Edited by Robert Farrow, Tuesday, 21 Sept 2010, 11:34
My first impressions of the OU StudentHome are that it's not so easy to use. Because I took a while to write a blog post I got automatically logged out and so lost my work...
This was so infuriating that I couldn't be bothered to write it again (it was mainly links to useful-looking stuff). I didn't log in again for over a week! There were three factors that contributed to this: frustration over losing work; the fact that I can't use my staff login to access my studying which is irksome and means having to remember another (spectacularly unmemorable) username/password; and having plans over the whole weekend.
It's probably fair to call the first two issues of usability. If, as an able-bodied and computer literate user I am experiencing problems like these and they are enough to dissuade me from returning to these studies, disabled users must perceive there to be even greater barriers to the success of their studies.
Getting 'started'...
My first impressions of the OU StudentHome are that it's not so easy to use. Because I took a while to write a blog post I got automatically logged out and so lost my work...
This was so infuriating that I couldn't be bothered to write it again (it was mainly links to useful-looking stuff). I didn't log in again for over a week! There were three factors that contributed to this: frustration over losing work; the fact that I can't use my staff login to access my studying which is irksome and means having to remember another (spectacularly unmemorable) username/password; and having plans over the whole weekend.
It's probably fair to call the first two issues of usability. If, as an able-bodied and computer literate user I am experiencing problems like these and they are enough to dissuade me from returning to these studies, disabled users must perceive there to be even greater barriers to the success of their studies.