We poured blood, sweat and tears into launching the new version of Platform, the OU's community website, and we hope you'll take a look and try out some of the new features, such as the noticeboard and the groups. We've also tried to make it easier to find content of interest to you and linked to the subjects you may be studying. And we're still tweaking as we go. So, what do you think? We'd love to hear your comments.
A quantum leap compared with the old site, even if I do say so myself.
Onwards and upwards!
It's much better and slicker but still has a few issues. The breadcrumbs don't work properly and the forum isn't obvious when it says 'Study Support'. But on the whole much better.
Hi Sarah, yes the breadcrumb issue is certainly one we need to fix. I think that we have a fix available but want to collect a few issues together and release an update that solves a few of the problems at the same time!
I quite like the image at the top of the front page, the little peg people on what looks like a structural steel framework, but I'm not sure if it's specially designed for Platform or is supposed to reference something else. Can anyone tell me how you came to choose it?
Hi Yvonne
The image was not specially designed for Platform but we really liked it for a number of reasons. Firstly because it is clean, bright and different, just as we hope the new Platform site is. But also - and you'll need to look closely for this - each of little the peg figures are actually standing on their own individual platforms, all of which connect and interlink to make one big network. What more did we need?
Thanks
Maxine, member of the Platform team
I'm using Firefox on a Mac Pro and am finding some of the site doesn't function. For instance the tabs at the top of the home page don't work, when I tried to 'join' this group I got a 'fatal' Drupal error. I've joined the group and am posting this reply on a PC emulator using Internet Explorer and some of the graphics on this page are not appearing.
Sorry, but this site isn't working for me -- preferred the other version.
Hi
Thanks for your feedback. We'd be grateful if you could please email platform-editor@open.ac.uk and let us know what version of Firefox and any other useful info so that we can investigate the issue?
Anyone else experiencing any technical issues, please do let us know and we'll try and find solutions. Thanks.
I think it looks great - well done Platform team! Much easier to navigate round and I love the look of it too. Hope you manage to fix the little issues!
The blog section is still no improvement, sadly. No RSS; still very cumbersome to navigate around.
A lot of the links on the blogroll have been pulled from other blogs as well without being checked; e.g. "A Student Again" stopped publishing before Christmas!
Thanks David, will look into the blogroll. Site was supposed to launched a few months back when presumably the blogs were still live.
And the point about an RSS from blogs is well made.
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Jane Matthews
Platform home team
Hi David,
RSS should now be available off of all blogs. Bit of an oversight on our part!
The new site looks brilliant - really fresh with some great images. Its easy to navigate and logical.
I'm new but it looks fine to me. Hope lots of OU students are encouraged to take part to keep it nice and busy.
Havn't 'platformed' for some time. This is a bit more complicated than the old site, but looks a lot better. Like all the white space, very clean. Busy trying to find my way around, and trying not to let frustration get the better of me! Grouping a good idea, means I can avoid all those number crunchers and fizzysists,and go straight to where the real stuff is, and that is, of course humanities, where the civilized people live!
Well done. Will keep an eye on things and try to contribute now and then.
I think it's excellent, much slicker, far more interactive and looks like an integral part of the OU web-collective now.
I'm sure I speak for many of us when I say a big thanks to the Platform team for all their hard work over the last few months to get the new site up and running. You've done a marvellous job!
Here's a couple more suggestions. I think the 'In the forum's section should be near at the top of the Platform home page. Many people coming to Platform will want to get straight into chat. I don't really like the forum preview box thing. Prefer a link taking you straight to a standard (and hopefully busy) forum. Also some of the old 'last comment pre-2010' threads should be got rid of. They make the discussion section look unused. Hope that helps.
Thanks Ray. All useful stuff.
Lots of problems pulling the forums through. As you comment, we didn't actually want them all, but felt some of those offering advice and support had plenty of mileage. Will get on and do some weeding next week and meantime, you may find the groups (setting up your own) offers a easier and more intuitive way to get a conversation going.
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Jane Matthews
Platform home team
Overall it's a great step forward, the integrated auth is good and the layout is nice and simple. I've found a few issues though in Chrome on Linux, profile pictures are broken and sometimes the breadcrumbs render a few unnecessary chevrons but nothing catastrophic. I dont understand the concept of having to join a forum, if I cancel it I see the forum anyway but in a different view, bit confusing. Good work though!
To sum it up....
Could have done better
I'm only now getting in to the new Platform - a combination of being ill and a TMA (finally submitted this evening) saw to that.
My main monitor is 1900x1200, with my 800x1280 Tablet PC screen alongside. I'm not short of screen 'real estate' (though you can always find a use for more!) and usually operate with a 1200px or wider browser window. Having spent several hours working with the very text dense LexisLibrary (one of the major law databases) today, it was a surprise to see Platform's forum content constrained within a relatively narrow strip. Platform doesn't attempt to use some of the available width, which appears as vertical grey bars, whilst a fair chunk of the width that is used is taken up by the material at the top right of the page.
I appreciate that readability imposes an upper bound on the number of words per line that is advisable, at least for the default layout. Indeed, the problem is not so much with the thread display, but with the editor. The editor feels like I'm in the 800x600 days and is not resizable.
What I found particularly surprising is how the column width and text size are related to the browser default. Thinking that the limited size of the editor would work better with a smaller font, and recognising Times New Roman as my browser default, I changed Firefox from Times New Roman 16 to Verdana 12, expecting to see a more usable editor. I got smaller Verdana text in the editor, but both the column width and the text used to display the thread content shrank in proportion!
