Supported by LT&IYes
CostFree
PrivacyCompliant with FIPPA and Institutional Policies
BandwidthLow
EquipmentWeb Browser

What is WordPress?

WordPress is one of the world’s most popular and powerful open source content management systems. LT&I works with the TRU community to support the creation of WordPress websites, blogs, portfolios and apps. Visit trubox.ca for more information.

What Can You Use it For?

Uses

  • Teaching and learning: course sites, blogs, portfolios, and interactive learning resources.
  • Research: powerful content management and collaboration tools for enhancing, sharing and presenting your work. Knowledge mobilization in action!
  • Community building: connect your people, share what you do. Sites for communication and event support.
  • Blogs and portfolios – hundreds of TRU’s instructors and students share their work, their way, in a range of customizable themes.
  • Other special purpose sites: podcasts, video, mapping and more. If you are wondering what is possible, ask LT&I.
Featured Examples!

Teaching and Learning in the “Open”

Why use a platform like WordPress to share course content instead of a more traditional Learning Management System like Moodle? Teaching and learning in the “open,” or “open pedagogy” can provide a number of benefits and new opportunities for instructors and students alike. But what do we mean by “open pedagogy?”

To define open pedagogy, we need to break it down to its two components, open and pedagogy:

Open, in this instance, refers to open educational resources (OER) – defined by UNESCO as “any type of educational materials that are in the public domain or introduced with an open license.”

Pedagogy is the practice and method of teaching; how we teach, rather than what we teach.

Open pedagogy, also known as open educational practices (OEP), is the use of open educational resources (OER) to support learning, or the open sharing of teaching practices with a goal of improving education and training at the institutional, professional, and individual level.

When you use open pedagogy in your classroom, you are inviting your students to be part of the teaching process, participating in the co-creation of knowledge.

BCcampus

  • Reduce online boundaries and allow networking and collaboration outside of the confines of the LMS – connect with other learners outside of the course, the community, or professionals in the field.
  • Empower students to be active contributors. Move beyond “disposable assignments” to “renewable assignments” and demonstrate to students that their work has value and can contribute to public knowledge. Students will also become more comfortable communicating in the open and dealing with public scrutiny – a valuable skill!
  • Examples may include: Posting assignments/ discussions to a class blog; creation of e-portfolios; collaborative contributions to wikis, open textbooks, or their own website.
  • Tip: Discuss with students early in the course what it means to publish their work in the open. Address any privacy concerns that may arise.
  • Creation of e-portfolios helps students synthesize and reflect on their learning, and leaves them with a body of work they can share after the course ends.
  • Having students create, revise and remix existing OER, such as assisting an instructor update an open textbook, can result in “an artifact that can be used both to evaluate student learning and increase the diversity of voices and perspectives available for study by later students” (Wiley, Webb, Weston & Tonks, 2017, p. 2)
  • Posting content and teaching in the open can be uncomfortable, but you stand to gain many of the same benefits that students do!

The potential benefits of e-portfolio projects for students are numerous:

  • They can be used to support learning by encouraging learners to reflect on their learning process and develop their own learning philosophies by considering how and why they are learning.
  • Provides opportunities to personalize learning or facilitate collaboration between learners and/or the community
  • Boost learners’ confidence by enabling them to collect and remind themselves of their work and accomplishments
  • E-portfolios are a good opportunity to have students become more comfortable making their academic work available to a larger audience or the public.
  • Prompts discussions surrounding privacy, copyright, and online identity
  • Integrate formative assessment or use as a means of showcasing evidence of summative assessment
  • Requires students to develop some basic digital skills, such as thinking about design, layout, and the preparation and presentation of their work.
  • Can serve as a record of learning experiences as students transition to new learning environments
  • Learners leave with a collected body of work that they can refer to, share, or make publicly accessible to demonstrate their skills, knowledge, and achievements. This can be used to share with a wider audience, or as evidence when applying for further studies or the workforce.

Following are some questions and tips to consider when developing an e-portfolio project:

  • What is the goal of the project? What is the focus of your assessment? Are you evaluating students on their competency in design, or are you more interested in the content they produce?
  • What type of artifact(s) are you expecting from learners? What skills are required and what support can be provided to students? Will the project expectations exclude students who may have problems accessing the necessary technology?
  • Consider breaking the project into smaller steps with more frequent check-ins to help develop necessary skills
  • Develop a rubric to set clear expectations for learners. This can also be used for peer-assessment

How Can You Access it?

You can easily request a WordPress site on TRUBOX:

  1. Select “request a site”
  2. Create a TRUBOX login account or login with your existing account
  3. Create your site domain name and title
  4. Select your privacy settings
  5. Select a site template
  6. Create your site!

How Do You Use It?

Beginner’s Guide for WordPress

This Beginner’s Guide is a free resource that offers a series of tutorials covering a variety of topics to help you get started.


Learn More

Workshop Recording: Summer Camp 2020 – E-Portfolios

In this workshop recording Jamie Drozda and Brian Lamb discuss the benefits of e-portfolio projects, as well as some of the challenges and concerns of having students publishing their work in the “open.”

Learn More

Workshop Recording: Summer Camp 2020 – SPLOTS!

In this workshop recording Brian Lamb discusses SPLOTs – a simplified form-based web authoring tool. No accounts or personal information required!

Learn More

What Support is Available?

Do you have a specific project in mind and are looking for support? Fill out our Project Support Form.

If you have any questions, please contact us at learningtech@tru.ca. The LT & I team can help with:

  • Planning and development of WordPress resources and assessments
  • Site template creation
  • Providing student support for e-portfolio projects