In this extra post, Dr Jenny Scoles, Chief Editor of Teaching Matters, introduces Teaching Matters’ new home on the University of Edinburgh’s blogging platform, and explains some of the new features.
As you may have observed, Teaching Matters has recently migrated from its original site (first established in 2016), and is now settled in its new home on the University of Edinburgh blogging platform.
The migration was made possible by the hard work – and in spite of multiple hurdles – by colleagues in Information Services and Academic Blogging Service: Stewart Cromar, James Slack and Karen Howie. They experienced how migrating eight years’ worth of media-rich content was quite the challenge with 1,200 posts and 3,600 images totaling almost 4 GB. The original WordPress platform (6.5.5) and theme (Apostrophe 2) were upgraded to newer, safer and regularly maintained options – a big relief for safeguarding Teaching Matters’ archives.
They also worked with the Teaching Matters team to create a new WordPress plugin ‘User Submitted Posts (USP)’, which was tested and configured especially for Teaching Matters. This new addition allows Teaching Matters team to receive article submissions via a dedicated webform and have them stored automatically as draft Posts within WordPress for editorial review. Contributors can find this submission form on the website: Submit a post.
There’s no need to worry about the URL links for blog posts that were published on the old site – URL re-directions have been enabled for the old Teaching Matters’ domain name, so all pre-existing bookmarks and pages indexed by search engines will successfully redirect to the new URL: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/teaching-matters/.
Another new feature is the Google Analytics kit, which can provide an extremely detailed analysis of who is reading what, where and when. Through this feature, we’ve learnt that Teaching Matters has had 4,467,771 page views since it began!
On the new site, you can also find updated writing and style guidance, as well as the usual features: Teaching Matters podcast, 5 Things, and sign-posting to Learning and Teaching Resources.
Remember to follow us on:
- LinkedIn: @teaching-matters-edinburgh
- You can also subscribe to the 5 Things newsletter on LinkedIn.
- Instagram: @uoe_teaching
And you can sign-up with your email address to receive notifications when new posts are published (right-hand side of the front page).
It’s also worth highlighting the University’s partnership with Times Higher Education blog: THE Campus. We work closely with their editor to share content, and we can help Teaching Matters contributors re-purpose their posts for publication on THE Campus.
In its new home, we hope Teaching Matters continues to be a source for innovative, insightful, and provocative learning and teaching practices and discussions. We know from anecdotal evidence as well as empirical research that its reach extends far beyond a University of Edinburgh audience. We are grateful to our contributors for making it one of the most comprehensive, multi-authored learning and teaching blogs in the wider community.
Any questions, ideas for series, or contributions that you would like to discuss, please contact the Editors at teachingmatters@ed.ac.uk.
Happy reading!
Jenny Scoles
Dr Jenny Scoles is the Chief Editor of Teaching Matters. She is an Academic Developer (Learning and Teaching Enhancement), and a Senior Fellow HEA, in the Institute for Academic Development, and provides pedagogical support for University course and programme design. She leads the University’s Learning & Teaching Conference, Board of Studies Network, and her research interests include student-staff co-creation, interdisciplinary learning & teaching, professional learning and sociomaterial methodologies.
Thank you Jenny, it was a pleasure working with you. I hope Teaching Matters is very happy in its new home.