This course web is running in WordPress – this is an experiment for me.
Part of the idea behind using WordPress is that it should give us an easy way to have a collaborative web page – that is one where students can make contributions, and we can use it as a mechanism for class participation. Therefore, as a student in class you may need to know a little about how wordpress works.
Getting an Account:
Things are set up so that you can create your own account as a “subscriber”. A subscriber has limited access – they can read everything, and can comments on posts where commenting is allowed.
Once you’ve created your account, the instructor or TA will promote your account to be a “contributor”.
What you can do:
For some posts (generally not on “News” or “BasicInfo”) you can add comments – this will be an important mechanism for class. For example, you will be asked to write comments on postings about readings.
You can write posts, however, since you are a “contributor” (in WordPress speak), your posting must be approved by an administrator (the instructor or TA) before it appears. Unlike the standard WordPress setup, you can upload pictures to go along with your posts. We will use student posts for things like “Visualization of the Day” and project ideas postings.
If you have ideas on how we can make things better, tell the instructor. Be warned: you might be volunteered to implement your idea.
Categories are the key organizing principle. The list of categories is on the right sidebar.
About this WordPress Setup
Students will be given “Conrtibutor” Accounts.
Some tweaks that have been made:
- The “uncategorized” category is not shown in the categories widget by implementing the hack here.
- The “OptInFrontPage” plug in is used so that only news appears on the home page.
- The “WPFrontPageBanner” plugin is used to add to the front page.
- Its using the “Thesis Style” – that I paid for. I’m still learning to tweak it.