Displaying these features on your homepage is as simple as:

1. Go to Pages > Edit in your main blog’s dashboard

2.  You should see three new pages – Blogs, Site Search and Tags

3.  Now check out your Campus homepage and presto! The pages should now be displaying on your homepage.

4.  And, on the off chance the pages don’t auto created all you need to do is quickly open up the Blogs page in Edit Page mode and click Update Page

Here’s a quick overview of each.

Blogs Directory

One of the things we’ve been asked a lot for of late has been a simple, attractive way of locating blogs on your site!

Well, you asked, and we answered – introducing the Blogs Directory.

The Blogs Directory displays all the blogs on your entire Campus site alphabetically and in a paginated form on its own Blogs page on your homepage.

Now your community can quickly locate a specific blog and then click on the link to check out that blog!

Alternatively you can search for a blog URL using the search option!

Check it out in action on Edublogs @ Caroline Chisholm Catholic College!

Please note:

• To display avatars your blog users will need to upload their blog avatar via Settings > Blog Avatar.

Global Site Search

So you want a tool that that allows anyone to search across your site – without the need to Google etc?

Here it is!

On your Site Search page, you simply need to whack in your search terms and you’ll get a beautiful paginated listing of latest posts containing that term… with avatars attached!

Check it out in action on Literacy 44!

Please note:

• This feature only searches posts on public blogs — any posts on private blogs (only visible to logged in users) isn’t searchable.
• To display avatars your users will need to upload their avatar via Users  > Your Avatar.

Global Site Tags

And the best for last — Global Site Tags!

This powerful and elegant tool allows you to do three things.

First up it provides you with a global tags widget so that you can simply show a beautiful tag cloud on your homepage or your users can add it to their blog!

Just go to Appearance > Widgets and add Global Site Tags widget to your blog sidebar.

And it auto creates a page called “Tags” on your Campus homepage which gives you a full size page view of them too.

Check it out in action on Literacy 44!

Please note:

• Tags on private posts display on the Global Site tags page but if you click on the link and no posts are listed this means they are all posts on private blogs (only visible to logged in users).
• To display avatars your users will need to upload their avatar via Users  > Your Avatar.

Other Info That’s Good To Know

To get the most out of these features you need to either:

1. Use a blog theme on your Campus homepage that includes navigation links at the top of the blog to pages
2. Or add the Pages widget to the sidebar of your Campus homepage via Appearance > Widgets

Here’s our Top 3 Tips For Designing Your Homepage to help you get the most out of your Homepage!

And on the off chance you don’t want to use one or more of these features on your homepage — just go to Pages > Edit and un-publish the page you want to remove.

For WordPress MU users you can download these features from WPMU DEV Premium:

1. Blogs Directory
2. Global Site Search
3. Global Site Tags

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

The best news is we’ve already installed some of the new features onto Edublogs Campus— so I thought you might like a quick overview of them.

P.S We haven’t forgotten everyone else.  We’re planning to upload these new features to:

1. Edublog.org within the next few weeks
2. WPMU DEV Premium for WordPress MU users

Add New Users

This is a nice simple feature, but very powerful tool for creating and adding new users to your blog in batches of up to 15 users.

This is the fastest way to add students quickly to your class blog — if they don’t have a username.

Off course this means there’s now four tools that create usernames slightly differently so here’s a quick summary of their differences.

Limiting who see comments in dashboard

You told us you didn’t want students who are contributors or authors seeing unapproved or spam comments — to prevent younger students from seeing inappropriate comments.

So we’ve:

1. Removed the Recent Comments module from the dashboard of contributors and authors
2. Made it so they can only see approved comments on their comments page

Now they can’t see any comment until you’ve approved it!

Giving Contributors ability to upload media

You want to moderate all student posts by making them a contributor but that’s been annoying you because contributors can’t upload media such as images, videos….

Problem solved!

We’ve adjusted the role of contributors so they can now upload their own media and you can review their posts before publishing them!

My Blogs

Sick of the endless searching for your students dashboard on your My Blogs page?

We heard your pain….and transformed your one column into four!

Clicking That Pesky File URL

Been caught out by remembering to click on File URL before Insert into Post when you’ve been uploading audio, video etc files to your posts?

Yes it’s driven us crazy too so we’ve done a quick patch to solve the problem….now you don’t need to remember as it does it for you!

P.S. Heaps of schools, districts and Universities are taking advantage of our 30 Day free trial of Edublogs Campus, get in touch with us any time to start yours!

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

It is exactly the same as any other blog on your site. This means you can write posts, add pages, change themes, add widgets etc that provide information and tips to help your users.

The key to designing a good homepage is to think how you can use it to support your blog users while making your WordPress MU site more effective to manage.

