The developers of the new oZONE student portal Web site and the creators of the “I Hate oZONE” Facebook group held a forum Wednesday evening in Dale Hall for students to make suggestions about how to improve oZONE. Including the eight members of the forum’s panel, less than 20 people showed up to the forum.
This forum was the fifth this semester. About 25 people total have attended the five forums. The dismal turnout looks even worse when compared to the size of the “I Hate oZONE” group, which has 1,928 members as of Wednesday night.
Basically, it appears that a lot of people are unhappy with oZONE, but hardly anyone is willing to attend forums that would allow them to help improve the site. We are kind of disheartened by this, and we think students should stop complaining about the site if they are not willing to do anything about it.
Don’t get us wrong, we are not huge fans of the “student portal” either, and after getting to use it for a couple weeks, we expressed our displeasure on this page.
But, despite the initially mediocre quality of the site that upset so many (us included), the site’s developers seem to have been very willing to field student suggestions and genuinely seem interested in making the site as user-friendly as possible.
Because of this, students have a responsibility to make their voices heard, and these forums have provided a phenomenal opportunity for that. Unfortunately, not many have taken advantage.
We encourage the forums’ organizers to host another discussion, and if this happens, we hope students utilize it, unlike the previous ones. It wouldn’t take much time to go and let others know what you think, and it would benefit all of us who have to use oZONE.
The Oklahoma Daily is pleased to provide you the opportunity to share your thoughts about this article. We encourage lively debate on the issues of the day, but we ask you refrain from using profanity or other offensive speech, engaging in personal attacks or name-calling, posting advertising, or straying from the topic at hand. To comment, you must be a registered user of OUDaily.com. Thanks for taking the time to offer your thoughts.
You must be logged in to leave a comment. Log in | Register
swiggy3000 2 years, 5 months ago
Well the main problem is the date it's held. At this point in the semester A LOT of students are working on papers/studying for tests. I for one have been so wrapped up in a project I didn't even know about the forum. So a lot of us can't just go to a forum, if it was held at the beginning of next semester it would be better and a lot more student would show up.
dio 2 years, 5 months ago
And what about an ONLINE forum on ozone? Are these ozone people using computers?
Well, come to think of it, they will probably screw up the online forum too...
mfhayes 2 years, 5 months ago
Why is it my job to attend a forum to make a website better?
Anyone with half of a brain can tell that oZone is the WORST website ever constructed.
A normal person would say "Hey, maybe we shouldn't require scrolling through an entire page of white space between course listings." Or "Hey, maybe we should include course descriptions with these listings so students actually know what they're enrolling in."
I could go on and on, but it's pointless.
Dear people in charge of oZone,
You wanted to create a website that was "all in one", so make it all in one. Don't give me 30 frames of useless information... actually, ditch the frames altogether. When I go to oZone, I need to enroll or look up classes. Here's what to do, MAKE A BUTTON ON THE FIRST PAGE THAT SAYS "ENROLL". Not a link to a video on how to enroll, not a link to a FAQ page on how to enroll.
The "Home" tab is completely useless. No one uses ANYTHING on that page.
Okay, I'm done, sorry about the rant.
mouse 2 years, 5 months ago
There are course descriptions with the classes in the enrollment on OZone. When you do "Enroll/Drop class --> Class Search," then click on the CRN of the course you're looking at enrolling in, then on the new page click "View Catalog Entry."