Blogging Guidelines

In this course you are required to write a minimum of 10 posts of at least 200 words each for our class blog.  The blog will allow us to continue discussion beyond the classroom and to explore our collective ideas about art and history.

New topics for discussion are posted on Fridays.  Students are given 7 days to a discussion topic (please post by the following Saturday).  Your blog activity will be evaluated on the quality of your posts and comments, including insightful ideas on the current discussion topic, the ability to draw readings and other materials into the discussions, and being able to draw connections between ideas and class lessons. Since the OpenLab is a new CityTech platform, I will not grade your blog activity, rather I will give you credit for each post and comment.  No credit will be given if your blog post/comment consists of one- or two-disconnected sentences; is plagiarized from other sources; is more than 2 days late; or no post/comment is written for the assignment.

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/arth11036415f2012/.  On the right navigation bar under “Meta” click “Login.” Enter your username and password.
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. On the Add New Post page you can enter a title for your post and then paste or type your blog post into the large field in the middle of the screen.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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.
8. To view the blog after publishing your post, click the blog’s name at the top of the Add New Post page.

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

For both blog 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.

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