This Month on the OpenLab: August 2023 Release

Dog with green life vest jumping in a wave.
Prepare for landing” by Nathan Rupert is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND.

On August 17 we released version 1.7.69 of the OpenLab. It included many new features, as well as updates to all existing themes and plugins, including BuddyPress and WordPress, the two primary plugins that power the OpenLab. 

New features

Choose a Template for your Site!

When you create a new Course, Project, Club, or Portfolio, the site created uses a template that is appropriate for each type of site. For example, new Course sites come with pre-created pages for Syllabus, Assignments, etc. Now, instead of one template for each type of site, there can be multiple templates for different types of Course, Project, Club, or Portfolio Sites. For example, there are two templates for Course sites: Interactive, intended for use with active student posting and commenting, and Informational, for sites containing course materials, with instructor posts. You can choose the type of site template you want to use when you’re creating your new Site. Templates for Projects, Clubs, and Portfolios are coming soon! Learn more in OpenLab Help.

Collaboration Tools

When you create a new Course, Project, or Club, you now have the choice to activate the collaboration tools that appear on the Profile of your group: Discussion, Docs, File Library, and Announcements. Announcements is enabled by default, but you can enable or disable any of the tools during creation, or at any time in Profile > Settings.

Collaboration tools in Group Creation and Settings.

Add to Portfolio

If you have an OpenLab Portfolio, you can turn on an ‘Add to My Portfolio’ button that makes it easier to add work from Courses, Projects, or Clubs to your Portfolio. This Add to Portfolio feature has been around for a while, but many OpenLab members aren’t aware of it. To make it more visible, we’ve added a checkbox to enable or disable it in the first step of Portfolio creation. It can still be found in Portfolio Profile > Settings, where you can enable or disable it at any time.

Option to hide OpenLab Toolbar on Sites

Currently, there’s an OpenLab toolbar that appears at the top of your Course, Project, Club, or Portfolio site. If you would like to hide that toolbar for site visitors who are not logged in (for example, potential employers who are viewing your ePortfolio), there’s now a checkbox where you can do that in Profile > Settings. Logged in OpenLab members will always see the toolbar, as it provides important links to the Dashboard (for site members) or back to other parts of the OpenLab. 

Checkbox to Show WordPress admin bar to non-logged-in visitors

Activity Widget & Block

In the January 2023 release, we introduced the Activity page, which appears on every Course, Project, and Club Profile. It includes all activity and can be filtered by type (posts, comments, docs, etc). After feedback from OpenLab members, we created a version of this activity feed that can be included on a Course, Project, or Club Site. This can be done by adding the OpenLab Activity block to a post or page, or the OpenLab Activity widget to the sidebar or footer of your site. Learn more in OpenLab Help.

Non-active Status for Courses, Projects, Clubs, and Portfolios

This new feature allows admins of a Course, Project, Club, or Portfolio to switch it to ‘Not Active’ status if it’s no longer being actively used. This status change means that new members are not able to join or request membership, unless invited by an admin. A notice will be added to the profile and it will display on the last page of My OpenLab > My Courses, Projects, or Clubs. Faculty may wish to set past courses to ‘Not Active’; that way course materials can remain open and available to the community but students won’t be able to join a past course by mistake. Learn more in OpenLab Help.

OpenLab Connections

OpenLab Connections is a new feature that allows you to link related Courses, Projects, or Clubs and share information between them. For instance, members of one course section can follow activity from a connected section without needing to become members of that section (private content will not be shared). Learn more in OpenLab Help.

Membership Privacy in a Course, Project, or Club

This feature allows OpenLab members to hide their membership in a particular Course, Project, or Club, so that it doesn’t appear to others on their profile, and their activity doesn’t appear in activity feeds around the OpenLab. For example, perhaps you joined a Beanie Babies Collectors club, but don’t necessarily want to advertise your love of Beanie Babies to anyone who views your profile. You could switch your membership to private, and no one would see the membership on your OpenLab Profile.

