At SUNY Oneonta, we convinced our leadership to continue to invest in open instead of purchasing commercial ePortfolio software. We will use our OpenLab and WordPress as the basis of a digital ePortfolio initiative. Over the summer, we have embarked on a project to simplify the onboarding experience for students, including commissioning a custom SSO solution for our WordPress Multisite that we call the OpenLab, writing a custom theme for our eportfolios, and simplifying Full Site Editing WordPress Experience through site templates, theme.json manipulation, and custom PHP code that removes parts of the Gutenberg editor for students.
Working with a team of student interns that serve both as designers and student voice into what students are looking for from a web solution. Students created or modified 58 patterns specifically designed for ePortfolios. Through their feedback, we disabled the WordPress.org patterns and provide only the patterns we have created that are made for ePortfolio work. We have also disabled appearance tools in the Gutenberg Editor removing the complexity of padding, spacing, margins, and advanced design tools. Other pieces of Gutenberg were removed from the Post Editor, but will still remain available to students in the Site Editor.
Students will still have access to the full features of WordPress through our other themes, but our custom starter theme is meant to provide a softer landing space as we introduce students to the world of ePortfolios.
Session Resources:
Test our custom theme Red Dragon Portfolio on WordPress Playground or download from Github.
WonderCat: An Alternative to Recommendation Algorithms
WonderCat is a relational database of human experiences with narrative. The project is designed as an experimental alternative to reading lists (in courses) and recommendation algorithms (in the real world). It is intended primarily as a discovery tool, helping users find creative works that have been valuable to real readers. It does not deliver personalized recommendations.
The tool is built around three taxonomies: Experiences, Narrative Technologies, and Impacts. The terms in these taxonomies and their definitions are published as glossaries, and we have designed a review process for glossary terms that allows any user of WonderCat to contribute to our ever-expanding understanding of narrative in the world.
The site is built with WordPress, which has been customized with ACF. Visualizations of this data are built with the R package Shiny, which pulls in Wikidata to provide dynamic visualizations of the experiences in our database.
Our presentation will focus on two goals we tackled in Summer 2025, presenting our solutions (so far) and inviting ideas from the Reclaim community. Our first goal was to make Shiny WonderCat load more quickly (we’ll share our experiments with cron jobs) and our second was to develop an editorial workflow that encourages the general public to engage with our editorial board (we’ll share our experiments with Gravity Flow).
We hope participants will leave the session inspired to develop their own alternatives to recommendation algorithms.
Session Resources:
Here is a public Zotero group library of resources informing our work on WonderCat.
AI Maddeness
Join Jim Groom and Tom Woodward to start day 2 as they delve into how generative AI tools like ChatGPT can be used to simulate, narrate, and enhance digital sports experiences inspired by Madden 2001. From generating game summaries and player previews to automating schedules and standings, the project demonstrates how AI can streamline the storytelling and administrative sides of a sports simulation. The session is a blend of practical experimentation with creative reflection, showing how structured prompts, GPT customization, and API integration can turn raw game data and screenshots into engaging media content. Beyond the technical achievements, AI Maddeness also raises questions about creativity, community, and cultural context when humans and machines co-author digital play.