Due noon Central FridayWeek 2.
Before we begin: this tutorial is for students who do not already have a website.
If you already have a website please send me a message through Canvas. Tell me:
- what your website’s web address or URL is
- who is hosting your site (OU? a commercial company like Bluehost?)
- If you are on OU’s OU Create already we can set up a subdomain or sue Categories or a menu for a part of your website for this class.
- If you are not on OU Create you can choose to use your existing site or create a new one for OU create
- what you used to build it
If you do not already have a website let’s begin.
This assignment has three parts. You need to complete all three parts to get credit:
- Set up a domain (web address for your site). We will use OU Create — a program set up by OU so students, faculty, staff can build their own sites. A full tutorial with images is here
- Set up a skeleton website using the software WordPress for your blog
- Now that you have your domain (the web address or URL) you need software on it to run a website. We will use the common software known as WordPress
- Note: WordPress is what we use on our Private Student Discussion Blog, so some of it will be familiar
- Follow the steps in this tutorial to install WordPress.
- Customize your site
- You have a website! Now it’s time to customize it and make it look the way you want.
- For this assignment you need
- A Title for your webpage
- A homepage (there does not need to be much content — you can even say “check back soon” or “under construction”; in the tutorial you will chose whether the home/landing page is a regular website page or page of rolling blog posts)
- A visible menu with at least one item on it (like “Home” for the homepage or “About” for an “about this site” page)
- Follow the steps in this tutorial
- You can also watch this video walk-through of the tutorial if you’d like.
Don’t panic if you get overwhelmed or confused. Instead: take a breath, take a break, try again later. If you’re still having challenges come to my Zoom student hours and we can walk through it together.
To get credit for this assignment you will need (in other words, this is the rubric for grading!):
- a live domain or subdomain I can visit
- submit the URL to the assignment in Canvas
- if you already have a website prior to this course, you should have a subdomain or a section/menu item specifically for this course set up (see the paragraph addressed to you above)
- some kind of software or code running your site (WordPress, HTML, or something)
- a title for your site
- a coherent landing page (there does not need to be much content — you can even say “check back soon” or “under construction”; in the tutorial you will choose whether the home/landing page is a regular page or the blog posts)
- a visible menu with at least one item on it (like “Home” for the homepage or “About” for an “about this site” page)
- optional for now but due later: accessibility (easiest methods: choose an Accessible theme or install the One Click Accessibility plugin)
Due noon Central on Friday
