- Release Updates: 2 new themes, one of which uses full site editing
- Plugin Under Review: Demo the Multicollab Plugin – currently testing free version (comment mode) and aiming to test paid version (also offers suggestion)
- H5P
Author: Cailean Cooney
- Icebreaker & Introductions
- Introducing the working group concept, goals for the semester
- Group share:
- What are some ways you currently use the OpenLab?
- Rose / bud / thorn share-out activity
- Share something good, something emerging, and something thorny about your use of the OpenLab
- Accessibility and Functionality spotlight
- New Accessibility checker (Editoria11y)!
- Accessibility module
- More accessibility info via OpenLab Help section on accessibility
- What do you want to know about accessibility as it relates to your student-facing work on the OpenLab? or in general…
- What do you want to learn during this working group? What is a goal that you’d like to work toward that supports your professional trajectory that can be served through your OpenLab work?
Icebreaker:
- What is your impression of the difference between course sites and project sites
Update on themes added
- Themes
- Cosmetic considerations / questions
ePortfolios
- What is a student ePortfolio?
- Examples
- Benefits
- Place to point potential employers or graduate school admissions committees
- Search engine optimization
- Can enable the ‘Add to my portfolio’ functionality, which allows users to easily add anything they’ve authored on the OpenLab to their Portfolio
- Demo ‘Add to my portfolio’
- Questions?
- Mention ePortfolio profile (BuddyPress)
- What do you imagine are some use cases for your students?
- How ePortfolios can be used by faculty
- Debrief – becoming an OpenLab Dev Tester & testing new features
- Feature spotlight
- Bree, rich text commenting
- Cailean, attribution plugin
- Theme testing
- Wrap up
- Icebreaker/intros
- Theme searching debrief & next steps
- Introducing Testing with OpenLab Dev site
- Demo & new features: Announcements, Activity, @-mentions
- Testing themes on Dev site
- Dev credentials
- Instructions for testing
- Due before 12/2 session – testing new features and joining colleagues sites
- Next session Friday, 12/2 at 12pm
Instructions and tips for doing a theme search:
- Go to the WordPress Themes Directory
- You can use the feature filter to narrow by specific criteria, although sometimes that can be too limiting, so play around with it
- Things to look for on individual theme info page:
- Last updated: Find something last updated within 1 year
- Active Installations: Look for something popular, ideally no less than 1,000 active installations.
- Ratings: Generally stick to at least 4 stars, although there could be exceptions. Sometimes if there aren’t many reviews they can be skewed for reasons unrelated to theme quality.
- Preview the theme to get a sense of what it looks like, although this isn’t a perfect tool. If the theme has its own site listed, check it out to see if there’s a demo. These are usually better than using the preview function.
Criteria for theme searching
Note: use your best judgement for the criteria below. Sometimes it’s difficult to tell based on a theme preview.
- Navigation (main menu) seems clear and easy to use
- Text is clear and easy to read
- Seems to integrate visual materials well
- Has good heading styles – clear and well-differentiated
- In the theme preview, look for the post called ‘Elements’, which contains examples of different styles.
- In ‘Tags’ section, includes custom header or custom logo
Share the link(s) to the theme(s) you selected by replying to this post as a comment.
Due: 11/17 (before next working group meeting)
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