Alias A~Z List (PGT)
Log into CMS Login form Default
Contact Single contact Default
UGT module list A~Z List Category list Undergraduate module
Programme list Category list Undergraduate programme
PGT module list A~Z List Category list Postgraduate module
Programme list Category list Postgraduate programme
usermenu My articles Com_uam All category
Article list Com_uam All category
5.3.2 Module structure
Joomla front-end pages are structured as modules. Every module can show different
types of content including menu, category, and so on. Every module has its fixed
43
position and can be visible to different user segments and website pages. Here is the
module setting of the system (Table 5.5):
Table 5.5 system module structure
Module Position Type Content Access
Top Top of the page Menu Top Public
Breadcrumbs Top of the content Breadcrumbs Default Public
UGT module list Left side bar Menu UGT module list Public
PGT module list Left side bar Menu PGT module list Public
My Article Edit Left side bar Menu usermenu Registered
Login Form Left side bar Login Default Registered
5.3.3 Privilege summary
Table 5.6 shows a summary of system privilege assignment for key functions:
Table 5.6 system privilege allocation
Administrator
(Super user)
Coordinator
(Author)
Other
lecturer
(Author)
Student
(Public)
Module
Homepage Own/Create/Edit/Publish Access Access Access
Contact Own/Create/Edit/Publish Access Access Access
Menu items
My article Own/Create/Edit/Publish Access Access X
Article list Own/Create/Edit/Publish Access Access X
Article
Module outline title Own/Create/Edit/Publish Access Access Access
Module overview Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
Module aim Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
44
Learning objectives Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
Learning methods Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
Assessment Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
Pass policy Own/Create/Edit/Publish Access Access Access
Syllabus Create / Edit / Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
References Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
Additional
information
Create/Edit/Publish Own/Edit/Publish Edit/Publish Access
5.4 Template design
In order to keep consistency with the University of Sheffield website, iSchool
module outline content management system designs a similar template style based on
a Joomla default template “bzee_20”.
The template totally implements all the functional design before and tries to make
users feel comfortable when they are using the system. Here gives the postgraduate
module list page (Figure 5.3) for public access. For more information, please refer to
website http://cisrg.shef.ac.uk/joomla11/.
Due to time limitation, the author cannot cover all the module outlines offered by the
iSchool. Until the time for submission, the author created 18 postgraduate modules
and 3 undergraduate modules. However, all the functions have already been
implemented with at least one sample page. Here is a function list for system trying:
Home
Undergraduate: A~Z list, Programme list
Postgraduate: A~Z list,
Programme list (links only available for “Information Systems”)
Login to CMS
Contact
45
Figure 5.3 postgraduate module list webpage
5.5 System workflow
System workflow is clearly shown in the following figure. To begin with, the
administrator adds a new module from backend and assigns ten components. The two
shared components go to public process while the eight self-edit components go to
lecturers for editing. Next, lecturers edit the components until they are satisfied with
them and then the components are going to publish process.
46
Figure 5.4 system workflow
The workflow seems simple (Figure 5.4). However, the real process maybe a little
complex. For example, administrator adding a new module needs around a dozen
steps. For more detailed process, please refer to user manual.
5.6 User instructions
5.6.1 System description
Background
Information School (iSchool) is a department of the University of Sheffield and it
provides numbers of modules for both undergraduate and postgraduate students.
Every module is taught by a teaching group which involves one module coordinator
and several other lecturers. A teaching group is responsible for module outline
generation, updating and publishing.
iSchool Module Outline Content Management System is a platform for:
iSchool open a new module
Teaching groups generate, update and publish module outlines
Students search for module outlines
iSchool Module Outline Content Management System structure
iSchool Module Outline Content Management System has five parts:
47
HOME: the home page of system
UNDERGRADUATE: to show undergraduate module outlines
POSTGRADUATE: to show postgraduate module outlines
LOG INTO CMS: teaching group members login and edit module outlines
CONTACT: to show contact information
In iSchool Module Outline Content Management System, every module outline
includes ten components (Figure 5.5):
Module outline title
Module overview
Module aim
Learning objectives
Learning methods
Assessment
Regulations
Syllabus
Reading list
Additional information
“Module outline title” and “Regulations” is the same among all the modules. Hence,
administrator edits these two components and arranges them to all the modules. The
other eight components are edited by users (the related teaching group).
