OUseful ReDirects
This page describes a set of memorable URLs that link into a wide variety of services that are likely to be useful to OU students and staff.
OUseful Shortcuts
The domain that the OUseful shortcuts will hang off is:
http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/
That's the first thing to remember.....
The second thing to remember is what to put after the trailing slash (/)...
| Shortcut | Path | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Courses & Qualifications | courseCode qualificationCode |
|
| Excluded combinations | courseCodex | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/T171x |
| OU Library catalogue - single keyword search | library/keyword voyager/keyword voyager/keyword/keyword |
http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/library/xml http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/voyager/xml http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/voyager/keyword/xml |
| OU Library catalogue - author search | voyager/author/authorName | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/voyager/author/hopgood/xml |
| OU Library catalogue - ISBN search | voyager/isbn/ISBN | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/voyager/isbn/0849304563 |
| OU Library ROUTES - single keyword search | routes?q=keyword | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/routes?q=xml |
| IET Knowledge Network - single keyword search | kn/keyword | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/kn/outreach |
| OU Intranet - single keyword search | intranet/keyword | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/intranet/coffee |
| OU website - single keyword search | ou/keyword | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/ou/research |
| delicious feed2presentation service | deliShow/deliciousUser/tag+combination There are two other switches: &num= sets the number of 'slides' in the show befre repeating; &td= sets the delay (in seconds; default =10) between each 'slide' in the show |
http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/deliShow/psychemedia/ajh |
| UK postcode displayed via Google maps | map/postcode | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/map/mk76aa |
| UK postcode, with label, displayed via Google maps | map/postcode/label | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/map/mk76aa/Open%20University |
| UK postcode displayed via Multimap.com | postcode/postcode (no spaces...) | http://ouseful.open.ac.uk/postcode/mk76aa |
OU Courses and Qualifications
...and the simplest thing (at least, if you've hung around the OU for any length of time) is a course code (e.g. T396 or t396 - case doesn't matter) or qualification code (e.g. d21 or D21 - again, case doesn't matter).
So where does this get you? To the Courses and Qualifications page corresponding to the course or qualification code you provided...
Here's a couple to try out:
Anything else?
Excluded course combinations for a given course can be found by simply appending x to the end of the course code. For example:
How about finding courses related to books you like the look of on Amazon? For example:
OU Course Books
Many OU courses require students to purchase books for a course. To find out whether a course has such a requirement, just append the word books to the end of the course code, like this (I'm working on getting the delay before the page loads down...):
Whilst the information we have used to support this service cannot be guaranteed to be correct, you may still find it useful. These alternative ways also work - which do you think makes most sense?
OU Library Search
The shortcut into a single keyword search of the library catalogue is to use the word library followed by a slash (/) followed by your keyword. For example, to search on the keyword "intelligence":
Course codes are equally acceptable:
OU IET Knowledge Network Search
Another shortcut that has a short delay before the page returns... The shortcut into a single keyword search of the IET Knowledge Network is to use the word kn followed by a slash (/) followed by your keyword. For example, to search on the keyword "mobile":
OU Intranet Search
Another shortcut that has a short delay before the page returns... The shortcut into a single keyword search of the OU intranet is to use the word intranet followed by a slash (/) followed by your keyword. For example, to search on the keyword "vacancies":
OU Website Search
The shortcut into a single keyword search of the public OU website (the one that the search box on the OU front page leads to) is to use the word ou followed by a slash (/) followed by your keyword. For example, to search on the keyword "robotics":
This site is in no way endorsed by the Open University. Whilst much of the information on this protosite is taken from public Open University sources, we cannot guarantee that the information provided via this protosite is correct.