WordPress Help for Instructors
If you cannot find the answer to your question here, you might want to look at the student help. You should also familiarize yourself with the basics of navigating on a WordPress site before you try to use the blog.
- How do I change my password?
- How do I add new student users to the blog?
- How do I change a user's privileges?
- How do I disable the self registration option?
- What are categories?
- How do I create a new category for the blog?
- Why haven't the categories I created appeared on the blog home page?
- How do I edit categories?
- What are pages?
- How do I create a new page?
- How do I edit an existing page?
- How do I add new links to the Blogroll?
- How do I edit the links on the Blogroll?
- How do I edit the blog's title?
- How do I change the appearance of the blog?
- Can I save a copy of the class blog?
1. How do I change my password?
Log into WordPress with the user name and password supplied to you by your departmental ITC. (Who is my ITC?) In general, your user name should be the same as your Web CT ID.
After logging into WordPress, you will see the Dashboard control panel. Click on the Users tab and then make sure the Your Profile tab has been selected.
Once the page with Your Profile and Personal Options loads, scroll down until you see the Update Your Password section on the lower right side of the page. Type in your new password twice; then click on the Update Profile button to complete the change.
2. How do I add new student users to the blog?
From the Dashboard, click on the Users tab and then click on the Authors & Users tab pictured below.
Once the Authors & Users page has loaded, scroll down the page until you see the Add New User form. Fill in the required fields marked in the picture below. Although you are not required to supply a student's first and last names, it is a good idea to enter this information. It will make it easier for you to know who writes what on the blog. After you have entered the necessary information, click on the Add User button to complete the process.
By default, students can register themselves, so instructors should not have to do this unless the self-registration feature has been disabled. However, sometimes you might want the students to work in groups.
3. How do I change a user's privileges?
When a student self registers or when an instructor manually adds a new student user to WordPress, the added user will by default have authoring privileges. In other words, an author is someone who can write posts and directly publish them on the blog without requiring the review of an administrator (instructor). If you want greater oversight over the blog's content, then you can change the student's role to that of contributor. A contributor may only write posts. Once a contributer writes a post, it will not appear on the blog until the instructor reviews the post and publishes it for the contributor.
To manually change user privileges, select the Users tab in the Dashboard. Then, select the Authors & Users tab.
Once the Authors & Users page loads, scroll down to locate the name (or names) of the student(s) whose privileges you wish to change. On this page, users are grouped according to their privileges, so a student author will be grouped together with other authors and a TA administrator will be grouped together with other administrators.
- After locating the name of the student, click on the box next to the ID number to put a check mark in it. As in the picture below, you can check multiple students and thereby change the privileges of multiple users.
- Under Update Users, fill the radio button by clicking on the circle next to Set the Role of checked users to:.
- From the pull-down menu, select the type of role you want the student to have. A student should at least be given contributor status so as to be able to write posts. You might consider giving TAs adminstrator status so that they can help you manage the blog.
- Finally, click on the Update button to complete the change. The Update button is not pictured below, but it will appear just to the right on your screen.
How do I change the default privileges for new users?
As mentioned above, new users are made authors by default. However, you can change the default setting if you so choose. From the Dashboard, choose the Options tab and then select the General tab; both are circled in the image below.
After the page with the general options loads in your browser, scroll down to the section of the page that has the heading New User Default Role. From the pull-down menu to the right of this heading, choose the role you would like to be assigned automatically when a new user registers with the blog. Once you have selected the new default role, complete the change by clicking on the Update Options button in the lower right of the screen. Please be aware that changing the default role will not automatically update the role of those users who have already registered with the blog. If you wish to change the privileges of currently registered users, you must do so following the instructions above.
4. How do I disable the self registration option?
By default, students are allowed to register for the class blog so that they can contribute their own posts to it. If for some reason, you want the access to be more restrictive, you can disable this self registration feature. From the Dashboard, choose the Options tab and then select the General tab; both are circled in the image below.
After the page with the general options loads in your browser, scroll down the page until you see the heading Membership. Click on the checkbox next to Anyone can register to remove the check mark. When the check mark disappears, finalize the change by clicking on the Update Options button in the lower right of the screen.
5. What are categories?
On the home page of the blog, you will notice a heading for Categories.
