Identifying a skills hierarchy for participants in the Web Environment

(The "Who needs to know what")

Steve Hansen, Faculty of Business & Technology, University of Western Sydney Macarthur, PO Box 555, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia, 2650. Phone +61 46 203361, FAX +61 46 266683 s.hansen@uws.edu.au

Yogesh Deshpande, Faculty of Business & Technology, University of Western Sydney Macarthur, PO Box 555, Campbelltown, NSW, Australia, 2650. Phone +61 46 203233 y.deshpande@uws.edu.au

Keywords

Web page design, Web site development, Web page curriculum, Web site management, education

Abstract

This article introduces a categorisation of a skills and knowledge base hierarchy for participants in the Web environment. This classification includes Web browsing, Web publishing, Web site maintenance, site development and site administration. The hierarchy and classification is of assistance in planning educational curriculum for Web courses, as an instrument in setting requirements for Web site development and identifying the necessary skills base of the participants. Also, this analysis can be used to determine appropriate management strategies in the administration of the Web environment in an enterprise. The material for this article has evolved from a series of programs in Web environment education and site development conducted at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur.

Introduction

With somewhere between 60 and 600 million people with access to the Web, with at least 16 million registered commercial sites, with almost every organisation and agency with their own Web sites and intranets, and with the increasing advances of Web based technology in terms of computer and communications hardware/software, various skills in various aspects of this area are needed.

There are many educational and training programs in the Web environment, available both commercially and in formal institutions, and there are many small, medium and large companies that will set up, or sell, Web based products and services.

In 1995-1996, there has been an increasing demand from staff and students at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur, for expertise in developing Web pages and in using the Web environment. As a result of this demand, a series of workshops, short courses, high school student projects, final year student projects, undergraduate subjects, postgraduate research projects and general interest training programs have been initiated in Web-related activities.

These programs have varied in content from introducing the barest concepts needed to produce simple linked Web pages, to full subjects covering database interconnectivity, scripting and TCP/IP communication protocols. The platforms have included UNIX and NT4 operating systems. The participants have been from 14-16 year old high school students to seasoned research academics.

In addition, as a result of research work on the Web in terms of information systems methodologies, a number of planned Web sites have been set up. These cover UNIX and PC/NT4 platforms and have explored database interactions, scripting, web site maintenance and administration, the main ones being the Faculty of Business & Technology (http://btwebsh.macarthur.uws.edu.au/new_site/ welcome.htm [HREF 1] ) site and its intranet (in excess of 1,000 pages with dynamic page generation and database connectivity).

The rise of the " consultant"

As with any emerging technology, with the Web environment, there is an initial shortage or lack of: expertise, knowledge, and the educational specifications, requirements, resources, materials and methods. The Web environment brings together many disciplines from multi-media and human communications, to client-server databases and Information Technology. The rise of local expertise in one area may lead to a "consultant" or a "client" unaware of the total picture or all the issues of Web site development. This almost certainly is the case for the emergence of a number of consultants producing simple linked pages with attractive graphical design. These may well be appropriate under some situations, but without a deeper skills/knowledge base, this form of site development may be restrictive to expansion and full use of the Web environment. Further, the nature of user education, and Web site administration/maintenance may not be fully understood (see, for example, Sue, 1996).

Based on our experience in developing and maintaining the Faculty Web sites, and running various educational/training programs at the University of Western Sydney, Macarthur, we suggest a hierarchical classification of knowledge and skills that are needed for the variety of Web-related activities ranging from simple browsing to site publishing and administration. (See Wood, 1996, and Arch, 1996, for lists of technologies and activities required in the development of an Intranet.)

This classification helps to identify a number of issues and ideas for curricula in Web site development and implementation. It will also assist in setting the requirements for personnel involved in various activities of Web site development.

Identifying the participants in the Web environment:- a hierarchical classification

From experience gained so far, the following broad categories, for participants in the Web environment have been defined. This classification is hierarchical and with overlapping areas and represents a basis for further work. In each category, different levels have been defined, based on applicational or behavioural terms. In a typical organisation, one person may take on more than one of these categories and perform more than one role. Terms like "Web editor" or "Web master" have not been used due to a lack of precision in their current usage. The following categories have been identified: Browser, Site Publisher, Site Maintainer, Site Developer, Site Coordinator, and Site Administrator.

