EXPLORING WEB CONTENT STRATEGY CURRICULA AND BUSINESS PRACTICES IN INFORMATION SCIENCES

Abstract

This exploratory study seeks to understand the knowledges, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) within web content strategy. In 2009, the IA Summit officially recognized the discipline of web content strategy; however, discussions on web content strategy date back to as early as 1996 in the early days of the internet. Academia and industry have been working within web content strategy but focus on different subject areas. Industry, for example, has over six working definitions for web content strategy that complement and conflict with one another. Academia instead focused on how to separate software code from content. To determine what KSAOs aligned between academia and industry, course syllabi and job advertisements were collected and coded against formal definitions of KSAOs and a KSAO node framework. Additionally, instructors and professionals were surveyed to provide additional insight on web content strategy KSAOs. The study found that while there were several KSAO nodes in agreement between industry and academia, survey results alluded to where there is room for KSAOs to improve.