WordPress: Overview

WordPress is a popular blogging software powered by our local instance of CampusPress by EduBlogs and made available through Canvas for use in teaching. WordPress course blog sites are available upon request for official courses, and will be linked to your Canvas site automatically.

Table of Contents

This article will address the following information:

Why Use WordPress?

Blogs are a popular way to engage students with course materials and foster students' writing. Some instructors choose to use blogs if they are interested in a new approach to using discussion posts. Blogging can help foster a student's sense of community in the class and their field as they take increased ownership of the course materials through their blog writing and engagement.

Some key features of using WordPress integrated with Canvas include:

  • Automatic link from your Canvas course site to your course blog in the Course Navigation menu
  • One click addition of users enrolled in your Canvas course to your WordPress course blog at the role you define
  • Automatic removal of users no longer enrolled in your class after the add / drop period

Use Cases for WordPress

A non-exhaustive list outlining what instructors can use WordPress to facilitate include:

  • Creating a learning community hub for their students
  • Offering opportunities for students to contribute writing in their discipline outside the context of an academic paper
  • Engaging students in written discussion
  • Providing a space for students to upload and share summative projects with the class to review and discuss
  • Utilizing alternative formats to display and organize course content

How do I use WordPress in my Canvas Course?

WordPress course blog sites are connected to Canvas courses in a one-to-one structure, meaning that a single WordPress site can only be associated with a single Canvas course. We cannot connect the same WordPress course blog to multiple courses in Canvas. However, any course in Canvas can have a WordPress site connected to it.

To learn more about how to use WordPress, please reference:

What will my students see?

When students enter a course that has a WordPress blog associated with it, they will see the "Course Blog" item in their Course Navigation on the left-hand side.

Clicking the "Course Blog" item in the Course Navigation will open a new tab and take the students to that course's specific blog, where they will then be able to navigate and engage with the course blog's content.

Additional Resources

It is important to set guidelines and goals for a course blog. Tips about blogging in the classroom and best practices for incorporating blogs can be found at the articles linked here:

Other useful support documents you can reference include:

For additional assistance in using Wordpress in Canvas, please email contact@campuspress.com.

For more help, please contact canvas@yale.edu.