I'm braced ready and Paul has the full body armour on, so - how do you think we should improve the OCA website?

We have ideas. We know the website should not just be a brochure but also a cafe, a library, potentially even the Student Union bar on a Saturday night...

We want to know your ideas. However challenging they may be  - they will be considered.

Tell us, we are listening

Gareth

Gareth, Paul I like the way the Forum and Gallery are better integrated into the overall site, that makes it an improvement on the previous site.

Things that annoy:1. No info when viewing images in the gallery. When viewing a picture it would be nice to see the info about medium, the course and roject it was done for etc, etc 2. In the forum, I don't know which posts I've read and which are new, this was a feature of the old forum which I liked - the bug which means that posts don't (quite) get ordered in date-of-last-post order makes this worse. (See CarrieCat's post in the General Student Forum for an example of this) 3. The ability to edit forum posts to correct my appalling schpelling (sic)4. The way that the "crumb trail" displays over the tabs at the top of the page (at least in Firefox) makes the site look a little unprofessional.Thats it for now ....

Phil

I agree with #1, 2 & 3

#4 is not a problem in Internet explorer or my AOL browser so maybe that is a firefox thing..

#5 I'd like to be able to comment on work in the gallery and recieve comments from other students too, although i realise this may be difficult. The OU's 'Open studio' from T189 might be something you could model it on..

#6 I'd like an area of the forum for people to add links to so they don't get lost in the discussions.

#7 I'd like to be able to view pdf's of course materials for the course i'm doing online, i presume that is part of the long term plan anyway but i thought i'd mention it.

#8 a list of all the recomended reading for all the courses available online so you can start getting books for your next course.

I mentioned it on the Flickr OCA group but Podcasting of course content would be handy. OU T189 had video tutorials which I found very helpful. Ought to be straightforward with the right level of resource to present tutorials on course content in the form of a Podcast.

Regards

Chris

Thanks folks - Phil Could you email me a screen grab (gdent@oca-uk.com) of the crumbs issue. I am using Firefox and can't replicate the problem.

I don't have any issues on Firefox either.

I agree with all of the above.

#9 One thing I did like on the previous Gallery was the ability to create folders -  Assignment 1, Assignment 2,  General Stuff etc within your own OCA generated folder. (You used to be able to comment on people's work as well.)

# 10 There were also Galleries assigned to all the courses with all their separate Assignments inside ready for people to post into. At the moment clicking on the 'by course' button gets you zilch.

Back later when I think of some more!

Min

Privacy on the forums.  There should be a public forum but the student to student forums should be private for students and tutors only.

A sticky FAQ or even many sticky FAQ's

Administrators/moderators just in case!

Thanks for getting this thread going Gareth:-

#11 - An RSS feed for the discussion forums so that we know when posts have been added and similar for when there any general news items issued.

#12 - Galleries structured differently i.e. the ability to create your own sets as per Flickr or, organised by course with subdivisions so, for example, we could have images we post for others to comment upon, and we can also post samples from our assignments, probably more divisions but can't think right now.

Regards

Rog

I'm not sure what the crumb trail issue is either - I'm on Firefox and it looks fine to me.

My suggestions:

1. On the galleries, I'd like to see more functionality - ability to upload multiple files at once, ability to comment on photos, ability to categorise and search by course/assignment.  Also sometimes when you click on a photo, it's hard to see who's photo it is - this should definately be on the page with the photos.

2. Forums - as already mentioned, ability to edit/delete posts, and also spell check - normally in Firefox, it highlights misspellings and I can right click on them for the built-in spell checker - but this forum disables that right-click function. And the extra large spacing between paragraphs is annoying.

3. Forums - more private forums - I think this General forum should be public - and maybe one specifically for non-students to ask questions (there used to be an 'ask the students' forum on the old ones) because we do always get questions about 'which course should i take'.  Then the course-specific forums should be for registered users.

4. This may be harder because everyone is at different stages, but it might be nice to have some conversations on specific topics. Or maybe not so hard, if we looked at generic topics like a conversation on an artist, or an art movement.  It would be useful if it was a structured conversation (so maybe a tutor could pose some questions for us to look at and answer) - almost like a virtual tutorial.  I think we seem to struggle with the more theoretical concepts of photography and it can be hard to just read these in a book without having someone to discuss and bounce ideas with.

5. Resources of audio-visual material. Probably hard because of copyright issues - but videos, images, essays - basically a resource library (access only for students/tutors) that will help us gain a better understanding of art and the topics we are studying.

6. Slightly more achievable for a resource library would be a list of links - virtual museums, good resources for when we are doing assignments, etc.

7. Course materials online - particularly access to a online version of the recommended readings (with links to amazon?), and supplementary material like the handbook, the missing annexe on writing essays

8. Maybe a live chat facility?  These can be hard to get participation in - but if a webchat was organised at a particular time, and again maybe was a structured discussion led by a tutor/expert, it could be interesting.

This list probably ranges from easy to very difficult - but I'm just brainstorming off the top of my head.  In terms of the public area of the site, I think it's really great - I think the front page gives a good overview, the site is easy to navigate, and the course outlines are clear and the samples are useful.  I do think the focus needs to be on creating that 'virtual campus' feel to it.

The other thing (outside of the webmaster's control) is that I would love to see more participation from tutors - I know they have varying time commitments to the OCA - but as far I'm aware, Peter and Gareth are the only people who actively participate.  It would be nice to hear their views - particularly if we look at some of the ideas that I've mentioned above around discussions and a resource library.

Hi,

Any chance that we could add some geographic / mapping info about OCA students? Why? Well I've noticed a couple of threads talking about student meet ups in both Hampshire and Essex and it would be nice to be able to send a general invite out to students in the neighbourhood.

