1. Using the Edublogs signup page – free Edublogs Blogs
2. Using the Blog & User Creator – Edublogs Pro and Edublogs Campus blogs only

If you are a free Edublogs blog user you need to follow the instructions on this page to create your student blogs.

Step 1: Create the blogs

Go to the Edublogs signup page ( http://edublogs.org/signup/) and either:

1. Create the blogs attached to your username – Follow the instructions for Creating new blogs for your own use
2. Or organise your students to create their own blog  – Get your students to follow instructions for Signing up for your blog

Step 2: Add The Second User to The Blog

Most educators add themselves as administrator on student blogs so if required they can access the blogs, at any time, to edit any posts or comments.

This means on each student blog you will have:

1. A student user – who may be assigned the role of a contributor, author, editor or administrator depending on the tasks you want the student responsible for
2. Yourself - assigned the role of an administrator

Once the blogs are created you add yourself as co administrator by either:

1. Adding your student as a user to the blog
2. Or getting your students to add you to their blog as administrator

TIP: Remember if your students don’t have email addresses you can use Gmail method.

Using the Add New Screen

The second user is added to the blog using the  Add New Screen.  This screen is designed so that you can either:

• Add an existing user on Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site) to the blog
• Create a username for a person who isn’t already a member of the Edublogs.org (or the Edublogs Campus site) and at the same time add that new user to the blog

1.  Go to Users > Add New in the blog’s Dashboard

2.  For an existing user add their username, the email address attached to that username, select their role and click Add User

• Tip: You will see a message saying ‘Sorry, that email address is already used!’  or ‘Sorry, that username already exists!’  if you enter the incorrect combination of username or email address

For a new user, add a suitable username, their email address, select their role and click Add User.

Tips:

• For both existing and new users they will be sent an invitation email and they must click the confirmation link before they’re added as a user to the blog. This email normally arrives within 30 minutes.
• New users have 48 hours to click on the link in the email to activate  their account otherwise you will need to reset up their account.
• Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block these activation emails. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.
• Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in the username
• The username is what they use to sign into the blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments they write. You can’t change a username,  however you can change what name is displayed.
• It won’t allow you to create several usernames with the same email address because the system resets password based on email address. But you can trick it using the gmail+ method
• Existing users are sent a joining confirmation email

• New users are sent a blog invite email

• Once a new users clicks the link in the blog invite email they will be sent an email with their username, their password and a login link
• After users have confirmed the invite they will be listed as users on the blog’s Authors and Users screen and only be able to access features in blog’s administration panel based on the role you’ve assigned them.

If you only want your students to comment on posts you don’t need to create usernames for them or add them as users to the blog unless your blog is private.  They just need to add their name and email address when they write their comments.

There are no restrictions on the number of users you can add to a blog.

There are two ways to add users to a blog:

1. Users > Add New
2. Users > Blog & User Creator – Edublogs Pro & Edublogs Campus only

The Blog & User Creator is the best option because:

1. Users are automatically added immediately to the blog
2. It’s designed to bulk add users to blogs
3. Includes an option to preset new user’s passwords

Adding Users using the Blog & User Creator

The Blog & User Creator is designed to bulk add users to blogs and is the fastest way of adding new users to your blog.  Click on Add more button at the bottom of the page if you want to add more than 5 users in a batch.

If you want to add users to your blog and create blogs at the same time then you use the Create blog option in the Blog & User Creator.

Adding a new user

1.  Go to Users > Blog & User Creator 

2.  Click on the Add New Users tab

3.  Add suitable usernames.

• Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in the username
• The username is what they use to sign into the blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments they write. You can’t change a username,  however you can change what name is displayed.
• If you are creating a new username and see ‘Sorry, that username already exists!’ it means you need to use a more unique username.  Remember there is over 1,000,000 users in Edublogs.org.  A simple solution for students is to use a combination of their first name, school initials and their room or year.

4.  Add their email address

• You can’t create several usernames with the same email address because the system resets password based on email address. But you can trick it using the gmail+ method
• Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block these activation emails. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.

5.  Add their password

• leave this blank if you want to let the system automatically create the password

6.  Select their role (learn more about user role’s here)

7.   Click Submit to create and add them to your blog.

8.  Your users are now automatically added to your blog and will be listed on Users > All Users.   They’ll receive an email with their login details.

Adding an Existing user

1.  Go to Users > Blog & User Creator 

2.  Click on the Add Existing Users tab

3.  Add their existing usernames or the email addresses attached to their usernames

4.  Select their roles (learn more about user role’s here)

5.  Click Submit

6.  Your users are now automatically added to your blog and will be listed on Users > All Users.   They’ll receive an email  letting them know they have been added to the blog.   The email won’t contain a password as they log in with their existing username and password.

Users > Add New is designed to add a new or existing user to a blog, one at a  time.  Users must click on the confirmation link in the invitation email before they are added to the blog.

Please Note:

• On Edublogs Pro & Edublogs Campus you should use the Blog & User Creator
• Users will be sent an invitation email and they must click the confirmation link before they’re added as a user to the blog. This email normally arrives within 30 minutes.
• New users have 48 hours to click on the link in the email to activate  their account otherwise you will need to reset up their account.  You won’t be able to reset up their account until the system releases their details after the 48 hours.
• Spam filters, especially strict ones for institutional email addresses, often block these activation emails. If unsure use free webmail accounts such as gmail, hotmail that don’t block these invitation emails.

Adding a new user

For a new user you just need to:

1.  Go to Users > Add New

2.  Add a suitable username

• Use only lowercase letters and numbers, with no spaces, in the username
• The username is what they use to sign into the blog dashboard and is displayed on posts and comments they write. You can’t change a username,  however you can change what name is displayed.
• If you are creating a new username and see ‘Sorry, that username already exists!’ it means you need to use a more unique username.  Remember there is over 1,000,000 users in Edublogs.org.  A simple solution for students is to use a combination of their first name, school initials and their room or year.

3.  Add  their email address

• You can’t create several usernames with the same email address because the system resets password based on email address. But you can trick it using the gmail+ method

4.  Select their role (learn more about user role’s here)

5.  Click Add User

6.  Your new user will receive an email and they just need to click on the confirmation email to be added to the blog.

Adding an Existing user

For an existing user you just need:

1.  Go to Users > Add New

2.  Add their username or the email address attached to their username

3.  Select their role (learn more about user role’s here)

4.  Click Add User

5.  Your new user will receive an email and they just need to click on the confirmation email to be added to the blog.