Hi Dr Talib,

Very sorry about the trouble you've been facing with the blogs. Let me address the issues you've brought up.

Regarding accessing the Module Blogs from home, this shouldn't be a problem. A few staff in CIT have tested this out and it works. You only need to input your NUSNET user ID and password. There isn't a need for NUSVPN or a need to be on NUSNET itself, so we're scratching our heads a bit over this one. Perhaps it's a firewall or internet security setting on your home computer?

Regarding the global reach, unfortunately, the way single sign-on was implemented in Community Server (the software powering these blogs) results in non-NUS users not being able to read the Module Blogs. (This information has been in the Module Blogs FAQ.) The limited access was not our intention at all.

We created a public mirror of the module blogs to go some way to addressing this problem. http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/public/blogs/mymodulecode

However, CIT acknowledges this isn't the best solution either. We have sounded out our software vendor, and they are trying to get a fix in the next version of Community Server.

Finally, regarding your suggestion that the module blog being listed in the workspace: We felt that it might be intrusive and confusing to those with multiple lecturers teaching one module, particularly those with 'split' modules such as ModuleCodeX, ModuleCodeY and ModuleCodeZ. (There is only one Module Blog shared among modules like these. Not all the lecturers might want to use the blogs.)

We've noted your feedback, and this will probably be implemented in the next version of IVLE.

For now, what you can do is add your module blog to the module bookmarks and advise your students to bookmark it too.

Thank you for the feedback. It's heartening to know that lecturers are taking an active interest in blogging. Apologies once again for the hiccups.

Regards,
Kenneth
Publications Officer, CIT

I tried accessing this module blog from home last night, and I was greeted with the prompt for the NUSNET user ID and password, and I successfully accessed the blog.


A few possiblities that might be causing the problem:

1. Your firewall (software and/or hardware) is preventing access.

2. Your browser is preventing access because the security settings are too restrictive.


So, a few things you might want to try:

1. Try accessing your blog from another network, perhaps at McDonald's or at a friend's place. If you can, then the problem is with your home network (and probably with the hardware firewall). If this is the case, you'll have to disable the hardware firewall. You'll have to read your hardware documentation for that.

2. If you still can't access the module blogs from another network, your firewall/security software might be blocking the site. To test this, disable the firewall. If you can access the site, you've found the cause. Now, you'll have to add the site to the software's website whitelist (if there is one) or disable the firewall.

3. If that doesn't solve the problem, lower the security settings of your browser. If you use Internet Explorer, go to Tools > Internet  Options > Security tab > Internet > Custom Level button > Reset to Medium-Low or Low.

4. Still on the Security tab, click Trusted Sites. Click the Trusted Sites button and add http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/*

5. On the Privacy tab in Internet Options, click the Sites button and add http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/*

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