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I am by no means an IT quamby, but I find UC Space clunkier than riding an out-of-control elephant! See, it appears I stuffed this page up! It is a good idea, but I doubt the resources needed to bring this up to speed are really worth investing. I believe WebCT is a better platform for this type of forum, as is phpBB. Oh yeah, if anyone wants to disagree with me, I encourage debate, but have the courage to login before laying down your criticism!
Michael de Percy.
Hi Michael. Thanks for saying it like it is. IMHO, like anything, it depends what you want to use a tool for as to whether it's going to do the job. Confluence (the UCSpace software) isn't a really discussion forum. It's a pretty good corporate wiki (once the basics are worked out) which is in trial stage. It can also be used to blog. Little effort has been put into training, etc. I raised several issues about UCSapce at the recent [ICTS Users Forum] and the outcome was that its being investigated whether to bring it out of trial stage. That process would hopefully include some kind of evaluation. So I think your comments are important ones. FYI, there also some other ICTS trials going on to find a discussion forum (other than Listproc) and a blogging platform. For myself, I've enjoyed using Confluence as alternative to WebCT this semester in teaching Social Psychology, but had a headstart on using wikis from past editing of Wikipedia, etc. I've also got a pretty long wishlist which I've been gradually putting through the servicedesk. Sincerely,
James Neill
G'day Michael. UCSpace is not a bulletin board. Sure, you can force it to do the job but it is not designed for that purpose and other tools do the job better. UCSpace is primarily a wiki and it is pretty good when used for this function. [Andrew Read]
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u123387 says:Apr 04, 2007 21:01 ( Permalink ) |
Anonymous says:I don't like the fact that you have to scroll right down to the end of the comments to find the latest one. I'd prefer the latest comments to appear at the top of the page, rather than the bottom, or for a link to be available at the top of the page to go to the latest comment. Saves scrolling down everytime. |
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Sue Demoor says:I definitely agree. I would like to see current comments on top. |
Anonymous says:Good on this, good on it!!! But seriously, this doesn't know me, it doesn't know the mountains i've climbed or the fields i skipped through Still good on it Kaka |
Anonymous says:This "UCspace" is so hard to use!!!!! sometimes I just cant find the "LOGIN" icon May be better if you guys make it more friendly so we all can use it |
Anonymous says:IT MUST BE FIXED!! I CANT HANDLE THIS AT ALL. IT JUST MAKES ME WANT TO SHOUT AND SCREAM AND THROW THONGS AT MY PC. |
Anonymous says:Q1 - no - it might be a good wiki, but is a poor discussion forum tool. I only come here if directed - there is "nothing" here of interest to me. Perhaps we need to see the "classified ads e.g. want to buy a dog" posted here. Better structures / topics. If UC ceased putting attachments in emails and either put in links to the intranet or to this site, then it would receive a lot more traffic. Default Font size is way too small. Was this software usability tested by the Disabilities Office? The differeneces between being anonymous and logging in are annoying i.e. you see quite different lists of topics. By logging in I was expecting to see a 'super-set' of topics, not a different set. Apparent inability to 'sort' topics, or by author. Cannot collapse topic threads Not really usable as a teaching tool as you have to add each student individually (not feasible for 100+ student unit). I will try it again for a smaller unit next semester - and see what feedback the students give me. This is a 'toy' discussion tool - not even as good as WebCT (which I refuse to use). Not that I'm any great fan of Sharepoint but it offers many more and better features for use as a discussion forum (sort by author, date, topic, etc, etc), facility to post / share documents, is able to host surveys (and analyse or export them) - although we probably would have to buy an academic licence. When I went to post it gave me an error message that the "typed word did not match the text in the picture" - it did actually - the picture was blank! And when I typed in the word in the picture it still complained - perhaps it might work the 3rd time!! |
Anonymous says:These comments are essentially nonsense! If you had taken the time to actually look around or perhaps proof read the rubbish you had written you may discover that the features you say don't exist are actually available!! Next time I'd suggest you leave your sponsored preference for Microsoft products behind and evaluate a product professionally rather than shoot off inaccurate comments based on your bias. |
