You might have noticed that WebLearn has a brand-new Welcome page, which was launched on 28 July 2016. It has a fresh new look, in line with sites designed by the WISE project, and it is now easier to find help and support material.
Feedback from both students and staff has shown that users prefer a cleaner, leaner look. A surfeit of information is rather daunting, resulting in people ignoring most of it. In particular, students want help material that is clearly for them, as opposed to help material that is aimed at site maintainers. The WebLearn Guidance site still exists, offering a collection of ‘least-you-need-to-know’ guides, ‘step-by-step’ guides and short video demonstrations. Relevant parts of the Guidance site are linked to from the new Help for Students and Help for Staff pages.
Responsive design
The new Welcome page has been designed in a responsive way, for optimal display on mobile devices. For example, on a small screen, the images wrap below each other. Responsive design will work even better on the forthcoming upgraded version of WebLearn (WebLearn11), which removes the left-hand menu altogether and displays instead a tools button at the top of the screen. Site maintainers should consider “mobile first” design for WebLearn pages, e.g. don’t use fixed-width images or fixed font sizes which will not scale down on smaller screens. More information about WebLearn11 will be communicated before the launch which is expected in early September.
Help pages
The Help pages have also been improved, with up-to-date content and screenshots. They can be accessed from any WebLearn site by clicking on the Help icon in the left-hand tools menu: 
. If you are in a particular tool, click the question mark icon on the top right for context-specific help.
Contact us
Contact the WebLearn team if you have any questions or suggestions about the new Welcome page: weblearn@it.ox.ac.uk