Figure 5.5 module outline components allocation
48
In the CMS, every component is an article named “[module code] [module name] -
[component name]”. All the components which have the same module code consist
of a category called “[module code] [module name]”.
Privilege description
Table 5.7 privilege list
Roles/Role in system Description Privilege
Administrator
/administrator
Responsible for user management, article
management, category management, CMS
maintenance and updating
All
Module coordinator
/user
The author of module outline
Responsible for module outline component
editing, updating and publishing
Edit/publish the related
module outline
Other lecturers
/user
Own the permission of editing, updating and
publishing module outline
Edit/publish the related
module outline
Student
/public access
Access published module outlines None
5.6.2 Instructions
Login, personal information setting, and log out
Users can log into the system to edit and publish module outline components.
Login into the system:
Click “Log into CMS” tab (Figure 5.6).
User Name is lecturer‟s real name, Password is “1629”.
When the user login successfully, the interface should be shown as Figure 5.7.
Edit personal information:
Click “Edit Profile” button (Figure 5.7).
49
Edit personal information (Figure 5.8).
Click “Submit” to save the updating or click “Cancel”.
Log out is simply click the button “Log out”.
Figure 5.6 login page
Figure 5.7 edit profile
50
Figure 5.8 user profile editing interface
Find module outline component
Users can find module outline components from “My Article Edit” module (Figure
5.9). This module is shown in “LOG INTO CMS”, “POSTGRADUATE”, and
“UNDERGRADUATE” tab after logging successfully.
Figure 5.9 my article edit menu
“My Article” includes all the module outline components owned by the user. More
specifically, module coordinator can find their module in this list (Figure 5.10).
“Article List” includes all the module outline components in the system. That is to
say, other lecturers can search for the target module in this list (Figure 5.11).
51
Figure 5.10 my article
Figure 5.11 article list
52
Edit/publish module outline
Users can edit/publish module outline component in two ways.
Edit/publish module outline component using “My Article Edit” module:
Find a module outline component following “Instruction 5. Find module outline
component”
Edit component:
Table 5.8 article edit icon
Icon A Icon B Icon C
No privilege Edit unpublished article Edit published article
Click the icon B or C to edit the component (Table 5.8)
“version” is used to store all the versions of the article
Please do not change “Title”, “Category”, “Featured” and “Access” options
Please do not change “Multicategories” setting
Click “Save” or “Cancel” to end edit.
53
Figure 5.12 article editing interface
Publish component (Click the icon F or G to change publish state):
Table 5.9 article publish icon
Icon D Icon E Icon F Icon G
Unpublished article
No privilege
Published article
No privilege
Published article
Can edit state
Unpublished article
Can edit state
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Edit/publish module outline component from public access:
After logging into the system, find the module outline component from
“UNDERGRADUATE” or “POSTGRADUATE” tab.
The edit icon “ ” is shown on the top right of the component (Figure 5.13)
Figure 5.13 article edit from frontend
Click the icon “ ”and edit component
Click “Save” or “Cancel” to end edit.
Versions cannot be saved from public access editing.
Useful tips:
Users can edit and publish the module outline component from “My Article Edit”
module first, then go to the public page to check again and make some changes.
