Structure of the site
Metaphoric context
The site is divided into
'rooms'. From each room you can see a number of
'constellations' (the number of available
constellations will continue to grow as we receive content from
contributors). A constellation is a collection of resources about a
particular subject related to research, e.g. 'Manual analysis of
qualitative data'.
Within each constellation you will find a
contents page to help you find your way around, a
further reading list, a glossary
of terms and the learning materials in the form of a number
of pages.
Literal context
In this context the site is divided into topic
areas. Each topic area contains a number of learning
units, a learning unit being a collection of resources
about a particular subject related to research.
As in the metaphoric context, within
each learning unit you will find a contents page to
help you find your way around that subject, a further reading
list, a glossary of terms and a set of learning
materials.
Learning Materials
There are three kinds of learning materials,
viz. Explore, Engage and Apply. Explore
learning materials will provide you with information about that
topic, Engage learning materials will give you a
task or interactive activity to do to help you understand the topic
and Apply learning materials will encourage you to
apply your learning in context.
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Accessibility
Variable contrast
We have introduced high and low contrast options
on our web pages. These may be selected from the foot of most
pages.
The high contrast setting also scales up text
sizes. The low contrast setting offers a muted design, which may be
helpful to users with dyslexia. The standard contrast option
resets the page to standard contrast.
Cookie
warning: Contrast selections will attempt to set a
temporary cookie on your browser. Contrast selections require
cookies to be enabled in your browser if you wish your selection to
follow you around the site. The cookies used to support contrast
settings are deleted when you close your browser, and are only used
to support contrast options on this site. If cookies are not enabled
on your browser, contrast preferences will only apply on the current
page.
Text version and text size
This web site is designed to work successfully
with text re-sizing through browser settings.
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Site navigation
The way you can navigate around the site depends
upon the context you have chosen.
Metaphoric context
On the main page for the metaphoric context, you
will see an interactive map of the observatory rooms and the
constellations that are visible from them. If your computer
does not display the map, switch to the literal context to begin
navigating the RO. You can switch back to this context at any time
by using the context drop down box in the left hand navigation
panel. If you roll the cursor over the central observatory
button on the map, the rooms will open up and you can then roll the
cursor over any of the room buttons to see which constellations of
learning materials are visible from that room. Clicking on the room
name will take you directly to that room. Clicking on any of the
constellation names will take you directly to that
constellation. Once you are in a constellation you can
navigate around it by
- using the constellation front page, or
- using the forward and backward buttons at the
bottom of each page, or
- using the constellation name drop down on the
left hand navigation panel.
You can navigate around the observatory by using
the roll over maps in the left hand navigation panel. Note
that, in the event of trouble with the interactive maps, the
metaphoric observatory navigation will revert to drop-down
names.
Literal context
On the main page of the literal context you will
see the site map that gives you an overview of the contents of the
site. You can click on any of the topic areas or learning units to
go directly to them. Once you are in a particular topic you can
navigate around it using the same techniques as in the metaphoric
context above. You can navigate to other topics and learning units
using the drop downs in the left hand navigation panel.
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Browsers
This site will work well in any modern standards
compliant web browser. Some of the interactive activities will only
work with the latest version of the browser Microsoft Internet
Explorer (for those instances alternative activities or static
solution pages are provided). Latest versions of commonly used
browsers may be downloaded from:
The site contains some interactive activities
that require your browser to be JavaScript enabled (the latest
versions of the browsers listed above are all Javascript enabled by
default). You will also need the Macromedia Flash Player (free download) to play
some interactive content located in some learning
objects.
You will still be able to access the majority of
the content on this site even if your browser can't support
JavaScript or Macromedia Flash.
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