OCA Spaces Support & Guidance
This activity contains support and guidance regarding the use of OCA Spaces, including how to access and sign in, creating a new learning log and subsequent blog posts, to more intermediate and advanced features available.
Categories & Menu
“Categories” are defined as the options for which you can categorise your blog post against, such as an ‘Assignment’. Categorising your blog posts helps ensure that those accessing your learning log, and particularly your tutor, are able to quickly find applicable blog posts.
“Menu” is defined as the list of options available to an end user, such as your tutor, and are used to navigate your learning log, such as by listing the categories available.
It should be noted that the categories and your menu are not linked, and any changes made to either often need to be manually replicated to the other.
Categories
To view, create or delete a category(s), first access the WordPress Dashboard, and select ‘Posts’ - located in the left hand menu - followed by ‘Categories’. If the ‘Categories’ option isn’t available, please contact the TEL Team.
Upon selecting the ‘Categories’ option, you’ll find a list of existing categories, which will differ depending on your choice of template, and can be amended accordingly.
Create new category
To create a new category, complete the options available beneath ‘Add New Category’ heading to create.
When creating a new or amending an existing category, the options available are outlined below;
- *Name: The name of the category.
- Slug: The URL extension, for example, spaces.oca.ac.uk/[SiteName]/[Slug]. This can often be left blank and by default will replicate the name.
- Parent Category: Select a parent category if applicable.
- Description: Provide a description of the category, although not essential, and some themes also do not display the description and may therefore be wasteful.
Fields marked with an asterisk (*) are mandatory.
Menu
In the event you’ve made changes to your categories, and more specifically created a new category(s), you’ll need to amend your menu to include them. Actions such as amending or deleting categories are automatically reflected on your menu, providing they’re already available on your menu.
To access and amend your menu, first access the WordPress Dashboard, and select ‘Appearance’ - located in the left hand menu - followed by ‘Menus’. Again, if the ‘Menus’ option isn’t available, please contact the TEL Team.
Ensuring the ‘OCA Primary Nav’ menu is selected, you can then use the ‘Add Menu Items’ heading and specifically the ‘Categories’ dropdown menu to add new categories. Once added, items beneath the ‘Menu Structure’ heading can be rearranged by dragging and dropping them where applicable. A hierarchy can also be created by intending an item to the right.
Once complete, any changes can be saved by selecting the blue ‘Save Menu’ option.