Challenge #5: Sites 2.0

Welcome to your fifth challenge!  We’re focusing on sites for a little bit longer.

To complete this challenge, you will need to add content to your site.

Tips

Because of the nature of this challenge, there are no specific guidelines that I can provide to you. You should feel free to add whatever content you think is best suited to your site. However, I do have a few tips to help make this process as stress-free as possible…

• Focus on the genre! In our last challenge, you decided on a genre for your site. Consider what type of content best suits the purpose of your site.
• Pace yourself! Most likely, you aren’t going to be able to include all of the content you want to add in these two weeks. Ideally, the site will become something that you continue to grow beyond this summer. That being said, don’t feel like you need to add a ton of content to the site right now. Instead, try to decide what you might want to add in order to make it presentable to potential visitors. What are some important details and information that you’d like to include? For example, I’m creating a site for a course that I will be teaching in the fall. Because it’s my first time teaching this class, I don’t expect (nor would I want) to quickly come up with an entire syllabus in two weeks. However, I do think that I can post a mini-blurb about the class, and a few reading excerpts that I know I want to teach.
• Plan for the future! This tip is related to the last. You should reflect on how often you expect to update your site in the future. Whatever plan you make will likely also depend upon the genre of your site. In order to better insure that you will succeed in your expectations, you might want to make a rough plan for a schedule or frequency of updates/posts. This will help you to continue managing your site into the future.
• Find inspiration! Not sure what to add to your site? Review some of the exemplary sites we shared for Challenge #4 or check out some of the sites being created by your fellow campers for inspiration. For example, as a result of looking through others’ sites, I decided that I’d like to add a page on my teaching experience to my personal site. This is something I might not have considered had I not looked at these other great examples.
• Feel free to change! As you add content, you may notice that the theme of your site doesn’t seem to fit anymore. You can change your site’s theme (as well as its colors, header image, menu, etc.) as much as you want.

Share your completed challenge

Once you’ve completed this challenge, share a link to your site with the group, we want to see your brilliant creations! Tell the group about your challenges and discoveries, as well as your plans for your site.

If you’re on Twitter, please share that you’ve completed the fifth challenge using our #HCSummerCamper hashtag. You should also share your site on social media, especially now that it has content!

I look forward to hearing your experiences and checking out your sites!

If you have any questions or if you run into any issues as you complete this challenge, fear not! Your camp director is here to help. Reach out to the Humanities Commons Summer Camp through any of the following contacts:

Humanities Commons: Post your question/concern as a new discussion thread in our HC Group.

Twitter: @humcommons

Email: CDuffy@mla.org or hello@hcommons.org