Print bookPrint book

Bonus Module Book: Using WordPress in Your Course

Site: TRU Open Courses
Course: Inclusive Digital Design Course (Enrolment Key: IDD)
Book: Bonus Module Book: Using WordPress in Your Course
Printed by: Guest user
Date: Saturday, 12 April 2025, 12:51 AM

Table of contents

Bonus Module Overview

Please note: Although this module refers to TRU's locally-hosted instance of WordPress (TRUbox), you can create WordPress sites through OpenETC.

Learning Outcomes

[Choose your preferred modality! Throughout this module, use the audio player to listen to the content, instead of reading.]

  

By the end of this module, you will be able to:

  • Describe ways to use WordPress in a course to enhance learning.

  • Explain why an educator might choose to explore learning in the “open” and how this connects with the idea of authentic assessment.

  • Understand how to start using WordPress at TRU.


Topics

This module will cover the following topics:

  • Topic 1: Why and how WordPress can be used in a course.

  • Topic 2: Open pedagogies, authentic assessment, and choice.

  • Topic 3: TRUbox overview.


Introduction

  WordPress is a powerful tool for teaching and learning because it allows for much more flexibility than a tool like Moodle for organizing your course materials. You aren’t constrained to the limited course formatting options in Moodle and you have much more flexibility over the visual components.

However, this also means that you need to design more mindfully to ensure you achieve an inclusive design. In this lesson, we’ll talk about how to do that.

Working in WordPress also allows you to open your course materials out to a wider audience, invite community participation in your courses, and allow your students to share their learning in the open. In this lesson, we’ll discuss the pedagogical benefits of doing this and how to explore learning in the open safely and mindfully.

In this module, you will also learn about the WordPress Resources at TRU, and how to get started building your own.

Topic 1: Why and How WordPress can be used in a course.

  Have you ever had the experience of feeling constrained by what Moodle offers, but still wanting to provide your students with the convenience of accessing course materials online? Or perhaps you have a great idea for students to create a professional website or work together on a blog, but there’s nothing in Moodle that really allows for that? Enter WordPress!

WordPress is a content management system that allows you a greater level of control and functionality over what you are used to in Moodle. It can seem overwhelming at first, but if you’re ready to explore a new tool it’s also a lot of fun! And indeed, much of the internet runs on WordPress, so you’re learning (or helping your students to learn!) a meaningful and transferable skill.

From an accessibility perspective, WordPress is responsive and, when used mindfully, can be a very accessible web experience for students. It’s especially useful for multimodal presentations of information: embedding audio, video, images, and H5P activities are all very straightforward. Indeed, instructors who use a lot of media in their courses often find that WordPress offers a more flexible and user-friendly choice.


Resource 1a: Course Resource

  An initial approach to using WordPress for teaching could be to set up a course website. This could replace your Moodle site or, if you still wanted to use Gradebook functions in Moodle, could potentially work alongside it.

You can see how this could potentially work on our Beyond Moodle mock-up WordPress course site, or you can see how it actually worked in a course we did run on the site for our PIDP course (which we based on that template).

The benefits over Moodle are that you have more control over the look and feel of the site (no TRU branding!) and you can share your teaching material with a wider community if you wish. Using plugins like Gravity Forms, you can even create simple dropboxes for assignments (though we don’t recommend this for large classes).


Resource 1b: ePortfolios

  The most popular application of WordPress at TRU is ePortfolios, and we have lots of options available, but for the purposes of this course we will look at a really simple example of an ePortfolio in use since 2020: the TESL Portfolio.

In this case, the instructor wanted students to have a place to post professional documentation, blog their reflections on their learning, and share information about themselves. The ePortfolio is both a classroom project and a public presentation for potential employers. This allows students a safe place to plan for how they would like to present themselves professionally, while still receiving feedback from their instructor.

If you would like to design an ePortfolio project for your students, we’d love to help. You can explore the range of existing ePortfolio templates available and then reach out to us at learningtech@tru.ca to learn more.


