This year for the first time we used a tool called GatherContent to collect Undergraduate Degree Finder programme content.

Up until this point, the traditional medium for exchanging content was Word documents with tracked changes. Multiple revisions would fly back and forth between us, becoming increasingly convoluted. It was a lot to manage, and the risk of making a mistake was high.

Each document was a nest of tracked changes, with scribbles, comments, and red everywhere. It was not accessible to use for myriad reasons.

GatherContent to the rescue

What we really needed was a single platform for content, that marketing representatives, subject matter experts, and our team could revise.

GatherContent, with its capabilities for co-editing and workflow, seemed to fit the bill very nicely.

The plan

1. First, we would import content from the currently published UG Degree Finder across to GatherContent, as a starting point.
2. We would give one ‘Seat’ on the GatherContent platform to a marketing representative from each School in the University.
3. That representative would work with subject matter experts to review and edit the content in GatherContent.
4. The marketing representative would work through and resolve comments, making any necessary further edits.
5. We would then light-touch edit, looking for basic spelling, grammar or formatting errors, before migrating it across to the Undergraduate Degree Finder.

So how did we find it?

As an alternative to swapping multiple Word documents, from the team’s point of view, this has been a marvellous improvement. We’ve found it great to have everything in one simple and accessible online view. It was heartening to see the majority of staff take to the new process, and the new platform, so readily. And it was fast – we updated 460 programmes in just under three weeks.

We love the workflow.

• Staff can easily co-edit in GatherContent, clearly signalling when their content is ready to come to us for a light-touch edit before we pop it over to the Degree Finder.
• Communication between marketing representatives, subject matter experts, and editors is transparent and clear.
• It has given us a really good overarching view of the progress of the project, allowing us to keep track as we’re going. The ability to develop workflows has so much potential for future use – possibly allowing us to scrap lengthy email trails for example.
• We need to refine the workflow process for more complex degrees, such as joint programmes though. There are also some niggles with functionality that we would like to improve for our own working processes.

Right now we’re using GatherContent in a simple way, but it has has possibilities as a platform which we haven’t yet tapped.  So not only can we make improvements on functionality to make our content collection proccess even smoother, it has potential that we can explore for the future of the University’s digital estate.

What do you think of GatherContent?

We’re delighted with feedback from staff suggesting schools are finding GatherContent a positive experience.  For a more complete reflection on the process, help us by telling us what you think of GatherContent, especially if you think there’s room for improvements to be made.

Need help or have a question?

If you need any help with the GatherContent system or the degree finder process then please don’t hesitate to get in touch with us at ugpreturns@ed.ac.uk.

Gather Content – a new tool improving degree content refresh processes / Future student online experiences by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0