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s650786 says:Hi, I am from the ICT Applications team and I hope to be able to improve things with Confluence. Thanks for taking the time to enumerate all your observations. I think they will help greatly. I can't make any promises at this stage. The Confluence application itself is a very capable beast but it needs taming by both the people who installed it, and the people who train the users to use it. Not only do I understand all the criticisms made in this comment, but I essentially agree most of them. It will take me some time to get my head around the documentation for this product and then I need to get a handle on the current configuration situation. I think many of the most annoying problems may be simple to fix, like implementing a new template which has bigger text and better navigation and is more inline with our corporate branding. I fear that the commenting system is doomed to be weak as it is a commenting system and not really intended to be a discussion forum (which is a shame). It may be possible to write some extensions to the software to improve the critical short-falls. Don't get your hopes up. One of the ways we can have a quick win in the university is to use it for more of our documentation (while we do not yet have a formal document management system). Even if you don't want to write documentation inside the system itself, you can attach doc files to spaces and they will be picked up in the text search. This business of creating large stores of document files on the network is so 1990. This should be a no-brainer but other aspects of Confluence need to be improved first so that people can use it again. I think a big part of the problem is expectations. The functionality of this tool bleeds into a number of different areas (CMS, wiki, blog, document management, forums) but is really first and foremost a wiki (ad-hoc knowledgebase). People expecting it to be a discussion forum will be disappointed. It would be nice if it was a proper discussion forum. It would be cool (ie. people would use it more) if it was a social networking tool too but that's just not gonna happen. I think the production of "spaces" and access needs to be controlled more so that we can improve the organisation of everything. I don't think people should be able to post anonymously at all. it just creates mess (as you can see) and degrades the overall quality of the system. On the technical front, Confluence is very extensible and i would like to look at building more UC applications directly into confluence itself. It should also be possible to integrate it with other systems in the university - who knows, maybe webCT or the new learning objects repository. Plenty of investigations to be done there. At the moment, I am checking into the groups situation. ideally, we should be able to manage (student/staff) groups in Active Directory (AD is what windows uses to log you in and it is how we set permissions on network file shares). I'm pretty sure that confluence can use AD groups so that you can create spaces for students and then assign the appropriate group instead of having to add individual students to the group. Same with staff. This one may require some serious thought but I think it is worth the effort. |
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James Neill says:Hi Terence, Just found this very decent reply with many suggestions I agree with most of your surmising about UCSPace (plus there's some points I would want to discuss/consider further). SHORT-TERM suggestion: I think this space needs to deleted and a new one created to better organise comments and questions around UCSpace. Useful comments/issues should be transferred over and for the new space adjust the permissions to remove anonymous commenting. Note that this can be done on any space. The overall functionality of anonymous commenting does not need wholesale removing. Also note that this space was originally set up by a student (I think). The admin for the space is not is no longer actively around to tidy-up. My sense is that this space arose in response to the lack of an ICTS-initiated space for discussing issues and asking questions. It has served its purpose. Thanks for getting positively on board. |
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s650786 says:Sorry I took so long to reply, there is a lot happening. I'm holding off on spending any time on this system because we may be getting new software which overlaps or even completely replaces confluence. Don't worry, it will be good In the mean time, I'm still using confluence myself to do all my doco - in other words, don't hold your breath, these things take time. I found a way to easily change the font size since that was not only annoyingly small, it was just plan inaccessible. James, giveen your apparent experience, I've granted you full access to this space. There is no way i am going to have time to spend on this. Just remember, confluence may be replaced next year so don't over-invest in it.
