DIVERSE Update: OAuth

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 technical problems..

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!

Meeting with ICT 15/09/2011

Just a quick update in terms of DIVERSE’s development. Following on from a meeting with ICT today DIVERSE now has access to information stored by some of the universities other projects such as Nucleus. This access allows for a few improvements  to be made to DIVERSE. Firstly this  information allows us to make DIVERSE more personalised, so students will get a more relevant selection of resource clouds based on their course. Secondly  this update also allows the DIVERSE team to access more detailed analytics about how DIVERSE is used, which will ultimately help us to shape the development of the DIVERSE tool more effectively, as well as also helping assist us in our ongoing research.

So stay tuned, the current aim is to have these updates fully deployed alongside the upcoming course sites within the next few weeks.

Recent News

Just dropping by with a quick update about what we’re doing here at DIVERSE. We’ve stepped back from developing the clouds for a short while to focus on researching similar tools to that of DIVERSE. We’re hoping through a deep analysis that we’ll be able to build on existing work to help make DIVERSE even better! Once we’ve carried out some research we’ll get back to making DIVERSE even better!

Keep posted for any new updates.

– DIVERSE