Here are my top 3 tips for designing your homepage:

#1 Choose A Good theme

Popular themes for homepages on Campus sites are WPMU-Nelo, WPMU-Dixi and WPMU-Triden because they are the most customisable themes:

1. WPMU-Dixi includes optional RSS feed for up to 4 feeds on the front page.
2. WPMU-nelo: see this theme in use on Sample Academic blog
3. WPMU-triden includes the option of a custom image gallery – see this theme in use on Sample Student portfolio

These themes are included in all Edublogs Campus sites and can be downloaded from WPMU DEV Premium.

Any of these themes will make your homepage look considerably more attractive than the default theme.

Read how National University of Singapore customised their homepage using WPMU-Nelo!

For more information on working with themes see:

1. What to consider when choosing your blog’s theme
2. Changing themes site wide
3. Changing themes on a per blog basis
4. Changing your blog’s theme
5. Uploading your Custom Image Header

#2  Include A Link for Users to Create their own blogs or usernames

Creating blogs and usernames is time consuming.  Where possible it’s always best to get your community to create their own.

This is achieved by:

1. Selecting ‘ Enabled. Blogs and user accounts can be created’ under Allow new registrations in Site Admin > Options so that anyone can create blogs using your signup page
2. Restricting who can sign ups to specific email domains to limit who registers on your site by adding domains to the ‘limit email registrations’ section in Site Admin > Options 
   
3. Creating a link to your sign up page with HTML code using a text widget in your homepage sidebar.

The URL of your signup page is your site location with #join-network/ on the end.  For example,  this is the location http://blog.nus.edu.sg/#join-network/ of National University of Singapore signup page

It is possible to make your homepage public so users can create their own account while making the rest of the blogs private.  This is done using the Privacy option in Site Admin > Options.

The privacy option is included in all Edublogs Campus sites and can be downloaded from WPMU DEV Premium.

# 3 Add a FAQ and how to get support page

Make it as easy as possible for your users to find the information they need to solve their own problems while also providing them instructions on what to do if they need assistance.

For examples on how you can achieve this check out:

1. National University of Singapore’s FAQ page
2. Global Student’s Help & Support page

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

It’s pretty simple, we’re offering anyone who refers us a new Edublogs Campus client a US$100 Amazon voucher for themselves, and another US$100 for their school!

It’s pretty easy to claim too, just contact us directly regarding the Campus site and let us know either that you’d like us to set up a site for them, or that you referred them.

And it couldn’t be any easier to get going, just take advantage of our 30 day free trial.

At the end of the day we want our approach to sales and marketing to engage you guys, our users – and give you and your institutions the opportunity to benefot from letting people know about Campus!

So contact us today with your referral and claim your vouchers

Your homepage is really important; used well it supports and encourages blogging within your organisation.

Unfortunately I find it’s often neglected so I decided to do a series of posts on getting more out of your homepage.  Each post will showcase a different site and then explain how they’ve achieve the look!

So to kick off the series I’ve decided to start with National University of Singapore’s homepage because it’s an excellent example of a clever use of providing all the required information, in an easy to understand format while grabbing your attention.

They’ve used WPMU-Nelo which is a popular theme because it’s one of the most customisable WPMU themes and provides a stylish, clean, professional looking site for minimum fuss.

It’s included in all Edublogs Campus sites and can be downloaded from WPMU DEV Premium.

It originally looked like the screenshot below:

Here’s how they’ve created the look:

With WPMU-Nelo you have the choice of a custom homepage (static front page) or a post page.  They’ve used the custom homepage.

In Theme options they have changed the background, link, navigation and footer colors–

1) Background color in Blog Layout Setting to blue

2) Link color under Blogs Font Settings to blue

3) Navigation and footer colour under Navigation & Footer Cooler settings to orange

Most of the homepage look was created by uploading images using Appearance > Custom Homepage.

To achieve best results upload using the sizes indicated in the screenshot.

The Homepage intro and text at bottom of page was added using HMTL code in Appearance > Custom Homepage and links to the following pages:

1. Their sign up page – so users can create their own blogs  or usernames
2. A directory – so their community to check out examples of different blogs on the site
3. A FAQ – to answers commonly asked questions and provide support for their users

Here is where they added their intro text:

Here is where they added their bottom text.

Please note with Nelo:

• You have to upload images to each bottom box
• You can upload almost any HTML embed code to these homepage boxes (for example, YouTube Videos)

The log In & Admin and Disclaimers on the right hand side of their homepage was created using a Meta Widget and a Text widget with HTML in Appearance > Widgets

Please note on Nelo:

• For a custom homepage you add widgets to the Home Top Right
• For the pages you add widgets to the Sidebar

For more information on working with your homepage refer to:

1. Your blog theme options
2. Changing themes site wide
3. Changing themes on a per blog basis
4. Changing your homepage appearance

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

As most people don’t appreciate the difference between WordPress MU and blogging using Edublogs, WordPress.com, Blogger and TypePad that probably the best place to start!

Intro To WordPress MU

When you sign up for a blog on Edublogs, WordPress.com, Blogger and TypePad these companies host your blog which means you can get on with the job of writing your posts and blog design. The highest level of access you have is as an administrator and because it is a hosted solution features like adding extra plugins or uploading themes aren’t possible.

