Showcasing Student Work and Faculty Research with WordPress
Part of Colgate Domains, WordPress is an open-source content management system for blogging and website creation. This post describes some types of sites that can be created with WordPress on Colgate Domains.
Example 1: Multi-Author Blogs
WordPress is best known as a blogging platform. Blog “posts” are published to the site in chronological order. However, blogging as a genre can take many narrative forms. These include personal reflection, synthesis of online resources, scholarly writing, and other creative work. Blogs can also include multiple forms of media (images, videos, links, etc.) to bring creativity to communication.
A WordPress site can have multiple authors. For example, a faculty member can install a WordPress site to their Colgate Domains account. All students in a course can then be invited as “authors” to publish their content to the same site.
Example 2: Portfolio Websites
WordPress can also be used to create digital portfolio websites. A digital portfolio can take any number of forms. It can be a series of written pieces, a collection of photography or video clips, or even curated lists. A portfolio assignment can guide students in reflecting on their personal or academic learning journey in a course. Faculty members can publish their own portfolio websites to create a digital presence for their scholarly work.
Example 3: Research Lab Websites
Faculty members can also use WordPress to showcase their research labs. Such a website can feature pages about the research and current student research assistants. A blog posts section can be used to share updates on current projects, upcoming conference presentations or forthcoming publications.
Learn More
Schedule an appointment with an instructional designer to brainstorm website ideas, to design assignments and to learn how to access WordPress through Colgate Domains.
Further Reading
A Few Creative Ways to Use Student Blogs: This article from the teaching resource blog Cult of Pedagogy provides some considerations for the design of student blogging assignments, including the purpose and audience for a blog and different types of blogs (e.g. journalistic, special interest, single project).
Pedagogical Approaches: Blogging: This resource site from Penn State provides an excellent overview of the impact of blogging on learning, as well as assessment strategies for student blogging.
How To Effectively Incorporate Blogs into Your Courses: This article from Inside Higher Ed provides additional guidance for introducing blogging to students.
