Over 70 million websites currently use WordPress, a free and open-source web-development tool, content-management system, and optional web-hosting service. For eLearning professionals, WordPress provides an easy-entry, low-tech approach to developing vibrant, interactive, and easy-to-maintain online courses.

Participants in this session will examine WordPress as a flexible, robust platform for building online courses. You’ll view examples of current undergraduate and graduate college courses developed with WordPress—ranging from Dance Appreciation to Music Administration to Revolutions in Scientific Thought—and discuss the processes and strategies used to develop each. A multi-expert team developed these courses, but even if you are not a web-development expert you can create WordPress-based courses on your own. You’ll also explore recommended plugins for building a course in WordPress and additional resources and tutorials for technical assistance. You’ll benefit from walking through the planning, development, and evaluation process, and address issues such as budgeting, objectives, faculty participation, and continual improvement.

In this session, you will learn:

  • About WordPress as an online-course-development platform
  • About WordPress’ capabilities as shown through course examples
  • Strategies for maximizing your use of WordPress
  • Recommended WordPress plugins for course development
  • Resources and tutorials for starting your own course in WordPress

Audience:
Designers, developers, and project managers familiar with the instructional-design process.

Handout(s)

Recording