When you want to hosts lots of WordPress blogs on the same domain then you need to use WordPress MU (WordPress Multiuser and also known as WPMU). Both Edublogs or WordPress.com use WordPress MU but Edublogs has been highly customised to include features that specifically assist educators with using the blogs with students.

WordPress MU and Site Admin Users

Schools and universities who want the highest level of control and access to all their blogs look at solutions like hosting their own WordPress MU site or Edublogs Campus because site admin provides this.

On a Edublogs, WordPress.com, Blogger and TypePad the highest level of access is as an administrator. But with your own WordPress MU site you can assign key staff to be site admin users.

A site admin user is the next level of access, and responsibility, above an administrator.

In really simple terms, if you have problems with a student, as site admin user, you can immediately log into the dashboard of their blog, without being attached as a user to that blog, then edit/delete a post/comment plus change whether that student can access their blog.

For more information check out The Site Admin User Guide.

Alternatively to experience being a site admin, log into University of Blogs with username: admin password: pass. You can make as many changes as you like because this sandpit site is refreshed to its original form every hour.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

Well there’s a huge difference between individual students and classes blogging to an entire of organization taking on blogs. Let me explain why and provide key points you should consider when choosing a blogging platform.

Why An Organizational approach?

Definitely individual teachers blogging with their students or class are achieving good outcomes. But unfortunately it’s often limited to a few educators within that organisation.

For greater adoption of 21st Century skills an institution-wide approach that strongly supports the program is required. Teachers working in isolation rarely effect institutional change. Coordinated approaches, done well, leads to amazing achievements and incredible transformations.

What to Consider When Choosing a Blogging Platform

While there are numerous blogging options available not all of these are ideal for organisational blogging. Sure maintaining records of all student usernames and passwords, or being co-admin, for a class is doable (but hard work) try doing that for all blogs in an institution.

Here are key points you should consider for an institution-wide approach:

# 1 Management

Ease of managing all blogs is crucial when you have a large number on a site.

You need software that provides access any blog on the site while enabling you to make changes to users or blog details, and adjust what features are available for all users and on a per user basis.

#2 Control

Ability to control what content is posted and who can see the blogs is an important aspect for most educational organizations. A minimum requirement is the ability to access the backend of any blog to edit comments, posts, pages or change the role of a user.

Take the time to consider how much control you want over your users to ensure these types of features are included. For example, Do you want to make some blog private (only visible to logged in users) and others visible to anyone? Do you want to moderate posts, comments, words to minimize the chances of inappropriate content being published?

# 3 Transferability

Some custom made blogging software can’t export the blogs to standard blogging software – this means, in the worst case scenario, you won’t be able to move the blogs to another platform.

Make sure whatever blogging solution you choose you can easily export content from the platform into any other standard blogging software.

#4 Features

Every type of blogging software varies considerably in terms of features.

Some software is more suitable than others. You need to think about:

1. Does it include features your users will like?
2. Can extra features be added, or developed, that help your users OR improve your ability to manage/control the blogs?

# 5 Hosting

It is really important to consider who is going to host your site.

While you can host the site yourself you do need to appreciate as the number of blogs increases the site becomes harder to manage and skills required become very specialised.

There is a considerable difference between looking after your own single install of a blog compared to other users blogs. You will shed a lot more than a few tears if something bad happened to all the blogs on your site.

# 6 Support

For an institution-wide blogging approach to work your users require support. While you might like to think being a blogger and how to use a blog dashboard is obvious, it isn’t. For most new users it’s all incredibly frightening.

You need to consider:

1. How you will support your users in your organization?
2. If using a hosting blogging solution – How much support they provide? How quickly is the turn around time for support requests?

# 7 Cost

With costs you need to consider the initial costs and the ongoing cost commitments. These ongoing costs increase as the number of blogs on the site grows due to increased hosting requirements and more specialized technical skills required to manage them.

FINAL THOUGHTS

So what have I missed? Are there any other key points that should be considered? Or should I have expanded on some of the points?

I’m also looking for examples of blogging sites used by educational organizations. Please leave a comment, with a link, if you are happy for me to showcase your site.

If you are enjoying reading this blog, please consider Subscribing For Free!

So that’s what this blog is going to be about – using blogs in an educational organisational context.

Whether it’s as eporfolios, department websites, journaling, professional development or as the basis of an online learning system itself.

And sure, we’re going to probably be looking a fair bit at Edublogs Campus (our institutional blogging platform) but this is strictly not a blog about that… we’re hoping that it’s going to be useful to any institution using blogs – whether they host their own WordpPress MU blogs, run all their blogs off Blogger or ePals or (shudder) even Sharepoint.

So, if you like the sound of that, grab a subscription to our feed or use the form in the sidebar to subscribe by email.

We’re looking forward to helping blogging in schools, colleges, districts and universities take a giant leap forward.