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Anonymous says:Why doesn't the "picture" appear when you click on "Reply To This"? But does appear the 2nd time? |
Anonymous says:It's a really good idea, but needs some refinement, and thongs apparently |
Anonymous says:I hope you are all referring to the footwear. I agree UCSpace is a juvenile sort of discussion forum, things seem quite unorganised and it's hard to keep track. But then I would have no idea how to fix it so what can you do. Technology is beyond me. |
Anonymous says:Yes, and your strong opinions show no bias whatsoever In any case, I take your point that an unconstructive response to your comments may have exposed the overall IT illiteracy among academics at this institution. Perhaps we all should promote programs to assist in overcoming this disadvantage? |
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Anonymous says:Just so there's no confusion, I am not the same person who made the initial comments - I'm not an academic but I'm interested in people's thoughts on Confluence's user-friendliness. I'm guessing it is easier to use than trying to manipulate WebCT, I don't know for sure, as I'm on the student-end. I do think IT literacy is probably not terribly high amongst all academics - some are definitely better at it than others - I heard a while back that another system was suggested for use (Blackboard?) but it was the admin area who weren't keen on changing everything over, even though it would have been upgrading in line with other institutions? Don't quote me on that though..... Anyway, if you do have some useful tips which would make using UCSpace easier - do pass them on. For instance, how can we get the latest comment to appear at the top rather than the bottom of the screen? And how do we get the News area to appear first? The reason I'm against strong opinions directed at individual's comments is because I wouldn't want people to feel discouraged at sharing their opinions - I want to hear them. |
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Peter John Stevenson says:I am still learning my way around the UC-Space communication tool. I created a personal space out of interest like a blog... so not sure if it stays on-line once you log off. For example my yahoo blog can be viewed 24/7 by people who want to learn something about your experiences or whatever. Maybe the university could have some workshops for people interested in learning how to use the system as like any new program it takes time to know how it works. You just have to look at the Psychology Department to see the vast array of information that has been submitted to realise UC-Space can work...so its just a matter of learning what to do.Pete. |
Anonymous says:Yeah.... you may want to look at: |
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Peter John Stevenson says:I think confluence works okay...I was frustrated at first as it was hard to know how to post something of quality. It can be done but may not be something someone with limited IT skills could adapt to efficiently. Pete |
Anonymous says:Its about as easy as trying to use osis...... which is also impossible. Why the hell is every part of UC online technology so difficult to use. WHO MAKES THE DECISIONS TO USE RUBBISH LIKE THIS!?? I am yet to find what I am actually looking for........AWESOME |
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Malcolm Townley says:I agree -- a total waste of effort |
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Peter John Stevenson says:Just ignore my last comment in regards to confluence being a waste of effort. Pete. |
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Malcolm Townley says:A useless tool that provides no way of actually doing anything constructive. I cannot find a comprehensive list of all comment, pages etc by author so that I can determine who made constructive (or otherwise) additions to 'IS Jobs Registry'. This should be simple task that appears to be absolutely impossible!!! How can I make a reasonable assessment of value towards an assignment??? |
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Peter John Stevenson says:I have no idea at all about what I wrote above as it was only 3 months after having major heart surgery. Just ignore the above post I made in August of 2007...must have been my medications. Pete. |
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Ash Taylor says:HI I share the frustration of many writers before me, however also am amazed that such a tool is being supported through the university. With relatively simple layout refinement, an accessible 'how to'doc and a little promotion (yep that would be the marketer in me) i think this space could be a self regulating/organinsing piece of interactive art. Great work and congrats to those who have the vision to try and implement these systems -in face of the beauracratic issues and negativity that come with slow progress. Fingers crossed that the budget/time is made available for development. |
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William Robert Orr says:I can't help but feel that some of the pieces posted here demonstrate the inherent weakness of Wiki based fora. If people decide to treat it spaces like this one as a venue for (mildly) humorous graffiti, then it's hard to see what benefit there is in multi-user moderation. Open fora are fabulous venues for interaction, discussion and collaboration, but they run the risk of being maltreated to the point where they become fundamentally worthless. I can see real merit in the promotion, and use, of Confluence, but I fear it will become little more than a 'member-only' Facebook or MySpace social network utility for an exclusive clientele. Bill. |
Do you think UCSpace works well as a communication forum?
Tell us how it could be improved or what you would prefer?
What do you like/dislike about UCSpace?