Every student and member of staff has access to Edublogs, a customised installation of WordPress.
To access Edublogs, go to https://mypad.northampton.ac.uk and log in with your usual University/NILE login details.
Links to the Edublogs User guides can be found on the Welcome Page under the main image.
You can also view tutorials covering Wordpress on LinkedInLearning that will be relevant to creating content in Edublogs.
Students and staff can use the pre-installed plugins and templates which are installed by the tool provider, CampusPress, but can not manually add others.
The privacy of all sites can be set in the reading settings. Options to make each blog private, password protected, or full public access are available.
Tutors can set up a class blog to set a deadline for an assessment. See this guide for more details.
The Edublogs tool is licensed by the University to support student blogging. Its primary use is for students to create portfolios/blogs/websites that are rich in design and media.
Edublogs uses the WordPress platform which is widely used to create professional websites. WordPress is a very flexible platform where users can create fully functioning websites using a wide range of themes and plugins. Learning these skills takes time, but is of considerable value to students as these transferable digital skills can support students in their careers.
Users will need good digital skills and will need to invest time to learn how to use WordPress: for these reasons it is usually used for substantial projects, and/or where students will be taught to use WordPress as part of their studies. Compared to the journal tool in NILE, Edublogs is much more feature-rich and flexible, and as a result users are advised to follow the Edublogs User Guide and/or review the WordPress courses on LinkedIn Learning to get the full benefit of the options available.
Before using Edublogs with students, academic staff who are not familiar with WordPress are strongly advised to learn the basics, and to build their own Edublogs site so that they have experience of using it.
Academic staff can receive training and support on the use of Edublogs for teaching and learning. Training will involve the basics of accessing the platform, setting up a simple site and sign-posting to the user guides. Due to the range of options available, the Learning Technology Team are unable to support the development of individual sites, but staff can contact Edublogs directly should they have a particularly complex request.
Yes, creating your own personal blog is a good way to learn the basics of the platform, and while in development you can set the privacy so that your blog/website is not visible to anyone else.
Yes, if you are engaged in a research project then an Edublogs site may be suitable as it can be set to be available to outside users.
No. The University states (in the approved NILE Design Standards) that all teaching and learning materials must be available on each module's official NILE course.
Yes, it is possible to create a group blog. Please see this guide for more information: https://help.edublogs.org/student-blogs/
Yes. All staff and students have access to Edublogs and can independently create as many sites as they wish. However please keep in mind that access to Edublogs will end when students finish their studies (or when staff leave the University).
Edublogs is licenced annually by the University. While there are no plans to discontinue use of Edublogs, neither is there a long-term commitment which guarantees that the platform will be available indefinitely.