The focus of blog.torontomu.ca is to provide a space where blogging for course activities can take place. We are happy to extend this service for other professional and research uses at the university.
blog.torontomu.ca is open to university staff and faculty for teaching and learning use. Students are welcome to request blogs for completing course assignments and activities. We do not require that students get permission from their instructor in order to submit a request for a course blog, although we do recommend clearing it with your instructor first.
These blogs must be related to your work or study at the university and are not available for personal nor commercial use.
All non-course blog sites must be actively maintained and updated, and will be archived if they are inactive for more than a semester.
On this page:
- Limitations of blog.torontomu.ca
- Blog request form
- How long can I keep my blog?
- Course Blogs: Details to include in your syllabus
Limitations of blog.torontomu.ca
Access to blog.torontomu.ca is provided on an as-is basis. If your site requires special plugins, themes or code, it may be best to look into hosting your own WordPress site (where you have more control over its features).
Note that all features of blog.torontomu.ca are subject to change, as the WordPress application and available plugins and themes may be modified by their respective developers. We will do our best to maintain the features you rely on, but this may not be within our control.
Space is limited on blog.torontomu.ca. All blogs begin with 200 MB of space, which may be upgraded to 500 MB by request, provided you have taken steps to ensure only web-appropriate content is hosted on your site.
Blog Request Form
To get a blog on our system, you will have to submit a request form. You will be contacted by email once your blog has been set up.
*Please Note: we can only add user accounts to the system, so we cannot add a group email username as a user to your blog.
If this blog is for a course, the blog prefix will be based on the course code and term. Blog prefix selection is not available for course blogs.
Can’t access the blog request form? You may be logged into your personal Gmail account. To access the form: logout of your personal Gmail account; or use a different browser you typically don’t use for Gmail.
You will be prompted to login using your university login.
How long can I keep my blog?
Course Blogs will be archived once the course has ended, but will remain on the system for 1 year after the end of the term. After this time, they will be permanently deleted, without notice. This timeline is in line with TMU’s course retention policies.
All other blogs must be renewed every two years. Each blog owner will be contacted to renew their blog, or allow it to be retired.
Course Blog Archiving Schedule
- Winter term blogs – archiving begins in June.
- Spring/Summer term blogs – archiving begins in October.
- Fall term blogs – archiving begins in February.
Course Blogs: details to include in your syllabus
There are a few things that you will need to include in your course syllabus, if you plan to use a blog for your course.
Don’t assume that the students fully understand the implications of posting to the course blog — it needs to be expressly stated in the syllabus.
Here are a few items to include in that statement:
- Who will be able to see the posts? (Just the Instructor/TA? The whole class? The public?)
- How long will the content be available? By default, course blogs are archived soon after the term has completed. If you need the blog to exist for longer than the term, you need to include that information in your course syllabus AND in your initial blog request.
- Will the content be used in any other context? The assumption is that this content will only be viewed in this blog for the purpose of completing course activities. If you intend to copy the content elsewhere or use it in another format, you must include the information in the syllabus.
- Students may opt out. While you don’t have to list the alternatives in the syllabus, it is important to let the students know that they can come to you if they are not comfortable having their work posted to the blog. Be sure to include a quick note to that effect in the syllabus.
What if these things were not included in the syllabus?
The assumption is that student work is only visible in this blog website, to the instructor, and will only be accessed during the term, unless otherwise stated in the syllabus.
If you later want to make the blog (and the students’ work) public, keep it available past the end of term, or use the work in another context, you will require written consent from each student.