Learn with Lynda: WordPress Essentials and WordPress in the Classroom

Recently, I had the opportunity to attend the first Academic Lynda.com User Group on behalf of the Information Learning Services Directorate. This gave me great insight into how other institutions across the sector are deploying Lynda.com as part of their staff development provision.  It was also interesting to hear about what Lynda.com courses were the most popular at other institutions. WordPress was a regularly featured in institutions top 10 accessed courses.
Staff and students have access to WordPress at York St John University and they are currently using it to create collaborative class websites, to create placement journals, to disseminate and support research projects and to create online portfolios and journals.
So for that reason I decided to focus this month’s Learn with Lynda blog on WordPress. I have identified two courses to get you started: WordPress Essentials and WordPress in the Classroom.
WordPress Essentials (3h 58m) with Morten Rand-Hendricksen
WordPress is a popular website creation tool and the WordPress Essentials course aims to get you started. This course is ideal for a WordPress novice or for individuals who want to refresh their knowledge and brush up on their WordPress skills. Remember, you don’t have to watch the entire course. The short bite-sized videos mean you can view the sections of the courses that are relevant to you and dip in and out at your own leisure.
WordPress Essentials topics include:

• What is WordPress?
• Editing your profile
• Creating and publishing posts
• Creating and publishing pages
• Inserting images, videos, and other media
• Changing the appearance of your site
• Understanding widgets

Here a short snippet of the WordPress Essentials course:

WordPress in the Classroom (1h 55m) with Chris Mattia
This course explores strategies for integrating WordPress in the classroom to create open, connected spaces for student learning. Learn how to create effective and engaging digital environments for your students. The ideas in this course can apply to face-to-face, blended, and 100% online classes. If you’re interested in creating a class website that all your students can contribute to then this is the course for you.
WordPress in the Classroom topics include:

• Why WordPress?
• Models for teaching with WordPress
• Designing a course architecture
• Building static pages
• Creating menus
• Creating categories
• Choosing a course theme

WordPress at YSJ
All YSJ staff and students have the ability to create their own blog/site on our installation of WordPress. You can access your own personal WordPress site by going to the following URL: http://blog.yorksj.ac.uk. You will be prompted to login with your YSJ IT username and password.
Thereafter, you can access your WordPress site directly by using the following URL: http://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/[Your IT Username], for example http://blog.yorksj.ac.uk/d.mackley
Why not create your own WordPress site and as you watch the videos start applying your new knowledge. Don’t forget to let us know what you think of the course! Was it helpful? Was there anything you would add? Any takeaways you can apply to your teaching or would like to explore further?
Finally, if you found these courses useful, you may be interested in the Create an Online Portfolio with WordPress course. For more information on using Lynda.com and to access the site, visit the ILS Website, or contact Digital Training for help! If you require any further help getting started with WordPress for Teaching, Learning and Assessment then please contact the Technology Enhanced Learning team.
Daniel