preknowledge

Preknowledge

To successfully complete this learning challenge, you will need:

  • The URL link to your Userpage in WikiEducator demonstrating your basic wiki skills
  • A digital copy of your EDT4OL signed learning contract
  • Evidence of your digital skills using open educational resources (OER) as demonstrated by
    • A digital copy of your Certificate of Completion for the Digital Skills for OER Sharing (DS4OERS) course or validation code link, OR
    • Links to at least two DS4OERS digital badges

web resources

Stimulus resource - An example blog post

We invite you to look at an example of an Acceptance Portfolio blog post. In this post, you will also find a link to the signed Facilitator contract for supporting your learning on this course.

The post has three sections:

  • Declaring myself
  • My acceptance portfolio evidence
  • My learning reflection.

Pay particular attention to:

  • The image attributions
  • The tips for EDT4OL students
  • The tag “edt4ol” at the bottom of the post (this is needed for feed harvesting.)

Blog link: Wayne’s facilitation blog

discussion

Support forum for preparing your blog post

If you have any questions or need support in completing your Acceptance Portfolio blog post challenge, please post these in the Support forum for portfolio blog post topic on the forums.oeru.org site.

If you know the answer to a question posted by one of your peers – share the gift of knowledge by replying to questions in the forum. Working together, we can achieve more than working alone.

Tasks for this challenge

Prepare a blog post, for example by editing the default “Hello world!” template post on your new blog site or creating a new post. From your Dashboard, go to “Posts”. Click “Add New” or edit the existing “Hello world” template post.

  1. Choose an appropriate title for your post, for example: “My Acceptance Portfolio Submission”, “Declaring myself on EDT4OL”, or any other suitable title
  2. Your post must include an openly licensed “Featured image”, which you can legally copy and upload via the “Post” tab option in WordPress when editing an individual post
    • Purpose: To demonstrate legally correct image attribution adhering to the TASL requirements, providing an image Title, Author, Source (with hyperlink to the original source), and Licence
    • A good way to do this in the context of a blog post is to provide an “Image attribution” subheading at the bottom of the post, with the attribution
  3. Your blog post must be divided into three sub-sections using subheadings:
    1. Declaring myself: In a couple of sentences, tell us who you are, why you are taking the course, and what you hope to achieve.
    2. My acceptance portfolio evidence: Please provide evidence for the required components of your portfolio, specifically:
      • A hyperlink to your WikiEducator Userpage to provide evidence of your basic wiki editing skills;
      • Upload and link to a copy of your Certificate of Completion for the DS4OERS course and publish the validation code that appears on your certificate. OR alternatively, you must provide links to at least two DS4OER badges awarded to you.
        1. Log into the Moodle site where you earned your DS4OER Badges.
        2. Then go to your badges page from your user profile. So, for example, if you were awarded the DS4OER badges from the OERu Moodle site, the link would be: https://moodle.oeru.org/badges/mybadges.php. If you took the course on another Moodle site replace “https://moodle.oeru.org” with the URL of the specific Moodle site and add /badges/mybadges.php as the suffix to the URL after you have logged in.
        3. Check that your badges are publicly visible so that the “Eye” icon doesn’t have a line through it.
        4. Click on the Badge you would like to submit to reveal the metadata page that shows details about the Recipient, Issuer, and Badge. Copy and save the URL of the badge metadata page. It should have ?hash= contained within the URL, for example: https://moodle.oeru.org/badges/badge.php?hash=e94114af513803cebf6884a2860fca1103bd0677. This is the link you must use in your blog post to link to your badge providing evidence that the badge was awarded, including details of the issuer. If you don’t link to this metadata page for your badge, your portfolio cannot be accepted.
      • Upload a copy of your signed learning contract to your blog site and hyperlink to this file. You can upload a PDF version or an image file (JPG or PNG) if you took a photo of your contract for submission. (To upload the learning contract on your blog site, from your Dashboard go to the Media link, click on the “Add New” button, and follow the instructions on screen. From the media link, you should see your file listed. Click on the media file to reveal the URL for the file location which you will need for the hyperlink in your blog post. You can copy the URL to your clipboard before creating the hyperlink in your post.)
    3. My learning reflection: Write a brief reflection on this blog challenge activity in a sentence or two. For example: What did you learn? Based on your experience, what advice would you give to future learners completing this challenge?
  4. Categorise and tag your blog post: This will set up your blog to find related posts in designated categories and enable automated links to your blog posts to be inserted into the Course feed page.
    • Think about a category structure for your blog, eg “Portfolio”, “Learning Challenge”, “Personal” to distinguish types of posts on your site. Create and assign a new category to your blog post.
    • Tag your post with the course code: “EDT4OL”. In the first instance, you will need to use the “Add New Tag” option.

