MyWales - An Introduction

Welcome to the new University of Wales website. This is just the first stage in our plans to provide a wide range of online services for all students and staff – a virtual campus where all the members of our University, wherever they are in the world, can meet, talk, work and collaborate.

We'll be introducing more in-depth guides to the website features and functionality soon, but for now, here is a quick guide to what you can do.

If you have any problems accessing or using any of the websites features please report issues to us on gcsupportwales.ac.uk|

Home Page

This is where everyone can see the latest news, events and features of interest. It's a good place to start for exploring the website. If you want to login, just click the 'Sign in to MyWales' button in the top right.

 

My Wales

Once logged in you will see the my Wales page - what we call the Dashboard. Wherever you go in the site, you can always return to the Dashboard by clicking the MyWales button at the top right.

Depending on your user group you will see different things on the Dashboard. We'll outline the main features you may see.

Featured Content

This area displays the latest articles, announcements and blogs on the site. It will help you keep up to date on what's new, and give you a quick overview of anything that may interest you. If you haven't visited the site for a while, it's a handy way of seeing what's been published.

You can filter the featured content list using the drop down menu, so the list displays only recent articles, announcements or blogs.

• Articles
  Submitted by staff, students and invited experts, these are academic or opinion pieces to share knowledge, provoke debate and invite discussion. If you would like to submit an article please email us .
• Blogs
  Regular shorter articles from our blog authors, who's blogs may be academic in nature, topic based, lifestyle or more eclectic. Feel free to comment on any posts and let the author know your opinions. If you are interested in writing a blog for the website please email us .
• Announcements
  Information from the University, updates, important news and other items that may be important to staff and students.

Activity Feed

The latest activity in your social and academic network. You can filter the activity by the groups you belong to, your friends, just your activity or everyone. This is a useful place to see any new posts in group forums, notes people have written on your noticeboard, invitations to join groups, new friends you've made and more.

Latest Documents

If you're a staff member you'll see the documents channel above your activity feed. This is a list of the latest documents of relevance to you. You will be able to access all documents elsewhere in the site, but this should keep you up to date on any new documents.

Control Panel

The control Panel sits in the top right of all MyWales network pages and contains different links and functions depending on what kind of user you are.

Students and Alumni will see their Status box and social network links in this area. Use the status box let other people know what you're doing, what you're working on, how you're feeling or anything you feel like. Your status updates will appear in friends activity feeds and on your profile noticeboard.

Institution Staff have some extra administration tools in their Control Panel, but can slide out the networking tools by clicking the link. When you're not using them the panel will slide back out of the way.

MyWales Networking

The networking aspects of the site work similarly to popular social networks such as Facebook and LinkedIn. We will have some in-depth beginners guides to making the most of the social network shortly. for now here are some things you can try out.

• Search for people you know , and add them as friends This will give them privileges to see information on your profile and see your activity in their activity feeds.
• Search for and join discussion groups , You are automatically added to certain groups based on your institution and course affiliations. You may even know some of your group members already!
• Create your own group .  Want to start a global  discussion group or a tutorial group? Start your own! Invite other people to join groups.
• Edit your Profile. Add some information about yourself, upload a photo to use as your avatar.
• Chat with Group Members . Invite group members to take part in a real time online chat using the Chat tab in your Group pages. Talk to people around the world taking the same course as you!
• Start a discussion topic. In your Groups pages you have a Discussion tab which contains the discussion forums. Start a discussion, a debate or ask some questions.
• Make Friends . You'll need to check your Friend Requests tab in the Friends area to see if anyone has requested to be friends with you. Notifications are coming soon, so you don't miss any requests!

University News & Events

Latest news and events. Click the Edit button to filter which news and events categories you see. Only get the news which interests you