55
5.6.3 Administration
Create a new module outline
Create a new module outline include four main steps: user management, category
management, article management and multicategories management. Administrator
should login from backend (Figure 5.14)
Figure 5.14 backend login
User management:
Choose “users” “user groups” (Figure 5.15)
Figure 5.15 user groups
56
Click “new” to add a new teaching group (Figure 5.16)
Group title: [module code] [module name]
Group parent: Author
Click “Save and close”
Figure 5.16 add a teaching group
Choose “users” option (Figure 5.17)
Figure 5.17 user management
57
Click “new” to add a new user, input user information and assign to the related
teaching group (Figure 5.18)
For exist user, simply click the user name and tick the related teaching group
Figure 5.18 add a new user
Category management:
Choose “content” “category manager” (Figure 5.19)
58
Figure 5.19 category manager
Click “new” to add a new module outline category (Figure 5.20)
Title: [module code] [module name]
Parent: postgraduate module / undergraduate module
Click “Save and close”
Figure 5.20 add a module
59
Article management:
Choose “content” “article manager” (Figure 5.21)
Figure 5.21 article manager
In “-Select Category-”, choose “Postgraduate sample component”
Tick all the article begin with “Sample - ”
In “Batch process the selected articles”, choose the new added category
(INF6020 Management and Strategy for Electronic & Digital Libraries) and tick
the “copy” option
Click “Process” (Figure 5.22)
60
Figure 5.22 batch process for article copy - 1
Change the filter to the new added category (INF6020 Management and Strategy
for Electronic & Digital Libraries), you can see all the sample articles (Figure
5.23)
61
Figure 5.23 batch process for article copy - 2
For each sample articles, click in and change three options (Figure 5.24):
Title: [module code] [module name] - [component name]
Article permissions: choose the related teaching group, change “edit” and
“edit state” permissions to “allowed”
In “publishing options” part, “created by” line, assign the article to the
module coordinator.
62
Figure 5.24 article setting
63
Multicategories management:
Choose “components” “multicategories” “categories” (Figure 5.25)
Figure 5.25 Multicategories manager
Select the new added category (INF6020 Management and Strategy for
Electronic & Digital Libraries)
Select the eight components together with two common components
Change “basic options” “alternative layout” to “blog”
Click “save and close” (Figure 5.26)
Figure 5.26 Multicategories setting
64
Administration work for iSchool Module Outline Content Management System is
really important. For other system maintenance work, please refer to:
Dissertation
Joomla 2.5! Beginner‟s Guide
Chapter 6 System evaluation
6.1 Evaluation process
System evaluation is a vital step of this project. It involves three parts: evaluation
preparation, evaluation meeting, and feedback analysis.
Evaluation preparation begins after system development has finished. To begin with,
a system black box test is conducted by the author on her own laptop and took
around one week. Then, the system was installed on the university server
successfully by John Holliday, who is the supervisor of the author, for evaluation.
Next, related evaluation documents are generated. One is the system instructions
document. The instruction involves three sections. System description section shows
a global view of the system to users, and it aims to enable users to understand the
system structure, module outline components assignment and user privilege setting.
The main section: instruction describes detailed system operation steps. And it is
useful for lecturers‟ module outline management work. The third section is
administration. This section is used by the administrator to create a new module. For
the whole instruction document, please review section 5.6. The other document is the
evaluation questionnaire. A description of the questionnaire is shown on section 6.2.
In the following procedure, arrange meeting with the iSchool staffs. The author sent
invitation emails to ten members of staff and finally met with seven persons. One of
65
them is professional services staff while the other six are academic staff. Every
meeting took almost half an hour. In addition, the link to the website, user name,
password and system instructions are attached to the email.
Evaluation meetings were conducted between 23 August and 30 August. During the
meeting, the author firstly introduced the system briefly. Then, an open-ended
interview of the system took place. Finally, the staffs were invited to finish a
questionnaire.
Feedback analysis focuses on both questionnaire data analysis and open-ended
interview script. All the analysis results were used for estimating the system and
completing a system future improvement report.
6.2 Questionnaire
Questionnaire design is significant for system evaluation. There are six questions in
the iSchool module outline content management system questionnaire.
Question 1 is used to observe the average number of modules which one lecturer
teaches in the academic year 2012-2013. Question 2 estimates the background for
content management system. Moreover, the author can know the wide spread degree
of CMS as well. Question 3 to 5 aims to evaluate the system from three aspects:
navigation, content editing and general layout. Most of sub questions here are scaled
questions. Question 6 is an open ended question. This question aims to gain system
improvement advice from lecturers. The whole questionnaire is attached as Appendix
B: Questionnaire.
