Learning Community Blogging Guidelines

In this course you are required to write posts of 100-200 words plus occasional images for Homework .  In addition to the homework, you may post about events you would like to share and/or comment on fellow students’ posts as much as you please!  The homework will allow us to continue discussion beyond the classroom and to explore our collective ideas about art, history, and hospitality.

New Homework is posted intermittently, make sure you check your CityTech email!  Generally, students will have 1 week to respond to Homework. To receive credit for homework, you must post here on the OpenLab. Try to draw connections between your ideas, the readings, and class lessons. The homework grade is equivalent to one letter grade (if you have an A average for your papers and exams but don’t do the homework, you will receive a B for your final grade). No credit will be given if your homework post consists of one- or two-disconnected sentences; is plagiarized from other sources; is more than 2 days late.

To give you an idea of the length of a 200-word blog entry, the top of this page to here is approx. 200 words.

Register and Sign In to the OpenLab To Start Posting:

To access the dashboard on our class website, you must have an OpenLab account. To register an account, you must begin through your CityTech email. Be sure to go back to your CityTech email after you’ve signed on to the OpenLab to confirm that you really did sign up.

How to Find the Latest Homework Topic:

Locate the header “Homework” and click on it. You will see all the Homework Topics that have been posted so far. Every time someone submits a blog post, the newest post will float to the top, so a quick way to find the latest topic is to go to “Homework.”

Online Decorum:

Consideration for the feelings of others is expected.  People cannot see you smile and may not know when you are joking. Do not tell people they are wrong, but explain why you believe differently. Offer constructive criticism by directing your classmates to your source of information. Any use of profanity, insults that defame character, race, ethnicity, religion, etc. are inappropriate and will not be tolerated.

How to Post on the Course Blog

1. Go to https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/art-camera-food-fylc-fall-2016/. On the right navigation bar under “Meta” click “Login.” Enter your username and password. Alternatively, if you are already logged in, click “Site Admin” to get you to the dashboard.
2. Now you’re on the WordPress Dashboard. To post your blog entry, click “Add New” under the “Posts” menu on the left navigation bar.
3. Under “Add New Post”, enter your name and title of the post, and then paste or type your homework post into the large field in the middle of the screen. For example, Robert Frank: What I Hate About Food Photography.
4. Please categorize your home by checking the category #studentHW. This will make certain that you are properly credited for the homework.
5. There are two ways to format posts: Visual or HTML. If you know HTML feel free to use it. Otherwise you may want to select Visual and use the buttons along the top of the field to add bold, italics, etc.
6. To add a picture, or link, place your cursor where you want the image and click the “Add Media” button. Click “Upload Files” to upload images from your computer (or drag it from your desktop onto “Upload Files,” or click “Insert from URL” (on left sidebar) to link to another website.
7. Make sure you a category for your post by checking off a category on the Right. Select “#studentHW” for your posts on the Homework, select announcement if you want to tell your classmates about an event and anything of interest to you that is relevant to the class.
8. Give your post one or more tags by entering them into the field under “Post Tags” on the right side of the Add New Post page.
9. If you’d like to take a look at your post before publishing it live on the course blog, click the “Preview” button on the upper right side of the Add New Post page.
10. When you’re ready to publish your post to the blog for all to see, click the blue “Publish” button on the right side of the Add New Post page.
11. You’re now done posting homework!

To post a comment on our website, click the “Leave a Comment” link on any  post.

For both  posts and comments, I strongly suggest that you write in a word processor or text editor and paste the finished text into the Add New Post page or comment box.

As you become comfortable with writing blog posts, you’ll notice there are different ways to compose one (note the format editor on the right) but the steps above will give you a good start.

Please let me know if you have any questions or run into any problems: scheng@citytech.cuny.edu