What is it?

CarlSites (formerly known as Domain of One’s Own) is a service for students, faculty, and staff to create a digital presence through the use of academic websites. With CarlSites, our college community can think critically of their individual digital identities and web literacy while providing another form for excellence in learning, teaching and scholarship. In addition to developing digital skills, CarlSites can offer an additional space for innovation, collaboration, and creativity.

Not sure if CarlSites is the right tool for your website? Please consult the Carleton Website/Content Governance Guidelines, where various website types are broken down by level of responsibility, support and branding requirements. This guideline also includes a section about Websites for Faculty, Research Labs, Courses, and Projects.

Once you have decided to work in CarlSites, you have the additional option of choosing which web application best fits your needs. Below are just a few examples of the types of applications available in CarlSites.

Popular Applications

WordPress

WordPress is a web-publishing and content management system (CMS) originally developed to create and host blogs, and it has now evolved into the most popular full-featured website design platform. This application has the ability to host anything from small individual blogs to the enterprise-level institutional websites world-wide. WordPress is one the most popular applications due to its user-friendly interface and in-depth customization. In fact, our official Carleton College website is hosted by WordPress. 

Omeka

Omeka is an online system that provides the structure and tools to build a website specifically focused on publishing large collections of data. Some examples include digital versions of physical items, online repositories of student work, or exhibitions of cultural heritage objects. Omeka uses the Dublin Core metadata standard for the description of digital items. This application is used by many small museums and historical societies.

Why is CarlSites useful?

CarlSites offers you a little piece of the internet that you can call your own. Some examples include, but are not limited to, building an ePortfolio, blogging about an international experience, curating a collection of digital objects, showcasing a long-term project, or advocating an organization or club. CarlSites can also complement traditional assignments through the lens of writing for the web. Below are use cases for our most popular applications.

WordPress

  • Add an element of creativity when integrating video, audio and images to posts. The inclusion and curation of different media helps develop an increased level of digital and information literacy.
  • Publish and promote your work to an audience beyond the class or college community. Invested in your content creation, in particular writing, can create a more authentic experience for the writer and the reader.
  • Create a sense of community as others read and comment on posts, and encourage asynchronous interaction when working with multiple editors of a website.

Omeka

  • Engage in the practices of public history and archival science by working through the process of conducting and reporting research, creating all aspects of a research-driven website
  • Share primary source collections, publish a series of essays, and collaborate with others in the creation of digital scholarship.
  • Build collections and online exhibits to accompany or enhance physical exhibits.

How Do I Use CarlSites at Carleton?

You can request a website in CarlSites by completing this interest form. The Academic Technology team is available for consultation and support as you begin planning, designing, and organizing online content that aligns with your research and pedagogical goals. Have questions? Submit a ticket by emailing at@carleton.edu or contact Em Palencia for more information.

Teaching Tips

  • Focus on the content, not the technology. Students should be aware of the purpose of their assignments before posting in any online forum. Additionally, students find it easier to publish their work on the web once their work has been curated offline
  • If you do not want to share your or your students’ work to the world wide web, you can add a layer of privacy to your website. Please contact Em Palencia for more information.
  • Communicate clear expectations: clear, concise learning goals and measurable outcomes help provide scaffolding for student academic growth
  • Build community – a shared sense of purpose can help students become invested in their content.

Examples from Carleton

Urgent CARE

Need a quick example or description of how one of our tools can be viewed through CARE?

Not sure what CARE is? Please see this blog post on CARE for more information.

Community: Build a website to share and showcase classroom work to foster a sense of classroom pride, or build connections between your projects with the outside world.

Agency: To complete an assignment, students may be able to present a poster, or build a website with WordPress to display their knowledge and enthusiasm for a topic.

Representation: The sites you build can display works from a diverse range of backgrounds in your field, create a space for anonymous engagement for those who might hesitate to speak up in class due to fear of conforming stereotypes, communicate high standards for all students and that you believe in every student’s ability to meet these standards, and/or even create a space to educate about stereotype threat, and include resources and strategies for recognizing it and resisting its influence.

Equal Access: Sites can sometimes be more accessible to online translation software, providing the opportunity for your information to be translated and made available in many languages so that more people can easily engage with your materials.

Want to help others out with CARE strategies and CarlSites – WordPress and Omeka? Please enter your strategies in the Poll Everywhere section below. As a reminder regarding personal or sensitive information, these will be available to those who visit this site. General content moderation may be on, so your shared strategy responses may be delayed.