66
6.3 Data analysis
Q 1How many modules are you teaching in the academic year 2012-2013?
The average number is 5.8.
It can be seen clearly that lecturers usually teach several modules at the same time.
Hence, a website based iSchool module outline content management system will be
helpful for lecturers to manage their module outlines. At the same time, it also can be
a platform for students to check module information especially for timetable and
assessment details.
Q2.1 Are you aware of the functionality of a content management system (CMS)?
Six of the participants chose “Yes”, one of them chose “No”.
Q2.2 Have you ever used a CMS?
Six of the participants chose “Yes”, one of them chose “No”.
It is clear that a content management system is not a strange conception for most of
the staff. With the experiences on CMS, iSchool module outline content management
system is much easier to popularize.
Q3.1 To what extent is the navigation of the system effective?
(1 is the lowest, 5 is the highest)
The average score is 4.4.
Q3.2 To what extent is it easy to access all pages?
The average score is 4.3.
The navigation of the system is acceptable. In other words, top menu, left bar menu
and breadcrumbs are well organized and users can find the pages which they want
easily and quickly.
Q4.1 Which method do you prefer for locating your module outlines?
Five participants prefer accessing edit module outline pages from module outline
view, only one chose “My article edit section”, and one participant does not care
67
about the location method.
The iSchool module outline content management system offers two ways to access
users‟ module outline editing page: one is Joomla default route and the other is
supported by a Joomla extension. Both of them have advantages and disadvantages.
The Joomla default route enables users to see the final content updating effect
conveniently. The Joomla extension shows all the articles which belong to a
particular user in one list and includes a versioning function. Even though different
lecturers have different customs, it is obvious that both of these two methods are
needed.
Q4.2 To what extent does the arrangement of module outline components meet your
needs? (1 is the lowest, 5 is the highest)
The average score is 4.4.
It is shown that the module outline components setting can meet lecturers‟
requirements. Since Joomla has a flexible control on articles and categories. It is
easier for administrators to add or delete a module outline components.
Q 4.3 Do you find the editing environment easy to use?
(1 is the lowest, 5 is the highest)
The average score is 3.4.
Some participants think the editor is a bit fiddly. They prefer an easier one. Joomla
offers two types of editors: TinyMCE and CodeMirror. According to module outline
content type analysis, the editor used in the system should satisfy text, list (ordered
and unordered) and table editing. Hence, the author chose the TinyMCE editor with
extensions features.
Q 5 Please give a rating of the system general layout (1 is the lowest, 5 is the highest)
The average score is 4.1.
The general layout of iSchool module outline content management system is
acceptable. Since template design of the system is similar with the university official
68
website, both internal and external users will have a sense of familiarity.
Q6 Which aspects do you think this system need to be improved?
This question is an open ended one. All the participants gave many useful
suggestions. The author summarized these valuable suggestions in the section 6.4
and 6.5.
6.4 Priorities and limitations
6.4.1 System priorities
iSchool module outline content management system has many advantages.
The system enables administrator to manage iSchool module outlines much easier.
Currently, the administrator manages module outline documents as word format and
it is difficult to do global changes among all the module outlines, and the updating
for documents, to some degree, is delayed. With this website content management
system, the administrator can integrate internal and external user management,
module outline management as well as system management together, and complete
the components shared by all the documents updating once with the help of Joomla
batch process.
The system enables lecturers to manage their module outlines more conveniently. At
present, lecturers usually generate module outlines in Microsoft word and then
transfer to PDF version, finally published through MOLE as well as print it out and
distribute them to students. This system offers an online platform for lecturers to
generate, update and publish module outlines. In addition, versioning extension
allows lecturers to save different versions of module outlines for reloading.
