Establishing a controlled vocabulary
As we began to improve the resources in the toolkit we realised that we needed to be more consistent in how we used certain words. To do this we held a workshop to develop our shared understanding, which we could build into a controlled vocabulary for use in across our service.
We started by looking at the words used in our interviews with school leaders from alpha and into beta. Then we gathered the most common descriptive words and put them on a whiteboard. This was the starting point for a team workshop.
We separated those words into 2 columns. Those words we are:
- confident users understand
- not confident users understand
After this task we talked through words and grouped them, if it made sense to do so, then we took those groups and decided what to do with them.
If there were 2 or more similar words, we chose the one we thought our users understood best.
There were some words we chose not to use, so we documented why.
Defining resource types
We decided that we needed to define what some of the words meant within the context of our service. These words were all types of resources within the toolkit.
Instead of just defining what we meant by each resource type, we also defined:
- their purpose in the service
- information that needed to be considered when using the word in context
- what users could do with them, creating a list of associated verbs
Resource definitions
These definitions are documented in our content strategy.
Resources
Resources are used to help solve problems, make decisions and achieve a particular goal.
Case study
A case study is the story of a specific problem or solution for educational or analytical purposes.
Example
An example demonstrates a general concept, idea or solution.
Template
A template is a pre-established format or structure that provides the basis for creating documents or policies.
Presentation
Presentations are ideas and activities on a specific topic for SLT to work through with staff.