Abstract
Any higher education department must provide a variety of information to several disparate audiences, recognising their diverse needs. Managing these challenges and changes demands flexibility and auditability. Technology can provide the mechanism to meet these information needs and educational challenges, and to manage changing social and political demands. In this paper we offer pointers abstracted and generalised from our experience for organizational change in similar environments. We explain the development of a large web-based information system designed to meet these challenges. Our goal has been not only to improve our site but also to embed it at the heart of the department’s culture. We describe the technical innovations that are required to manage this large-scale site and that permit the flexibility needed to respond to change. Finally, we suggest measures by which the success of enterprises of this kind may be measured. Evidence of changes in student and staff* expectations, behaviour, and study patterns is presented.
The original version of this chapter was revised: The copyright line was incorrect. This has been corrected. The Erratum to this chapter is available at DOI: 10.1007/978-0-387-35502-3_19
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© 2000 IFIP International Federation for Information Processing
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Jones, R., Beckett, D., Fincher, S. (2000). Meeting Diverse User Needs. In: Franklin, S.D., Strenski, E. (eds) Building University Electronic Educational Environments. IFIP — The International Federation for Information Processing, vol 38. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35502-3_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35502-3_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-4757-4694-5
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-35502-3
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