iWeb & CourseWeb (WordPress)

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iWeb and CourseWeb are Langara College’s implementations of the popular WordPress content management system.

iWeb

iWeb (https://iweb.langara.ca) is for Langara Faculty and employees “to publish information pages, course materials, and research.” One of the purposes of iWeb is to provide a home for Instructional and Department Pages that does not belong on the main College web site, but its use is not limited to those pages. Individuals must have a Langara employee ID to request an iWeb site.
To request an iWeb account & site, visit https://iweb.langara.ca/requestaccount/

CourseWeb

Courseweb (https://courseweb.langara.ca) is for anyone, including students, to create websites, typically for course based activities. Anyone may request a site.
To request a CourseWeb account and site, visit https://courseweb.langara.ca/wp-signup.php

Note: All users of the Langara College iWeb and CourseWeb sites must agree to the terms and will be compliant with the Computer and Computing System Use Policy B5002. View Policy

Detailed instructions for using iWeb are available in this PDF.

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What is WordPress?

WordPress is a popular Blogging/Content Management System, widely used throughout the Internet, that lets you create a web presence without knowing HTML.

WordPress has two main content types – Posts and Pages – and many other features such as commenting, links, tagging & RSS feeds which make it a powerful tool. Each of these features is described below. Most Blogs have a primary “author” or owner, but many (such as Langara’s CourseWeb) allow for multiple editors and contributors to the site.For a more detailed explanation of blogging, check out the WordPress site.

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Characteristics of iWeb & CourseWeb

Generally speaking, CourseWeb is for student projects while iWeb is for Instructional and departmental materials. Because CourseWeb is available to anyone, some of the functionality has been limited. To help you better understand some of the differences between iWeb and CourseWeb, consult the table below. If you need further assistance deciding which is the best environment for your pages, please contact an EdTech Advisor.

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iWeb vs. CourseWeb Features and Functionality Table

FeatureiWebCourseWeb
Who can request a blogLangara Employees – you need a Langara College Employee ID, which is verified before the blog is created.Anyone. You need a valid email address, and the blog is automatically generated. Students can, therefore, request their own blog site.
Who can be added to blog user listAll official Blog Users (administrators, authors, contributors, etc.) must have a valid Langara Employee ID. Users can be added by the Blog owner.Anyone with a valid email address can be added to users list by the Blog owner.
Who can create ContentOnly members of a Blog’s User List may contribute content (see above for who can be added to Blog User List). This means students cannot directly contribute pages or postings to the blog.Only members of a Blog’s User List may contribute content (see above for who can be added to Blog User List).
Who can view Blog, pages, or postingsSeveral privacy options are available through a plugin.Some privacy options are available.
Who can Comment on Pages or PostingsAnyone, as allowed by owner. For example, instructors may choose to allow students or others to comment on pages or postings.Anyone, as allowed by owner.
Adding Media to pages or postingsMedia can be embedded or linked to. To embed media from an external service, simply paste the URL onto its own line (Classic editor) or into a normal Paragraph block (Block editor. To embed Langara Kaltura media, you will need to enable the Kaltura and Unfiltered MU plugins first.
This method can only be used with Langara Kaltura media, or external content from the embeds whitelist.		External media can be linked to or embedded using the embed code. To embed media in a page or post: paste its URL (e.g. YouTube video or Flickr photo) between these tags on its own line. This method can only be used with external content from the embeds whitelist.
Adding specialized Code to pagesSome limited codes are allowed.Not allowed.
Customizing TemplatesLimited, using site customization and custom CSS (site admin must know CSS).Not allowed. Must select from a list of available templates and use as “off the shelf”.
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Characteristics of WordPress Sites

Themes

When creating an iWeb or Course web site in WordPress, you can select from a variety of “templates” to set up a look and feel for your site.

Posts

The post is the main content type of WordPress. They are generally “articles” presented in reverse chronological order on a page and may contain images or links to other content such as web sites, video, other postings, etc. They may be commented on by others and “tagged” or categorized so that like posts can be displayed together. Postings are usually shorter articles intended to be added to frequently.

Pages

Pages are the second type of content provided for in WordPress. They are for content that tends to be more stable in nature and of longer term interest. They “stand alone” and are not listed chronologically like posts, but like a web site, pages can have “subpages”. Depending on how the site owner has set up the pages, they may also be tagged and allow for commenting.

Comments

A site’s owner can choose to allow comments on pages and posts. Encouraging commenting is one easy way of gathering feedback from your site’s viewers.

Categories & Tags

Categories are subject areas that you predefine, and which you can assign to posts. Tags are informal “keywords” that you can freely add to your page and posts to help your site’s users find content on the site. WordPress can create a web page “on the fly” of all content on your site containing certain tags or assigned to a category. You can also allow the tags & categories you use to be prominently displayed on your site.

RSS Feeds

One of the strengths of using WordPress for your web site is that you can add content quickly and easily. Anyone who is interested in your site or your postings can “subscribe” to your site through “RSS Feeds” in order to be alerted when new material is posted.

The links feature allows you to easily create a set of links to other sites or blogs relevant to your site.

Widgets & Plugins

Widgets are specialized tools that the user can add to WordPress sites, depending on what template is being used. Examples of standard widgets include header editing, adding links (sometimes called blogrolls), page lists, tag lists, etc. to the site’s template.

Plugins are small software applications that the blog administrator can add to extend the capabilities of the blog software. Once they have been added, it is up to the user to activate them. For an example, see the “events calendar” on the United Way campaign site at https://iweb.langara.ca/unitedway/past-event/

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Sample Sites

iWeb and Courseweb are very new at Langara. Here are a few sites from Langara.

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How do I find out more?

If you are an instructor who wants to use iWeb or CourseWeb for your courses, contact the Ed Tech advisors to discuss what is the best site to use and how to proceed.

You can also sign up for an Ed Tech workshop. You can find our current workshops on our Events Calendar.

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Accessibility

Building an accessible WordPress site

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