blogs.ed.ac.uk

blogs.ed is the University of Edinburgh's academic blogging service for staff and students. According to the service's own site, qualifying University members can create their own blog instantly, and existing bloggers log in using EASE, the University's authentication system. The platform currently hosts 9,652 blogs and 12,358 users, so it is a shared, well-established service rather than a personal or external hosting option.

Who can use blogs.ed

The key condition is University membership. The site states that "qualifying University members can create their own blog instantly," which means the service is tied to University of Edinburgh affiliation rather than being open to the general public. The exact scope of "qualifying" is not spelled out on the page, so if you are unsure whether your status counts (for example, a visiting researcher or a recently graduated student), confirm with the service before planning a blog there.

The service is described as "Staff and student blogs for our connected learning community," which confirms its intended audience: University staff and students using blogging for teaching, learning, research, and reflection. The recent posts illustrate this range—from a doctoral supervision teaching theme to a student's notes on learning Python libraries to an international student's reflections on settling in Edinburgh.

How existing users log in

If you already have a blog on the service, the login route is straightforward:

1. Go to blogs.ed.ac.uk.
2. Choose the login option for existing blogs.
3. Authenticate with your EASE credentials.

EASE is the University's central sign-in system, so you use the same university account you would for other central services. There is no separate blogs.ed password to manage.

Creating a new blog

For eligible members, the site advertises instant creation: "Qualifying University members can create their own blog instantly." The homepage provides a "Create a blog" entry point. Because the service runs on WordPress, expect the standard WordPress setup flow once your blog is provisioned—choosing a title, address, and visibility settings.

Support and community

The service does not leave users to figure out WordPress alone. The site offers a "Get help" section covering creating or updating a blog and learning WordPress more generally. It also points to two channels for staying in touch: a public Microsoft Teams team and a mailing list for news and announcements about the Academic Blogging Service.

What to keep in mind

• Views are the author's own. The site notes that views expressed in hosted media belong to the contributors and are not endorsed by the University. If you are blogging in an official capacity, that distinction matters.
• It is a shared network. With thousands of blogs and users, you are publishing within a University community space, not on a private island. The "View all public blogs" and network-wide search options reflect that.
• WordPress knowledge helps. Since the platform is WordPress-based, familiarity with WordPress will make setup and maintenance easier; the help resources are there if you are new to it.

In short: if you are a qualifying University of Edinburgh member, you can set up a blog immediately and sign in later via EASE; if you are outside the University, this is not the platform for you.

No. According to the disclaimer on blogs.ed, any views expressed in media hosted on the service belong to the contributors. They should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and they do not necessarily reflect the University's views on any particular issue. This applies across the network of staff and student blogs, so a post on blogs.ed is a personal or project-level contribution, not an official University position.

What the disclaimer covers

The statement on the blogs.ed homepage sets out three limits on how posts should be read:

• Ownership of views: the views are those of the contributors who wrote or produced the content.
• No endorsement: the content is not approved or endorsed by the University.
• No institutional position: the content does not necessarily reflect the University's views on any particular issue.

The wording applies to "media held on this service," which is broader than written posts. Images, audio, video, and other files uploaded to a blog fall under the same statement.

Why this matters when you read or cite a post

blogs.ed hosts a large, open network: the homepage reports 9,652 blogs and 12,358 users, with public blogs viewable across the service. That scale means posts range widely in purpose and tone, from course reflections and research notes to student diaries and teaching theme introductions.

For a reader, the practical consequence is that a blogs.ed post is not a citable University statement. If you need an official position, policy, or institutional comment, treat the blog as the author's own account and look for the University's formal publications instead. For a blog author, the disclaimer means your post is attributed to you rather than to the institution, so claims and opinions sit with the contributor.

Where the statement sits and what else is on the page

The disclaimer appears in the page content of the blogs.ed homepage, alongside the service's main entry points:

The presence of a help route matters for the responsibility question in a practical way: if a post contains something that needs correcting or clarifying, the author can use the WordPress help options to update it, and readers who want context can check the news and announcements channel for service-level updates.

