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.
Frontend Editor
This sub-chapter is broken down into several chapters;
Accessing the Frontend Editor
To access the frontend editor, you’ll first need to access your learning log homepage, as outlined in steps 1 and 2a of the Accessing and Linking your Learning Log sub-chapter.
Upon accessing your learning log homepage, you’ll then need to select the ‘Create Post’ option. For those using any of the Level 1, 2 or 3 templates, including the HE4/5/6 (Level 1/2/3) 21/22 template, this option is located at the bottom of the left most column. Depending on your choice of template, the location of this option may vary, but is often found towards the bottom of the page.
Using the Frontend Editor
Accessing the front end editor, you'll then find a form which you can then use to begin constructing your blog post.
Each of the fields available on the frontend editor have been outlined below, and mandatory fields have been marked with an asterisk (*);
*Title: Title of your blog post.
*Category: The category most relevant to your blog post, for example, ‘Assignment’. Selecting a sub-category, such as ‘Assignment 1’, will also apply any parent categories, in this example ‘Assignments’. Selecting a category allows users, including your tutor, to quickly find relevant blog posts using your menu. By using the frontend editor, you're limited to selecting a single category, with any parent categories automatically applied.
*Post Text: The contents of your blog post, limited to text and images.
Featured Image: An image displayed prior to accessing and above the contents of your blog post.
Excerpt: A short extract or description of your blog post.
Tags: Searchable terms used to find relevant blog posts, such as an artist’s name.
Upon completing your blog post, you’ll need to select either the ‘Create Post’ - which will save and publish your blog post - or ‘Save Draft’ - which will save the contents but not publish the post - options. Navigating away from the page without selecting either option will cause the contents of your post to be lost and unrecoverable.
Editing Published Blog Posts
To later access a published or draft blog post using the frontend editor, you’ll need to select the ‘Editor Dashboard’ option - as highlighted in the screenshot below - located beneath the aforementioned ‘Create Post’ option.
Upon accessing the Editor Dashboard, you’ll then find a list of your blog posts, although this is typically limited to the posts initially created using the frontend editor and doesn’t include those created using the Gutenberg editor.
From the Editor Dashboard, you can subsequently edit a blog post by selecting the ‘Edit’ option, or delete the post by selecting the ‘Delete’ option.
Additionally and unlike the Gutenberg editor, it should be noted that the frontend editor doesn’t have versioning or revisions, and upon deleting a post it cannot be recovered.