Resource 1c: SPLOTs

  Sometimes, we have a good idea for a project that would be well-served by a website, but it’s not worth creating a major project for students or teaching them how to use WordPress. For that exact application, we have SPLOTs: lightweight, easy-to-use tools for allowing students to author on the open web with no accounts and very little necessary training.

You can check out more about SPLOTs here.

But it also helps to know what they can do by seeing them in action. SPLOTs can be used to collect submissions from participants within a class or around the world. For example, maybe you and a colleague at another university are teaching the same topic, and you want your students to blog about it to each other so they can see multiple perspectives. The TRU Writer works very well for easy blogging. Maybe you are teaching a course about public art and you want students to share photographs they have taken of public art? The TRU Collector is great for gallery development.

Spend some time looking at the other options, too, and seeing them in action!

Activity 1: Forum Reflection

  Consider whether any of the tools above would have a good application in your courses. Choose the one you can most see doing, and share in the Bonus Module Learning Activity (Optional): Discussion Forum:

  • Which application or tool interests you the most;

  • What you would need to try it out in your class;

  • What questions you still have; and,

  • Then respond to at least two of your colleagues and their reflections.

Example: I am teaching the same literature course as a colleague at another institution in another province. One of the themes we are exploring is national identity, and I think it would be interesting to have the two groups of students explore this idea from their own perspectives. Do BC and Alberta students think differently about national identity? I think a SPLOT would be a really easy way to get them to share their reflections with each other and for us to compare our teaching strategies, too.

Topic 2: Open pedagogies, authentic assessment, and choice.

  WordPress enables us to have students think and learn in the open, which can have both big benefits and big risks. Engaging with the larger community can help students see the value and utility in their learning, and it can help the stakes of an assignment feel real or meaningful.

It’s critically important to remember that when we engage in teaching and learning on the open web, we relinquish some control of the learning environment. In order to do this safely, always ensure the following:

  • Students have the option to use a pseudonym, work anonymously, password protect their site, make it only available to you, or opt out of working online altogether. There may be many reasons why a student is trepidatious to put their name to work publicly online, and this must be respected.

  • Discuss appropriate online behaviour with students and consider their work on the web for your class an extension of the classroom space as far as rules, conduct, and decorum are concerned.

Remember that choice is an empowering concept for students that they don’t always get much of. Allowing them to consent to being online (rather than demanding it!) is a much fairer approach.

Risks can include unexpected feedback from community members, including the risk of negative feedback that may be phrased in harmful ways. Marginalized learners are at greater risk of encountering hate speech online.

Despite these risks, though, opening up our classrooms to the world can have many benefits, and can be particularly inclusive of students who feel disadvantaged by essays and exams. Considering these teaching practices can help make your classroom a more inclusive place, as long as students are empowered to choose their level of exposure.


Resource 2a: A Student Reflection on Open Pedagogy

  Working in WordPress can enable us to take our learning experiences out of the classroom and into the world. In this essay, student Jaime Marsh reflects on what having opportunities to learn “in the open” meant to her.

Stretch Goal:

If you have time to explore this topic more, the entire Open at the Margins collection is really excellent. Read an article or two of interest to you from the table of contents to Open at the Margins.


Resource 2b: Authentic Assessment

  Because WordPress is a useful, transferable skill, and because learning in the open allows students to share their knowledge with others, many WordPress assignments align with the values of Authentic Assessment. This means that it is

  1. Realistic;

  2. Requires judgement and innovation;

  3. Requires the student “do” something;

  4. Replicates public accountability;

  5. Explores a range of skills; and

  6. Allows for practice, feedback, and revision (Wiggins 1998).

Authentic assessments should look and feel more like how we share knowledge out in the world than like a multiple choice exam or a fixed-topic essay. There should also be an element of choice so that students are exploring projects that they really care about. Authentic assessments can also benefit students who don’t feel they show their work best in traditional classroom assessment settings.

Teachings in Education (2017, January 17). Authentic Assessment: Examples & Overview [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQPCk27tM4U

Activity 2: Forum Reflection

  From what you’ve learned in this section about learning in the open and authentic assessment, consider how you can apply these ideas to a course you currently have in development. Is there one assignment in particular that you could see taking an open, authentic approach to? Share your thinking in the Bonus Module Learning Activity (Optional): Discussion Forum, and then come back to respond to at least two colleagues.