69
The system enables students to access the latest version of module outlines. Here, the
priorities of content management system are shown clearly. Since the module outline
is organized based on content rather than document in the online system, lecturers
can update and publish content easily. Hence, students always get the latest
information.
The system is useful for new students selecting modules at the beginning of a
semester. Currently, students gain module selection regulations from student
handbook and obtain limited module information through the university website.
This system combines both of these two parts online. More particularly, students can
search a programme through public access, the related module selection regulations
will be shown on the website as well as a link to the exact module outline.
According to questionnaire data analysis, the navigation, content design and global
layout of this system are acceptable. That is to say that the iSchool module outline
content management system can satisfy its initial requirements. Before the
submission of the dissertation, the system works normally on the university server.
6.4.2 System limitations
From the development and evaluation process, some disadvantages of the iSchool
module outline content management system are shown below.
Versioning is not available for Joomla default front end edit pages. The system offers
two routes for users to locating a particular module outline component. One is
Joomla default frontend route: for the whole module outline view, the other is
through “user article manager” extension. The versioning function is implemented by
another extension called “simple article versioning”, which enables article version
saving on the system backend. Hence, versioning cannot use in Joomla default front
70
end edit pages. However, it can be available through “user article manager”
extension, which connects to system backend when editing the articles.
Some of the staffs think the editor is a little complex. The system uses TinyMCE
editor with extensions features. Hence, the edit tools may looks difficult. Due to time
limitations, the author could only find this editor for satisfying all editing needs,
especially for tables. This issue will be left for future improvement.
Most of the staff prefer to integrating the system with current university website and
learning material publishing platform. For example, integrating with the university
website and making the information transfer automatically. Then integrate with
MOLE to make information sharing convenient.
Printing is not available for the system. Joomla default setting only offers single
article printing. Since module outline consists of then articles, print single article is
not reasonable. Hence, the author closed the print function.
There are some problems on the system navigation. For example, the page “edit
profile” is not integrated with an exact menu. Some of these problems are caused by
system design while the others are caused by Joomla plug-ins.
6.5 Improvement list
This system has space for improvement, not only because of the limitations it shows
currently, but also it is just a pilot system for one type of learning material in the
iSchool and can be extended to the other learning resources in the future.
Update extensions regularly. The system installed three extensions: multicategories,
versioning and use article manager. These extensions are updating regularly by their
71
developers. Hence, administrator needs to pay attention to the latest versions of these
extensions and update them in iSchool module outline content management system
when necessary.
Find a suitable extension for batch processing. Even though Joomla has batch
processing functions, the range of its use is limited. In the system, administrator
accounts for amounts of management and maintenance work, and a good batch
processing extension is useful to improve work efficiency.
A much easier editor is needed to be identified. Except for the two Joomla default
editor, it is necessary to look for a suitable editor for the system. The judgement
needs to balance content type fitting and users‟ comfort.
The structure of the system needs to be improved. One of the staff suggested dividing
students into two groups: public access students and those who chose a particular
module. In addition, the other department documents can also be implemented into
the system such as ethical forms. Hence, the system structure can be extended and
improved.
Integration work can be done to increase the daily work efficiency. Since the
university official website publishes some of module information, it will be better to
integrate this system with the university website. In this way, the information
updating can be shared in two systems and the work for system management and
maintenance may be much easier.
It is better to enable module outline print function online. In the system, the whole
module outline is made up of ten articles and using blog layout for accessing. Joomla
default setting only provides print function for single article. Thus, the whole module
outline print which requires multiple articles print is not available. Moreover, there
are few extensions on multiple articles print. The only one that the author can find is
72
eBook Factory offered by the Factory
(http://www.thefactory.ro/shop/joomla-components/ebook-factory.html) and costs 63 GBP.
Hopefully this function can be implemented in future.
Chapter 7 Conclusion
7.1 Summary of dissertation
This dissertation lasted around three months and completed CMS theory review,
system design, system implementation and evaluation processes. Review the
dissertation aim and objectives, the iSchool module outline content management
system was generated and installed on the server. System evaluation was conducted
and data analysis was completed.