Rich text formatting options for Discussion

We added rich text formatting for Discussion forum posts and replies. This makes it easier to add images and other text formatting to Discussion.

Improvements to image embedding in Site comments

After gathering more information about how people are using media embedding in comments (introduced in the January 2023 release), we made some improvements to this feature to make it clear when images embed properly. When you click on the image embed icon in the comment editor, and paste in the URL for an image, instead of seeing the URL, you’ll now see the image embedded in the comment editor itself. If embedding isn’t supported for the image you’re using, you will just see the URL appear in the comment editor. 

Image embed icon
Using the image embed icon
Image embedded in comment editor
Image is embedded in comment editor

You can now also embed images from the Site’s Media Library and the Files Library on the Profile. Just click the image embed icon and paste the URL for images saved in either of these places. 

Member Profile and My OpenLab improvements

We changed the interface for adding social links to your profile, and updated the list of platforms. We also added Display Name to the top of the profile to make it more prominent. As a reminder, Display Name is the name that you choose to use on the OpenLab. You don’t have to use your real name, unless you want to! (Learn more about privacy on the OpenLab.)

We cleaned up the design of the page in My OpenLab where you can invite new members to the OpenLab (My Invitations > Invite New Members). Now instead of seeing a long list of your Courses, Projects, and Clubs that you can invite the new member to, you can search for them instead.

Embedding for Padlet, Geogebra, and Desmos

After a number of requests for Padlet embedding, we’re happy to have been able to add it in this release. You can find instructions in OpenLab Help.

We’ve made some improvements to the appearance of Geogebra and Desmos embeds in a page or post. 

OpenLab Calendar

In preparation for better integration of City Tech campus-wide calendars, we removed the OpenLab Calendar that used to appear in the About section of the site. Soon we’ll be adding a feed for the campus-wide news, events, and alerts so it’s easier to find the information you need in one place. And there is still a calendar included on the Profile of all Courses, Projects, and Clubs.

Plugins

We added six new plugins, and made improvements to the two OpenLab grading plugins. 

New plugins

Broken Link Checker is the new and improved version of WP Broken Link Status Checker. You can use it to scan for and alert you to broken links on your site.

Editoria11y Accessibility Checker, developed and maintained by Princeton University’s Web Development Services team, checks your posts and pages for accessibility issues, and displays any existing issues with a thorough description of what they are and how you can address them. It is also helpful as a learning tool, providing easy-to-understand information about making your site more accessible. 

GTranslate allows you to use Google Translate to offer versions of your website in different languages, using Google Translate’s automatic translation service. You can add a widget with a dropdown allowing visitors to choose their language. 

Reckoning is an assessment plugin developed for Blogs@Baruch, and built on by the CUNY Academic Commons, that we’ve brought over to the OpenLab. Made for Course Sites, it allows the instructor to view all member posts and comments in one place. It also incorporates grades from WP Grade Comments, and allows you to export all data to CSV. 

WeBWorK Problem Embed is a new mathematics plugin created as part of City Tech’s “Connect the DOTS” grant that allows faculty to embed WeBWorK math problems on an OpenLab site. Students can interact with the problem directly on the site, rather than having to navigate away to the WeBWorK site.

Improvements

We made a few changes to WP Grade Comments to clarify when a private vs. public comment is being made. Now, whenever a grade is included, the comment is automatically private. In addition, we’ve added a checkbox for private comments for post authors as well as admins to ensure no one accidentally leaves a public reply to a private comment.   

In OpenLab Gradebook, we updated the options for Midterm Grade to incorporate the recent changes in City Tech’s new grading scale.


As always, please contact us with any questions!

Co-working FTW!

Two birds sitting together on a branch.
“Twins” by Todd Petit via Flickr CC BY-NC 2.0

One more co-working session for the win!

On Tuesday, May 23rd from 1:30 P.M. to 3:30 PM, join the OpenLab team for the final co-working session of the Spring. As with the previous co-working hours, this space can help support you focus on 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!