Category 1:- The "Browser"

This represents the end user or client of the Web environment. The "browser" makes use of a computer/computer terminal with browsing software. This represents the entry level into the Web environment. Although at the basic level a "browser" only needs to be able to operate a PC with packaged software, there is a higher level of operation requiring navigation skills, use of complex searching engines (if available), the ability to file transfer, awareness and invocation of security measures, and integration of the browsing with other desktop software.

Experience with staff, undergraduate students and high school students indicates that 2 to 4 hours in a formal program is usually sufficient to take a novice to an acceptable level in browsing.

All the other categories require the skills/knowledge base of this category.

Category 2:- The Site Publisher

This category spans a wide range of skills. At the most basic level the site publisher either uses an authoring package, to produce HTML pages or converts existing documents into HTML pages, then uploads the HTML into the Web site. This may well be the typical level for a number of users particularly of local intranets and information-based Web sites.

At the more advanced levels, the site publisher needs to know how to query databases and format the output, how to implement client functionality perhaps with a scripting language and how to make use of multi-media concepts and techniques. These skills are needed if any interactivity is to be used in a site. For example, the setting up calendar or "events" pages, for the sake of ease of maintenance and implementation, are best generated from a simple dynamic database (that is, the HTML pages produced automatically from the database). The site publisher, who could also in this case be the site maintainer, will need to know how to access and manipulate the database. He/she will also need to know methods for displaying the data in an appropriate format, along with the various techniques in dynamically embedding links to other queries/pages. Without these skills, a site publisher (or developer) may wish to produce static HTML pages with the required information embedded in it. In the "events" example, without database interaction, the Web publisher would typically produce pages of events, dates and information in HTML. To maintain and even to produce the original listing is clumsy and time wasting. A dynamic HTML display from a database making use of a "template" to format the data to automatically produce the HTML is much preferred. Updating of the "events" page being merely data entry into the database. Some examples of querying and dynamic tables can be seen at http://btWebsh.macarthur.uws.edu.au/new_site/welcome.htm [HREF1] under "events" or "conferences".

At the top levels, the site publisher needs to have a good working knowledge of the Web server, its hardware and software operation and both client and server side programming. A working knowledge of access rights and security is also required.

The site publisher encompasses the functions of a "Web page designer" and certainly needs a good working knowledge of multi-media, human communication techniques, and HTML coding. Additionally, specific technical skills are needed as outlined above, to progress from the simple "page designer" to a publisher in a fully interactive Web environment.

There is also a trend for individuals (or small groups) after designing and publishing a number of HTML pages, usually at the lowest levels of interactivity, to call themselves "site developers" and to become "consultants". Without the higher technical skills, these sites may be effective as static information kiosks but will not be able to benefit or interface to the interactivity of the Web environment.

A site publisher could become a Web site developer with the addition of higher technical skills (at Levels 3 & 4) as outlined in Table 1.

Category 3:- The Site Maintainer

This category is one that may be taken by clerical staff in an organisation as part of administration support. The category includes the updating of material on the Web site. This clearly needs some site publishing skills. The updating and maintenance may include the maintenance of databases that feed the Website. This will require operational knowledge of the databases and methods of accessing them (this may require special security and access rights). In order to maintain quality control over the operation of the site, site statistics are needed and a method of reporting on them to the users and others is required. This function is categorised as a function of the site maintainer (also part of the functions of the site coordinator and administrator) There could well be a number of site maintainers in a typical organisation covering various areas of the site.

Category 4:- The Site Developer

For more than the simplest of sites, there are a considerable number of skills required for a site developer. As a typical application of an information system, the Web site developer needs to be aware of client-server relationships, the user requirements, the organisational requirements and specifications and the hardware/software resources. The classification system assigns the following roles to this position:-

1. Analyse user requirements and design procedures to form a structure for the site.
2. Identify areas of training and education
3. Set up maintenance and feedback procedures
4. Develop and implement "policies" for the operation of the site
5. Implement security and access rights for the site
6. Produce documentation on the database interactivity, server side and client side programming and similar
7. Have a working knowledge of multi-media concepts, specifications and techniques
8. Be able to publish Web pages as required
9. Have a good working knowledge of the hardware/software platforms suitable for the site

It is recommended that user-orientated approaches to the Web based information system be adopted as given by Paul (1995) and Hansen & Deshpande (1996)

The skills and knowledge base of this category are proposed as a starting point for classification of the term "consultant".

