John Eklund*, Paula Garrett#, Steve Ryan#, John Harvey*
*School of Educational Psychology, Measurement and Technology
Faculty of Education, University of Sydney NSW 2006
eklundj@edfac.usyd.edu.au,
harveyj@edfac.usyd.edu.au
#Reference Services, Fisher Library
University of Sydney NSW 2006
pgarrett@library.usyd.edu.au,
sryan@library.usyd.edu.au
The World Wide Web is evolving as a natural forum for the presentation and delivery of information resources in an educational institution. In a university setting, web applications are dispersed among the faculties and research service centres such as libraries, IT departments, and staff development organisations. This paper will identify and describe a set of working ideas towards "best design" criteria for creating, organising, and coordinating web resources with the goal of integrating web technology into teaching practices and information services. The criteria are based on experiences of the Education Faculty and the Library at the University. These two units are involved in several web-based projects including: collaborative writing and publishing, electronic scholarly publishing, delivery of course materials for students, subject-based resource organisation, and Internet training.
Details of these projects will be presented as they relate to establishing "best design" criteria. Best design is oriented mainly around the user: ease of use, usefulness, and effective applications of the medium, i.e., web links. Learning and cognitive theories are incorporated into web design. Because of the high visibility web endeavours create on both a national and international scale, a cohesive approach to an institution's identity and contribution is also considered.
