Carleton provides students with a premium WordPress plan that gives you options on how to start. WordPress provides a lot of choices and may appear complex; we offer support through just-in-time resources and regularly offered workshops. Carleton’s name for our instance of the platform is Carlsites. Students will be able to keep their WordPress site for two years after graduation; the college will communicate about options both at graduation and at the end of the two years.
All Carleton students also have access to a license of Adobe Express. The website design option through Adobe Express is also supported through the college, but the site will not be available through Carleton for two years after graduation.
Other website platforms offer free or paid plans to create a website using little to no code. Some options include Wix (which recently also added AI functionality), Weebly, Substacks, Github, or Google Sites, to name just a few (you have access to Google Sites through your Carleton account; note that you will lose access to your Carleton Google Sites after graduation). If you choose any of these solutions, you will need to rely on non-Carleton support, probably from the product itself (check out Linkedin Learning as their catalog of instructional materials may contain something about the platform you want to use).
Help Resources at Carleton
- Videos
- Requesting your ePortfolio Site in CarlSites
- Getting Started with WordPress
- WordPress Settings
- EPortfolio Templates
- For asynchronous in-depth help, check out this curated Linkedin Learning Path guiding you through a series of short videos focused on WordPress features.
- Ticket
- If you’re having technical difficulties with your CarlSite, consider submitting a Website Issue ticket type.
- Fill out the subject and description
- Under Website Request Type, select “Academic website request (CarlSites)”
- Under CarlSite App Options, select one of the options or “Other.” These tickets go straight to our Academic Technologists.
- Otherwise, you can contact the Helpdesk with the URL of your site, and they will transfer the ticket to the AT team.
- If you’re having technical difficulties with your CarlSite, consider submitting a Website Issue ticket type.
- Workshops and Linkedin Learning Path
- Watch out for WordPress workshops and other future WordPress events! You can also ask for Website design help from the Digital Humanities tutors (Fall’23 Tuesday and Wednesday 7-9pm in the East Wing of the Gould Library) or our Academic Technologists.
- For asynchronous in-depth help, check out this curated Linkedin Learning Path guiding you through a series of short videos focused on WordPress features.
How do I request a Carleton-supported website, a Carlsite?
Go to https://sites.carleton.edu/request-form/ and click Request Service.
After logging in with your Carleton Single Sign-on, fill in the required information on the form.
Add your supervisor for Optional Alternate Contact(s) if necessary.
Add Personal E-portfolio for Subject.
If you would like, describe any specific requirements you have for your website in the Description. In particular, request instructions on how to make your website private as CarlSites are by default public.
For Website Request Type, click New WordPress site/page request.
Wait for your ticket to be approved within 2 business days and then you should receive an email with your administrator username and password (make sure to check your spam folder). Finally, explore your new website!
What do I need to consider when choosing a template?
If you have previous web development experience, starting from scratch may be the way for you for greatest creative freedom. If you are not sure of your web development skills, check out the options for templates and decide which of these right now looks appealing. The template guides the look and feel of the site, including the color scheme, navigation menu, and default fonts. You can change the theme without losing content at any time during your design process. Note that we have at least one eportfolio template available for you to apply to your site.
Before and during your design process, please think about
- The purpose of the site
- Your main audience of the site
Continued Work/Maintenance of the Site
Your personal site, especially if you are starting this early in your Carleton career, can benefit from regular revision and updating. Consider setting a recurring calendar event or a reminder in your favorite Reminder app.
- Read the emails from CarlSites.
- Review your links and pages annually – do all the files you linked to still link to the places you want? Is the content still accurate?
- Review your plugins regularly – do any of the plugins need to be updated? And if so, do they still work after the update?
- Grow your personal website – you are learning new skills at Carleton – what would you like to change about the site? Who can help with feedback at this point?
- Back up your site – WordPress does this automatically!
You can keep your site for 2 years after your graduation from Carleton (if you want to). This means that you need to think carefully about where you will keep the content that you do not want to add to your WordPress site. For example, if you want to publish a video or a high-definition image, remember that the size of these files can be significant. Maybe your Carleton Google Drive is the best spot, but remember that you will lose access to this Drive a couple of months after graduation. So maybe a personal Google Drive will work better.