Example: I have always assigned a final essay for my sociology class where students identify a social problem within the scope of the class and propose a solution. Every year I am impressed with the research they do and I always think more people could benefit from their learning. I wonder if we could develop a class blog of one-page summaries of the problems and solutions they propose, with links to the research that would allow people who find the site to follow their thinking? And then, perhaps, it could be a jumping-off point for the next year’s students, because my learners always struggle to start this assignment.

Topic 3: TRUbox overview.

 
 TRUbox is TRU’s in-house installation of WordPress, and anyone can have a site. Or more than one! You can sign up for your own TRUbox site anytime you like at our self-service sign-up page. If you have a larger custom project, like a classroom ePortfolio project with support from us, you’ll need to give us some lead time to get your sites ready and organize classroom visits. As soon as you start to explore the idea of a TRUbox project, reach out to use to help with scoping and timelines.

With a TRUbox website we can support all kinds of applications: podcasting, blogging, professional sites, research dissemination, knowledge mobilization, data collection, conference registration, and more. If you’re not sure whether your project is a good fit for TRUbox or whether you will need additional supports, email learningtech@tru.ca.

Remember!

If you are outside of the TRU community, you can create a WordPress site through OpenETC.


Resource 3a: Screencasts

This first video walks you through the process of signing up for a TRUBox account. Go to the TRUBox sign-up page to check this out yourself. [This link opens in a new window.]

This second video is about the basic navigation of WordPress. This is only an introductory overview, but the WordPress support site is another great resource to explore.

This third video shows you how to toggle privacy and security settings on your TRUbox site.

This final video offers a short introduction to using plugins to expand your site functionality.


Resource 3b: Accessible WordPress

 
 As with Moodle and document design, choices you make when using WordPress strongly impact the accessibility of your website. Ensure you always attend to the following details:

  • Give detailed alt-text for every image. This is the text that describes your images for users who use screenreaders. In general, you want to accurately describe the image, including any tone you hope it suggests. You also need to ensure any text within the image is accurately and clearly detailed, including detailed images like flowcharts.

  • Describe your links in the linked text. Screenreaders can bounce from link to link, so when you just link the word “here” or “this,” it is nonsensical to those users. Make sure the linked text describes where the link is going to.

  • Use headers to indicate headers so that screenreaders can orient themselves on the content.

  • Watch the contrast between background and text colours. White on black is high contrast; light green on dark green is low contrast. Aim for high contrast to maximize legibility. You might also consider choosing a theme that allows users to toggle between light and dark mode at their preference.

For more information on creating accessible WordPress sites, please see the WordPress Accessibility site for additional good practices.

Module 5 Assessment

To complete this Module as a component towards earning the certificate, please choose one of the assessment options below and submit your response to the Assignment Dropbox. We recommend writing your response in the word processor of your choice and then cutting and pasting your response into the Assignment Drop Box submission area.

  


Assessment Option 1

Reflect on your course materials and/or assessments. Choose one that would benefit from using WordPress either for students to interact with or for students to build themselves.

  • Describe current material or assessment

  • Describe revisions that would be made to utilize WordPress in an intentional way

  • Explain why those decisions would be made


Assessment Option 2

Describe how you currently use WordPress in your course and how this aligns with concepts learned in this module. Identify how you would integrate additional considerations learned in this module (as applicable). Describe how/why the current use of WordPress benefits students and how/why additional changes would make an impact (if applicable).

Assessment Option 3

Request a WordPress site through OpenETC and begin playing with WordPress to achieve any three of the following goals (or make up your own!):

  • Change the theme and customize the site’s look.

  • Create a post with categories and tags.

  • Create a page with categories and tags.

  • Upload an image or file to the Media Library and use it somewhere on your site.

  • Explore the security settings of your site and make conscious choices about your site visibility.

Share your link in the Assignment Dropbox submission area and describe the goals you explored.