Just a quick update today. Following on from my previous post last week I am pleased to announce that DIVERSE now has a dedicated support page. This support page can be accessed here and contains a knowledge base and also allows visitors to open support tickets regarding DIVERSE. This allows us to centralise the technical support for DIVERSE and makes it more manageable as we roll out DIVERSE to students.
We’ve recently updated our video library to bring you even more instructional videos on how to use DIVERSE! These new videos walk you through the process of installing and using the toolbar; check them out here!
Earlier today we met up with the two interested faculties (Business & Law and Health, Life & Social Sciences) to demonstrate DIVERSE and also arrange its integration into modules in the coming weeks.
This meeting allowed us to demonstrate the DIVERSE tool and provided us a good opportunity to gauge opinions on the tool, as well as gather any improvements that we could incorporate; for example some features mentioned in this meeting were overlooked previously, but will be integrated into DIVERSE shortly. Similarly a positive point to take away from this meeting was that there is definite interest in the DIVERSE tool and that on first impressions the tool itself seems simple and accessible.
In terms of the outcomes of this meeting, myself and Max have arranged to work with both faculties and provide support as the faculties begin testing the tool in their respective faculties. Furthermore we plan to set up a support hub this week for lecturers and students alike to use in order to provide good technical support for DIVERSE throughout the projects life. Additionally based on feedback we will be rolling out some extra functionality for DIVERSE ready for its full deployment to students in the near future.
An essential goal of DIVERSE is simplicity, and so we aim to make the DIVERSE tool simple and easy to use. As part of this we have just started releasing instructional videos for DIVERSE which supplement the original user guide. The idea is that these videos will provide a virtual walkthrough of the many aspects of DIVERSE for new users.
These videos are all located on the DIVERSE Videos Page
Following on from my last post about our meeting with ICT, OAuth is now integrated into DIVERSE; this update was somewhat delayed as a result of the technical issues outlined previously.
As part of OAuths integration a number of changes have been made to DIVERSE so far, with many more planned in the near future.
Currently the changes are centred on the toolbar, for users this means once they have signed in they receive a more personalised content through the toolbar, and so will only get options to add links to clouds that are part of their course. Similarly when a signed in users tries to like/dislike a link it now defaults to relevant clouds that are associated with their course. The concept behind this is that it provides a cleaner user experience for the user.
This change also affects the main DIVERSE application, as introducing course specific content filtering means the structure of the application is undergoing some changes. So this means future clouds addresses will become http://diverse.lincoln.ac.uk/index.php?module=MODCODE&topic=TOPICNAME.
Although the current plan is that these ugly URLs will be turned into more user friendly URLs in the near future. When this happens instead of http://diverse.lincoln.ac.uk/index.php?module=MODCODE&topic=TOPICNAME the link would be http://diverse.lincoln.ac.uk/module/cloudname ; which is much nicer and easier to remember.
However at the same time we want to allow users to experiment and use DIVERSE freely, and so as part of this update a separate sandbox is being created which will allow users to create their own clouds; this sandbox will be reached by users like this http://diverse.lincoln.ac.uk/101/mycloudname.
Other planned updates include a few additions to the toolbar such as the inclusion of the universities link shortening service linking you, as well as the introduction of course sites ahead of DIVERSEs full deployment in the near future.
A few of you may have noticed that diverse.lincoln.ac.uk has been down over the past week or so; firstly we want to apologise and ensure you that we’re working hard to get it back up and running again! A few changes have been made within the University that has led to us having some network issues. We’ve identified the problem and we’re talking to ICT to help get it fixed as soon as possible; we can assure that you everything will be back up and running in time for the influx of new students!
Stay posted for more updates!