Categories are a useful way to organize the posts to a blog by theme or contributors. For example, if your class is writing about the works of F. Scott Fitzgerald, you might want the posts to be organized by genre. Students who write about his short stories could submit their posts to the Short Stories category, and those who write about his novels could submit their posts to the Novels category. In some classes, an instructor might want the students to work in groups when contributing to the blog. In this case, the instructor could create individual categories--such as Group 1, Group 2--to which the respective group of students would submit its posts.
Even when categories have been created, all new posts will still appear on the home page of the blog. However, clicking on a category link will allow the reader to view only those posts associated with the chosen category. Furthermore, a single post can be attached to multiple categories. Using the above list as an example, a student working in group 1 and writing about a short story could attach a post to both Short Stories and Group 1.
How this feature of the blog is used is entirely up to the instructor. By default, a new WordPress blog will only have Uncategorized as a category. To learn how to create new categories click here. This link has instructions to help students learn how to assign their posts to categories.
6. How do I create a new category for the blog?
From the Dashboard, choose the Manage tab and then select the Categories tab; both are circled in the image below.
Scroll down the page to the Add New Category section. Enter the name of the new category in the textbox beneath Name. The default Category parent is None, and this is usually fine unless you want to create subcategories. To make the new category a subcategory of an existing category, choose the parent category from the pull-down menu. Once you click on the Add Category to the right, the new category will be created.
IMPORTANT: Be aware that a newly created category will not appear in the list of categories on the home page until a post has been attached to it. As long as you see the new category added to the list on the Manage > Categories page, students will be able to submit a post to the category.
7. Why haven't the categories I created appeared on the blog home page?
The links from the home page to categories are created automatically by the WordPress software once a post has been attached to a category. As long as there are no posts attached to a category, it will not appear in the list of categories on the hope page. This, however, will not prevent a student from adding a post to such a category.
8. How do I edit categories?
From the Dashboard, choose the Manage tab and then select the Categories tab; both are circled in the image below.
A list of all the categories associated with the blog will appear. Locate the name of the category you wish to edit and click on the Edit or Delete button to the right of the name.
Choosing the Delete button will obvsiously delete the selected category. However, it will not delete the posts associated with the category. Any posts associated with the deleted category will be reassigned to the default category Uncategorized.
Clicking on the Edit button will load the following screen where you can change the name of the category as well as assign it to a new parent category. When you have made your changes, click on the Edit category button to make them permanent.
9. What are pages?
WordPress distinguishes pages from posts as follows:
"Posts are time-oriented objects. You write them at a specific time, and that time defines their context.
"Pages, on the other hand, are most often used to present information about yourself or your site that is somehow timeless - information that is always applicable. For example, you might write a Post describing what you did or thought on a particular morning ("Breakfast was good"), but on a Page you might write something whose context is less time dependent ("This site is about breakfast").
"Of course, this is your WordPress; you can do whatever you want with it and its features. Pages can be used to present any information you want to live "outside" your blog. Experiment and be creative. And, as always, have fun doing it!"
In other words, posts are used for the day-to-day entries that make up a blog, but pages are generally used for information that describes the blog, its mission, and the rationale of its editors. Posts will automatically appear on the home page in reverse chronological order. A page will neither appear on the home page nor will it have a date stamp affixed to its title as is the case with posts. When a page is created, a link to it will appear on the home page as seen in the image below.
Unfortunately, the default settings will not allow students to create pages for themselves. If you would like to have students use pages in their blog, then you will need to grant them the privileges of an editor by following these instructions. The one danger in assigning students editing privileges is that they will then be able to edit and delete the posts written by other students.
To learn more about pages, please refer to the help at WordPress.org.
10. How do I create a new page?
Creating a new page is very much like creating a new post. In the Dashboard, select the Write tab and then select the Write Page tab.
The WordPress HTML editor will appear. Enter the title of your new page in the Page Title textbox, and write the content of the page in the area designated Page Content. Once you have finished writing the page, click on the Create New Page button to save the page and add a link to it on the home page. The title assigned to the page will be used for the link.
11. How do I edit an existing page?
From the Dashboard, choose the Manage tab and then select the Pages tab; both are circled in the image below.
