The last few weeks have been spent making some quite big changes to my ITGS textbook website. Many of the changes are behind the scenes, moving from an old static site to a new dynamic configuration which enables several new features. The new design should also be much more responsive and user-friendly on mobile devices.
The ITGS syllabus is not sequential or linear, and any ITGS news article or resource is likely to link to multiple areas of the syllabus (this is the whole point of the ITGS triangle). The problem with the old website was that resources had to be categorized on a single page or, worse, be copied and pasted to several different pages, which is a bad idea for several reasons.
The new design makes it much easier to search for resources using the new menu system that lets you find items relating to any part of the ITGS syllabus. You can also use the new search page to find resources matching only specific categories. Need something relating to robotics, but specifically when used in health? No problem. Check those two boxes. Need to find resources related to the use of Internet in the Business and Employment strand? Easy. Want to see resources related to the security social / ethical issue in the Politics and Government strand? Just tick the boxes.
Another benefit of this system is that it automatically keeps track of the date each article was last changed. This makes it much easier to see additions and updates when browsing the site, and the new ‘latest updates’ section of the home page now lists the most recent resources added. Of course, you can still use the RSS feed to keep track of changes too.
Finally, the social media links on the right now include a link to the YouTube ITGS playlists I have been working on to collect ITGS related videos together. Why not head over there and try the changes for yourself?
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