Although our focus for this session is on supporting faculty members finish out the semester, all are welcome. You bring the work, we’ll bring the friendly presence in the Zoom session (plus we’ll bring work, too).

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. 

Not able to make it but want to suggest a day and time for Fall 2023 co-working hours? Please leave a comment to let us know what works for you. And before the start of the new semester, we’ll post our new co-working hours and other support schedule information right here on The Open Road.

Finals end on Tuesday, May 23, and grades are due Friday, May 26th. We hope this co-working session is useful for you–and let us know how else we can help!

Co-working for Students!

Two butterfiles sitting together on a flower.
twins” by alain01789 via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Here’s another co-working session–please help spread the word!

Have you heard of “body doubling”? Do you get more work done when working in the company of others? This practice of working on a task while others are also working on their own projects is becoming very popular on social media. It’s a trend because it works!

With “body doubling” comes accountability and knowing that others are also working, creates some positive stress. And when one is focusing for a short period, while intentionally putting the phone away and avoiding emails, a lot can be done! 

As the end-of-semester stress mounts, the OpenLab is holding a co-working session for students just before Finals week. Join us on Tuesday, May 16th. The Zoom room will be open from 1:30 P.M. to 3:30 P.M. for students to work silently in the same space. Join anytime with that final paper or project and work on tightening its loose parts. Or your study notes for your exam. Or anything else from your to-do list you want to accomplish!

Do you have other productivity or stress management hacks? Share them in the comments below!

Co-working Tuesdays

springtime” by willi_bremen via Flickr CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

The OpenLab team added a new option for support: co-working sessions each Tuesday through the end of the semester.

Today’s session, like those in the past, is open to anyone: students, staff, and faculty. Join the co-working session via Zoom anytime in the 1:30-3:30 co-working hours. We will work together silently, and can open breakout rooms for conversations or questions.

The remaining sessions after this week have a particular focus. Next week’s session, on Tuesday, May 16, 1:30-3:30, is focused on students, in anticipation of finals week beginning. Please spread the word!

In the final session, Tuesday, May 23, 1:30-3:30, faculty are invited to join for some time to work on responding to student work, grading, and finishing the work of the semester.

Like the idea of coworking and the related idea of body doubling but can’t make it on a Tuesday? Suggest a date and time for other sessions by adding a comment on this post or by reaching out via email to OpenLab@citytech.cuny.edu.

Annotation in Teaching and Learning

Cat laying on its back with its eyes open

I hope everyone is hanging in there as the semester wraps up!

We’re trying to understand more about how OpenLab members are using annotation, and what people’s needs might be.

If you’ve used an annotation tool in your teaching or other work, we would appreciate if you could take a moment to fill out a short survey about annotation. (Please note that if you’re not already logged into the OpenLab, you’ll be prompted to log in to fill out the survey.)

Many thanks!

This Month on the OpenLab: April 2023 Release

Cat looking sleepy with peach blossoms behind it.
Sakura cat by tanakawho is licensed under CC BY-NC.

On April 12 we released version 1.7.68 of the OpenLab. It included a new plugin, support for embedding Yuja videos, and number of bug fixes.

New features

Yuja videos can now be embedded on OpenLab sites. City Tech has its own Yuja site, so members of the City Tech community can upload videos to embed on their OpenLab sites. To embed a video, simply paste the URL as you would for YouTube or Vimeo.

TablePress Automatic URL Conversion is an add-on to the TablePress plugin that will automatically convert URLs in a table to links, avoiding what can be a tedious process of creating links in a large table.

Bug fixes

Invitations to join the OpenLab were not being sent out. This has now been fixed. We also fixed two bugs in My OpenLab. One was causing friend lists to not display all members that had been added as friends. The second caused the information for Major, Department, or Office to be removed from a member’s profile after the profile was edited.

As always, please contact us with any questions!

