Despite my efforts to make the course interface as simple as possible, I’m getting feedback that students are finding it difficult to find their way around, and get all of the information that they need. A couple have mentioned that they would prefer something a bit more like Blackboard. 
I’m not quite sure what to do about this. I’m going to run a tutorial with some of the students who are having difficulty sometime in the next couple of weeks, and that should clarify exactly what the issues are (as it seems like it should be straightforward enough to me).
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April 12, 2008 at 4:17 am
hillarypjenkins
Interesting feedback – I think the interface is too wordy especially in the second or sometimes third pages and wonder if we could use links to provide all the info say about unit standards or requirements of course. It would be a good subject to discuss together.
April 14, 2008 at 10:58 am
leighblackall
Actually I am not surprised Dave. You have many parts to the interface right? You have the RSS start page, through to the may course blogs, through to the complex wiki… can all that be simplified? Ever since your talk on Wikieducator I have been reconsidering the structure that we have been using. I’m becoming a fan of the course schedule on one page approach. Feedback on this hs been positive from our students nd I’m not surprised. With an RSS feed on the page it really is a one stop shop for everything they are expected to do.. respond quickly to the feedback is my advice. That will communicate to them that you are responsive to their feedback and they may offer more detailed feedback when they see that.
April 15, 2008 at 1:49 am
davidmcquillan
Well, I’ve just received notice that I’m going to get some funding for my research project, so once I sort out some release staffing, this type of thing will now possible.
My thinking at the moment is that the wiki site could definitely do with a course schedule.
I quite like the dynamic nature of the pageflakes/blogging set up that I’m using, and I think that there are ways of improving the navigation rather than throwing it out completely. The main complaint is that people don’t know where to find things. If I provide links between the different platforms, presumably navigation should become easier. I’ve just added a box of links on the pageflakes course hub to other pages which could be useful. I could add a similar list of links on each of the course blogs, on the wikiEducator course schedule, and in the Google groups so that wherever the students are, they are only a click away from wherever else they might like to go. I think I’ll try this first before dropping the pageflakes weekly instruction channel.