VIUBlogs is a multisite WordPress installation offered and supported by the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning at Vancouver Island University. WordPress blogs can be used by current employees and students to design and develop standalone websites, blogs and portfolios that contribute to teaching and learning at VIU.
The following guidelines explain how we support VIUBlogs and the expectations for how employees and students will use this platform. If you have any questions about these guidelines or using VIUBlogs, please contact us at learnsupport@viu.ca.
User Guidelines
- All VIUBlogs users must abide by all local, provincial, and federal laws (including copyright and intellectual property law) as well as VIU’s Use of Information Technology Policy and all other relevant VIU policies.
- VIU students must also abide by the Student Academic Code of Conduct Policy, and Student Code of Conduct Policy
- VIUBlogs sites may not be used for commercial purposes or for the benefit of organizations not directly affiliated with the University.
- Official, department, program and promotional content for VIU should be located on the VIU website rather than VIUBlogs. Please contact ithelp@viu.ca to request a VIU website.
- Content that is found to violate these guidelines, VIU policies, or local, provincial or federal law may be removed or unpublished without notice.
Support
- Staff in the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning (CIEL) provide basic orientation to using WordPress and technical support for accessing the platform and core functionality. To request support, email learnsupport@viu.ca
- CIEL will carry out annual site removals in accordance to the guidelines below to minimize the number of inactive or abandoned sites on the blogs network.
Site Retention & Removal
- It is the responsibility of site administrators to either transfer ownership of their site or export their site content and move it to a new host platform upon leaving the university. Steps for how to export your VIUBlogs site can be found on CIEL’s website.
- VIUBlogs sites belonging to current employees or students will remain on VIUBlogs for as long as the site continues to be actively maintained.
- Sites that are not maintained and sites which do not have an active VIU employee or student listed as an administrator will be removed once each year in July.
- A site is considered no longer maintained if the site has not been updated in more than one year. Student-administered sites will be retained for at least one academic year after the last update to the site.
Themes & Plugins
- VIUBlogs offers a limited number of themes and plugins for styling and adding functionality to your site. Themes and plugins that present security concerns or which are no longer maintained by their developer will be removed from VIUBlogs.
- CIEL staff will attempt to contact administrators of blogs which will lose functionality or need to choose a new theme using the email address registered in VIUBlogs. If there is no administrator email attached to your site, you will not be notified of theme or plugin removal.
If there is a functionality or theme you want for your site that is not currently available, suggestions for new plugins or themes can be sent to learnsupport@viu.ca. CIEL staff will evaluate the request for compatibility, security, and privacy and make a determination about whether we can add a theme or plugin after that evaluation.