- Overview
- Agenda
- Speakers
- Lodging
- Parking/Accessibility
- Slides/Handouts
Challenges and Opportunities with WordPress in Higher Ed
Where: University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Campus Center
First Floor Campus Center Way
Amherst, MA.
Directions and Map
Carpool Information
When: Thursday, February 27, 2020
9:00am - 3:00pm
Note: Registration starts at 7:30am
Workshop Organizer: Trip Kirkpatrick of Yale University
Registration Fee:
NERCOMP Member:
Early-bird rate prior to January 16th - $123.25 (15% discount)
Rate January 16 and after - $145
Non Member:
Early-bird rate prior to January 16th- $246.50 (15% discount)
Rate January 16 and after - $290
The registration fee includes am break and lunch.
Event Overview
Does your university use WordPress — for the main website, for course blogging, for faculty? If so, you have probably seen great benefits as well as significant challenges.
Fortunately, you're not alone! WordPress runs 35% of the world's websites with 40% of US 4-year higher education institutions using it on their official site. That's pretty impressive for software created for personal blogging!
It's 16 years old, used all over the world (with full or partial translations into 192 languages), and smells a lot like commodity software. It's not as powerful as Drupal, not as hip as Slack, not as purpose-built for academia as Omeka or Scalar. So why is it still here?
Join us and hear from WordPress experts on their continued interest in and challenges with WordPress across a wide range of areas, from accessibility to security.
Session Outcomes:
- Learn about ways to improve accessibility for WordPress that go beyond regulatory compliance.
- Familiarize yourself with the possibilities for using WordPress as a first-step digital image management system for faculty and student research.
- Understand how to find, manage, and phase out or replace plugins to enable creative academic uses of WordPress without promising people the stars.
Registration Cancellation Policy:
By clicking on the "Order Now" button, you are indicating a commitment to attend and will be held responsible for the registration fee. Your fee can be refunded if you notify us of a cancellation at least 8 days prior to the event via email to nercomp@nercomp.org.
Event Disclaimer:
NERCOMP reserves the right to use any photographs or other mechanical recordings taken at NERCOMP events in promotional materials. No mechanical recordings of any kind may be used at NERCOMP events without the prior written consent of NERCOMP organizers and presenters. The views and opinions expressed at NERCOMP events do not necessarily reflect those of NERCOMP, nor does NERCOMP make any representation regarding the information presented at NERCOMP events.
7:30am - 9:00am Registration and Coffee
9:00am - 9:15am Introduction
9.15am – 10:00am What’s Up with Headless WordPress?
Speaker: Trip Kirkpatrick, Digital Scholarship Technologist, Yale University
The standard model for WordPress is a joined back end and front end. What if they got separated on the way to the browser? What if you wanted to get the speed of a static site with the editorial workflow of a database-driven site? Welcome to headless WordPress, a radical but possible world.
10.05am – 10.50am Let’s Talk About Accessibility
Speaker: Alyssa Marinaccio, Academic Technologist, Wesleyan University
A look at the current state of accessibility in WordPress. What’s good, what’s not, and what you can do about it.
10.55am - 11.40am WordPress as a Versatile Institutional Repository Front-End: Philosophy, Design, Code, and Technical Debt
Speaker: Patrick Murray-John, Associate Director for Systems, Digital Scholarship Group, Northeastern University
This presentation will explore and reflect on the decisions made in updating a WordPress plugin to address cataloging needs, presentation needs, and the attendant development requirements for many WordPress sites drawing on content in Northeastern University's digital repository.
11.45am – 12.45pm Lunch
12.45pm – 1.30pm From Neglected to Nurtured: The Rapid Transformation of our WordPress Environment
Speaker: Michael McGlynn, Associate Director, Web & Interactive, Wheaton College
How Wheaton transformed a neglected and out of control WordPress website into a manageable and high performance marketing tool in 2 years.
1.30pm – 2.15pm Managing Your Research Data in WordPress
Speaker: Pam Patterson, Digital Scholarship Technologist, Yale University Library
While WordPress acts as a communications channel for most, we’ve found ways researchers can use its database and GUI to contain certain kinds of research data and facilitate shared data management. Hear some case studies of how to help get people off their individual desktops and into a collaborative, adaptable space.
