What is the Academic Commons?

The Academic Commons is a virtual community of practice (based on the WordPress platform) intended to support digital scholarship and digital citizenship at Georgia Gwinnett College. The Commons is an online environment that allows faculty to collaborate and share their research, scholarship, and teaching successes with their colleagues. The Commons also provides a platform for displaying faculty badges earned through the CTE’s badging initiative, and for establishing a digital identity, allowing faculty to create, maintain, and control their own digital narrative.

What can I do on the Academic Commons?

Plenty. The first thing you should do is update the information on your Profile page and then request a site. Next, you may want to find some people you know and add them as Friends to make it easier to keep up with what they’re doing on the Commons. You can also send messages to other people on the Commons, set up and participate in discussion forums, and create and upload documents. Once you have been notified that your Home page has been set up, you can add a short bio, contact information, and CV, and then write a blog post or two (or add and customize some new pages).

How is the Academic Commons different from Brightspace?

Brightspace is the online learning management system (LMS) for all of the courses offered at GGC. The Academic Commons is a digital hub providing additional opportunities for communication and collaboration with colleagues; please note that the Commons is not intended to serve as a replacement for Brightspace or to host any course content.

How do I log in?

Go to the Commons site (commons.ggc.edu), and click on the “Log In” button on the left hand side of the black bar at the top of the screen; log in with your GGC user ID and password (the same as your email login information).

I’m a student at Georgia Gwinnett College. How do I log in?

At this time, logins are limited to GGC faculty / staff only.

How do I log in if I’m not affiliated with Georgia Gwinnett College?

At this time, logins are limited to GGC faculty / staff only.

I just logged in for the first time. What do I do now?

Once you’ve logged into the Commons, you’ll need to send in a site request so that we know to set up a new site (Home page) for you; once we do that, you can update your personal information and start customizing your site.

How do I request a site?

To request a new site, just fill out this form.

Please be aware that it may take us a day or two to complete your request (or longer, if it’s a particularly busy time of the semester). You will receive an email when your site has been set up.

How do I set up a blog?

Once your site has been set up, you can start writing blog posts on your homepage (or create another page if that makes more sense for what you plan to do with your site).

How do I set up a group?

To request a new group, just fill out this form.

Please be aware that it may take us a day or two to complete your request (or longer, if it’s a particularly busy time of the semester). You will receive an email when your group has been set up.

How do I set up my profile?

For detailed information on accomplishing specific tasks on the Commons, please refer to the Getting Started with GGC’s Academic Commons guide.

How can I find people / blogs on the Commons?

For detailed information on accomplishing specific tasks on the Commons, please refer to the Getting Started with GGC’s Academic Commons guide.

How do I set up a discussion forum / topic?

For detailed information on accomplishing specific tasks on the Commons, please refer to the Getting Started with GGC’s Academic Commons guide.

How can I find workshops / badges on the Commons?

For detailed information on accomplishing specific tasks on the Commons, please refer to the Getting Started with GGC’s Academic Commons guide.

Where are my badges?

Any badges you’ve earned will be listed under the My Earned Badges link on your Profile page.

No, seriously. I earned several badges last semester. Where are they?

Oh, THOSE badges… We’re still running a big behind on the badges that were earned before the setup of the Commons was completed; we are working to get those assigned to you and linked to your profile ASAP.

How do I apply for a badge?

For detailed information on accomplishing specific tasks on the Commons, please refer to the Getting Started with GGC’s Academic Commons guide.

What is WordPress and why do I keep seeing all these links to it on the Academic Commons?

WordPress is a popular and robust open source blogging and website content management system (CMS). The Academic Commons is built on the WordPress platform, allowing us to take advantage of the power, flexibility, ease of use, and authoring tools built into that platform.

How can I get additional help?

For detailed information on accomplishing specific tasks on the Commons, please refer to the Getting Started with GGC’s Academic Commons guide.

If you need further assistance, you can submit a question in the Help Forum or email us at commons@ggc.edu.