These websites can become course websites, group blogs, or personal portfolios—all built on a flexible WordPress foundation that helps you add different visual themes and customizable functionality without needing to learn code.
Access | ||
---|---|---|
Cost | Free. | |
Bandwidth | Low demand on internet connections. | |
Canvas Integration | Works in coordination with Canvas. | |
Privacy | Verified by UBC’s Privacy Impact Assessment process. | |
Similar UBC-Supported Tools | N | UBC Blogs is the only centrally supported tool that enables website-building. For instructors, other centrally supported tools can help you share course content in different ways. |
What can I use it for?
You can use UBC Blogs to create websites for a variety of purposes.
Instructors:
- Building a course website to share course materials
- Enabling group work by inviting students to author a website together
- Collecting open-pedagogy assignments where students submit their work publicly
- Sharing Open Educational Resources
Students:
- Authoring a group website for a course or a club
- Posting public assignments or projects
- Displaying portfolios or reflections
This tool guide was last reviewed in November 2024.
How are others at UBC using UBC Blogs?
David Vogt uses UBC Blogs to collectively build and curate knowledge in Education
Current knowledge in my courses evolves very quickly. I want my students to witness this evolution as well as understand their scholarly ability and responsibility to contribute to it. Read more »
Christina Hendricks uses UBC Blogs to have students share their work publicly in Philosophy
The work students do in my courses can also be very valuable to others who want to learn about philosophical topics. Thus I have asked students to create blog posts and post other assignments on our public course websites to share their thoughts and their knowledge with others. Read more »
What do I need to use UBC Blogs?
A supported web browser
UBC Blogs runs in your web browser and supports Chrome, Edge, Firefox, or Safari.
Tips
- UBC Blogs is a useful platform for collecting and submitting open-pedagogy assignments, but please keep privacy in mind. We recommend that you avoid posting confidential information that can be used to identify an individual.
Log in to UBC Blogs and create an account
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL (Campus-Wide Login).
- If this is your first time logging in, follow the prompts to finish setting up your UBC Blogs account.
Create a new website with UBC Blogs
Instructors:
You can create your website with or without linking it to your Canvas course. Linking with Canvas will let you add a UBC Blogs link to your Canvas course. Students who click this link will by default be added to your website as "Authors", meaning they can contribute content to your website. However, linking with Canvas will not let you select your site name (which forms part of the web address), as it will be set to the name of your Canvas course.
Students:
You can create your UBC Blogs website outside Canvas.
- Go to the UBC Blogs sign-up page.
- If you receive an error message when attempting to visit this page, follow the steps in the accordion section above to log in to UBC Blogs and create an account.
- Fill in the form:
- Site Name - The site name will form part of the web address of your new website. All UBC Blogs have an address that starts with "blogs.ubc.ca" and incorporates your site name. Note that the site name cannot be changed after you create it, so use wording that fits your website's purpose.
- Site Title - The site title adds a visible title to your website, but it does not affect the web address. You can change your site title at any time.
- Site Language - Choose to display your website in English or French.
- Privacy - You can allow search engines to index this website. Indexing means the website can be searched for and found by anyone on the internet. You can change this setting at any time; however, an indexed website will not be removed from the search results immediately if you remove index permissions.
- Click Create Site.
- Log in to your Canvas course and click Settings in the Course Navigation.
- Click Navigation.
- Find the UBC Blogs menu item, click the three vertical dots (options icon), and choose Enable.
- Click Save.
- Click UBC Blogs from the Course Navigation to launch your new website.
- If you want to change the default "Author" WordPress role given to students who join your website so they become a "Subscriber" instead, you can optionally contact us at the LT Hub with the following:
- the web address of your UBC Blogs website
- the web address of your Canvas course
- a new name for how your UBC Blogs link will appear in the Canvas Course Navigation (it cannot be "UBC Blogs" after this change)
Tips
- There is no limit to the number of UBC Blogs websites that you can have, but please create responsibly. Each website takes up UBC resources.
- Even if you make your whole website publicly searchable, you can fine-tune the privacy settings of specific content to make it visible only to certain people. This fine-tuning can be done by adding password protection to individual pages or posts and sharing the password only with those should have access.
- You can change the look and feel of your website by changing the theme. Navigate to your website by clicking "My Sites" and clicking "Dashboard" under your site name. From the Dashboard of your UBC Blogs website, hover over "Appearance" in the sidebar and select "Themes". Hover over any theme and click "Activate" to use it.
- You can link a pre-existing UBC Blogs website to your Canvas course. Please contact us at the LT Hub and provide your UBC Blogs web address, Canvas course web address, and desired name for the new link in your Canvas course for assistance with the linking process.
Add pages and posts to your UBC Blogs website
Pages are useful for displaying content on your website that is best organized in a hierarchical structure.
Posts are useful for displaying date-based content on your website, as posts are organized in chronological order. Posts can also be grouped by categories or tags to make them easier to find.
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL. Navigate to your website by clicking My Sites and clicking Dashboard under your site name.
- From your site's Dashboard, hover over either Pages or Posts (whichever you want to add) in the sidebar and select either Add New Page or Add New Post.
- Type your page or post title in "Add Title". This text will become part of the permalink for your page or post. Use the text editor to add content to the page or post.
