Connect Your Blog to Ours

Join the Syndication Flow

As a connected course, the bulk of participant activity takes place in the spaces you manage- a blog for writing, twitter and other social media tools for communication.

This is the place to add the blog you are using for this course to the Connected Courses Blog Hub. See also more details on setting up your blog and connecting it here.

We know you are excited, but before you start filling out the form, make sure that
(a) You have a created or already use a twitter account;
(b) You have created or have available a blog where you will publish your work. This can be any platform as long as it publishes an RSS Feed;
(c) Make sure you have published at least one post to your blog or in a category/tag you will use in a blog.

Step 1 of 3

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Your Name*
We will not publish your name, and feel free to enter a nickname, pseudonym. Just so we know who you are. Or who you tell us you are.
First Last
Twitter Account*
Do NOT include the "@", ok? If you are not on twitter, you can create an account. We will not force anyone to create an account; if you prefer to make use a twitter account, please enter what is hopefully a unique username for the site to track your blog.
Your Email Address*
No we will not publish it or sell to evil spammers, we just ask in case we need to confirm or clarify any information provided here.
For Connected Courses, I Am*
This is just for organizing blog posts, you get no secret powers based on your choice 😉
- An Open Participant
- A Facilitator

Your Connected Courses Blog
This is where we get the information about the blog you will use to publish your work in Connected Courses. You can use any platform as long as it publishes an RSS feed. Your blog must also be publicly viewable- make sure it can be seen when you are not logged in.

We suggest Wordpress, Blogger, or tumblr. Make sure you have published at least one post there and that the site is publicly viewable. You can either (a) create a blog devoted entirely to this work (this is the Easy Path) or (b) Use a category within an existing blog.

We will ask for two different web addresses. One is the main place to see ALL of your Connected Courses blog posts; this is either the URL for your entire blog or the one that shows all the posts within a specific tag or category on an existing blog.

The second address is the RSS Feed for your blog- this is how we can subscribe to your site and bring your content into the blog hub. Do not worry, we will help you figure out what that URL should be.

The addresses we ask you for below are very important to enter correctly, so excuse us if we remind you multiple times to verify them! The ultimate goal is connect your blog to ours.
Is your blog devoted to your Connected Courses work?*
- Yes, everything published there is related to Connected Courses
- No, I am using a blog where I write about other topics too
Using a Blog Devoted Entirely to Connected Courses*
This should be the main or home address that shows all of your posts, like http://iamsoconnected.tumblr.com or http://connectivitytothemax.wordpress.com/ Please make sure this URL works and links to the place to view the main entry to your blog in a web browser!
RSS Feed for a Connected Courses Devoted Blog*
Enter that web address for your blog into the Feed Finder Magic Box (this link will open in a new window so you will not lose your form entries). Copy the RSS Feed URL that comes out of Magic Box and enter it below. Please make sure this URL produces something, it may look like code gibberish... If the Magic Box has no magic for you, please contact us, it will do you no good to continue with this form.
Using a Blog Where You Write About Other Topics Too*
You are more then welcome to use an existing blog. Make sure you have set up a category/tag/label there AND that you have published at least one post using that category/tag/label. Enter the address that lists ALL posts with that designation. If you are using a tag, category, label to indicate just the posts on your blog intended for us, then this should be the web address that displays all your tagged/categorized content, such as http://gumbo-soup.tumblr.com/tagged/connectedcourses or http://flyingsquirrel.wordpress.com/category/connected

Please make sure this URL works and links to the place to the place that shows your tagged/categorized blog posts. If you have not written any, do not proceed. The wheels may fall off your bus (just kidding)-- there needs to be at least ONE post visible at this address when when you enter it in a web browser.
RSS Feed Address for a Tag/Category/Label Within a Blog*
Sadly our Magic Box is not magical enough to find the address for these kinds of RSS feeds, you will have to do some leg work. Just make triple sure that the URL works and that it generates something that represents the content of your posts (it might look a bunch of code, but you should see the title and content of your posts in it) This should be a DIFFERENT URL than the one above.

Wordpress Blogs (self hosted or Wordpress.com)
Most Wordpress blog feeds are found just by attaching /feed to the url above, e.g. http://iamsocool.wordpress.com/category/connectedcourses/feed or http://iamsocool.wordpress.com/tag/connectedcourses/feed Some self hosted Wordpress blogs have addresses such as http://myselfhostedcoolblog.org/?cat=23 or http://myselfhostedcoolblog.org/?tag=122 in which case you should just add &feed=rss2
Blogger
If you are using a label "cc" on your Blogger site, the RSS Feed address will look like http://hippytrippyteacher.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default/-/cc
tumblr
If you use a "connected" tag in your tumblr site to indicated which posts are related to Connected Courses, your RSS Feed will look like http://moretolifethangifs.tumblr.com/tagged/connected/rss
SquareSpace
If you are using a category "ccourses" you need to append &format=RSS to the URL that shows all the posts in your category, e.g. http:/burnttoast.squarespace.com/butterblog/?category=ccourses&format=RSS
Just Checking
If you entered the same URL for your blog and your RSS feed this will NOT work; the RSS feed URL is always different. Do not guess, ask for help!

You have triple checked that the two URLs you entered work and show content from your blog, correct? Just checking....

Additional Information About You
The Connected Courses organizers are interested in learning more about participants and their interests in this course.
Your Organizational Affiliation
Department or Unit Name (as it applies to you or not)
Your Info Page
Add a link to an official department page, a bio, About.me, LinkedIn Profile, etc- any site you would like to share beyond a blog.
Subjects Taught
If you are a teacher, what subjects do you teach?
Have you taught online before?*
- Yes
- No
What Courses/Topics Have you taught online?
Do you have a course in mind to teach to openly/connectedly?*
- Yes
- No
What course do you plan to teach openly/connectedly?
How did you hear about Connected Courses?
What do you hope to get out of this experience?
Anything Else? Comments? Concerns? Feedback?
Hey! One last time to make sure you entered the correct URLs in the previous section AND that you have at least published ONE thing to your blog!!!

Whew, you made it to the bottom of this long form. Do you have any questions or things we should know?

Join the Syndication Flow

Step 1 of 3

Your Connected Courses Blog

Just Checking

Additional Information About You