Some constraints are likely to be a side-effect of having to work within the OU's house CSS, but can anything be done to allow Platform to make better use of my monitors? Having the font size in the WYSIWYG editor of a similar size to the text used to display the thread content would help a great deal.
I have also noted the faulty 'breadcrumbs'. In addition, I can neither find some of the old forum content, nor the equivalent of the page that used to be under My Account that displayed all threads you had participated in. If I'm missing something here, please tell me!
Those issues aside, the move to single sign on and visual coherence with the remainder of the OU online presence are very welcome, as is the fresher look and feel. I do not underestimate the challenge it has been to get this far and look forward to Platform's continuing development.
Regarding the sign-on.
Would it be possible to make a change such that if you sign in from a Platform page, that after signing in you are taken back to the Platform page? At present, you can be on Platform, click the sign on link and then end up on Student home rather than coming back to Platform.
Susan
Hi Susan
Thanks for this - we have this on our 'snagging' list, which our tech team are working through.
I have exactly the same issue - sometimes after you sign in there is a link at the bottom of the page that says something like 'return to the page I was on', but you might need to scroll to find that link. Or after you've logged on, in StudentHome, if you click on the OU Life logo in the top navigation, then go to "See OU online communities" in the right hand column.
I've also found that because I use Platform a lot, once I've logged on, if I just start typing 'Platform' into the address bar at the top of my browser (I use Firefox) then it brings up the Platform address to select.
Hope this helps!
Kate
(Platform Team)
Thanks Kate
Yes, typing into the address bar tends to work and I've also got a direct link to the group that I administer in my bookmarks.
I have to say that I do find navigating within the group a bit strange at times and quite often have to resort to the bookmark to get me back to the group front page. I think this may be partly down to the breadcrumb thing not working.
Another request I would like to make is can the groups caterories be re-visited. Unfortunately there is no suitable category for my group (Open University Students Association in Scotland) which means it appears well down the page and might be easily missed. As there are now three OUSA groups on Platform, perhaps an OUSA category could be added? Just a thought.
Also, is it possible to have a feed from a Facebook page in a group (like on the Platform front page)? I did try the group rss feeds tab but was unable to make it work. It might be something that I am doing wrong though as I'm not very experienced with social networking concepts.
Thanks
Susan
Hi Susan
Re revisiting the groups, the answer is I dont know, but I will feed this back to the folk who do.
Re the RSS feed, you need to have an RSS feed on the Facebook page you link to for it to work. Is that the case?
Yvonne
Hi Yvonne
Thanks for this. Not sure about the RSS feed on the facebook page as I'm not actually on Facebook myself. The page I was trying to link to is
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=114085388633021&v=wall
If it's something the Facebook group administrators need to set up, I can certainly ask them to do that.
Susan
Hi again
I'm not expert myself but I looked at the page and there doesnt appear to be an RSS feed on it. if you want to see what an RSS feed looks like look on the BBC website http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/ and on the top right is the RSS symbol, if you click on you get through to the feed and that's the url you'd link to if you wanted to out that feed on your page (obviously you don't). I dont know how to set them up; I will get some advice tomorrow and again, get back.
Yvonne
Hi Susan
Sorry that you're having some difficulties on Platform, we're having a few teething troubles since launching and the developers are working hard to iron all our issues out - including the broken breadcrumbs. I agree, it's tricky to navigate your way back to your group after posting something and this will be fixed shortly - the title of the group as it appears on the right hand side after you've posted new content will be a clickable link back to your group homepage.
I've also added some new group categories too - there's one called students with the OUSA groups will fit under. If you edit your group you can reassign which interest group it belongs to.
As for the RSS feed, yes, it's possible to pull content through from third party sites as long as you can subscribe to them via RSS. I've just visited the OUSA Scotland group page on Facebook but can't find a feed. If it does have one and you email it to me - r.l.bateman@open.ac.uk - then I'll activate it on your group for you.
Hope that helps!
Thanks, Robyn
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Robyn Bateman (member of the Platform team)
Thanks again Robyn
No problem with the teething troubles, I'll just be patient.
I'll need to talk to the group administrators for the Facebook page I was trying to link to. Hopefully they can set up the necessary RSS feed.
Susan
I'm sorry but I find this site almost unuseable.
Previously when studying MST121 and M221, there were links to discussions about each Block of the course. Now, I come on here, and 15 minutes or searching I have still not found any place for discussion about my specific courses.
Last year I could read and post specific questions about parts of the course. I have not yet found anywhere to do that here. If there is no facility for this, I think the decision to remove it was seriously misguided. If there is a facility, then I have not yet managed to find it.
I may persevere but there is a chance I don't visit Platform again. I use many forums and have not found one as difficult to navigate as this.
I am sure that the team has worked very hard on this, but I fail to see how any progess has been made from what was a very simple and in my opinion successful system that I used last year.
I hope this comment is taken in the manner, of hopefully constructive criticism, that it was written.
If you are looking for your module forums, they are not hosted on Platform.
Go into StudentHome, click on the "Module website and record" link and look towards the bottom of the page for a "Student forums" section. On W200, the forum is branded "Student Cafe".
If there are no such forums for your module(s), then it is best to discuss the matter with the module team(s) responsible.
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