Register your blog URL for the feed scanner

This will register your blog for the feed scanner which is done from the course website. The automated process will find the RSS or ATOM feed of your blog site, which is a machine readable format for automating links to your blog posts. Registering and assigning your blog feed URL will enable other learners to be notified when you have published a blog post, so they can read how you are progressing. This helps to build a community of learners, even though we are studying in different locations.

You will need the public URL of your blog site. This is different from the URL used when editing your blog site as an author. To find your public blog URL, go to your Dashboard in WordPress – You need to be logged in to do this. At the top of your screen, click on your Blog’s title, then open the “Visit site” link in a new tab. This is the URL of the public view of your blog site. Copy and save this link. You can check if you have the correct link by opening it in incognito mode (Chrome) or private window (firefox). If the URL is accessible without log-in credentials, you have the public URL of your blog site.

Instructions

  1. Log in to your EDT4OL course site via the “Log in/Register” link at the top of your screen (or head graphic if using a mobile device)
  2. Confirm that you are enrolled for the course (the link will display your “Username >> Enrolled” . If not enrolled, click on the link to enrol)
  3. Click on the “Username >> Enrolled” link and then click on the “Add your blog feed for scanning!” link (see image below)
    EDT4OL-blog-feed-link.png


    The link will open in a new tab / window in your browser

  4. Open the public view of your blog site in a new tab or window in your browser – see above for information on how to find the public URL of your blog site
  5. Copy the web address (or URL) of your blog site, including the http:// or https:// prefix from your browser’s web address text field near the top of the window
  6. Enter the URL in the text area field on the Blog Feed Finder site (see image below)
  7. Common mistakes:
    • Omitting the http:// or https:// prefix of your url
    • Using the URL for the “editing view,” where you update the content on your blog rather than viewing the result. You must submit the URL for the published, public view of your blog
    • Entering website addresses which aren’t blog site URLs. The following are among the URLs commonly entered by learners by mistake: accounts.google.com, course.oeru.org, facebook.com, google.com, saylor.org, wikieducator.org, www.facebook.com, www.google.com, saylor.org
  8. The Blog Feed Finder will list all the courses you are enrolled in on the course site (see image below).
    EDT4OL-Blog-URL-Assign.png


  9. Click on the “Assign” button corresponding with your EDT4OL enrollment.
  10. Your personal blog should now be registered for scanning. The course feed will now insert a link to your future blog posts which have been tagged with the “EDT4OL” course code. Note that it can take up to 30 minutes before a tagged post appears in the feed because the scanner only does a few checks each hour to conserve server resources.

Self-assessment

Review your achievement in this challenge by conducting a ‘traffic light’ self-assessment. Conduct this self assessment before submitting your Acceptance Portfolio blog post on the Moodle site because a Red light rating will result in a “Not achieved” submission and you will not be able to gain acceptance into the course.

Traffic lights green.png

I can do this well (Distinguished)
A high quality blog post which can serve as an example for future learners

Green grade for Acceptance Portfolio: Achieved

The blog post:

  • Meets all the evidence submission criteria
  • Demonstrates a professional, inviting, and consistent layout
  • Post includes a “Featured image” properly attributed
  • Contains an insightful learning reflection
  • Link to post successfully harvested in the course feed
  • Blog post link submitted on Moodle for evaluation
Traffic lights amber.png

I can do this (Intermediate)
A blog post which meets the evidence requirements for the Acceptance Portfolio

Amber grade for Acceptance Portfolio: Achieved

The blog post provides evidence of:

  • Basic wiki skills as demonstrated on WikiEducator Userpage
  • Digital skills in using OER (Two DS4OER badges or Certificate of Completion)
  • Learning contract completed and signed
  • Post includes a “Featured image” properly attributed
  • Blog post link submitted on Moodle for evaluation
Traffic lights red.png

I need more practice (Novice)
Resource is still in the early draft phase and needs more work

Red grade for Acceptance Portfolio: Not Achieved

One or more of the following is evident / missing in the draft:

  • Missing or incomplete attributions for one or more images, therefore in breach of copyright
  • DS4OER Badges or Certificate Completion does not link to Badge metadata or Certificate validation code is not provided, therefore achievement cannot be verified
  • Learning contract not signed or missing.

Submit your acceptance portfolio blog post link and earn a badge

When you are satisfied that your blog post is of a suitable quality, submit a link to your blog post through Moodle.

Your submission will be reviewed by a teacher on the course. This may take some time, depending on the time-zone the teacher is working in, but will typically be done within 24 hours if received on a working day.

If approved:

  • You will be eligible to claim the EDT4OL Acceptance Portfolio Badge (see the Moodle Acceptance portfolio page for instructions)
  • You will gain entry into a facilitated offering of the EDT4OL course. Each cohort is restricted to 30 students. If the current course is over-subscribed, you will have a priority position on the waiting list for future cohorts.