3:00 p.m., 17 June 2020, Microsoft Teams
Attendance
Donald Duff-McCracken (Chair), Melissa Holst (Secretary), Marta Bailey, Herbert Balagtas, Tom Cauduro, Beth Cotter, Erica Clement-Goudy, Daniella Cross, Michelle Douglas-Mills, Sarah Forgrave, Graham Faulkner, Chris Francs, Tony Frost (guest), Tom Graham, Troy Grandy, Tasha Glover, Marlon Griffith, Jasn Greatrex, Andrea Jennings, Dnielle Jeanneault, Adriann Kennedy, Koe Kwan, Jen Konkle, Elizabeth Kleisath, Derek Leung, Stephanie Longeway, Liam Morland, Amy Meredith, Kevin Paxman, Elizabeth Rodgers, Trevor Ridgeway, Andrew Smith, Greg Smith, Nancy Schnarr, Jodi Szimanski, Michael Tjendra,
Absent:
Iva Badjari, Lisa Brackenridge, Lannois Carroll-Woolery, Dawn Charlton, Pavol Chvala, Alyssa Clarkson, Janice Cooke, Laurel Forbes, Jennifer Gillies, Jennifer Halcrow, Jim Johnston, Ryan Lahti, Martin LeBlanc, Jay Mielke, Isaac Morland, Carlos Saavedra, Nancy Schnarr, Melanie Scott, Lori Suess, Annaka Willemsen.
Approval of the Minutes of Previous Meeting
The minutes from the previous meeting were accepted as distributed.
Business Arising
Invite the Point of Contacts from the Colleges to attend WAC meetings regularly.
Welcomed Nancy Schnarr (Renison) and Jen Konkle (Conrad Grebel).
WCMS 3 Navigation (Tony Frost, Tom Graham)
Welcomed Tony Frost to discuss the WCMS 3 navigation. Discussion was around the transition of moving the navigation menu from a vertical to horizontal layout. In addition to the potential of looking more contemporary, the horizontal layout can offer more flexability and is more user friendly. Looking at other universities, this seems to be the way to sites have evolved. It was mentioned that the steering committee needs to make the final decision by July 15, 2020 if we are moving ahead with the horizontal layout. This is decision needs to be made by then, due to the Migration time frame. Tony made it clear that the suggested July 15th deadline was only for deciding whether or not we would move to a horizontal layout (not how that layout would look), he welcomes questions/concerns and would be happy to discuss with the POC of each faculty.
A discussion ensued, with some members concerned that there was little consultation in this process. The response was that there would be time for consultation (and what was being discussed now was if this idea was worth exploring). However some members of WAC felt that the current migration schedule did not leave enough time for proper consultation. It should be noted that other members of the committee were excited at the possiblity of moving forward and felt we should do move on this.
Concern was also raised about not having seen the overall project plan for this project. It has been noted that members of this committee have previously asked for a project plan numerous times, although WCMS staff have presented 'road maps'.
The WCMS migration team and UR have heard these concerns, and want the community to feel they have a chance to input and will respond in following meetings.
On a positive side, most of the concern was not with the general concept of "Horizontal Navigation" structures, but with the timing and consultation. But at the same time there was not concensus as when would be the best time to move to a horizontal menu -- i.e. try to fit it into the existing migration schedule or deal with it afterwards?
It was concluded that all members email Don and Tony their concerns/questions so that this can be brought forward to the steering committee.
WCMS 3 Update (Joe Kwan, Greg Smith)
Slides were presented for a brief update on WCMS 3 which included the road map.
WCMS Training/Support update (Andrea Jennings)
What’s happening with the WCMS?
WCMS course offerings
Classroom offerings of our WCMS courses will not be offered at this time. Anyone needing to complete the training can do so via LEARN.
Drop-in lab
We are back - virtually!
Have a question, or need some help with your website? A virtual Drop-in lab will be open every Thursday afternoon from 1-4 p.m. to provide WCMS content maintainers one-on-one website and training support.
WCMS “people” survey
IST's Web Development team conducted a WCMS “people” survey to gather feedback from WCMS users that will help inform how “people” information is displayed on a website.
The survey was available to WCMS Point of Contacts (POCs) for a period of two weeks and received submissions from participants who were asked to comment on: how “people” are displayed; how information could be updated or configured; the content types used to display “people” information; how the “people” information is structed within the site; limitations or obstacles to using the current functionality.
The results also helped to identify these common desires:
- editable fields to more accurately describe people associations, work status, specific information, etc.
- better way to display different groups of people so not everyone needs to be displayed in the main listing page
- more efficient way to filter and search the lists
- a visual redesign
- content reuse across sites
- consistent method of populating information and uploading photos, and how that information is formatted when published
- more efficient way to upload and embed publications
- amalgamate Person profile and Contact content types for ease of maintenance and updates, and avoid duplication of information
- flexibility
Suggestions on how to improve working with “people” information on the sites, in regard to the overall layout of the information, the incorporation of publications, and the current method of updating that information, was also shared.
For more details, download the WCMS “people” survey summary (PPTX) from the Building the Next WCMS website.
Other Business
Meeting Adjournment
The meeting adjourned at 4:46 p.m.