Examples/Tips on Creating Student Blogs

[Larry Hackman]

Our communications department is looking to give some voice to our student body and consequently we are creating a blog outlet for a few students to write on. I'm in the process of creating this blog section using Drupal and I'm feeling a little too generic when it comes to the layout and content of the sidebar and such.

So far I've got three page types: the main blog page (which aggregates all of the student blogs), the individual blogger pages, and the individual blog article pages. The main changes that might/could be on those pages would be what resides in a right sidebar. I've decided that we should have at least these items in the sidebar: a blogger profile, article archive, and maybe a "latest activity" block. 

So my question to this esteemed community is: are there any examples of schools that have student bloggers? And does anybody have any tips about what should or should not be included in such a setup? 

Thanks in advance!

[Kraig Etzel]

Best advice I can give - don't clutter the layout. We've been using WordPress and I'm hoping we get a locally hosted version soon so I can use plugins to solve some of that problem. Highlighting the bloggers themselves and the most recent post for each might be your best bet.

[Bradjward]

I'll be giving some advice on student bloggers tomorrow as a part of the free eRecruitment Forum! Not quite about design, etc. but some different ideas for not just having "another student blogger program."

http://www.erecruitmentforum.com/reg.html

[Larry Hackman]

I checked out your video, good concepts and ideas. Thanks!

[Brad Morse]

Here is how I may create such a section for showcasing our students, which looks like you have a good idea of what needs to be done

I would create a colorful/friendly landing page, w/ a picture of each student, w/ their name major, anticipated graduation year, and the title of their latest post, postmarked.

Then a link to their bio, which will also show the three most recent posts, w/ a 200+ character summary, w/ the 5-10 most recent posts on the left or right column.

Maybe include a video of each student and maybe include a link to their facebook, possibly a facebook that is their "school facebook" account and not their personal. Also include RSS feeds, not that many potential students are using RSS readers, but its nice to include it, and maybe include the blogs on a facebook fan page and display the most recent posts on the current, future student sections of the websites.

Also, maybe include a photo gallery so each student can include photos.

Are you unsure if Drupal can provide such functionality easily? If so, let me know, I can help you get this done.

Hope some of this helped.

[Larry Hackman]

I am a little new to Drupal and I'm getting the hang of Views and Blocks and whatnot. I think I should be able to create a block using views of "recent posts" but if I run into difficulty I may take you up on your offer of help.

A question about Drupal: if I'm not mistaken, RSS feeds are automatically created for every user, right? That may be sufficient enough for me.

I'm hoping to have a blog space up within the next few weeks so maybe I can show the end results of all these tips.

[Larry Hackman]

Agreed on the thanks! These have all been useful answers!