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Welcome to the home of OU website co-ordination. This site aims to co-ordinate and support development across Marketing, Computing Services, Student Services, Learning & Teaching Services and all Faculties.

Online Services at the OU

Introduction


All OU website

This website is designed to explain strategic management of the web at The Open University. It is designed for anyone who may have an interest in the OU's website and the way it is managed. To understand the way we view strategic website management at the OU read the document provided below:

'Co-ordinating e-Business: Online Strategy at the OU' (October 2006)

More detail can be found on the OU intranet at:

The OU Website and online co-ordination 2007

The Open University's website generates 50 million page impressions a month and content is spread across 2000+ websites. More than 200,000 students can sign in to our online learning environment and more than £100million of online registrations are taken each year.

The role of Online Services is to:

".. understand, communicate and grow the OU's purpose on the web; particularly in key areas such as student recruitment, enhancing the OU's reputation, supporting learning and academic endeavour, and enhancing the staff working environment..."

Strategic management of the OU's website is based on the 5 key dependent principles below (and these are outlined in the main sections of this website).

  • Information Architecture: the 'town planning' for a large web site, creating an overall purpose for current information and for growth, helping each content owner understand how their pages fit into the overall site.
  • Identity: including use of logo, colour, imagery and common headers and footers, and working towards common Style Guides and Standards.
  • Strategic search engine management: including search engine optimisation (SEO) search engine marketing (SEM).
  • Meeting the customers: in terms of customer rights with regard to accessibility and privacy; usability testing and market/competitor insight.
  • Website analytics: measurement of web use for business benefit; from Google search to online registration to virtual learning environment (VLE).

This website also gives password protected links for staff and external providers.

For information about this website please contact Ian Roddis, OU Website Co-ordinator.

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