Archive for November, 2011

Thank you to those of you who attended last week’s Web Forum.  Following an update on web projects from Pamela Agar, the session focused on the current revamp of College news online.

Caroline Davis, Head of Communications, talked through how the College currently handles news online, the enhanced functionality that an improved publishing system will bring and what a new News site might look like.  We’ll be posting more details about the project and full previews of the draft designs shortly.

• Download the presentation slides (pdf)
• View a video podcast of the Forum (coming soon)

There have been lots of new improvements made to the media player – the way in which videos look in web pages has been tweaked and the functionality enhanced.

Here’s a list of the things that are either new or improved:

• A ‘skip intro’ button has been added allowing you to skip over the Imperial intro bumper.
• An on-screen ‘share’ button allows you to easily share the video you’ve been watching through different social media such as Twitter, Facebook, delicious, digg and StumbleUpon.
• It is now easier to embed multiple videos on a single page without the need to customise the embed code.
• The player will display videos which have the same tags. The ‘Show related links’ area displays this content inside the video container with a new slick slide-y interface.
• The embed code is shorter and more simplified with an option to choose ‘standard’ or ‘widescreen’ format. This has replaced the old ‘choose a tag’ option. The tags are now included in the embed code.
• Viewers can now choose to watch the video in full screen view.

One of the main improvements, which you won’t notice whilst watching a video, is technical:

• The player (which is now a hybrid HTML5/flash player) will auto-detect and preferentially use HTML5 over flash if it exists, and as a whole it’s more stable.

I’m pleased to let you know that the 2011-12 official student blogs launched today.

From 40 applicants, a team of 12 bloggers have been selected, including three members of the 2010-11 blogging team.  Representing all Faculties, the team of undergraduate and postgraduates have now begun sharing their experiences as new and continuing students.

• Visit the new look homepage to show your support by reading their latest posts and leaving a comment.

Help promote the student blogs

If you want to advertise the blogs on your own website, let us know – we’re developing an advert that can be easily embedded on College web pages.  Just comment on this post, or contact your Faculty Web Officer.

Also get in touch if you have a blogger representing your department/course and are keen to incorporate a feed of posts from their bog onto your website.

More about the student blogs

The opportunity to become an official Imperial student blogger was promoted throughout Welcome Week.  Students keen to join the team were asked to write 600 words about their life as a student, with entries judged by a panel from Imperial College Union and Communications and Development Division.  The panel were keen to ensure a good cross section of disciplines, nationalities and years amongst the bloggers, as well as having a team of engaging and enthusiastic bloggers.

Our bloggers aim to blog at least once a week on their life as a student at Imperial, and are encouraged to include photos and videos in their blogs.  They aren’t paid, but receive incentives and prizes during their time on the team.  All bloggers receive a digital camera and other goodies when they join, and each month our “blogger awards” recognise those who blog most regularly, who receive the most comments and who try unusual approaches to reporting.  In order to ensure an authentic student voice, we monitor but don’t pre-moderate the blogs and the bloggers themselves review and approve comments.

We hope that you enjoy reading and commenting on the student blogs.  Let us know what you think!