The Academic Commons of The City University of New York is designed to support faculty initiatives and build community through the use(s) of technology in teaching and learning via the free exchange of knowledge among colleagues across the university.
Creating a site on the CUNY Academic Commons starts with picking a template. Unless this is a site for teaching or an academic portfolio, the default template will be the best option. Multiple "themes" are available that will determine the site's appearance. Various themes allow various levels of customization; all of them are user-friendly and intuitive.
Most templates will offer two entry formats, a post and a page, which is a more static type of entry. Your homepage may be a static page (if you assign this role to one of your pages) or a dynamic display of your most recent posts.
The Commons has various widgets and over 300 plugins that extend the functionality of the platform, e.g., video, audio, and PDF embedders, visualization tools, broken links checker, etc.
Detailed instructions on how to start and manage your sites are provided in this WordPress Basics document.
The Commons staff provides support via email and via evolving documentation on the Help page.
The Commons, and the underlying WordPress framework that runs the platform, adheres to W3C accessibility standards. The Commons team completes regular audits to ensure that the platform is in line with the best practices laid out in W3C’s Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. This means that all Commons’ pages, groups, and directories comply with these standards.
