Assignment 2 : "Designing a Virtual Community - which way to go"

Virtual Community for Certified Accountants-To-Be

Community Needs

Community Aims

Several objectives are targeted to achieve in this community proposed, such as:-

• Allow people who are interested in being a certified accountant to find out more information about CA and CPA

• Update the latest news and courses changes in CA and CPA

•  Enable both CA and CPA students to exchange opinions and experiences about their courses

•  Allow interested certified accountants-to-be to post questions about CA and CPA

•  Allow interested certified accountants-to-be to compare both CA and CPA courses easily

•  Enable fresh accounting graduates to find a accounting related job easily

•  Provide tips for fresh accountants to get through in their jobs

•  Allow pupils who are going to take up these accounting course to find a mentor that is near their living place easily

Functions Needed

In order to achieve the above listed community aims, the functions which is shown below would be needed.

Registration Process

This process allows people to register as a member of this community. Information such as name, date of birth, location, email address, their current qualification and studies could be recorded to allow personalisation of in the community to occur. Personalisation would involve greetings to members once they log in, and whether important dates and news about the community to be send to them, and how frequent the discussion board update would be send to them, and etc. In addition, the geographical popularity of the website could be follow up to market the website more accurately.

Discussion Forums

This discussion forum will allow members and public to post questions, answers and comments on issues related to both the courses. Any people would be allowed to start a new discussion topic with a subject name registered at the start of the discussion to allow easy traceable topic for the users of the community. Identity of the people who post message is allowed to be anonymous to the public, but notify by the administrator of the website.

Chat Rooms

Real-time conversation among community members could be held in chat rooms. This could provide a better sense of belonging to the members of the community, therefore, members would be more desired to visit this community more frequently. At times, people from CA and CPA would be invited to the chat room to provide a talk on their courses, and members could take this opportunity to ask questions and improve their understandability of their courses.

Mailing List Notification

This tool will be use, firstly, for sending greetings to welcome members, and their registered identification name and password. If members choose the option for sending important dates reminder, this tool will take place to send the notification to its subscribers.

Frequently Asked Questions

This section will post the frequently asked questions by the members and public. If a particular question is mention frequently in either the discussion boards, chat rooms or email by the members or public, the administers will post that particular questions in this section for the convenience of public and members.

Latest News

This section will notify the public with changes and events held that are related with CA and CPA. It will appear at the very first page of the community, so that members could be easily updated with the latest news about CA and CPA. About 5 scripts of the short moderated news would be posted in the first webpage, and the rest of the news would be place at another webpage that is linked. Older news could be achieved in a news folder for the members' research purposes.

Course Structure and Price Comparison

A table list of both CA and CPA courses' structure and price would be structured in order for better comparison between the two courses. Both courses' requirements for the applicants should also be shown in the table too.

Search Engine

A few search engines will be provided in the community for the convenience of the members and public. The search engines are listed below:-

• Website Search Engine

  This search engine is for general web search only. For example, word or phrase that are listed within the website, or to achieve any older news that are saved in the news folders. Like other search engines, the closest match to the search item should be listed at the first 10 searched results, to the least relevant.

   

• Job Search Engine

  As defined by its name, it only allows people to search a job according to the location desired. Thus, an Australian map will be provided for people to click on. There would also be a list of check boxes to let people to 'check' on the multiple locations.

   

• Mentor Search Engine

  This search engine works exactly the same as Job Search Engine, but this is for the members to allocate a mentor they desired which is near their place. An Australian map will be provided for people to click on, and check boxes will be available for people to 'check' on multiple locations.

Events Calendar

A calendar of important dates and upcoming events would be show in this webpage. Dates which have events recorded will allow public and members to click on the date for more details about the dates. Events recorded in the events calendar will include enrolment deadline of the courses, invited guests from CA or CPA to chat in the chat room, education expedition that will be held in certain location of Australia, and etc.

Contact Us

At the beginning of this webpage, there would have 3 option buttons, which are:-

- General and Course Enquiries

- Job Registration Enquiries

- Mentor Registration Enquiries

Thus, explanation would be listed below each option, as general and course enquiries are for general enquiries that are related to the both courses or others. While job registration enquiries are for companies who are interested in posting their accounting related jobs in our website. And, mentor registration enquiries are for people who are interested in mentoring CA and CPA pupils. By dividing these enquiries according to their categories, the email messages could be process more organize. Companies who are interested in posting their jobs online and people who are interesting in mentoring pupils would be approach by us when their email is being process.

Website Map

This webpage will list down the pages and structure of the community, so that users could get their way through the community more easily.

|   Introduction   |   Community Areas   |  Community  Needs   |   Aspect Assessment   |   Technologies Proposed   |

|   Plans   |   Strategies   |   References   |

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