Before you get started on creating your own blog you may have questions about how much you should share on your blog, and that is good. We are going to have you work through some activities to help you determine your level of comfort with sharing your growth on the web, but for now, there are some things that you can do to ensure that your data are protected on the web.
- Sign up for WordPress under a pseudonym. You do not have to use your real name on your blog. Just make sure that your instructor knows who you are and what your pseudonym is.
- Use the privacy controls in WordPress to protect your work. You can set passwords on individual pages and posts, or set them to be completely private. Just be aware that your instructor will need to be a user on your blog if you want to use private pages.
You have three main options for getting started with WordPress.
This is the option that we strongly recommend!
You can sign up for your own WordPress site managed by TWU. Choosing this option will give you a site at create.twu.ca/[your_title_goes_here], where you get to choose what goes between the square brackets. You will have access to a limited number of themes and plugins, but you will be able to request others. TWU will ensure that WordPress is up-to-date and that it is secure and backed-up and we will be able to provide significant support as you get set up.
Instructions contained in this orientation course will assume that you have chosen this option.
If you choose this option, you can always export your entire site and install it on your own domain at any time. We'd be happy to help.
Click the 'Sign Up' button at the bottom of this page to choose this option.
You can sign up for a site at wordpress.com. Choosing this option will give you a site at [your-title-goes-here].wordpress.com, where you get to choose what goes between the square brackets, as long as that title is still available. You may also purchase your own custom domain name such as [your-title-goes-here].ca and point it to your site. You will have access to a huge number of themes (both free and premium), but no plugins. WordPress.com will ensure that your site is up-to-date and secure. Since this option is not controlled by TWU, there may be limited help that we can provide.
Instructions contained in this course may differ slightly if you choose this option.
WordPress.com offers higher levels of service and more options for a fee, and you are able to export your site to your own domain.
You can register for your own hosting package from a web host. We highly recommend Reclaim Hosting as they are inexpensive, they cater specifically to higher education, and they have highly responsive customer service. Choosing this option will give you your own domain name (and the option of subdomains) as well as the ability to install WordPress and also a wide variety of other web apps as you see fit. You will have access to all the themes and plugins that you want (and can afford). You will be responsible for maintaining your site updates and security (there are plugins for that).
TWU will be able to provide some support if you choose this option.
Please scroll to the bottom of this page and click the green 'Sign Up' button to register for a site.
You will receive an email from WordPress to confirm your registration, but this email often gets caught by spam filters, so please check your spam/junk folder.
If the email hasn't arrived within 5-10 minutes, please contact colin.madland[at]twu.ca.
Once you have access to a WordPress blog, it's time to get things set up.
The University of Mary Washington has published an excellent set of resources for customizing WordPress. To begin, view the videos covering the WordPress dashboard. Feel free to follow along on your own site and toggle back and forth between your own site and the video.
Once you have worked through the basics of the dashboard, take some time to choose a theme you like. You will have different options depending on where your site is hosted.
Watch the video Organizing Content - Posts, Pages, Categories and Tags (34 mins), and then create a category called 'TWU Online' on your site (Tutorial). If you are reading this page in the context of a different course, you will likely be directed to create a taxonomy of categories specific to that course.
It is very important to understand that the category that you create will be used to syndicate your posts to the course hub. You will use a different category for each post in every course. For example, in this orientation course, you will add the category 'TWU Online' to every post, but for Leadership 500, you will use 'LDRS500'.
The final setup task for you is to tell us the URL for your RSS feed so that your posts will show up on the course hub. You posts will be syndicated from your site to the course hub through RSS, or Really Simple Syndication. The course hub will be subscribed to your 'TWU Online' category feed. Any time you post in that category, your post will show up in the feed on the course hub. The same will be true for all other participants in the course, so you only need to check one spot to be able to see what everyone is writing about.
When you click on the link to a post on the course hub, you will be taken to the site where the post was originally published.
Before you fill in the form at the bottom of this page, you will need to have completed the following tasks on your own site:
- create a site on your own URL (this was done when you registered for a site),
- create a category on your site called 'TWU Online' and copy the slug to your clipboard.
- you can see the slug by hovering over 'Posts' in your dashboard and choosing 'Categories'. The slug will be displayed in the list of categories.
Once you have told us your RSS feed, create your first post and introduce yourself to others taking this course. Tell us a little bit about yourself, or tell us about your pets, or something else. Remember to be aware that your posts are public on the web, but that you can determine levels of privacy that make sense for you. Make sure that you add your post to the category ''TWU Online' and a new category called 'Hi'.