Wix
What it is
Wix is a website-building platform. While it’s much more robust than needed for an educational setting (e.g., businesses use it to sell products), it’s an easy-to-use free website-builder. (There are other website creation platforms, like WordPress and Squarespace, but the ODL recommends Wix because of its ease-of-use for first-time website builders).
How to access it
Wix can be accessed at wix.com. Once you create and publish a website, there will be a url associated with your site. (Unless you pay for a specific domain, the site will be hosted on wix.com).
Teaching ideas
Idea 1: final assignment
Give students a variety of multimodal options for their summative assessment, including the option to create a website showcasing their knowledge about a certain topic. This could be done individually or collaboratively as a group. Students would need to be given the option to post any work online that would be visible by the public, since any public access to their work could violate FERPA.
Idea 2: class-wide project
Have the entire class work together to build a website about your class topic. This can be a great way to include an authentic assignment in your class, that is, an assignment that connects the material to real audiences. This helps deepen learning, motivate students, and show that students can communicate knowledge to others. Students would need to be given the option to post any work online that would be visible by the public, since any public access to their work could violate FERPA. They could always add to the site anonymously or find an alternative way to participate if they do not want to have their work be public facing.