Set up your blog and create a first post

Please note there is a Tutorial with images (Google slides) linked below if the written instructions don’t make sense at first!

Table of contents

Installing WordPress

  1. Go to the Onelogin portal
  2. Click on the Berg Builds tile (blue circle with white W) – it may be under the tab “Personal” or “Everything”.
    1. if you joined the course very recently, you may not yet have this tile. E-mail me
  3. Fill out your subdomain name when it says “Choose Your Domain”: http://help.bergbuilds.domains/general/choose-subdomain, bearing in mind the suggestions for a good name. You can use an alias, if you want, but do not include the course number (you may end up using your domain for other courses later!)
  4. Install the web application “Wordpress” using these instructions: http://help.bergbuilds.domains/applications/wordpress. Note that the examples in the videos are from a different college, but the interface (the “cpanel”) should look very similar.

Help is available from the help website, and if it really doesn’t work, go to the Digital Learning team. (They’re really cool to know anyway, you should all visit the Hive in Trexler Library!)

If you already have a Bergbuilds domain:

Read through the instructions: you will create a category with the course number (as instructed below) to help me keep track of your blog posts.

If you choose, you can create a complete separate website for the course, a subdomain. Here’s how to create a subdomain. You can include the course number to gather all your coursework on one separate site, for instance. (You notice the course number at the front of the course website where you started? That’s actually the subdomain.)

If you already did the cat post in a previous course

If you are a returning student in my courses, there is a chance you already did the cat post for a previous blog! Add a few lines describing how making the post this time was easier, or what you learned to do differently this time. Can you add a link to your previous post if it still exists?

It’s encouraging to our newly blogging students to see practice does make perfect!

Next: follow the instructions from Step 1 “How to create your first post” onwards:

How to create your first post:

Photo tutorial below, but cross-check with details here if something is not clear.

If you’ve were in one of my courses in the past, you’ve done this already. Now you get a chance to test if you still know how to do it! Can you find another, even cuter cat??

Step 1: Create a category with the course number: hst137, hst267 or hst271. This is necessary for your work to show up in my workflow in Inoreader. It’s a really neat RSS reader and you can read in this blog post how I use it.

  • WordPress Tutorial: How to create a category
  • Short description: click on “Posts” in the left menu, and then “categories”, fill out the name hst137, hst267 or hst271 and make sure the “slug” is hst137, hst267 or hst271, then scroll to the bottom of the page and click on the button “Add New Category”.

Step 2: Create a first post. You will learn how to insert an image and a hyperlink, add it to a category, and add tags. (Wait! What’s the difference between a tag and a category? <– Click that link if you want to learn more.) You will need all of these skills for your later posts, so get practicing!

  1. Open a new browser window, and go to the website growthmindsetmemes.blogspot.com/p/cat-index.html and find a Growth Mindset cat that speaks to you. Leave the cat window open! (They’re the same cats you find in the sidebar on all my websites, btw.)
  2. On your website, create a new post (Posts > Add New), and include the word Cat in the title. Write why the cat’s mindset resonates with you.
    1. Then go back to the cat-meme website, and grab the image: right-click (Windows) or Control+click (Mac) on the image itself and choose “copy image address/location” from the menu.
  3. Go back to your post. Click the + button to add a new block, and select “Image”. Click on “Insert from URL”, then paste the image address you just copied. It should end in .jpg.
  4. Add a caption, including the source of the image – the URL of the blog post (not the image!) would be ideal, so your reader can find out more about the Growth Mindset Cat. You can just grab the address from the post (ending in html) and post it as a hyperlink: click in the “caption” field, click on the right-most icon (a link icon) and confirm by clicking on the arrow.
  5. Add “Alt text“: this helps visually impaired internet users to see pictures. Click on the picture in the editor window, to the right you see “Image settings” appear. Describe what is in the picture, including the text. For example: “Two young orange tabby cats look determined to something off camera. Text: ‘Be curious!’ “
  6. Add the post to the Category with the course’s number (hst107 or hst269): In the Post section of the right menu, scroll to Categories, and click to expand the menu. Untick “Uncategorized”, and click on the category with the course number instead. You may have to click on the little cog wheel to see that menu appear.
  7. Add tags: under the Category menu in the editor window, you see Tags. Click to fold it open, and add the word week1 in the box. You can add other tags, too. (More info on tags in WordPress)
  8. Click “Save Draft“, then check with the Preview button (“Preview in new tab”) that everything looks fine. If it does,
  9. Press the “Publish” button, and click on “View Post”. And there is your post!
  10. Email me the link to your blog (you can just grab the URL from your first published post), so I know where your blog lives, and I can share it with your fellow students in the blog stream on our course website.

Google Slides tutorial

This Google Slides tutorial walks you through the process of creating your first post and creating categories. It forwards to the next slide every 30 seconds, but you can also go to the original slides here.

Checklist:

When you are done, read this List carefully, and check you did all the steps:

Checklist
I installed WordPress and created a personal website (“blog”) on bergbuilds.domains.
I created a category with the course number (hst137, hst267 or hst271)
I created my first post on the Growth Mindset Cat
TITLE: the title of the post includes the word Cat
IMAGE: I included the image of the cat, a caption with the image credit/source, as well as alt text.
CATEGORY: I added the post to category hst137, hst267 or hst271
TAGS: I added the tag week1 to the post
I emailed a link to my website/blog to Dr. D’Haeseleer

Once I have everybody’s website address, we are ready for another task to help us comment on each other’s work, using Hypothes.is.

Digital Learning Team assistance available: Check out the webpage