Project Brief

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Overview 

Content presented in the web profiles of our academic and professional staff is an asset of great value to the University. Through this content, staff present their fields of expertise, knowledge and experience, and detail related outputs like publications, papers and presentations. This content is sought after by key visitor groups to the University website such as prospective students, prospective staff and specialists from academic and research fields, and has the potential to support strategic objectives relating to initiation and growth of global research activity. 

Background 

A new web publishing platform based on Drupal 10 has been built and sites are actively being migrated from EdWeb to what is referred to as EdWeb 2 before the January 2025 (end of life cut-off of the former). 

The vision for this platform is ‘to create a world-class web platform that empowers our communities and promotes a model of excellence’. EdWeb2 is a managed service, bringing benefits to users in terms of sustainability, security and efficiencies in maintenance. 

Staff profiles in existing EdWeb exist as a subsection of the website: https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile. Here is an example of an EdWeb staff profile: Professor Shannon Vallor. 

Moving from EdWeb to EdWeb2 has presented the opportunity to improve the provision for staff profiles on the University website, to use the functionality of the new platform to optimise this type of content. Currently, all staff members within the University can complete a profile on EdWeb which enables them to present personal information, including biographical and contact details in a number of fields as well as limited integration functionality from PURE (University of Edinburgh Research Explorer). Initial analysis suggests that only a fraction of University staff make use of their online profiles, and of the profiles that do exist, many contain minimal or out-of-date information.   

The current staff profile provision needs to be updated for several reasons:  

• The technology that powers EdWeb is out-of-date, therefore it is being replaced by a new platform EdWeb2 

• The PURE integration, which displayed content from Research Explorer in the context of staff profiles, has been removed due to its unreliability and replaced with a direct link to the Research Explorer. This is a ‘stop-gap’ solution which does not replicate the original data display expected by academic and research staff. 

With the move to EdWeb 2, there is an opportunity to review: 

• The current use of staff profiles in EdWeb – to include which staff use them, (and the content fields they use and do not use) and which staff do not use them (and their associated reasoning) 

• The expectations and requirements of academic and professional services staff for the display and presentation of their profile content 

• Whether colleagues believe there is a requirement for staff profiles on the University web publishing platform (EdWeb2), or whether there is a desire to optimise the display and presentation of staff profile content hosted elsewhere e.g. on LinkedIn, Research Explorer (PURE), or other platforms, databases and repositories. 

How to extract and effectively leverage data from and about staff profiles to support key University strategic areas like recruitment, promotion of staff achievements and demonstration of research impacts and therefore align with related strategies and initiatives like the Research & Innovation Strategy, the Digital Strategy and the Research Excellence Framework.

Project Goal 

This project aims to complete a programme of research for identifying needs and requirements for the design of a provision for staff profile content which recognises the pivotal role this content plays in supporting important University strategic objectives and initiatives.  

The overarching goal of this work is to enable staff to publish, edit and manage their profile content in ways that suit their needs and working models, and for profiles to be an attractive proposition for staff to publish their profile content.  

Related strategies and programmes 

There are several existing University strategies and programmes which will be impacted by the objectives and deliverables of this project. These include:  

• Research & Innovation Strategy 2030 – strategic programme aimed at designing an environment to support the University research community 

• Digital Strategy – a plan aimed at ensuring digital technologies support with the delivery of Strategy 2030  

• Web Analytics Strategy – an initiative to drive a smarter approach to collecting and utilising web analytics data to inform web content design and management. 

Research Target Group 

The target group for this research project will be both academic colleagues and professional services staff members.  

Research Approach 

Recognising the individuality of staff profiles, one-to-one interviews with staff wishing to display and present data about themselves will form the backbone of the research approach. From these interviews, themes will be collated to identify and prioritise needs, expectations and requirements of staff for their profiles.  

Given the universality of staff profiles, it is important to ensure representative research including the broadest possible range of views and input from academic and professional services staff. A survey, circulated through key staff groups and networks will be used for the dual purpose of gathering initial feedback about profiles as well as recruiting staff to engage in interviews about their individual profiles. The survey will aim to recruit both staff who use the current EdWeb staff profile provision, as well as those that do not.  

To understand who would be best to interview to get the needed input, the project team will also draw on networks such as the Learn User Group to speak to Learning Technologists and find out through them which academic colleagues would be able to support with this research project.  

Outputs from desk-research, including analysis and review of EdWeb data will also inform the interviews.  

Desk-research activities will both inform and supplement the qualitative data gathered through interviews. Representative activities are likely to include the following:  

• Deep analysis of existing staff profile data extracted from back-end EdWeb 

• Competitor analysis and benchmarking of other universities to understand the wider landscape 

• Investigation into the use of web analytics data from Google Analytics 4 on existing EdWeb profiles  

• Studying data from Research Explorer to understand use of profile data – working with the PURE team. 

Scope 

In Scope 

• Using a survey to recruit staff across the University of Edinburgh willing to be interviewed about their requirements for online profiles  

• Conducting interviews to understand staff expectations and requirements focusing both on both academic and professional services staff with representation across all Colleges and Professional Services Groups  

• Reviewing outputs of interviews with key stakeholders through governance of the project 

• Performing and accumulating desk-based research and analysis on: 

• ‘As-is’ state – current EdWeb staff profile provision  

• Analytics and heat-map data relating to use and interaction of current staff profile content 

• Competitor analysis to establish and benchmark the approach taken by other universities relating to staff profile data and content 

• How staff profiles can link in with other University initiatives such as the Research Innovation Strategy and the Digital Strategy 

• Analysing collective research findings to produce a written report summarising the research findings and making recommendations to take staff profiles forward based on evidence identified – including appraisal of current provision, staff requirements and support of wider University initiatives. 

Out of Scope 

• Consultation with development specialiststo assess and appraise options for building  staff profiles directly in EdWeb 2.  Production of a  technical development plan detailing technical requirements, including resource estimations 

• Any development work on staff profiles ahead of the delivery of the project recommendations. 

Objectives and Deliverables 

Project Team 

Governance 

Feedback and sign-off on the final report of recommendations to be provided by: 

• Melissa Highton – Executive Sponsor 

• Stratos Filalithis – Project Sponsor 

• Emma Horrell – Project Manager 

• Colleagues external to ISG – names to be confirmed.