Tips for OCL4Ed 14.02

#OCL4Ed (2014.02)

Another free professional development opportunity from the OERu
5 - 19 February 2014

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This page lists a few tips for improving your learning experience and avoiding common errors we are observing as the course progresses.

Summary of links in the course feed.

Making the course feed work for you

There are a number of features embedded in the course feed which will assist you in navigating to the original posts so that you can reply and comment using the original source technology. In most cases, you will need to login to the source technology to reply to the original post. The graphic highlights key links you can use in making the course feed work better for you.

You can also star your favourite notes. Ensure that the notes you like are secured a place in the list of popular recent notes. The current list of popular recent notes is displayed on the course dashboard. You will need to login to WikiEducator to use this feature. As a developmental feature, this may not work on all mobile devices at this time.

Why doesn't my bio picture display in the WEnotes feed?

WikiEducator users who have not filled our their User page by adding a personal infobox and uploading a bio picture will not have their bio picture displayed in the WEnotes (WikiEducator notes) course feed.

1. A quick fix: Upload your bio picture on Gravatar using the same email address you used for registering your wikieducator account. (This will ensure that your bio picture for blog posts (Blogger and Wordpress) and WikiEducator WENotes posts appear in the course feed.)
2. Recommended for WikiEducator community members: Fill out your User page and add a personal infobox with your bio picture.

Why doesn't my blog post doesn't appear in the course feed?

The following are common errors made by OCL4Ed participants:

1. The blog url for the rss feed of your published blog is not registered or incorrect. Go to the course homepage to register or update your blog url. (Note that you must use the url for the published view of your blog and not the dashboard url used for editing your blog posts.)
2. You forgot to add the "OCL4Ed" tag to your post (called a label in blogger). See how to add a tag in Wordpress or label in Blogger.
3. Your blog feed is not enabled (See help for Blogger or Wordpress)
4. You are impatient. If you have checked the above, note that it can take up to an hour for your blog post to appear in the feed. (Microblog posts are live.)

Check the registration of the required blog posts if you're interested in certification for participation

The OCL4Ed mOOC provides a number of certification options. Learners are required to register the designated blog posts (Specifically: 1^st Learning reflection; 2^nd Learning reflection; Activity 3.1; Activity 4.1 and 3^rd Learning reflection).

1. It is your responsibility to register the designated blog posts.
2. You must ensure that you use the url for the individual activity and not the homepage of your blog.
3. We will delete registrations which do not use the correct url or reference blog posts which are not designated for the participation requirements. It is your responsibility to check that your designated posts have been correctly registered.

Customisable OCL4Ed feed for your RSS/Atom reader

The WEnotes micro-blog and blog aggregator can provide a one-stop-shop to monitor the activity surrounding one of the courses offered by the OER Foundation or our partners. For learners who use feed readers, the OER Foundation has generated a customisable feed which means you can keep up to date with OCL4Ed student interactions focusing on your preferred source without visiting the site.