A quick way to judge a post

Ask two questions before treating a blogs.ed post as authoritative:

1. Is the claim about the author's own experience or opinion? Then the post is a legitimate first-person source, subject to the disclaimer.
2. Is the claim about University policy, decisions, or official positions? Then the blog is not the right source, because the service explicitly says content is not endorsed by the University and may not reflect its views.

The distinction is the same one the disclaimer draws: blogs.ed is a connected learning community for staff and students, and its posts carry contributor views rather than institutional ones.

If you are a qualifying member of the University of Edinburgh, you can create your own blog on blogs.ed instantly: open the site, choose Create a blog, and complete the sign-up. Existing blog owners log in through EASE, and WordPress help is available on the site if you get stuck.

Who can create a blog

The site states that qualifying University members can create their own blog instantly. It does not list the exact eligibility rules, so if you are unsure whether your account qualifies, try the Create a blog route first — the sign-up flow will tell you whether you can proceed.

The service is the University's Academic Blogging Service, described as "Staff and student blogs for our connected learning community." As of the site's current figures, the network hosts 9,652 blogs with 12,358 users.

Steps to create your blog

1. Go to blogs.ed.ac.uk.
2. Select Create a blog (shown on the homepage as "Get your own blog").
3. Sign in or authenticate as required by the sign-up flow. The site does not spell out every field, so follow the prompts as they appear.
4. Set up your blog's name and basic settings in WordPress.
5. Publish your first post.

Expected result: you have a working WordPress blog on the blogs.ed network that you can post to and, if you choose, make public.

If you already have a blog

Use the Log in link and authenticate with EASE. The homepage notes "Already have a blog? Log in using EASE," so EASE is the route back into an existing blog rather than a separate username and password.

Getting help with WordPress

The site has a dedicated Get help section for creating or updating your blog and for learning more about WordPress. It also points to:

• News and announcements for updates about the Academic Blogging Service.
• A public Microsoft Teams team you can join.
• A mailing list you can sign up for by email.

These are the places to check for service changes or setup questions before looking elsewhere.

What to expect from the network

Blogs on blogs.ed cover a wide range of uses. Recent posts include a Learning & Teaching Enhancement Theme on pedagogies of supervision edited by Dr Lindsay Randall, a student's notes on learning Python libraries (pandas and scikit-learn) for an Introduction to Audio Machine Learning course, a Swiss-American student's account of discovering Edinburgh, and a project diary entry about arranging a visit. That range is a useful signal: the platform supports course-related, reflective, and personal-academic writing rather than a single format.

One thing to keep in mind: the site states that views expressed in media on the service are those of the contributors and should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University. If you plan to write in a public or professional capacity, treat your blog as personal commentary rather than an official University position.

Common sticking points

• Eligibility: if the create route does not let you proceed, your account may not qualify; the site does not publish the criteria, so ask via the help channels.
• Login confusion: new blogs are created through Create a blog, while returning users go through Log in using EASE. Using the wrong entry point is an easy mistake.
• Finding your blog later: public blogs can be browsed via View all public blogs, and the site also offers search across all blogs and search within a single blog.

blogs.ed (blogs.ed.ac.uk) is the University of Edinburgh's academic blogging service for staff and students. It hosts staff and student blogs for the university's "connected learning community," and qualifying University members can create their own blog instantly. The site currently reports 9,652 blogs and 12,358 users, with a public directory of blogs available to browse.

Who it's for and what you can do

The service is aimed at people within the University community who want to write, teach, or share work in public. From the homepage, the main actions are:

• Create a blog — qualifying University members can set one up immediately.
• Log in — existing bloggers sign in using EASE, the University's authentication system.
• Get help — guidance on creating or updating a blog and on using WordPress.
• Browse and search — view all public blogs or search across the whole network, or search within a single blog.

