Thanks for the feedback, Leonne.
What do you think about the tag cloud appearing on the home page? I find it kind of fun to click on tag words & see who tagged them. But we wondered if this might make the home page too "busy."
What do you think about the Situating Ourselves block appearing on the right side of the home page? Do you think it helps or hinders the community feel?
Hi Gina,
I didn't love the tag cloud at first. I thought it did make the home page a bit cluttery-looking. But it wasn't a big deal. For most of the week I forgot about it, to be honest. It was fun to look back yesterday though at it. It was interesting when you recapped - I think on Wednesday - what some of the biggest tags were. So your drawing my attention to it helped, as I was breezing past it. I vote for keeping it!
Again, truthfully, I never noticed the Situating Ourselves block on the right hand side of the home page.
I realize, as I am describing all this, that because I'm subscribed to all the forums, I've been mostly clicking on the 'see this post in context' links in the forum post emails, and then going right to that post or forum to read...and missing the home page altogether. So an interesting question arises from this...how do students access the course and what will they miss if they usually don't even see the home page?
Beth
Thank you for this feedback! We didn't add the "Situating Block" until Wednesday, so it makes sense if you didn't notice it. It was a bit of an experiment - I had never tried the "random glossary" block before and I was curious to see what it looked like. We hoped it might humanize the main page a bit, but of course - many people never go there! Good point.
I also wondered about expanding the situating activity over a longer course and asking new situating questions throughout the term? I also thought it could be interesting to invite people to re-situate themselves "in the course" or "in the day" a few times during the term. It might become a sort-of communal journal-blog-ish-thing. At the end of the term it might be fun to use to reflect back on everyone's journeys/connections. The tags could continue or fizzle.
I'm still not sure about the glossary. Part of me likes that it doesn't send notifications (cuts down on the volume of them, at least - which students often complain about) and there is no participation requirement, so it's ok if something goes unnoticed for a while, but for folks who never go to the course page, they may never see it. Maybe reminders, like Sylvia's about the tags, would help? Or maybe a different tool. Lots to think about!