This Month on the OpenLab: February 2023 Release

Kitten smelling a bouquet of red flowers.

On February 15 we released version 1.7.67 of the OpenLab. It included a few new themes and some bug fixes.

New features

We added two new themes: Neve and Miniva. Miniva is a simple minimalist theme, good for beginners or someone who doesn’t want to do a lot of theme customization. Neve is a more complex theme, which requires some setup, but it can look great even with just a small amount of customization.

We changed the sender name for site-related emails from WordPress to City Tech OpenLab, making it easier to understand where emails are coming from.

Bug fixes

There were a few bugs caused by the improvements to email notifications made in the January release:

  • Line breaks were missing for a number of different site-related emails.
  • The OpenLab footer that appears in some email notifications was not displaying correctly in certain email clients. 

We also fixed an issue causing incorrect characters (e.g. ñ€ℱ) to appear on certain posts and pages when the OpenLab Attribution plugin was activated.


As always, please contact us with any questions!

This Month on the OpenLab: January 2023 Release

Penguin jumping out of the water with a group of penguins standing in the background.
Fly! by Christopher Michel is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

On January 18, 2023, we released version 1.7.66 of the OpenLab. It included multiple new features, as well as updates to all existing themes and plugins, including BuddyPress and WordPress, the two primary plugins that power the OpenLab. 

New Features and Functionality

Activity Sections for Courses, Projects, Clubs, and My OpenLab

We added a new Activity section to Course, Project, and Club profiles, to provide an easy way to catch up on what is happening in the group. In this section you can view all the activity, including posts and comments on the site, as well as new content or updates in the profile tools – Discussion, Docs, File Library, and Calendar. You can “star” activity, which marks it with a star, and allows you to filter the view to list only starred activity. You can also view only your own activity, or only activity that includes @Mentions. In addition, you can filter by all different activity types (e.g. Posts, Comments, Discussion posts, new Docs, new Files, etc).

There’s a similar Activity section in My OpenLab, called My Activity. It works in the same way as group activity, except that instead of including activity for a specific group, it includes activity for all your Courses, Projects, and Clubs.

Announcements for Courses, Projects, and Clubs

The Announcements feature allows admins of a Course, Project, or Club to post announcements that appear just beneath the avatar on a group’s profile. These provide an easy and prominent way to notify members about something, whether an upcoming class, event, meeting, or anything else, and will also be sent via email notification in addition to appearing on the profile. Announcements are activated by default, but you can deactivate them in Profile > Settings, if you don’t want to use them.

File Library

We changed the name of ‘Files’ to ‘File Library’, where you can now add links to external files, in addition to uploading files. The links can be to anywhere – a Google Doc or Spreadsheet, a OneDrive or Dropbox file, or anything else.

Search added to Discussion

We added search to Discussion, making it easier to find topics in Discussion forums with a lot of activity, especially those with activity over a long period of time.

Improvements to appearance of Discussion, Docs, and File Library

We also made a number of visual improvements to Discussion, Docs, and File Library, to improve the consistency of the navigation and layout of the different tools, making them easier to use.

Profile of the Open Road project with an Announcement posted.
Changes and new features on a Course, Project, or Club profile

Changes to Acknowledgements

We made some changes to streamline and simplify the way that acknowledgements appear on a Course, Project, or Club Profile. When you create a new group, the profile will include a line stating who created the group. If the group is cloned, a link will be added to show all the clones. On any cloned group, there will be a link back to the group it was cloned from. 

Course profile with new Acknowledgements format.
Course profile with Acknowledgements

Email Notifications

We made several changes to email notifications, including a new design and layout, and changes to the subject and sender of almost all notifications. The sender should now always appear as “City Tech OpenLab,” and the subject lines have been edited to make the purpose of each notification more clear. 

Missing Alt Text Notice

WordPress has made an accessibility improvement to the Block Editor, reminding you to add alt text whenever you add an image to a page or post. Add alt text for an image in the Block Settings sidebar panel. You can learn more about alt text in the OpenLab Help document, Making Your Work Accessible.