2:15pm - 3:00pm Open Discussion and Wrap-Up
3:00pm End
Trip Kirkpatrick
Trip Kirkpatrick is a digital scholarship technologist in the Yale University Library, with primary experience in Humanities. He has co-coordinated the Digital Humanities Working Group of the Whitney Humanities Center, and led the Collaborative Learning Center, a joint project of Yale University Library, ITS, the Center for Language Study, and the Graduate Teaching Center. He has also been seen leading a hands-on media lab for Yale’s node of the FemTechNet DOCC. His interests include online exhibits, digital scholarly communication with WordPress, plurilingualism and pluriculturalism in Digital Humanities, and historical irreproducibilities such as unrecorded sound or other sensory phenomena, as well as issues in introducing digital scholarship in a highly traditional research institution.
Alyssa Marinaccio
Alyssa Marinaccio is an Academic Technologist in Information Technology Services at Wesleyan University. She supports faculty, students and staff with Wordpress websites. She received a B.S. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Mathematics from Keene State College and a M.Ed in Online Instructional Design from Plymouth State University. Prior to Wesleyan, she worked as the Assistive Technology Coordinator in the Center for Students with Disabilities at the University of Connecticut and the Assistive Technology Coordinator in the Office of Disability Services at Keene State College. She brings over seven years of experience in Assistive Technology and Accessibility. In addition, she has been teaching for six years as an adjunct in a variety of Computer Science and Mathematics courses.
Michael McGlynn
Michael McGlynn is a web developer and project manager who lives in historic Providence, Rhode Island. He's been building websites professionally since 1994 and is passionate about the web and the technologies used to build it.
Michael has owned Reignition LLC, a small design, development and project management firm since 2002. He's been working in higher education since the mid-2000s.
Patrick Murray-John
Patrick received his Ph.D. in Early English Medieval Literature from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. After serving in a variety of teaching roles at the University of Mary Washington and the University of Richmond, he moved to a new role in educational technology at UMW, where he worked with WordPress, Drupal, Omeka, and developed new technologies for innovative teaching. Following that position, he was a developer and Director for Developer Outreach for Omeka at the Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media at George Mason University. In October 2018, he joined the Digital Scholarship Group at Northeastern University, where he currently guides the technical development of various projects serving the university and broader community.
Pam Patterson
Pam Patterson is a digital scholarship technologist in the Yale University Library. She’s been providing technology support for faculty and students for over 20 years. Her focus has been on creation, management, and presentation of digital assets in the classroom and in research workflows. For the past 10 years, she’s been the primary support and lead on the use of WordPress at Yale, for courses, professional identity, and research. She also engages in the support of other web-based tools for teaching and learning and has a strong skill set in using web technologies to promote active learning and digital citizenship.
Hotel Information:
Rooms are available at the Hotel UMass, located on the campus of University of Massachussetts-Amherst.
To make reservations contact Hotel UMass at 877-822-2110 and request the "NERCOMP Room Block" or Group Code NERZOC
The room block for February 26th 2020, will be available until 5:00pm on January 29th, 2020.
Standard guest rooms are available for $129 per night, single occupancy.
Parking Information:
Getting to the Campus Center Parking Garage…
From Massachusetts Avenue (after exiting from Route 116) At the second set of lights turn left onto Commonwealth Avenue – Boyden Gymnasium is on the corner of Commonwealth & Massachusetts Avenues. At the next set of lights turn right onto Campus Center Way and proceed up Campus Center Way – The entrance to the Campus Center Parking Garage is at the top of the hill on the right.
Please note - You need to take a ticket upon entering the parking garage. If there is no ticket to pull, you are not in the correct entrance to the parking garage.
Parking is available in the Campus Center Garage, pick up your parking pass at the registration desk and pay $6.50 when leaving.
Park on the 2nd floor of the parking garage and walk thru the hallway into the Student Center and go down to the first floor.
Accessiblity:
UMass-Amherst has accessible parking spaces and ramps from the parking garage into the Campus Center and elevators once you get into the building. Take the elevator to the lower level where the NERCOMP registration table will be set-up. There are also accessible rest rooms on the lower level.