UNISA website update

UNISA's website has a new "rebranded" look. I feel just as lost when I try to navigate it, but the zippy new logo makes me feel like I'm lost in a cool breeze.

 

On the other hand, I just discovered that Google does UNISA's site search, which makes it pretty easy to find things. (I don't know if this is new or not.)

 

Third choice too tasty.

Mmmm! That third choice is just plain too tempting. How could you have any kind of real result from that poll!

 

I intended the poll more as commentary than as research.

 

Admittedly, I didn't go through the whole site, but in just about 2 minutes I discovered the following:

1. The section on the English Dept (a place I had been before many times on the old site) had the same look as the old site, without most of the useful information.

2. The English section wasn't listed in some of the areas for prospective students, so if that was the first place a real prospective student went for the first time, they would have a difficult time finding "English." I don't know if this is true of some other programs as well.

3. In the prospective student's section, I clicked on doctorate in Ancient History and was immediately whisked away to the page about Doctorate in Musicology.



So there are still some problems with this page, for sure.

But the home page DOES look nice.

clint

 

If you think the Web site is interesting to navigate, try reading the calendars (college catalogs). To map out admission and matriculation requirements, curriculum and course descriptions you have to correlate three calendars (1: General Information, 2: Subjects and Syllabuses and the calendar of the college you're attending).

In clicking around, I notice they have a Postgraduate Diploma in Distance Education; coming from a leader in distance education, I'd expect it to be quite authoritive.

 

Those who learned to navigate the old site won't have any substantial problems with the new look. Those who were unfamiliar with the old site will have some difficulty with the new look, but then they'd have had difficulty with the old site as well. The fact is, there is an enormous amount of information of this website. You simply need to be patient and put in a little time. I believe it could be designed in a better way but, as I've said before, extracting the required information is simply a type of entrance examination.
Jack

 

Uzulu -- new site also

You may already be aware...

Uzulu also has a new website, not altogether different from the new Unisa website:

http://www.uzulu.ac.za/HomePage1.aspx

 

Enough time has passed since the big South African university merger that most of the schools affected have made at least some changes in their websites. It's good to see them getting on with things.
Jack

 

do you know why are they so slow in replying mails ?


regards

davide

 

Dear davide,

I have no experience of the South African Universities, but I did contact SATS with an enquiry last week, and received a reply in 42 minutes! Every email I sent was replied to very promptly.

Regards,

P

 

mmm .... sorry .. what is SATS ?

regards

 

Sorry, SATS is the South African Theological Seminary.

Regards,

P

 

While I have heard this complaint from others it has not been my experience. I recently sent initial inquiries by email to two different department heads at UNISA and received detailed replies within 48 hours. I have also been in touch with several persons at UFS with similar results (although I know them a bit better). If you'd like, you could PM me your email address and I'll give you some tips.
Jack

 

SA emails

Some folks have had little difficulty communicating with SAf schools, while others (myself included) have had great troubles with them.

Unisa is a great school, but honestly, my experience with them was far less than satisfactory. Communicating with my supervisor was an absolute nightmare. E-mails would go (sometimes) six months without response.

As Uncle Janko has suggested often on this forum, the best way to e-mail SAf schools is to use the 'tele.'