In the theory review stage, limitations of current content strategy are identified, and
the priorities of CMS are listed. In the system design stage, module outline is
selected for the pilot system development. More detailed analysis on module outline
current content strategy was conducted and a unified content solution was generated.
In the system implementation stage, the author used Joomla as the CMS frame to
implement the iSchool module outline content management system. In the evaluation
stage, both interview and questionnaire were used when had a meeting with iSchool
staffs. Feedback analysis was carefully addressed.
At the end of dissertation, the outcomes of this project are: iSchool module outline
content management system satisfied the basic requirements of content design and
user management. The system can access from http://cisrg.shef.ac.uk/joomla11/. The
backend login address is http://cisrg.shef.ac.uk/joomla11/administrator/. System
instruction and future improvement aspects were listed in the dissertation as well.
73
7.2 Limitations
The limitations of the project are mainly on module outline normalization, time and
technology.
Though the iSchool have used module outlines for many years, the department did
not offer a normal format for this document. The author had to conduct data analysis
on 20 module outlines to identify the common structure among them and complete
the content design. To be the truth, module outline normalization generated by the
department will be more reasonable and reliable.
Consider the technology aspect carefully. Joomla 2.5.6 is a long term support version
which was released in January of this year and the project was last from June to
August. Hence, there are really few materials for Joomla 2.5.6 and all the
information which the author can get was from official website. For the same reason,
Joomla extensions which can support this version are also limited. To find a suitable
extension was very difficult. Thus, it is a challenge for the author to understand
Joomla deeper as well as using extensions more flexible. In addition, PHP also
updated its version recently. Since PHP is much strictly defined, the server XAMPP,
which was installed on the author‟s laptop, cannot compatible with the latest PHP
version and caused “strict standards” error. Hence, the author had to close server
warning on Joomla. Moreover, due to the author‟s technology level, she cannot deal
with some problems caused by Joomla, PHP itself, and just leaves them for further
improvement.
Time limitation also has some negative effects on this project. Firstly, the time for
learning CMS theory is not enough. Secondly, this dissertation needs to collect data
and complete data analysis twice. One is module outlines collection and analysis, the
other is system feedback collection and analysis. Especially for the later one, the
author needed to have meetings with seven department staffs individually and it cost
74
around two weeks from arrange meeting to finish feedback analysis.
7.3 The future of the system
Though iSchool module outline content management system, to some extent, has
some weaknesses, it offers an online platform for the module outline generation,
updating and publishing at present. And it is easy for the administrator to manage all
the module outlines in iSchool, easy for the lecturers access and update their module
outlines online, as well as enables students check module information conveniently
on both the selecting a module process and during the semester. In addition, it would
be better that the department can offer a document for module outline normalization.
According to the system evaluation results, it is proved that content management
system can play an important role on information resources management in
educational organizations. Considering the priorities of content management system
on reuse and multiple platform delivery aspects, CMS can brings much higher
efficiency and reorganize a more reasonable workflow.
Just as the aim of the dissertation showed that iSchool module outline content
management system is only a pilot system, and it has space for improvement. Except
for these improvement aspects listed in the improvement list in dissertation, this
system can be easily extended to other information resources in iSchool based on
Joomla frame. Hopefully this system will be helpful for iSchool information
management.
