HIST100WordPressHowToMovie transcript

Hey, I wanted to make a video showing you how you can log into the course WordPress site, change your name as it appears on the site, change your password, and make your first post.

The first thing you’re going to do is find in the right-hand column where it says “Students,” and you’re going to click the link that says “Log in here.”

All right. Your username is the part of your Boise State e-mail address that appears before the @ sign. In my case, that’s lesliemadsen-brooks.

And then you’re going to enter the password. You can find your password in the course’s tiny Blackboard site; on the home page there I have included instructions on how to log into WordPress, and the password is there. It’s also possible that WordPress has already e-mailed you your password or a link to change your password. 

Regardless, this is how you log in.

All right. This is what WordPress looks like on the back end. So the first thing you’re going to do is you’re going to go to “Profile.” And you’re going to be able to see some personal options.

You can’t change your username, but you can change how your name is displayed on the site. So, not everybody when they’re writing on a site that can be accessed by the public wants to have their full name displayed, so what you can do is you can choose how you want it displayed, and there’s a number of different ways to do that. I’ll show you how. 

So I’m just going to pick the nickname “lesliemb” here. And then on this drop-down menu, it asks me how I want to be referred to, or rather how I want my posts to display my name as an author. So let’s say that I just want my first name, and that’s fine. There are two Jakes, so I am going to ask the Jakes to use some kind of initial or use a pseudonym, another name entirely, just so that we don’t get confused.

And then I am going to change my password. . .and it looks like this process has changed a bit. It’s telling me this can be my new password, but of course I am never going to remember that, so what I’m going to do is I’m going to type a new password that I will remember. 

And I would like you to pick a password that hits at least “Medium” here, OK?

I’m going to copy this so I can remember what it is later. 

And then I’m going to update my profile. 

All right. Now let’s say that I have gone onto the site, and I have read through the syllabus and Ihave read through the schedule, and I’ve read through the course orientation, and I’ve decided it’s time for me to make my first blog post in response to Module 1.1.

OK. So what I’m going to do is over here, I’m going to hit “Posts,” and if I mouse over that, then I can click “Add New.” I’m going to give my post a title, and you can title it whatever you want. In my case, I’m going to put “My lens: a women’s historian,” because that’s what I am. For you, it might be that you are, I don’t know, oh, a rural rancher, and that’s how you see the world and see the past.  You don’t have to title it this way; this is just one example.

And then I’m going to put some text here. You of course would post your entire blog post, and if you want to do some formatting, you can do that. All you have to do is click this little toolbar toggle there, and that will hide or show some additional options.

Now here’s a really, really important part. You’re going to want to find your group—and again, you can find your groups here—there’s your groups. Once you find what group you’re in, you’re going to click that group number here. There’s no need to click this here, the parent heading for groups, just the group number. And then you’re going to click the name of the assignment.

I encourage you to save your post as a draft regularly so that you don’t lose it, and then I also encourage you to preview your post, which opens it in a new tab. You can see what the post looks like. You can just close that, and then you can click “Publish.”

OK. Now you’ll find that if you go to HIST 100, which you can get to just by clicking up here. . . If I go to Group 3, in which I posted, my post is there. Similarly, if I want to see contributions from outside my group, I can pick the assignment link, and there it is as well. It is very important that you tag both your group and the assignment name, so that your group members can find your posts and so that I can find your individual assignment.

All right. If you have any questions, please feel free to drop me a line or give me a call.