WordPress Report
This report will contain the steps which I have taken in order to complete my WordPress site as well as an evaluation on different aspects of the site.
Steps Taken to Create the Site
The first step to creating the word press site was getting to the WordPress start up home page using an internet search engine. From the search engine I opened up WordPress and set up my account using a username and password.
Once created, I read through the simple instructions regarding how WordPress works as the programme was new to me due to never having used it before. When on the dashboard page I clicked on the icon which allowed me to create and ‘About Page’. This included background information about myself, for example, where I had studied previously and where I live. Also, this involved information regarding my future aspirations of what I want to achieve after I graduate for the university. Once completing the about page, I published it publically on the site. This ensures that others who look at the site can also read it rather than just me, the author.
The next section which I began to work of was the reviews. I did this by adding a new page named ‘reviews’. Both the Blackboard and the Moodle reviews were added on separate subpages with the page named ‘reviews’ as the parent page. The Moodle review was completed after a very small amount of research in order to jog my memory as I had not used the site in a while. This was done to ensure the review which was done was as accurate and reliable as possible. The backboard review was done via a similar method where I looked at the site in more detail to what I had done previously to ensure the blackboard review also followed the trend of being accurate and reliable. I added screen shots to each of the reviews in order to give the reader a greater detail as well as to ensure they are well informed.
Once both of the reviews were completed and checked, I made my way through the site, making changes which would make the site more appealing as well as allowing it to better suit its function. One change I made was the theme. I changed from the default theme to one which was more appropriate. I also changed the header to an image of the university and its logo. This means that those accessing the site to get an instant understand of the content of the site before continuing to read the content below. This allows the reader to decide whether the wish to read on. The picture chosen will hopefully persuade those opening the site to continue to read the information below as well as on other pages on the site.
After completing everything and checking for errors, this report was added to the site. This was added to a new page named ‘Report’. All of the above sections mentioned before were published publically to allow those visiting the site access to the information.
Evaluation
One aspect of creating the site which I found to be quite easy was adding the about page. This was because the method was very straight forward. This involved clicking the ‘Add about page’ icon on the dashboard and the about page was added. Once this was done I added the necessary information and the about page was complete. Also, as there was no research that need to be done for this section, I was able to complete this section in a way which was very time effect due to already knowing all the information needed to put into this section.
In conjunction with this I found writing the reviews themselves quite easy. This is because the text could be typed into the site as you would for a regular word processing programme such as Microsoft office. This meant that once a small bit of research was completed, it didn’t take long to complete the bulk of text for the reviews. On the other hand, I did find it difficult input the images on to the page. This is because the method of doing so I have not encountered before. This therefore meant that it took a relatively sizeable amount of time to complete the reviews. With that being said, once one image was inputted successfully, I was able to pick up speed and save time. To overcome this problem I persevered and experimented with different parts of the site until I got the correct outcome. If I was to complete another site using this programme I would be able to complete this aspect much more efficiently and there for be much more time efficient on the whole when completing the website.
Another difficulty which I had was changing the header image. This is also due to never using this specific programme before and here took me some time to work out how it was done. However finding the image its self was incredible easy using and internet browser and referencing in the correct manner. I feel that this aspect of the site was a learning curve and will help me in the future if needed again. In order to overcome this, I looked o an internet browser and found some instruction on how to do so. This was quite easy to do and helped me overcome a struggle in a time effective way.
When first using WordPress and encountering it for the first time, I found It difficult to use due to not encountering it before, however, once I begin to explore the site, the majority of it was able to work out with only several aspects needing a greater amount of time. Therefore, by the end, I found it easy to navigate around the site as well as add and edit most aspects. From this is can feel confident using WordPress and feel that on the whole the site was not majorly difficult to complete.
If I was it complete another website I would do the majority of aspects in a similar way with very few changes. This is because the factors which effect the production of the site were due to being unfamiliar with the programme as I had never used it before, for example, changing the header image of the site. On the other hand, one of the thing which I would change is I would incorporate more aspects to the pages of the website, for example, audio and video. This will mean that the site will have more of a variety of different aspects and therefore suite a wider range of learning styles.
(2016). Dashboard. Available: https://blogs.ncl.ac.uk/rcrossley/wp-admin/. Last accessed 16/11/16.