The total number of words: 12264
(Exclusive table and picture)
75
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81
Appendix A: Module outline data statistic
Table 1: Current module outline component setting
Module
code
Version Module
overview
Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus References Others
INF6110
14.09.11 X X X X X X X
INF6001 10.01.11 X X X X X X X
INF6003 17.01.11 X X X X X X X Penalties
INF6005 05.09.11 X X X X X X
INF6012 06.01.12 X X X X X X X Assessment
Details
Marking
Scheme
INF6013 11.01.12 X X X X X X Module
Description
Recorded
teaching
content
Suggestion
INF6014 08.02.12 X X X X X X X Coursework
INF6018 21.09.10 X X X X X X X Coursework
INF6019 06.02.12 X X X X X X X Useful links
Coursework
details
INF6020 28.10.11 X X X X X X X
INF6040 03.02.11 X X X X X X Module
Description
Coursework
INF6190 25.01.11 X X X X X X X Assessed
Work
INF6200 23.02.12 X X X X X X X
INF6320 14.09.09 X X X X X X X
INF6340
INF6030
13.08.12 X X X X X X X Overall
timetable
INF6350 26.09.11 X X X X X X X
INF6430 web-version X X X X X X
INF6540 13.08.12 X X X X X X X
INF6010 17.12.09 X X X X X X X
INF6090 18.03.10 X X X X X X X Notes on
assessment
82
Table 2: Module outline content type
Module
code
Version Module
overview
Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus References Others
INF6110
14.09.11 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Text Text
INF6001 10.01.11 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table Text
INF6003 17.01.11 Table Text Text Text Text Table Text Penalties
Text
INF6005 05.09.11 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table
INF6012 06.01.12 Table Text Text Text Text Table Text Assessment
Details
Text
Marking
Scheme
Table
INF6013 11.01.12 Table Text Text Text
Table
Text
Text
Module
Description
Text
Recorded
teaching
content
Text
Suggestion
Text
INF6014 08.02.12 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table Text
Coursework
Text
INF6018 21.09.10 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table Text
Coursework
Text
INF6019 06.02.12 Table Text Text Text Text Text Text
Useful links
Text
Coursework
details
Text
INF6020 28.10.11 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table Text
INF6040 03.02.11 Table Text Text Text
Table Text
Module
Description
Text
Coursework
Text
INF6190 25.01.11 Table Text Text Text Text Table Text Assessed
83
Table Work
Text
INF6200 23.02.12 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table Text
INF6320 14.09.09 Table Text Text Text Text Table Text
INF6340
INF6030
13.08.12 Table Text Text Text Text Text
Text
Overall
timetable
Text
INF6350 26.09.11 Table Text Text Text Text Table Text
INF6430 web-version Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table
INF6540 13.08.12 Table Text Text Text Text Table Text
INF6010 17.12.09 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Table Text
INF6090 18.03.10 Table Text Text Text Text
Table
Text
Text
Notes on
assessment
Text
Table 3: Current module outline components title
Module
code
Version Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus References Others
INF6110
14.09.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
content
Core readings
INF6001 10.01.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
content
Core readings
INF6003 17.01.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
content
Core readings
Additional
readings
Penalties
INF6005 05.09.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Autumn
semester
Spring
semester
INF6012 06.01.12 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Timetable Recommended
reading
Assessment
Details
Marking
Scheme
INF6013 11.01.12 Module
aims
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus Reading
material
Module
Description
Recorded
teaching
content
Suggestion
84
INF6014 08.02.12 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment --- Key readings
Journals
Websites
Coursework
INF6018 21.09.10 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Timetable Key reading
Journals
Coursework
INF6019 06.02.12 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Readings
Useful links
Coursework
details
INF6020 28.10.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment --- Readings
INF6040 03.02.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Readings
Module
Description
Coursework
INF6190 25.01.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment --- Core Readings
Assessed
Work
INF6200 23.02.12 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Introductory
Readings
INF6320 14.09.09 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Core Readings
INF6340
INF6030
13.08.12 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Reading
Materials
Overall
timetable
INF6350 26.09.11 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment --- Readings
INF6430 web-version Nature
of
subject
and aims
Learning
outcomes
Learning
methods
Assessment Indicative
content
INF6540 13.08.12 Aims Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Coursework Syllabus Core Readings
INF6010 17.12.09 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Core Readings
INF6090 18.03.10 Module
aims
Learning
objectives
Learning
methods
Assessment Syllabus
Content
Core Readings
Other books
Notes on
assessment
85
Appendix B: Questionnaire
86
Appendix C: Ethical application form
87
88
89
90
91
92
Appendix D: Participant information sheet
93
94
Appendix E: Participant consent sheet
