As I mentioned in my previous post, Google Sites is an easy to edit, easy to access site that does not really advertise itself as a platform for a VLE. Instead, Google Sites is set up more as the basis of a blog or a basic website. Because of this it took a while for me to figure out how to engineer the features into a site that resembled a VLE,
The first problem I encountered was the fact that there is no discernable way to create folders. Folders are a great way to organise resources and pages for easy navigation around the VLE. To counter this I decided to create subpages. As it turned out the subpages were a great alternative to the folder format and the fact that I could add as many subpages as I wanted to really added to the depth the site could go to. The main issue with subpages however, is that they are effectively hidden. Users will not know that the subpage exists until they enter onto the parent page. Again I managed to find a way around this. There is a feature on the site that allows drop down lists to appear when hovering over the headings at the top of the page. This means that as users go to click on the parent page they will be altered to the fact that there are subpages to be viewed.
A very useful element of Google sites is that it is fully compatible with all other Google applications. This meant that inserting a Google drive was an easy way to provide resources. What is also a fantastic feature, is that as soon as the Google drive is updated the resources on the Site is updated. This means that I only have to update the Google drive and do not have to alter the site at all.
But what of the quizzes? How could I leave this issues on a cliffhanger?
Eventually I found a website known as ProProfs which was very easy to use as well as embed. So it would appear this story does indeed have a happy ending!
All in all once I got the hang of Google site's features and workings I was very happy with it as a platform for my VLE.
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