Category 5:- The Site Coordinator

This category requires technical skills similar to a site publisher, with additional management skills in the areas of policy upkeep and generation, the ability to oversee the training and education, the ability to promote the site along with the coordination of the site maintenance, development and publishing activities.

This typically is a position not being well catered for. It is similar to the coordination of information systems in an organisation.

Category 6:- The Site Administrator

The category of site administrator overlaps with the network administration and involves both technical skills in the hardware/software operation of the site, along with network and communication skills. The technical side includes the methods of log file generation, database operation, security and access rights, server operation in terms of CGI or similar extensions. The site administrator also needs to be able to measure the effects of traffic on bandwidth and have a knowledge of the performance of the site.

In each of these categories, a further hierarchical classification is made, based on the level of skills and the knowledge base required. These are listed in the tables below.

Between the categories there may be overlaps and the hierarchy from category to category is not fully inclusive as shown in the diagram 1, below.

The above classification may be used to determine the level of expertise required in a given environment. It may also be of use in determining the required expertise in "consultants". Additionally, it may be used to determine the curricula for Web environment programs.

Assessing Web environment programs:- participants, objectives and basic curriculum

In table 2 are shown various Web environment programs conducted over the last year at the University of Western Sydney Macarthur, from the Faculty of Business & Technology. The broad content as set out in the program documentation is shown. In order to see exactly what was being achieved, the content has been translated into the skills hierarchy and the results have been placed into table 3. It is now easy to categorise the area of the Web that these programs were addressing and the skills categories that the participants were gaining experience.

Using this classification with current educational programs

 This classification scheme, when applied to the educational programs, acted as a simple instrument for determining which areas in the Web environment, the participants were gaining skills and knowledge. In analysis terms of the content in these programs, this classification clearly shows the strong and the weak areas.

In particular, all these programs were judged (at the time) to be highly effective with excellent feedback from all the participants. However, on the category and skills criteria, several areas were obviously lacking namely the management side of site coordination and skills in the maintenance area.

This classification also allows a method of equating courses for the time taken to reach certain levels. For example, from these programs there is a consistency in the time to take "novices" and to bring them to a Site Publisher Level 1. That is, approximately 4 hours of concentrated and guided work. This category is basically the level of many "linked pages" consultants. To reach the more useful levels of site publishing, such as making use of interactivity and database concepts, at least a full semester was needed.

Conclusions

The proposed classification of Web-environment skills and associated knowledge base, can be used as an instrument to determine the content of training/educational programs for various participants in the Web environment. It can also be used to determine the required skills and the knowledge base of consultants, and others, involved in the setting up, development, operation and maintenance of Web sites. Further, this skills hierarchy can also be used in determining the job-classifications of new and existing staff. With the increased use of web related products, various web skills are becoming required at every level of an organisation. This classification can be used to assess these needs, identify required training and be integrated into the job descriptions (and hopefully translating into appropriate remuneration).

References

Arch, A. (1996)  Building an Intranet: Theory and Practice, Proceedings of the Second Australian World Wide Web Conference, the Gold Coast, 7-9 July 1996, pp 165-172

Hansen S. & Deshpande Y. (1996) Utilising a User Hierarchy in Information Systems Development, Proceedings of the 1996 Australasian Conference on Information Systems, Hobart, 10-13 December 1996, pp 299-306

Patel N. (1995) Tailorable Information Systems: Thesis Assertions, Counterpositions and Confutations LIST Workshop Series 2. Department of Computer Science & Information Systems, Brunel University

Paul R. (1994) Why Users Cannot "Get What They Want, Computer Science Department, Brunel University

Sue, H. (1996) Living the Dream Practical Web Applications, , Proceedings of the Second Australian World Wide Web Conference, the Gold Coast, 7-9 July 1996, pp 3-9

Wood, D (1996) An Intranet Checklist, Proceedings of the Second Australian World Wide Web Conference, the Gold Coast, 7-9 July 1996, pp 11-19

Hypertext References

HREF1

http://btwebsh.macarthur.uws.edu.au/new_site/welcome.htm -University of Western Sydney Macathur, Faculty of Business & Technology Home page entry

HREF2

http://btwebsh.maccarthur.uws.edu.au/new_site/Students/forstud.htm High school students electronic magazine

Copyright

Steve Hansen, Yogesh Deshpande ©, 1997. The authors assigns to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grants a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers, and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web. Any other usage is prohibited without the express permission of the authors.

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