Documentation:WordPress Basics/What Is a Blog
What is it?
A weblog, or "blog", is really just a website. Weblogs cover as many different topics, and express as many opinions, as there are people writing them. Some blogs are highly influential, some have enormous readership, some are university course websites, while others are mainly intended for a close circle of family and friends. It is common for people to write blogs to describe their work, their hobbies, their pets, social and political issues, or news and current events. And while blogs are typically the work of one individual, blogs combining contributions of several people, ‘group blogs’, are also popular.
At UBC, there are two services where you can use or create your own blogs: UBC Blogs and Connect Blogs.
- UBC Blogs
- UBC Blogs uses WordPress a personal publishing platform designed to provide individual or group spaces for instructors and students. Some of its features include social networking enabling people with similar interests to connect and communicate. You can join groups, build course websites, allow group authoring on a blog, provide peer review (editing with comments) of authored content, provide class webspace development (adding annotated links/building a shared resource for a class), and provide a personal portfolio for students, faculty and staff (upload media - slides, video, images of your artwork). With Connect's UBC Blogs Tool Link, it's now easier to link your Connect course with UBC Blogs.
- Connect Blogs
- Connect also has a built-in blogging system that is fully integrated with many of Connect's other tools. Depending on your course objectives, you can use a single course blog for full class discussions, provide group blogs for collaboration or individual blogs for personal reflections. All conversations are kept within the course and only available to course participants. Connect blogs are integrated with the Grade Center making student activities easier to grade. You can also attach rubrics to the blog so students understand how they will be graded.
