Welcome to the new-look Hoot!
We hope that you will find it a clearer and more accessible site to use – a more user-friendly experience for everyone.
The look
First of all, what do you think of our new Hoot logo?! We hope you feel it reflects The Hoot as a whole – a warm, friendly and trustworthy place, where you will feel part of a welcoming and supportive OU community. (Don’t you think the owl is cute?)
We’ve made the colours and look of the site in line with our Open SU branding, making it obvious that The Hoot is part of the Open SU family. However, it is still a distinct and creative place for you to express your unique voice, experience and interests.
Articles
As you can see, the articles on the site are now grouped into categories, which we hope will make it easier for you to access the content you want to see.
If you’d like to look at all the articles for a given category, just click ‘View all’ on the right-hand side.
It’s now easier than ever to submit your articles. You can still send us your content through the site (in the way you’ve always done), but now you can also email your submissions to oustudents-media@open.ac.uk. We know OU students have always got a lot to juggle, so we hope that this will save you some time.
The process
We have consulted the views of your Student Leadership Team since October. The SLT took part in a workshop with Open SU staff members, where they provided their views on all aspects of the brand refresh process. Further discussions then took place between the SLT and Open SU staff. The result is a site which we believe reflects the needs of OU students going forwards.
A newsletter is coming
We’ll also be launching a Hoot Newsletter later this year, which will feature a snapshot of the latest articles on the site.
You can sign up for the newsletter now. The first 300 subscribers will be entered into a prize draw to win a student bundle.
Voila!
So, here it is – a new look but hopefully the same informal and informative space for you to showcase what interests and excites you. The Hoot is here to uplift your voice, and we can’t wait to see what you write next!