If you're unsure whether you qualify, the "Get your own blog" route is the place to check; the site states that qualifying members can create one instantly but doesn't spell out eligibility criteria on the homepage.

What kind of content lives there

The blogs are individual and varied rather than a single editorial voice. Recent posts on the homepage at the time of writing included:

• An introduction to a learning and teaching theme on doctoral supervision, edited by an academic development staff member.
• A student's learning log about Python libraries (pandas, scikit-learn) for an audio machine learning course.
• A Swiss-American student's reflections on discovering Edinburgh while studying biological sciences.
• A long-running interview-style project post.

This mix illustrates the service's purpose: course-related reflection, teaching initiatives, student life writing, and personal research projects all sit side by side.

An important caveat about the content

The site states plainly that views expressed in hosted media are those of the contributors and should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, nor do they necessarily reflect the University's views on any particular issue. If you're citing a blogs.ed post in academic or professional work, treat it as an individual's writing, not an official University statement.

Staying informed

The service maintains a news and announcements section for updates about the Academic Blogging Service. Contributors and interested staff can also join a public Microsoft Teams team or sign up for a mailing list to keep in touch.

Practical takeaways

• If you're a University member wanting to blog: start at the "Create a blog" link and sign in with EASE if you already have one.
• If you're a reader: use the network-wide search or the public blog directory to find material by topic or author.
• If you're citing content: attribute it to the individual author and note that it isn't an official University position.
• If you need technical help: the "Get help" section covers WordPress setup and updates.

You can browse every public blog on the network from the View all public blogs link on the blogs.ed homepage, and you can search in two separate ways: Search all blogs covers the whole network, while Search this blog is scoped to a single blog you are currently viewing. Both search boxes sit on the homepage, alongside a Recent posts feed and a News and announcements section for the Academic Blogging Service.

What blogs.ed is

blogs.ed is the University of Edinburgh's Academic Blogging Service: a WordPress platform described as "Staff and student blogs for our connected learning community." The homepage reports 9,652 blogs and 12,358 users, so the network is large enough that browsing everything is rarely practical — search and the recent-posts feed are the faster routes.

One thing to keep in mind when reading: the service states that views expressed in hosted media belong to the contributors, are not approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect University views on any particular issue. Treat posts as personal or project writing rather than official University statements.

Browsing all public blogs

1. Go to the blogs.ed homepage.
2. Select View all public blogs. This opens the directory of blogs across the network.
3. Use the directory to scan by blog rather than by individual post — useful when you want to follow a contributor or a course/project blog over time.

The directory covers public blogs only. Blogs that are not public will not appear there, so if you know a blog exists but cannot find it in the listing, ask the owner for a direct link.

Searching: network-wide vs. single blog

The homepage offers two search boxes with different scopes:

A practical sequence: start with Search all blogs to find candidate blogs, open the most relevant one, then switch to Search this blog to dig through that author's or project's posts without leaving the site.

Search results depend on what contributors have published and made public, so a narrow phrase may return nothing even when a related blog exists. Try broader topic words before concluding the content isn't there.

Reading recent posts and service news

The homepage's Recent posts feed shows what contributors are publishing now, with author, date, and comment count. Examples from the feed at the time of writing include a Learning & Teaching Enhancement Theme post on pedagogies of supervision, a student's post on Python libraries for an audio machine learning course, and a Swiss-American student's account of discovering Edinburgh. The feed is a good way to sample the range of content — academic development, course reflections, and student life — without a specific search in mind.

For platform updates rather than content, use News and announcements, which carries the latest updates for the Academic Blogging Service. The service also invites users to join its public Microsoft Teams team or sign up for its mailing list to keep in touch.

If you want to publish rather than read

Browsing and searching are open to anyone visiting the site. Creating a blog is different: the homepage states that qualifying University members can create their own blog instantly via Create a blog. Existing owners log in through EASE, and help with creating, updating, or learning WordPress is available from the Get help link. If you are unsure whether you qualify, the create flow is the place to check — the public pages don't list eligibility criteria in detail.