- When adding content to your pages and posts, be careful when copying text from a file with formatting (e.g., a Word or OneDrive document) since the file formatting is not always pasted correctly in UBC Blogs. It is best to paste content without formatting first and add the formatting using the UBC Blogs text editor afterwards.
- Explore customizable options for your page or post in the editing interface. For example, you can choose the location a page sits in the website hierarchy or the category a post is displayed in.
- Click Preview to see how your changes will appear when the page or post is published. Click Save Draft if you are not ready to publish your page or post.
- When you are ready to publish the content on your website, click Publish. Your page or post will be available for others to see.
Tips
- If your webpage is public, remember to avoid sharing confidential information. Confidential information includes details like student numbers, addresses, or other personal identifying information. The UBC Digital Tattoo site has more information geared towards students about protecting privacy online and carefully forming a digital identity.
- Pages are ideal for sharing your main content. You can have course pages labeled as weekly modules and build sub-pages underneath each page that feature the different topics or themes covered that week. Alternatively, you can create portfolio pages for information about your background or projects.
- Posts are ideal for sharing supplementary, time-based content. For example, you can use posts to share announcements, invite discussion on timely topics using the post comments, or showcase your projects chronologically.
- Pages and posts can be scheduled instead of immediately published. To schedule a page or post when you are creating it, click "Edit" next to the calendar icon in the "Publish" box, select a date and time, and click "OK". You will see the "Publish" button change to a "Schedule" button. Click "Schedule".
- For extra editing features in UBC Blogs, you can enable the Gutenberg editor. This editor adds time-saving features such as reusable blocks of content. From the Dashboard of your UBC Blogs website, hover over "Settings" in the sidebar, and select "Writing". Check the boxes to enable Gutenberg features on posts, pages, patterns, and navigation menus, then save your changes.
Add people to your UBC Blogs website
You can use the email or self-signup options to invite people to your UBC Blogs website. For these options to work, the individuals you invite must already have UBC Blogs accounts. Depending on how people join your website, they can follow the content you share or even contribute to it.
If you are an instructor setting up your website by linking to a Canvas course, students from your Canvas course will join the website as "Authors" by default, once they click the UBC Blogs link in Canvas.
This method is useful for adding specific members of the UBC community to the website.
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL. Navigate to your website by clicking My Sites and clicking Dashboard under your site name.
- From your site's Dashboard, hover over "Users" in the sidebar, and select Invite User.
- Enter the person's email.
- Select a role for the person on your website:
- Administrator - can do anything on the website, including adding and removing users
- Editor - can publish posts and pages and edit others' content
- Author - can publish posts and pages and edit their own content
- Contributor - can write posts and pages but cannot publish them without approval from a user with an "Editor" role or higher
- Subscriber - can only access content on the website, whether the website is publicly searchable or not
- Click Add User(s).
This method is useful if you do not want to manage adding people to the website yourself.
- Log in to UBC Blogs with your UBC CWL. Navigate to your website by clicking My Sites and clicking Dashboard under your site name.
- Click Plugin in the sidebar of your site's Dashboard, find the "Add Users Sidebar Widget" plugin, and click Activate. This widget lets you add a signup form to your website.
- From your site's Dashboard, hover over "Appearance" in the sidebar, and select Widgets.
- Click where you would like the widget to appear on the website layout, then click the + icon on the top left to open the widgets panel.
- Find and click the Add Users widget. Note that you can move the widget by selecting it and using the options presented above the widget to change its placement.
- When the "Add Users" widget has been added, enter a title, text for the submit button, and select the role you would like people who sign up to have:
- Author - can publish posts and pages but only edit their own content
- Contributor - can write posts and pages but cannot publish them without approval from a user with an "Editor" role or higher
- Subscriber - can only access content on the website, whether the website is publicly searchable or not
- To better control who can sign up, check Add a password to stop unwanted users from signing up and/or check Hide Add Users Widget if user is not logged in.
- Set the password and the error message shown if the user enters the wrong password. Remember to distribute the password when you invite people to sign up.
- Click Update to publish the widget to your website.
- When making changes to the widget after you have published it to your website, click Save below the widget to publish your changes.
Tips
- Anyone you invite by email or using self-signup must have a UBC Blogs account. Ask invitees to create a UBC Blogs account by logging in to UBC Blogs with their UBC CWL.
Where can I get more support with UBC Blogs?
Instructor support
If you are an instructor and are having technical issues with UBC Blogs:
- Contact your faculty’s Instructional Support Unit as your first point of contact.
- Contact us for further assistance:
604 827 4775 or LT.hub@ubc.ca or visit the LT Hub online.
Student support
If you are a student and are having technical issues with UBC Blogs:
- Contact us for further assistance:
604 827 4775 or LT.hub@ubc.ca or visit the LT Hub online.
If you are a student and are looking for online learning support:
- Visit UBC’s Keep Learning site and the Chapman Learning Common’s student toolkits.
- Visit the UBC Vancouver’s Centre for Accessibility page or the UBC Okanagan’s Disability Resource Centre page to learn more about available support for students with disabilities and ongoing medical conditions.
Learn more
- Read answers to UBC Blogs frequently asked questions on the UBC Blogs support site.
- One-on-one help with UBC Blogs is available during the weekly WordPress and Wiki Drop-In Clinics, generally held on Thursdays. Register for upcoming WordPress and Wiki clinics on the CTLT events site.