Thank you to the team at WPCampus. They invited me to be a part of their podcast covering the use of WordPress in higher education. This was my first time to officially get to speak with formal educators about the use of WordPress as part of their instructional process. I loved listening to how these instructors were using WordPress as a Learning Management System (LMS) with their students.
If you’re interested in hearing some ways instructors in higher education are using WordPress for their courses, please enjoy the podcast. Note that this podcast was recorded as a Google hangout, so video is available.
While I tend to focus on delivering automated courses using LMS plugins, some of these instructors are using a regular WordPress installation with options for students to collaborate, add galleries of photos etc… They may not actually be using it to deliver a formal course, but as an online extension of a live course. If you’re teaching live classes or workshops, you should check out the episode for ideas of how you might integrate WordPress into your learning environment.
One of the things they spoke of that most of my audience doesn’t face is the challenges of having to work with IT (information technology) departments and not always having access to their own servers. They have to work within the structure of their institutions to get access to hosting for their sites. It wasn’t as simple as accessing an outside web host like most of us who are entrepreneurs do. Even though some companies, like SiteGround, provide free hosting to schools and students, instructors weren’t always able to take advantage of this because of school regulations.
The opportunities and challenges presented in this discussion were different from those most of my clients and students face, but it was interesting to see a new perspective and get some ideas for using the platform for student collaboration.
For more information, see the show notes, and make sure to watch the podcast. https://wpcampus.org/podcast/wordpress-as-a-lms/
