In the Spotlight: OpenLab is Here for You!

As the semester winds down, the OpenLab is here for you! This spotlight shines some light on some upcoming OpenLab events, support, and tools.

OpenLab Open House

pink balloons fill a storefront
“Balloon” by oliver gartmann CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

Come to the OpenLab Open House to share your successes from this semester, ask questions, and learn from each other about the OpenLab.

The OpenLab Open House will be this Friday, 5/10/24, from 2:00-3:00pm via Zoom. All are welcome.

OpenLab Co-working Session

two green frogs on a green leaf
“frog” by Daz Smith CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

On Thursday, May 16th from 12:00 P.M. to 1:00 PM, join the OpenLab team for the final co-working session of the Spring. You bring the work, we’ll bring the friendly presence in the Zoom session (plus we’ll bring work, too).

OpenLab Open Hours

“Open up” by Patrik Theander CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed.

OpenLab Open Hours are virtual 30-minute individual appointments with a member of the OpenLab Community Team.

The final two Open Hour sessions will be held on May 14th and May 21st, each featuring appointments at 9:30am and 10:00am.

All are held via Zoom and are open to faculty, staff, and students. Reserve your spot now!

OpenLab Email Support

“Connections” by Whatknot CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

Have questions you can’t find the answer to in OpenLab Help?

Reach out for email support by sending a message to us at OpenLab@CityTech.cuny.edu or via our contact form.

What’s Happening at City Tech

“Bubbles @ Party in the Garden” by Karsten Wentink CC BY-SA 2.0 Deed

Want to keep up with what’s happening at City Tech while browsing through the OpenLab?

Now you can find a list of City Tech events and updates right on the OpenLab home page and click through for more information.

We look forward to seeing you at these events and supporting you through the end of the semester!

Co-working session 5/16

One more co-working session to help everyone finish this semester!

On Thursday, May 16th from 12:00 P.M. to 1:00 PM, join the OpenLab team for the final co-working session of the Spring. You bring the work, we’ll bring the friendly presence in the Zoom session (plus we’ll bring work, too).

As with the previous co-working hours, this space can help support you focus on the work you need to finish–in this case, your goal is finishing everything for the end of the semester. If you’re teaching, bring your grading! Or invite a student to join so you can co-work as they finish their project or study for that last exam. Or bring a friend and race to finish your to-do list!

You can work silently in the main Zoom room or move into a breakout room to talk with a collaborator or with one of our team members if you have specific questions we can help you with. 

We hope this co-working session is useful for you–and let us know how else we can help!

Photo credit: “frog” by Daz Smith via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

OpenLab Open House

With the semester winding down, the OpenLab Team invites you to join the OpenLab Open House! Come share your successes from this semester, ask questions, and learn from each other about the OpenLab.

The OpenLab Open House will be on Friday, 5/10/24, from 2:00-3:00pm via Zoom. All are welcome.

Photo credit: “Balloon” by oliver gartmann via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed.

This Month on the OpenLab: May 2024 Release

Tulips against a bright blue sky and buildings in Manhattan.
Manhattan tulips by tanakawho is licensed under CC BY-NC.

On May 2, we released version 1.7.77 of the OpenLab. It was a small release with the following bug fixes: 

  • A minor misalignment in Dashboard > Posts and Dashboard > Comments pages
  • Issues with scrolling in the editor on mobile, making it hard to see the post contents
  • A number of mobile display issues with the Typology theme

As always, please contact us with any questions!

This Month on the OpenLab: April 2024 Release

Cat sitting next to new spring leaves and bright red flowers.
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On April 16, we released version 1.7.76 of the OpenLab. It included a new feature, two new themes, a few bug fixes, and a few minor theme and plugin updates.

New feature

We’re excited to announce a new feature on the OpenLab homepage called ‘What’s Happening at City Tech’. This includes headlines and events from the City Tech News feed, adding another format for sharing information about events and showcasing the great work being done by and for the City Tech community.

In addition, if there are any active City Tech alerts, such as weather-related closures, these will appear in an ‘Alerts’ section above the news feed.

New themes

We added two new themes, Astra and Twenty Twenty-Four.  Astra offers many options for customization, but also looks good out of the box. It would work well for course, project, club, and portfolio sites.

Twenty Twenty-Four is a full site editing theme,  similar to Twenty Twenty-Two. You can find out more about both themes and full site editing in OpenLab Help. Full site editing offers a very different site editing experience than the other themes on the OpenLab, but provides more flexibility and control. Twenty Twenty-Four is designed to showcase visual and written work, and for more advanced users it would work well for a portfolio site. 

Bug fixes

There were three bug fixes included in this release. 

One was preventing the option to use an existing site from appearing during the creation of a course, project, club, or portfolio. 