Thanks, Rog

Hi,

All of the above, but I'm also becoming quite annoyed when:-

1.  I can't find the textures competition gallery without having to go around all the swings and roundabouts.

2.  I tried uploading an image but got an error message (which has been emailed to the webmaster)

3.  I understand there is a link to Flickr, however, I have not been officially informed about it, nor can I find the link that I came across by accident a couple of weeks ago.  Surely important links could be made more prominent rather than having to scroll through all the forums!

PS:  I am a newbie so maybe I'm missing something.

Thanks folks - very useful - once we have been running this thread for a week or so, Paula and I will get our heads together and publish a 'here's what we think we are going to do about it' note for further comments. In the meantime keep the ideas coming.

@Kathy - we have been experiencing some problems this week - contractors have been moaned at and I think the error messages shouldn't occur now. If it is any consolation, the flickr group isn't official and I stumbled across it rather than being told, still I am pleased students are using the web creatively and take your point about links etc.

Gareth

Gareth - Paula? - is there something we should know? LOL

When I first started with the OCA I was quite hopeful that the forum would be a place of lively debate about art related topics, such as current exhibitions, news topics, current ideas in the art world etc. A couple of years on this seems a bit naieve, but I can't help thinking as degree students there are things we should be discussing. When I was doing a biology degree we had tutorial groups where a lecturer might facilitate a discussion and  I had an idea that something like this could be achieved using the forum. I'm sure all it would take would be to start a thread with a provocative question that a tutor has come up with (although possibly tutors wouldn't want to get involved for nothing)

The 'ways of seeing' thread is very refreshing in this respect and perhaps given what I've just said I should post a reply.

I like this idea very much.  Maybe you would like to kick it off by starting a thread on some topic in this forum and see what response you get?

OK Peter, I stand corrected. I will be honest with you and say that anything I come up with is unlikely to be the kind of stuff I had in mind, but I take the challenge and will try to think of something.

Perhaps wrongly, I thought that full time art students would attend tutorial groups along the lines of the ones I had for my biology degree. Sometimes we would be asked to read an article before that we would discuss. Other times we might be given a stock question such as "Is Euglena a plant or animal?". Usually the discussion would be related directly to coursework. I think the 'ways of seeing' thread is along these lines, but I thought there might be a number of standard discussions that are had at art college and it is these that I was hoping could form the basis of some threads.

As for whether there would be a response, I have tried in the past and got none, but the ways of seeing thread has had some response.

At our college, the groups are very small so we tend not to have tutorial groups in that way.  On the other hand Critical studies does work more or less like that, particularly in the second year and informal discussions take place in the studios most of the time.

As I said, I like your idea and perhaps we could set up a time one evening for an on line discussion based around a topic.

What do others think?

Gareth

I know it's already been mentioned by purplesteffi, but I'd like to add weight to the idea of putting course notes on the web site. I guess it'll depend on the course how far you can go with this, so I'll just speak up for the writing courses. Also I know there are a number of issues to be considered as to the tutors' way of working as well.

I would be perfectly happy to conduct my writing modules online; including course materials, submitting assignments, tutor feedback and submitting work for assessment.

It doesn't need me to point out to you the savings available, but from my point of view I'd rather see cuts in prices or improvements in the courses - although I hasten to add that I've got no complaints on the latter.

I'd like to add that your proactive approach is to be commended, the forum has never been to so active. Keep it up!

Bernard

As I understand it, e-delivery of courses is on the agenda and about to be tested right now.

I would like to be able to easily link to other members galleries and information without having to sift through the list of photos. It would be nice to see other people who are doing the same course, their work and their background and location. People could have the option to make as much information as they want private so there would be no security issues. I think the old website had this set up?

I'm also having problems uploading photos into my gallery, I'm off to report it now.

K

I can't see the textiles forum any more, is there a reason for this disappearing? 

Scratch that last comment, textiles has now reappeared and printmaking disappeared.  This is something I think IT need to check out.

That's funny, now you mention it I can't see either Textiles or Printmaking.

And now suddenly they've both reappeared. Was that after logging in to reply? Maybe Paul is testing something.

Some of the forums only appear after you log in - don't know why.

Top of my list is privacy. I would like a perimeter around the Forums and the Galleries so only registered students and tutors could see, read and post. This would be for the whole forum, not like the old website where you could only see the forums for the subjects you were studying. Access for all students and tutors to all forums and galleries.

Editing, of course, and deleting of posts within a reasonable time. Paul used an interesting word last week -- "withdraw" . . . or was it "retract"? Either one is a good idea.

I'd like to add support to SaraG's and MikeB's suggestion about tutor-moderated discussions, possibly on standard topics. Oxford's online short courses operate like that. Many students don't participate in the discussions but you can't force it. Maybe you could if a percentage of the final mark depended on it.

I'd like some statistics. Such as:
How many [active] students? How many from the UK and from overseas?
How many at each level?
How many doing Photography, Writing, Painting, Textiles, etc? (My impression is that photography students outnumber all the rest of us put together.) This information could be public in the main website.

Other than that I agree with what's been said above.

I certainly agree with Mary's first three points though I think we need one public forum for potential students to request information from more than the office

I'm also interested in the statistics, There are certainly far more active participants on here that are photography students, but i wonder how many of the other students textiles, drawing etc don't even use the internet. I think photography is an area where most of us have a digital camera and so a pc etc.. It may just appear that there are more photographers. It would be interesting to know. I'm not sure it needs to be part of the website info though.

Judging by the number of students applying for assessment and hints from the office, I would suggest that there are many more students doing the photographic modules than the others  but it is strange how quiet they all are isn't it?

There used to be an 'Ask a student', or something similar, thread on the old site didn't there? That was where potential students could find out more before taking the plunge.

And I agree with folo that access to everything else should be limited to all students and all tutors.