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Why not build a course in a blog?

Wordpress.jpgThat was a question that emerged in one of our team meetings about a year ago. The idea is simple. How can we make it really easy for virtually anyone to build courses (do it yourself principle)? We had been reading on the web that millions of people are now blogging. So what if millions of people could build their own courses? That is an intriguing thought.
We began playing around with Wordpress and soon realized that it was relatively straightforward to structure a course using the ‘Page Management’ function. The other real benefit of this approach was that the “subject matter expert” could write the pages from anywhere with an Internet connection. This is really important when you are network-university like the UNU. So we got to work and decided to customize the Wordpress template (something that almost every blogger wants to do). We asked Jonathan Snook to develop our first template. We also selected the “plug-ins” that we needed to handle flash video (WP-FLV), searching (Search Pages) and a WSIWYG editor (Xinha4WP).
For the course on SEA, Riki Therivel very kindly allowed us to use her course content. Once all the course content was in place in the blog, we enabled the comment function to allow visitors to engage in discussion around the content, check for inaccuracies and add new information. Many visitors commented on how they would like to download the course materials. So we asked Oleg Butuzov to figure out how and now it is possible to download both static and dynamic versions of the course modules. After you have downloaded the materials, you are free to customize and localize as you see fit. Using a Creative Commons license facilitates this step.

We think that this is a unique and cost effective approach to developing courses. The exciting part about using Wordpress is that it is free, open source and has a large developer community. The important message from all of this is that building and sharing courses with limited resources is infinitely doable. It is quite easy to imagine a purpose built software package that makes the above steps even easier – just click a few buttons and you are done. You would then be free to focus on making sure that the content is rich and engaging.

Sometime soon we will provide a short tutorial on how to create the static and dynamic versions of the course modules, since that is the element that requires the greatest technical skill.

by Brendan Barrett on May 8, 2008 Comments (037)  
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(037) Comments
  1. 1 - Deanna on August 19, 2007

    hi i enjoyed the read

  2. 2 - Bart Cornille on November 3, 2007

    Dear UNU Media Studio… I just found your site are gone through it. Really exciting. I want to know more about your experiment with the wordpress blog as e-Learning platform. How can I access it. When is the tutorial coming out.
    Thanks.
    BArt Cornille

  3. 3 - brendan on November 4, 2007

    Hi Bart,

    Thanks for your comments. This website and our main online learning website are developed in Wordpress. I think you probably gathered that. However, the courses on Strategic Environmental Assessment, Environmental Impact Assessment and Forestry are all constructed in Wordpress.

    We have found it really easy to customize Wordpress and then extend it with the use of the Plug-ins. We have a first draft of the article and now need to finish it, so following your message we will try to get it completed this month.

    Thanks again,

    Brendan

  4. 4 - Bart Cornille on November 12, 2007

    Thanks for the re-ply. I am looking forward to hear from you all!

  5. 5 - Robert Wessel on February 24, 2008

    I am a volunteer with a regional literacy council in the U.S. Most of the learners speak Spanish and, at best, have had only 3 or 4 years of schooling in their home countries. Many of them want to learn English but there are not nearly enough teachers and volunteers to meet the demand. For the past several months, I’ve been exploring ways to use WordPress, OpenOffice.org, and other free and open source software as a means to expand the capabilities of the available instructors. Although the potential is enormous and the tools are easy to learn and use, developing an infrastructure within which the content can be developed and distributed is a bit of a challenge. I am interested in learning more about how UNU is approaching this, as what works in a university environment can surely be adapted to a smaller, community-based effort.

  6. 6 - seo company india on September 9, 2008

    This is a really cool idea This is much more efficient. Great post. Thank you.
    :-)

  7. 7 - George W. Bellas MA on October 17, 2008

    I have an online ESL program written in HTML but was going move over to a CMS, Content Management System, so that others could more easily add lessons to the program. I am an educator not a webdesigner so like what you are suggesting using wordpress blog to build courses faster.

  8. 8 - Andy on December 2, 2008

    Hmmm…this is interesting. Thanks for this fresh idea

  9. 9 - George Farmer on December 3, 2008

    Besure you teach SEO for the blog.