A list of all the pages that have been created for the blog will appear. Locate the name of the page you would like to edit, and then click on the Edit button to the far right of the page name. You can also delete a page by choosing the Delete button.
Clicking on the Edit button will load the text editor that allows you to change the content of the page. It is the same as the text editor used to create a page. Once you have made all your desired changes, click on the Save button to the lower right of the editing screen.
Alternatively, you can begin editing a page directly from the page itself. At the bottom of every page there should be an Edit this entry link. Clicking on it will load the text editor where you can make your desired changes.
12. How do I add new links to the Blogroll?
When the WordPress blog is created for your class, its home page will automatically display a list of links to other web pages and blogs. WordPress refers to this list as the Blogroll. The default links pictured to the left are probably not relevant to your class, but you can always add new links that students might find useful for their blogging project. For example, if your students are creating a blog about the entertainment industry, you could add links to other blogs addressing this topic.
To add a new link to the Blogroll, select the Links tab and then the Add Link tab in the Dashboard.
Add the full address of the web page in the textbox next to URI. In the textbox by Link Name, type the name of the link as you would like it to appear in the Blogroll. In this example, the link will appear as UCLA Library. Make sure that Blogroll is selected from the pull-down menu next to Category. When you have entered all the information, click on the Add Link button to the lower right to update the list of links in the Blogroll.
13. How do I edit the links on the Blogroll?
To edit or delete Blogroll links, choose the Links tab and then the Manage Links tab in the Dashboard.
A list with all the links in the Blogroll will appear. Locate the name of the link you wish to edit or delete and click on the Edit or Delete button to the right of the name.
Clicking on the Edit button will load the following screen where you can enter the desired changes in the appropriate textbox. Once you have completed the changes, press the Save Changes button to make them permanent.
14. How do I edit the blog's title?
When a blog is created for your class, it is usually assigned a generic title based on the name of the class as listed in the schedule of classes. This name will appear at the top of every page in the blog, usually in the blue banner as pictured below. You are welcome to change the title and subtitle to be more descriptive of your class and how the blog will be used in it.
From the Dashboard, choose the Options tab and then select the General tab.
Under General Options, enter the new title for the blog in the textbox next to Weblog title. You can also change the subtitle using the textbox next to Tagline. Once you have made your changes, be sure to click on the Update Options button located at the bottom right of the page.
15. How do I change the appearance of the blog?
All new class blogs will be created using the default WordPress design, but you can easily change the layout of the blog. Before you change the appearance of the blog, please be aware that the location of some of the links used for navigating the site might change.
To change the appearance of the blog, select the Presentation tab and then the Themes tab from the Dashboard.
Previews of the available design layouts--called Themes by WordPress--will appear. Click on the name of the new layout you would like to use.
WordPress should automatically udpate the appearance of the blog, and it will notify you of the changes with the following message at the top of the Themes page.
To conserve server space, we have only installed a few additional themes with class blogs, but there are hundreds of design options available from WordPress. You can view additional themes by clicking on the link to the WordPress theme directory under Get More Themes at the bottom of the Themes page or by clicking here.
If you identify a new theme you want to use for your class blog, contact your department's Instructional Technology Consultant (ITC) to help you make the changes.
16. Can I save a copy of the class blog?
There is a way to backup your entire WordPress blog; however, the backup file will be in a format that cannot be viewed on your own computer. To use the backup file, you should contact your ITC to have them restore the backup into a new WordPress blog. The new blog will contain all the information found in the previous blog at the time the backup was made. Unfortunately, there is no easy way to download individual posts or pages as text files that can be viewed on your computer.
To make a backup of your blog, choose the two Plugins tab on the Dashboard.
In the list of available plugins, look for the one named WordPress Database Backup, and then click on the Activate button to the far right of the name.
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You will know the plugin has been activated because the Action button will change green and its text will read Deactivate.
Once activated, choose the Manage tab followed by the Backup tab on the Dashboard.
Under Backup Options, make sure you select Download to your computer by filling in the radio button. After selecting the appropriate option, click on the Backup! button to the far right to begin the process.
Your WordPress blog will begin the backup process. Depending on the settings of your web browser, you might be asked what you want to do with the file. Choose Save to Disk and click OK. If you have a very full blog, it will take several minutes to complete the backup.
