You are here: — OUSA Home » Direct Services » About OUSA Online Forums

• About OUSA online forums

About OUSA online forums

OUSA provides a whole host of online public forums where O U students can meet to socialise, make new friends and get to feel part of a real student community. Having not long moved from their old home to the Open University’s Virtual Learning Environment, the forums are firmly established in their new area and it’s business as usual in all of the regular meeting places.

OUSA is proud of its online contribution to student life and works hard to provide this service for the benefit of its members. Over the years, the number of online forums has flourished and OUSA is proud to boast that all forums are moderated by students for students. They range from the study related to the fun and frivolous and include areas of serious debate, areas of informal chat as well as places where you can gain some peer support and areas where you could be asked for the benefit of your advice.

OUSA’s online public forums can be accessed by O U Students at: OUSA's Online Forums or from Student Home. Look for 'O U Student Association Forums' in the left hand column.

Whatever your interests, hobbies, or academic area, OUSA probably has an online forum to suit you and if you can’t find the forum you’re looking for, simply go to the Forum Request Forum at OUSA Forum Requests to put your idea forward and get advice about what’s required before a new forum can be up and running.

OUSA’s ‘Spirit of the Forums’ describes what is expected of contributors to the OUSA Forums. This can be found on page 5 of the Comprehensive Guide to the OUSA Forum Service found below. In addition to this each individual forum has its own ‘Spirit’ pasted in its area which explains how the individual forum operates – what’s up for discussion in each area and what’s acceptable by way of contributions. Underpinning the service is the Open University’s Student Computing Code of Conduct and online Systems Guidelines which the OUSA Moderators work hard to upkeep ensuring that members don’t contravene any of the University’s computing regulations. These documents can be found in the OU Computing guide accessed at Open University Computing Guide

Once you’re a regular user of the forums and familiar with finding your way around – you might want to join our team of student Moderators.

You can find details about becoming a Moderator, the commitment required and what the role entails in section C of the Comprehensive Guide.

OUSA Controller oversees the online service during office hours from Monday to Friday. This is a virtual identity, managed by OUSA staff under the overall control of the OUSA President.

OUSA’s Comprehensive Guide to the Forum Service offers a thorough insight into the operation but if you have any further queries or questions about OUSA’s online forums you can email the OUSA Controller’s mailbox at OUSA-Controller@openmail.open.ac.uk