There was also a bug causing issues with the display of the OpenLab footer when choosing to hide the WordPress admin bar to non-logged-in site visitors (found in the settings of a course, project, club, or portfolio profile).

Finally, we fixed an issue where the Yoast Duplicate Post plugin added a ‘Copy to a new draft’ item to the admin bar on OpenLab sites. This partially overlapped with the ‘Publish’ button and ‘Save draft’ link on posts and pages. 

As always, please contact us with any questions!

In the Spotlight: City Tech Writer

April is National Poetry Month, so in its honor, we shine the spotlight on City Tech Writer (CTW), City Tech’s interdisciplinary journal of student writing.

You might enjoy reading some CTW Collage poetry, or find inspiration on the City Tech Writer OpenLab site to write your own poems. In fact, this year CTW is running a creative writing contest (new deadline: April 15th, 2024) for students to respond to any entry from last year’s edition of City Tech Writer in the following categories:

  • Poetry
  • Fiction
  • Visual Arts (short films and/or comics)
  • Writing About Anti-AAPI Discrimination (700-800 words max)
  • Flash fiction (100 words max)
  • Drama
  • Personal Essay

You can view CTW‘s slideshow to learn more about the writing contest as well. To get into the mood, check out this video of a round table discussion featuring several of the writers from the 2023 issue, discussing the process of revising and reworking their pieces:

Also notice the Writing About Anti-AAPI Discriminiation category. This category is directly tied to May’s AAPI Heritage month–that’s when this category’s winners and all other winning pieces will be published in CTW. The contest is part of an anti-hate initiative. For the category Writing About AAPI Discrimination, contest judges are looking for short reflections from AAPI students responding to the essay and accompanying documentary “Many Years After,” found in the 2022 volume of City Tech writer.

Happy writing–and reading, viewing, and thinking–and good luck!

In the Spotlight: Plan Week Spring 2024

Plan week is here! That means that from March 19 through March 26th, you can take part in Plan Week activities to prepare for advisement and registration for next semester, to ensure you are taking the right courses and asking the right questions to stay on the path to graduation and achieving your future goals.

The Plan Week website has all the information you need to take part and take advantage of all that the week has to offer. There’s also information about how students can enter to win prizes!

On the Plan Week website, you’ll find information about each day in the week, its events, and what to focus on information to help students plan for their next steps at City Tech. Here is the abbreviated list of day-by-day goals–be sure to check out the website for more details:

As you develop your PLAN, remember that you can use the OpenLab to get a preview of the courses you’re interested in registering for, and to develop a better sense of what students are doing as they progress in your major and move toward graduation and their careers. You can use the filters to find courses in particular departments, look at portfolios made by students in your major, see projects related to your studies, and join a club connected to your interests.

Take full advantage of in these events and resources, and happy Planning!

Photo credit: “Lunar Eclipse” by David Yu via Flickr under the license CC BY-NC 2.0 Deed.

Co-working today, F 3/15

The weather is getting better, but there’s always more work to do! Let’s get together TODAY to work and check things off the to-do lists we all have–or take some time to make to-do lists!

The OpenLab Team is hosting a co-working session today, Friday, March 15th, 10:00-11:00AM. Join us to cowork in what we hope is a welcoming space that helps as you focus on accomplishing what you need to finish. Bring whatever you want to work on, OpenLab related or not. We’ll bring bring work, too, plus some good energy for checking things off to-do lists.

You can work silently in the main Zoom room or move into a breakout room to talk with a collaborator or with an OpenLab team member if you have specific questions we can help you with. 

Please share this opportunity with colleagues and students–all are welcome. We hope this co-working session is useful for you–and let us know how else we can help!

Photo credit: “Three is a charm (26/365)” by Chung Ho Leung via Flickr is licensed under CC BY-ND 2.0 Deed

This Month on the OpenLab: March 2024 Release

Martenitsa made from red and white yarn hanging on a tree branch with a budding flower at the end.
Hanging Martenitsa by Georgi Kirichkov is licensed under CC BY-SA.

On March 12, we released version 1.7.75 of the OpenLab. It included a new plugin and a few minor theme and plugin updates.

New plugin: Zotpress

Zotpress allows you to connect your OpenLab site with your Zotero library for easy citations and bibliography creation.

Typology theme

We made a few changes to the default text and background color settings for Typology to ensure accessible color contrast in the footer text.

As always, please contact us with any questions!

March Support

Stay up-to-date on OpenLab news and make use of our many opportunities for support right here on The Open Road!

As always, reach out to the OpenLab team with questions or ideas: OpenLab@citytech.cuny.edu!

Photo credit: “Coming Soon!” by tdlucas5000 via Flickr using the license CC BY 2.0 Deed.

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