Tag Archives: Wordpress

Technology

Examples of Teaching with WordPress at UBC

Here’s a quick (well not that quick) screencast I put together as part of the Teaching with WordPress course. In the video, I highlight some of the different approaches and use cases of how WP is being used for teaching and learning at UBC. Here’s the specific courses and plugs-in that I mention:

SoilWeb200: http://soilweb200.landfood.ubc.ca/
Video Game Law: http://videogame.law.ubc.ca/
Phys101: https://blogs.ubc.ca/phys101/
Arts One Open: http://artsone-open.arts.ubc.ca/
Arts One Seminar: http://a1hendricks.arts.ubc.ca/

Gravity Forms: http://www.gravityforms.com/
Wiki Embed Plug in: https://wordpress.org/plugins/wiki-em…

Apologies for all of the scrolling!

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Technology

Some Quick Numbers on WordPress & MediaWiki at UBC

The three main platforms that support open education at UBC are UBC Blogs (WordPress), UBC Wiki (MediaWiki), and UBC CMS (WordPress). They are used in a lot of different ways but on the start of Open Education Week, I thought I’d post some quick stats Scott helped me pull for a recent presentation. All numbers are current to the beginning of March.

UBC Blogs

  • unique users: 28,777
  • unique blogs: 21,207

UBC Wiki

  • unique users: 16,658
  • pages/files: 56,436

UBC CMS

Since September 2014, there have been almost 10,000 new users across the platforms. The team that helps develop these platforms not only do a fantastic job supporting set of a robust, always up tools that underpin a lot of UBC’s open education efforts but they are also involved in numerous innovative projects that push our understanding of how these technologies support teaching and learning, such as UBC’s Open Badge Pilot.

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MediaWiki, Wiki News

Testers Needed for New Wiki Embed Plug-in

The CTLT at UBC is in the process of developing a new version of the Wiki Append plug-in and we are seeking people to help out with the early testing. The new plug-in (to be called “Wiki Embed”) will allow pages from any wiki running on the MediaWiki platform to be embedded into a WordPress page. As the wiki page gets updated and edited, the changes can be pushed out to the WordPress page so that it always shows a live view of the most current page. As part of the added functionality of the new version, users will be able to customize embedded links by setting specific target urls or choosing to have new WordPress pages created on the fly.

For more information on how to download an alpha version of the plug-in and install it, please see this blog post.

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MediaWiki, Wiki News

Using the UBC Wiki as a Content Management System

The new UBC eLearning site recently went live and part of its content is being managed in the UBC Wiki. For example, the source of the eLearning toolkit page is this UBC Wiki page.

The Wiki Append WordPress plug-in allows pages from any wiki running on the MediaWiki platform to be embedded into a WordPress page. As the wiki page gets updated and edited, the changes will be pushed out to the wordpress page so that it always shows a live view of the most current page.

Using the UBC Wiki as a content management system (CMS) makes sense if you have content that needs to be periodically updated by multiple people. Instead of having to wait for the appropriate web person to make the changes, content can be added or edited on the fly as it is needed. The wiki comes with built in safety features as well; the ability to rollback changes means that mistakes can easily be fixed and that content is never lost.

This screencast from the University of Calgary give a brief overview of the Wiki Append plugin.

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