For Immediate Release
December 16, 2008

No coding needed: Publish a sophisticated Web site or blog with WordPress in new UCR Extension class

RIVERSIDE, Calif. – UCR Extension instructor Peter Phun wants you to know that you can now develop a sophisticated Web site or friendly blog without the hassle of learning HTML coding or hiring a programmer. Phun is teaching the new class, Web Publishing with WordPress, from to 6 to 9 p.m. on Thursdays from Jan. 8 to Feb. 26, 2009 at UCR Extension, 1200 University Ave., Riverside.

"I learned how to create my own Web sites using HTML and CSS, but it was very cumbersome," said Phun, who is also a photography instructor who worked at The Press-Enterprise for 18 years. "With WordPress, I can just concentrate on my content and create something very pleasing."

WordPress is an open source personal publishing application that allows Internet users to create Web sites and blogs using existing templates. In its early existence, WordPress was "clunky," Phun said. Over the years, WordPress has been developed into an elegantly refined program that includes many plug-in features. Publishers can embed videos from YouTube, conduct electronic financial transactions online, and create online communities.

"If you're a musician, you can create music and host it on your own Web site," Phun said.

Phun will use a self-created live Web site, FunlandEmpire.com, to teach students in class how to use WordPress. No technical experience is necessary to take the class. Only general knowledge of the Internet, Web browsing and e-mail is required.

The class fee is $225.

For more information, call (951) 827-5801 or e-mail arts@ucx.ucr.edu. To register for classes, visit www.extension.ucr.edu or call (951) 827-4105. To receive a free UCR Extension catalog, which includes a complete listing of all our current courses and certificate programs, call (951) 827-3806.

UCR Extension is the continuing education division of the University of California, Riverside. Extension offers more than 1,800 courses and certificate programs in a variety of academic programs, including agriculture and landscape, arts and humanities, business and management, education, teacher's credentialing, English, environmental management, geospatial analysis and technology, health services and behavioral sciences, information technology, languages, law and public policy, Native American studies, natural sciences, forensic investigations and public safety, and yoga.