Where to add alt text in the block settings side panel.
Notice that alt text is missing

Bug Fixes

We fixed an issue with the OpenLab Attributions plugin, where attribution numbers didn’t link properly to the attributions in the list at the bottom of the post or page.


As always, please contact us with any questions!

This Month on the OpenLab: November 2022 Release

On November 15 we released version 1.7.65 of the OpenLab. It included a few new themes, a plugin modification, and some bug fixes.

New features

We added two themes: GeneratePress and Twenty Twenty One.

We also modified an older plugin–Expire Sticky Posts–that had previously been retired because it didn’t work with the Block Editor. The plugin allows you to set a date at which sticky posts will automatically expire, and now works in the Block Editor. There are instructions for how to use the plugin in OpenLab Help.

Bug fixes

A bug causing the links to be removed from author and group name at the top of email notifications has been fixed.

We also fixed two bugs in the OpenLab Attributions plugin:

  • When adding an attribution to the very last sentence in a paragraph block, it wasn’t possible to move the cursor after the attribution superscript number and thus couldn’t add text after the attribution number – only before it.
  • When attempting to add an attribution to an image in the caption field, the ‘Add Attribution’ window would close.

As always, please contact us with any questions!

This Month on the OpenLab: October and September 2022 Releases

Two cats looking out the window at a squirrel eating a jack-o-lantern.
 2 Cats 1 Squirrel by Leif Kurth is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

On October 12 we released version 1.7.64 of the OpenLab. We didn’t publish release notes for the September release, so those features are included here as well. 

New features and improvements

Rich text and media embedding for comments

The OpenLab now has enhanced commenting functionality, allowing you and your site members and visitors to write comments with rich text (bold, italics, links, etc), and easily embed media by simply pasting the URL, as you would in a post.

When you add a comment, you’ll see buttons to add rich text styles to your comment – bold, italics, underline, and numbered and bulleted lists. There’s also a button for adding a link, and one for embedding media. 

These plugins are already activated on all OpenLab sites, so if you’re a site admin, you don’t need to do anything on your site. We have help for Commenting on a Site, which includes the new rich text and media embedding functionality.

We hope this helps to make discussions on the OpenLab even more vibrant! 

Embedding for Miro boards

In addition to other types of media embedding, we now have easy embedding for Miro boards. Simply paste the URL for the board you want to embed on its own line, as you would for a YouTube video, and that’s it!

Health Services Administration department changed to Health Sciences

We added the new Health Sciences department, and changed all existing courses, projects, clubs, portfolios, and members associated with Health Sciences Administration, to Health Sciences. 

OpenLab Attributions plugin

We’ve made some improvements to the OpenLab Attributions plugin. Now when you add an attribution, the window is movable so you can see the text beneath the window to include in your attribution statement. We’ve also reorganized the flow of the fields in the window.

And, the plugin is now responsive so it works better on mobile.

OpenLab Support & Help widgets

We formalized the OpenLab widget that appeared on the course template as a text widget, and also added an OpenLab support widget. These are now standalone widgets that you can add to any site by going to Dashboard > Appearance > Widgets, and adding OpenLab Help and/or OpenLab support.

The OpenLab Help widget includes links to The OpenLab for Students module, and to Help pages for Getting Started, Adding a Comment, and Writing a Post.

The OpenLab Support widget links to the OpenLab Help section, the schedule and sign up for Open Hours, and the email support Contact Form

Library Subject Guides widget: Gender & Sexuality Studies

We added a link to the new Subject Guide for Gender & Sexuality Studies in the LIbrary Subject Guides widget. 

Bug fixes

The OpenLab Attributions plugin had a bug causing attribution statements to be formatted incorrectly.

We fixed an issue with the Hemingway theme where the sidebar was not appearing on mobile devices.

As always, please contact us with any questions!