This course uses âMastodonâ to provide a social learning network for course specific activities and a backchannel for our learning community. A backchannel is a networked conversation that runs alongside the primary course conversations. You will need to know how to use the course hashtag in course-related posts: #AS4ODFL
The OER Foundation has donated use of the OERuâs forums application software for the purposes of this course.
What is a Mastodon social network?
Mastodon is a federated social network with microblogging features similar to Twitter. As a federated technology, it is administered independently across many open source software servers around the world called instances rather than a single corporate provider. The OERu instance of Mastodon is hosted at mastodon.oeru.org.
Using hashtags
Many software applications provide support for a dedicated tag field (for example, blogging software or forum software) whereas other applications support a special case of tagging called âhashtagsâ where the tag is incorporated in the body of the text.
- Tags are user generated keywords or labels added to posts. The use of tags makes it possible to search for related posts using the same tag and, because theyâre machine readable, assists software applications to automatically generate tag clouds or filter posts using the specified tag.
- Hashtags are tags prefixed with the hash or pound sign (â#â) without any spaces, for example â#AS4ODFLâ. Many social media sites support the use of hashtags in the body of a text post. This enables users to search for posts using a specific hashtag.
In the case of Mastodon, you need to use hashtags in the body of your post. For instance, if you are posting about this course, you should include â#AS4ODFLâ in the body text of your post. This serves two purposes:
- Provides the ability to search for all posts on Mastodon which contain the hashtag
- Enables the course site to automatically âfetchâ and include your post in the course feed.
Note that you can post mentions without the hashtag, which is useful for backchannel and other conversations that wonât be displayed in the course feed.
Today is a good opportunity to test how hashtags work before you commence your studies. We will show you how to do this in the activities below.
Activity: Toot using the course hashtag
Purpose: Confirm digital skills to post a toot using the course hashtag.
Resources
Tasks
- Create an account on mastodon.oeru.org (if you donât already have one).
- Please edit your profile information (Donât forget to do this otherwise your name and image will be undefined in the course feed.).
- Set your email notification preferences â We recommend checking âSend e-mail when someone mentions youâ for new account holders.
- The âHomeâ column displays âTootsâ from people you follow. By default, new accounts are set to follow the site administrators so that your Home column is not empty when you first join.
- Click on the local timeline to see âTootsâ from members of the mastodon.oeru.org instance of Mastodon.

- Find a few users you would like to follow by clicking on the username and then clicking on the âFollowâ button.
- Post a toot and include the hashtag â#AS4ODFLâ in the body of your post, sharing why you joined this course. For example:
- I joined the #AS4ODFL course because ⌠(Note there are no spaces between the â#â and letters of the code.)
- Go to the search bar and type in â#AS4ODFLâand press enter to display all toots with the hashtag contained in the post. (Results are displayed in the last column on a wide screen display with the column heading: #AS4ODFL.)
Need help?
Visit the OERu support site for additional help to:
This course uses âMastodonâ to provide a social learning network for course specific activities and a backchannel for our learning community. A backchannel is a networked conversation that runs alongside the primary course conversations. You will need to know how to use the course hashtag in course-related posts: #AS4ODFL
The OER Foundation has donated use of the OERuâs forums application software for the purposes of this course.
What is a Mastodon social network?
Mastodon is a federated social network with microblogging features similar to Twitter. As a federated technology, it is administered independently across many open source software servers around the world called instances rather than a single corporate provider. The OERu instance of Mastodon is hosted at mastodon.oeru.org.
Using hashtags
Many software applications provide support for a dedicated tag field (for example, blogging software or forum software) whereas other applications support a special case of tagging called âhashtagsâ where the tag is incorporated in the body of the text.
In the case of Mastodon, you need to use hashtags in the body of your post. For instance, if you are posting about this course, you should include â#AS4ODFLâ in the body text of your post. This serves two purposes:
Note that you can post mentions without the hashtag, which is useful for backchannel and other conversations that wonât be displayed in the course feed.
Today is a good opportunity to test how hashtags work before you commence your studies. We will show you how to do this in the activities below.
Activity: Toot using the course hashtag
Purpose: Confirm digital skills to post a toot using the course hashtag.
Resources
Tasks
Need help?
Visit the OERu support site for additional help to:
Project lead
Supported by
Development Partner