Lab 1: Basic WordPress Development

WordPress is a common content management system that allows users to create websites without knowing how to code. You will create a WordPress website in this class and use it to post your blog posts.

Lab:

Today we will set up your WordPress websites and share them with the rest of the class (by adding a comment to this post with a link to your site).

1. Log on to https://sites.usask.ca/.
2. Find your way into the WordPress Dashboard
3. Choose a new Theme for your website and play with the personalized options.
   1. Choose a title for your website and a subtitle
   2. add a banner image if your theme requires one
   3. create a menu
4. create an about page
5. decide how public you want the website to be. If you want to keep it somewhat private, you can click the box that discourages search engines from indexing the site. In practice, it is pretty hard to get attention for a blog, but this will reduce the chance that it comes up when someone searches your name. If you are concerned about privacy, there are other options to make your content password protected.
   1. 
6. Post a short blog post. Try embedding a photo, YouTube video and other content. The USask Sites limits what we can embed, but lots of content should work.

If you finish the basics before the end of the class or have worked with WordPress before, you might want to use the time to go deeper and learn more about how this content management system works and how you can tweak it to

USask provides free access to Linked In Learning (formally called Lynda.com) content and given we are online, I think this is a good resource to learn the basics of WordPress, as you can work at your own pace. I will also be able to join you via Zoom to help you through any issues.

You can access the lessons through this link: https://training.usask.ca/linkedin-learning/LIL.php

[USE YOUR NSID TO LOG IN. YOU DO NOT NEED TO LINK YOUR ACCOUNT TO A LINKED-IN ACCOUNT.]

Here is a very good WordPress essentials course. I will give you a list of the most important videos and which ones you might want to skip.

• WordPress 5 Essential Training
  • WordPress: An introduction
    • skip forward
  • 1. Up and Running with WordPress
    • Skip Install and running WordPress as the IT people at USask have taken care of this for us.
    • The Admin Panel
    • Skip change the language unless you want to learn about launching a site in another language.
  • 2. Content Management

If you already know how to work with WordPress, there are a few more advanced lessons that you should consider:

• CSS Essential Training
• Building a WordPress Child Theme
• Learning PHP
• HTML Essential Training