hi Steve,

The programme I teach on (and am techincal co-ordinator for) - the MSc in E-learning at the University of Edinburgh - has been using Wordpress for teaching since 2009 and programme social networking since 2010. We have two courses on the programme now that use WordpressMU/multisite as their VLE, and a third instance of Wordpress with Buddypress that functions as a programme-wide social network for ourselves and our students (it's a distance programme, so we never all meet face to face).

If you'd like to see what we're up to, our networking hub is at http://www.elearning.education.ed.ac.uk/

and one of our courses, which is open access, is at http://edc.education.ed.ac.uk/ . This course uses a Lifestream plugin to let each student create their own aggregated stream of web content, which is assessed and worth 50% of the final mark for the course.

We like the flexibility and openness that Wordpress allows (compared with an institutional VLE), and a number of students have reported being delighted with their Wordpress experiences.

Happy to discuss any of this more, feel free to get in touch,
Jen

_______
Jen Ross
Institute for Education, Community and Society
University of Edinburgh

0131 651 6133
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On 9 Aug 2011, at 00:03, WORDPRESS automatic digest system wrote:

> There are 2 messages totaling 90 lines in this issue.
> 
> Topics of the day:
> 
>  1. Why WordPress? (2)
> 
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
> Date:    Mon, 8 Aug 2011 16:54:14 +0100
> From:    Steve Boneham <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Why WordPress?
> 
> Hi.
> 
> I'm writing a briefing paper on the use of WordPress in education as part of my work at JISC Netskills. The idea is to provide a summary of why those working in education might consider using WordPress to support teaching and learning, research, administration and the other things that educational institutions do. 
> 
> The first point I wanted to address was 'Why WordPress?' I have a set of the usual points (open source, usable, flexible, extensible...), but wanted to make these a bit more engaging with some stories or soundbytes from 'real life' use. That use could range from a single self-hosted site/blog to use as a CMS or institutional platform.
> 
> I'd be very grateful if any of you would be prepared to contribute to this by letting me know what you're doing with WordPress and why you choose to use it that way. We would of course credit you for your contributions in the paper.
> 
> Likewise, suggestions of people, groups or educational institutions using WordPress effectively would also be appreciated.
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Steve
> 
> 
> Steve Boneham
> JISC Netskills
> Newcastle University
> 
> www.netskills.ac.uk






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