USING WORDPRESS AS LMS IN COMPOSITION COURSES

ENGLISH 7910, SPRING 2013

DOWN WITH BLACKBOARD

Why I don’t use Blackboard in the courses I teach:

• Bulky and confusing for students and instructors.

• Too complex. Way more options than most teachers will use.

• Closed system. Allows you to share/interact only with registered students.

• Only one application.

WHAT THE NEXT 50 MINUTES IS ABOUT• Advantages of using an app like Wordpress as LMS.

• See an example of how I’m using Wordpress in a course I’m teaching this semester.

• Learn how to build a Wordpress site,

• Add pages• Customize theme • Edit menu• Embed documents• Create a class network

• Play around with Wordpress on your own. Create a mock Wordpress installation for a hypothetical course.

WHY I LIKE WORDPRESS• Wordpress can do everything I want in an LMS in a much

more user-friendly way.

• WP looks like the rest of the web.

• WP has multiple applications (personal/professional web sites, online journals, class sites, blogs, etc)

• WP is open-source

WHY I LIKE WORDPRESS SOME MORE• WP is free.

• Has a huge support community.

• WP is open-web. Meaning I can show other instructors what I’m doing with this class or vice versa.

• More than a blog.

WORDPRESS IN ENGLISH 3840J• Organize and provide access to course materials

• Course outcomes• Major projects (assignment sheets)• Syllabus, etc

• Create a class network.

• Students can access and comment on each other’s work• Communicate announcements

• Daily homework assignments, etc (blog)• Organize daily writing

• Students each have individual Wordpress blogs where they post low-stakes writing

WORDPRESS BASICS• Choose a custom theme.

• Create pages (add to blog)

• Edit Menu

• Embed a document using Scribd

• Create a class network

• Invite students to create their own page.

ON YOUR OWN

Start by visiting www.wordpress.com and clicking “Get Started”

Once you’ve created an account: try practicing the following:

• Try on a different theme.

• Add new pages to your Wordpress site and update your menu.

• Add links to your site.

• Embed a document through Scribd.

FURTHER READING• CUNY’s Academic Commons is running Wordpress.

• http://commons.gc.cuny.edu• Parry, David. ‘Wordpress: A Better LMS.” The Chronicle.

• http://chronicle.com/blogs/profhacker/wordpress-a-better-lms/23050

• “Using Wordpress in Your Class for Student Writing and Websites”- Academic Technologies, College of William & Mary

• http://at.blogs.wm.edu/using-wordpress-in-your-class-for-student-writing-and-web-sites/