Important notice

We are upgrading our VLE (Moodle) installations. Most have been upgraded, but but are providing two versions of this site to support the few that haven't.

If you find that the guidance here does not match your course, you can access the other site at: http://onlinesupport-m19.conted.ox.ac.uk.

You are viewing the new (Moodle 2) support site.

To determine if you are on the correct site, compare the top of your course with these images:

  1. A horizontal grey bar above a blue area, with white text.
    Old version - Use http://onlinesupport-m19.conted.ox.ac.uk
  2. An entirely blue area, with white text.
    New version - Use this site

When the upgrade is complete, all the online support will be on http://onlinesupport.conted.ox.ac.uk/.

Updated: 2013-01-02.

Bookmarking tools

What are they?

You can 'bookmark' websites that you will want to come back to using your web browser (on Mozilla Firefox, Bookmarks > Bookmark this page, and on Internet Explorer, Favorites > Add to favorites). However, details of any bookmarks you create in this way are stored on your computer so you can't access them if you use a different computer.

Web-based bookmarking tools exist that allow you to collect your bookmarks on one website and access them from any computer. Additionally, bookmarking tools:

  • enable you to categorise your links through the use of tags (classifications that you can devise to help you retrieve links on related topics), and
  • allow you to share your bookmarks with anyone else who uses the same tool (though you can choose to keep some or all of your links private).

For a basic overview (with an American perspective) of how these tools work you may want to watch this short video from Common Craft.

How could they help me with my learning?

By keeping all your information about bookmarks in one place, and making it easy to find and sort them using tags, bookmarking tools make retrieving information much more straightforward. In addition, if you decide to use the "social" aspects of a bookmarking service, looking at resources others have tagged can help you find sites you might not have otherwise encountered. The Department has started to tag all the websites used in our short courses under OxfordOnlineShortCourses in the bookmarking tool Delicious. You may find it useful to use the tags here to see all the sites used on a course, in a subject or sorted in other ways.

How can I start using one?

Social bookmarking services tend to be free to use. Three of the most popular are:

For a quick overview to get started with Delicious go to delicious.com/help/getStarted.