Michael Stephens Teaching on WordPress MU
Michael Stephens is now using WordPress MU to host his classes online, and that opening page is really sweet. It’s hardly the first time somebody’s used a blog to host course content, but I like where he’s going with it. We’re significantly expanding our use of WordPress at Plymouth, and using it to replace WebCT/Blackboard is definitely an option. The biggest difference may be that course content in blogs is public, by default, but content in Blackboard is shared only with the members of the course. John Martin calls this “teaching out loud.” My opinion is a little more emphatic: “don’t do it in the dark.”
I wonder if Michael plans to keep content online after the classes run, or what he’ll do with old content if he runs the same course again in a later term. I think there’s a lot of value in leaving course content online and available to course participants long after the course is completed. I’ve been thinking the best way to make that work is to make each course (or section of a course) in each term its own blog. That way each instructor gets full control over their course environment, while still making it easy to preserve that content over time. Here’s the URL scheme I have in mind:
- http://courses.plymouth.edu/term_code/discipline_code/course_number/section
or, in practice, something like this:
- http://courses.plymouth.edu/200810/en/3510/02
It may not be pretty to have all those numbers, but it’s reliable, predictable, and extendable. The URL structure beyond that would be up to the instructor, and the subdirectories leading to the course blogs can automatically index their sub-content. My biggest question is about where to put the term code. I expect I’ll just have to play with it a while.
1 Comment(s)
Comments RSS TrackBack Identifier URI
Leave a comment
Hey there. Thanks for the shoutout. Right now, the main blogs for course content will be saved and updated as the courses evolve. Secondary blogs will offer discussion forums and news feeds to specific classes. I am very happy with this version and so glad to not be “in the dark” with Bb.
A big shout out to my grad asst Kyle Jones who did all of the look and feel stuff as well as clean up when we ported over from WP.com. I will be very interested in your ideas casey as we go forward and as you go forward with courses at Plymouth. Hopefully WP will be the option.
Have you seen Buddy press>?Kyle did some testing but we need to wait for the release.
Best-M.