cc licensed ( BY SD ) flickr photo shared by cogdogblog

The heart of this MOOC experience is in the individual web sites where participants share their ideas, reflections, arguments, agreements, and through some magic pixie dust of web syndication, we can collect everybody’s work to the ETMOOC Blog Hub.

To do this, you will need to provide us a URL for the blog space where you will be publishing your ETMOOC stuff. This can be almost any blogging platform, as long as it publishes an RSS feed (see below).

This can be a blog solely devoted to your world of ETMOOCing, or it can be an existing blog where you currently publish. As much as we admire all of the stuff you blog about, if you are using a more general blog for ETMOOC, we’d prefer that you use either a tag or a category to designate your ETMOOC work. See below if you need help figuring this out.

If this all makes sense to you, proceed to register your ETMOOC blog space now.

The URL we ask for should be the one that points to your own ETMOOC blog space, either:

• The URL for a blog where all you write about is ETMOOC.
• THE URL for an ETMOOC tag or category index in your existing blog

Suggested Blogging Platforms

The following free platforms are suitable for ETMOOC blogging:

• Self hosted WordPress blog – one that you set up on your own domain.
• Hosted WordPress
• Blogger
• TypePad
• Tumblr
• Posterous
• Weebly

This are platforms that automatically publish what is known as an RSS feed when you add a new blog post; this is how our site knows what your site is doing. These are platforms that will NOT work because they lack this capability:

• Google+
• Blogger sites that are set to private or invite only
• Moodle Blogs

You are more than welcome to use these as your ETMOOC spaces; we just cannot connect to them.

Once again, if you set up a new blog just for ETMOOC, then you are done. We just need the URL for your new site. But do us a favor, first write an introductory post so there is some content for us to grab when we subscribe to your blog.

How To Find The Correct URLs to Use for Category.Tags in Existing Blogs

Ok, you already have a blog that you want to include new posts related to ETMOOC. If you follow our instructions, we will be able to syndicate just the posts you mark as for ETMOOC.

Below are instructions for finding the correct URL in several blogging tools.

Using Tags or Categories in WordPress

WordPress offers two ways to organize posts; which one you choose is mostly a matter of your preference. Quite a few people are sending us WordPress PAGEs; we cannot read those automatically. You need to create new blog POSTS and use a category or tag to let us know they are for ETMOOC.

We suggest using categories, since once you create a category, it is always on your editing screen as a box to check.

To set up an ETMOOC Category, simply starting writing that first post, and in the Category box on the right, click Add New Category, enter etmooc and publish when you are done.

In a published post, WordPress will include a link to the category the post belongs to (where it is located depends on the theme)

It’s that link that provides the URL we need, the link that will show all posts in the ETMOOC category; for my example blog post at http://cogdog.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/hello-etmooc/, the category that includes this post (and all others I add to the category) is http://cogdog.wordpress.com/category/etmooc/

If you prefer to tag your posts, it is just about the same process. Simply enter etmooc in the Tag box on the right.

When published,Wordpress will include a link to the tag the post belongs to:

It’s that link that provides the URL we need, the link that will show all posts tagged “etmooc” for my example blog post at http://cogdog.wordpress.com/2013/01/10/hello-etmooc/, the category that includes this post (and all others I add to the category) is http://cogdog.wordpress.com/tag/etmooc/

Using Labels in Blogger

The label feature in Blogger acts like a tag or a category. You can find it pn the right side of the blog editor, under Post Settings.

Simply enter ETMOOC in as a label.

In a published post, Blogger will include a link to the label the post belongs to (where it is located depends on the theme):

If you follow the link in the lower right, you can locate the URL that points to all posts that are/will be published with the etmooc label.

It’s that link that provides the URL we need, the link that will show all posts labeled “etmooc” for my example blog post at http://cogdoghouse.blogspot.com/2013/01/hello-etmooc.html, the labele that includes this post (and all others I label etmooc) is http://cogdoghouse.blogspot.com/search/label/etmooc

Using Tags or Categories in TypePad

TBA

Using Tags in Posterous

You can use posterous to syndicate just a selected portion of your blog hosted there. When you are editing a post, on the right side under Post Options you can add an etmooc tag:

In a published post, Posterous will include a link to the tag the post belongs to (where it is located depends on the theme):

It’s that link that provides the URL we need, the link that will show all posterous posts tagged “etmooc” for my example blog post at http://cogdog.posterous.com/hello-etmooc/a>, the tags that includes this post (and all others I tag etmooc) is http://cogdog.posterous.com/tag/etmooc

Other Tools

Tumblr and Weebly do not provide the same capability- their sites are easy enough to set up, we encourage you to create a blog there that is used only for ETMOOC. It’s that easy to do.

Got Your Link Ready?

Now you should have the perfect URL for adding to the ETMOOC Blog Hub – just use it when you share your #etmooc blog with us. If we might suggest- test that link first!

Icon Credits

Icons in this post from the ever so useful Noun Project

• Binoculars by Giorgia Guarino, from The Noun Project
• Web Browser by Yellow, from The Noun Project
• Feed by Naomi Atkinson, from The Noun Project
• Magnify by Michelle Ann, from The Noun Project