Using NUS Module Blogs

In a first for NUS Module Blogs, students of LSM1303 Animal Behaviour are posting their assignments to a student blog. They have flooded the home page with their posts, highlighting the peculiar, wondrous and sometimes human-like behaviour of our animal friends.

The students' brief is to highlight interesting content about animal behaviour in a lively manner, suitable for the person-on-the-street. This can be a challenge as the students have to get the attention of the readers without dumbing down or distorting facts.

Get wild at the LSM1303 students' blog.

Most of the numbers in November are similar to the previous month.

Statistics for October | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January.

Technorati Tags: nus module blogs, module blogs, metrics, statistics, nus, national university of singapore

This month marks the first time Using Module Blogs is not the most viewed blog of the month. This is a good thing! Top spot is taken by the Advanced Translation blog. As the blog is currently inactive, it must be being used as a resource, which is in line with the spirit of these blogs.

This month also marks a departure from the usual trend of more posts equating to more views. This is slightly unusual as recent posts tend to get more attention. Could this be a Long Tail effect?

Statistics for September | September | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January.

Technorati Tags: nus module blogs, module blogs, metrics, statistics, nus, national university of singapore

If you do not want to use the online interface to blog, you might want to consider blogging using a desktop blogging client or desktop blogging software.

Why would you want to do this? Using a desktop client offers several advantages:

1. If you manage multiple blogs on different platforms, a desktop client allows you to manage everything from a single place.
2. Posting to blogs from a desktop client is generally faster.
3. Cross-posting content to several blogs is easier.
4. You won't lose a draft in progress due to an accidentally closed window/tab or sudden loss of connection.
   
5. You can save offline drafts and publish whenever you have internet access.
6. Some clients allow post backups.
   

The catch? A lot of the better desktop blogging clients are not free. Still, there are edubloggers like Siva who cannot live without it!

A few desktop blogging clients
Ecto Mac/Win
MarsEdit Mac
Qumana Mac/Win (Free)
w.bloggar Win (Free)

Using the Ecology and Environmental Processes module blog as an example, I've illustrated the settings which will work for MarsEdit. Replace the Name, Home URL and Blog ID to match your module blog, if you want to try this out. As preferences in desktop blogging clients are described differently, you'll have to use a variation of the settings below for the other software listed above.

Settings (MarsEdit)
Name Ecology and Environmental Processes
Home URL http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/blogs/lsm3251/default.aspx
Software Other Metaweblog-compatible
RPC URL http://moduleblog.nus.edu.sg/blogs/metablog.ashx
Blog ID lsm3251

Statistics for September | October | August | July | June | May | April | March | February | January.

Technorati Tags: nus module blogs, module blogs, metrics, statistics, nus, national university of singapore