  10. 10 - cuocthiseo on December 26, 2008

    Cool idea for this year, may be it will be come true next year,
    Happy new year!

  11. 11 - George W. Bellas MA on January 13, 2009

    The comment on SEO is critical. The old adage of “If we build it they will come” does not apply to the internet. Google webmaster tools is a great place to start. Also, open 5 blogs and register at article websites putting links to your main Course Blog at least once a week. Preferably spending %40 of your time doing this aspect of SEO is very important. Other wise don’t waste your time and energy.

  12. 12 - Sunil on January 31, 2009

    I agree with gearge. google analytics is also a great tool… and what hap to the course../?

  13. 13 - SEO work on January 31, 2009

    I think this would be a great new business opportunity. And that was a real great idea. i forecast something big from this idea in the future..

  14. 14 - Navi on February 6, 2009

    Hmmm…this is interesting. Thanks for this fresh idea

  15. 15 - Blogging Ebook on February 22, 2009

    This is a really cool idea This is much more efficient. Great post. Thank you.

  16. 16 - edujob on March 30, 2009

    Believe it or not, online courses help you brush up your online abilities.

  17. 17 - Elevator SEO on April 3, 2009

    It’s a good idea – a lot of people are now using WordPress to build entire websites, not just for blogs because the CMS is comprehensive and there is endless support with regards to the developer community and the available free plugins. These plugins include adding Google analytics tracking to your pages, so you can see how the course is being used and which are the most popular pages, how long they are being used etc…

  18. 18 - greg on April 5, 2009

    Great work! I really enjoyed this article! Hope to read more from you soon!

  19. 19 - Sichthüllen on May 13, 2009

    Building a course with a blog is a good idea. It seems to be safer than wiki:

  20. 20 - burak on May 31, 2009

    thanks for post, really very clear and useful, also some google position tool and free seo tools are very important

  21. 21 - web design leeds on June 23, 2009

    Very informative!.. grteat post, thanks for sharing.

  22. 22 - SEO Sydney on June 23, 2009

    You can teach someone WordPress, fair enough. The question is, what happens to postlearning WordPress support? especially when WordPress update their system every so often?

  23. 23 - gas safety london on June 24, 2009

    nice post.. lots of good info in there

  24. 24 - Quotes on July 26, 2009

    That’s a cool idea I think.

  25. 25 - atasözleri on August 3, 2009

    Thanks for this article.

  26. 26 - seofreebies on September 6, 2009

    Nice article but disappointed that I don’t see the tutorial, are they still being pursued or has the project been dropped?

  27. 27 - Debt on September 14, 2009

    I hope they have not abandoned the project. Wordpress as a means of building a course is indeed an intriguing idea.

  28. 28 - Brendan Barrett on September 14, 2009

    Hi, We have built three courses in Wordpress. In fact, almost everything we have built in the last couple of years has been in Wordpress, including a new webzine called Our World 2.0 – http://ourworld.unu.edu

    Cheers

    Brendan

  29. 29 - paul on September 21, 2009

    Hi yes blog idea is realy nice and importenet for SErach Engines :) Thanks

  30. 30 - Alex Sysoef on September 24, 2009

    Free blogs such as one I personally write generally can provide you with plenty of the information you need to build a successful and secure blog.

  31. 31 - George on October 3, 2009

    Thanks and good luck!

  32. 32 - Milwaukee SEO on October 12, 2009

    I think wordpress is a very powerful platform that can be set up as a membership site to use as a class. Only students can view and will be able to interact good luck

  33. 33 - paul on October 27, 2009

    Realy Nice thanks for share

  34. 34 - Digitouch on October 30, 2009

    Thanks you very much, wonderful sharing!

  35. 35 - Esther Annies on November 1, 2009

    Many people still doesn’t know how to use blogging tools. This is quite a nice article. thanks

  36. 36 - NYC Condo Man on November 4, 2009

    Setting up blogs is pretty easy, but maintaining them is the trick.

    Thanks for the post.

  37. 37 - SEORaleigh on November 19, 2009

    Not only is this an interesting concept, but I would love to take my existing blog and use that as the basis for developing a course on Search Engine Optimization

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