Scholarblogs, where faculty can showcase their work, host discussions and share information, are now available through the Emory Center for Interactive Teaching (ECIT).

"WordPress is an open source blog tool that is easy to use and customize," says Chris Fearrington, ECIT coordinator.  "An Emory-supported instance of WordPress is available for those who intend to use it in their teaching and research."

The format offers all faculty members a digital place to feature their research, books and articles and to be part of an academic social network.  

It also provides a way for scholars to control their online image.

"The best way to control your online image is to have your own website," says Stewart Varner, director of the Digital Scholarship Commons. "And the really best way is to have your own website with emory.edu" because Google logarithms give university-hosted websites more visibility.

Scholarblogs, which are free, offer a platform for public and private blogs and web pages capable of displaying text, images and video. Users can apply themes to customize their blogs and utilize select plugins that provide additional functionality.  

They are connected to the Emory user name and password system, the same information used to log into everything else.

Emory's scholarblogs live on a web server run by University Technology Services. If a scholarblogger leaves Emory, he or she can download the whole website, save it, then upload it to a new location, notes Varner.  

Emory also offers blogs.emory.edu. The difference, explains Fearrington, is that "scholarblogs are more for teaching and research only, where blogs.emory.edu is also in WordPress but is more controlled."  

To request a scholarblog, fill out a request form or contact ECIT Director Wayne Morse wayne.morse@emory.edu. ECIT provides training and support.