Blogs

Overview

The platform supports personal blogs, course/class blogs, groups blogs and portal blogs so that users can share their reflections, comments and thoughts on a wide variety of learning topics.

The blog app can be installed or uninstalled by an administrator.

Personal blogs

To view your personal blog:

1. Click your profile picture.
   
2. Select Blog from the secondary navigation menu. 
   

Click + Post to post to your blog.

Enter the subject and message, and click Save.

1. Select Allow comments to allow other users to comment on your blog post. 
   
2. Select Post notification to newsfeed if you would like to share your post on the newsfeed.

Click See public view to see how your blog is displayed to others.

If a reader posts a comment on your personal blog, you will receive a message with a link that allows you to accept or reject the comment before it is displayed.

Course and class blogs

CYPHER for business defaults to courses. CYPHER for academia defaults to classes. The terms courses and classes are interchangeable in this article and customizable on your platform. 

Courses and classes may include blogs specific to learners and students in the course/class.  

To access blogs for a course or class:

1. Select a course or class you are enrolled in.
   
2. Select Blogs from the course/class navigation menu.
   

Please note that not all courses have the blog feature enabled. Instructors, teachers and administrators can enable blogs for individual courses/classes. 

This page allows you to access learner blogs, instructor blogs and your own blog.

Each list includes the number of posts made to each blog.

Click My blog to visit your own course blog.

Click theicon next to a learner's name to visit their blog.

If enabled, learners can set their blogs to private.

Learners that have selected this option are indicated with a lock next to their name. You are not able to read their course blog.

Group blogs

Groups may include blogs specifically for group members.

Please note that not all groups have the blog feature enabled. Group administrators can enable or disable blogs.

To access a blog for a group:

1. Select Groups from the primary navigation menu.
   
2. Select a group.
3. Select Blogs from the secondary navigation menu.
   
1. Only members of a group can post to or read a group blog.
   

1. To subscribe to a blog via the message system, click Subscribe.
   
2. To subscribe to a blog via RSS (if enabled), click RSS.
   

Installing the Blogs app

If blogs are not currently available on your platform, administrators can install if from the app center:

1. Click Admin from the main navigation menu.
   
2. Click App center.
   
3. Install Blogs from the Collaboration section.
   
1. Blogs can also be uninstalled from the App center by selecting Uninstall.

Enabling course and class blogs

Instructors, teachers and administrators can enable blogs for courses and classes:

1. Access the course or class.
   
2. Click Admin from the course/class navigation menu.
   
3. Click Features.
   
4. Select Blogs.

Instructors, teachers and administrators can choose to enable private blogs.

1. Access the course or class.
   
2. Select Blogs from the courses/class navigation menu.
   
3. Click Learners.
   
4. Click Enable private blogs.
   

Instructor, teachers and administrators can also enable RSS feeds for course/class blogs.

1. Access the course or class.
   
2. Select Blogs from the courses/class navigation menu.
   
3. Click Learners.
   
4. Click Enable RSS feeds.

Enabling group blogs

Group administrators can enable blogs for the group.

1. Access the group.
   
2. Click Admin from the group navigation menu.
   
3. Click Features from the pop-out menu.
   
4. Select Blogs.

Portal blog

Administrators can enable the Portal blog, which is a blog available to all visitors on the visitor portal.

To enable the Portal Blog, administrators can:

1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
   
2. Click Portal from the pop-out menu.
   
3. Click the Visitor view tab.
   
4. Select the Blog Enable? checkbox.
   

To view or post to the portal blog:

1. Click Admin from the primary navigation menu.
   
2. Click Blog from the pop-out menu.
   
3. Click See public view to view the public portal blog.
   
4. Click + Post to post to the public portal blog.

When a visitor posts a comment to the Portal blog, administrators can decide to accept or reject the comment by clicking Moderate comments.

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