Welcome to the first of our new regular updates on things we've been working on recently.
Over the past couple of years our team has gradually adopted a number of techniques drawn from the
Scrum framework. Key amongst these are working in two-week sprints and doing regular reflection on our work through retrospectives. We're keen to be more open about what the team is working on, so we're joining ranks with teams at
Edge Hill,
Bath and
Sunderland (quite possibly more) in regularly publishing a summary.
Graduation
Over 3,500 students graduated between 16-18 July in three sunny and cheerful days on campus. Tasha and Suzy helped spread the word and encouraged online participation with lots of
coverage on social media. They did lots of photography and video, more than we've ever done before, and we had a 3,000% bump in engagement on Facebook as a result. Dan updated the web pages on which we broadcast live streams of all ceremonies (all credit to the fine folk in the AV department who arrange the actual streaming). Viewers in over 60 countries tuned in to watch.
Search engine changes
For the last 10 years or so we've used Google Mini boxes to provide website search for the University. Google have discontinued the product line, so we need an alternative. Paul has been leading on implementing a backup solution based on
Google Custom Search Engine in case our old box goes wrong. Dan has led us through a selection process to choose a longer-term provider of search technology. We'll be able to say more about that in a few weeks once we finalise the contract.
Welcome pages for new students
Paul's been working with Ali in Internal Comms on putting the final touches to our new
welcome pages for new postgraduates. These go alongside well-received pages that we launched a couple of years ago for undergraduates, so we hope these pages help new PGs find their feet too.
Accommodation system
The University is changing the way students apply for University accommodation and Dan has been working with the project team and supplier to offer a Digital perspective. We've been advising on design and usability and things are looking good.
Adjustment and Clearing
Tasha is leading work to prepare for Adjustment and Clearing so that we're ready for results day on 14 August. In addition to preparing a list of courses available, we're sprucing up our core pages for prospective students too.
Launching Show and Tell and digital screenings
In parallel with starting up these sprint notes, we're also starting
Show and Tell meetings so people on campus can come and see in person what we've been up to.
We've also scheduled, but not yet announced details of, regular screenings of digital-related conference presentations or virtual seminars to help us and anyone else interested keep up with what's new in the industry. Look out for a blog post soon with more details.
