Registering Students for a Course Blog
We’ve streamlined the process by which students can be added to individual blogs. There are still two ways that you can register students, though most will choose the first.
Creating Accounts for Your Students:
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- Visit the Dashboard of your blog. Since many users are all members of multiple blogs, be sure that you’re in the correct place (the blog name should appear at the top of the Dashboard).
- Click on the “Users” menu, and click “Import Users.”
- Paste a list of the Baruch email addresses for your students into the field on that page (faculty members can download an eRoster with student email addresses here). The list must be in the following format, using Baruch emails:
- Select the appropriate user role from the drop down menu
- Click “Import Users”
The page will then give you a report of accounts created and accounts added to the blog. Please copy that report and save for your files in case there are any problems.
Each of your students will receive an email to their Baruch email account with their username, password, a link to your blog, and a link to their BuddyPress profile page (and a nudge to fill it out). Speaking of which, if you haven’t filled out your profile, please do so!
Having students self-register (an older method, but it still works):
If you want your students to register and add themselves as subscribers, contributors, authors (most common), editors, or administrators, they’ll need to first create an account on Blogs@Baruch (if they don’t have one already), and then individually add themselves to your blog. You’ll need give your students this handout (a PDF file that you can alter if you’d like) and make sure that the “Add Yourself as A User” widget appears in the sidebar of your blog.
During this process, you have the choice to password protect self-registration on your blog, and to allow self-registrants to add themselves to your blog at any user level. Once your students have completed registration, you will see them listed in your Users menu.
User Accounts
One user account allows an individual to contribute content to multiple blogs across the Blogs@Baruch system. All that’s needed is for the administrator of a blog to add a user’s account through their administrative panel.
There are five levels of users on a WordPress weblog:
- Administrator – Somebody who has access to all the administration features
- Editor – Somebody who can publish posts, manage posts as well as manage other people’s posts, etc.
- Author – Somebody who can publish and manage their own posts
- Contributor – Somebody who can write and manage their posts but not publish posts
- Subscriber – Somebody who can read comments/comment/receive news letters on a blog that is password protected
Questions about the Blogs@Baruch Profiles and Accounts
Most of your account options are available in a dropdown on the right side of the top navigation bar when you are logged in to Blogs@Baruch.
How do I load a picture of myself (an “avatar”) to appear in my profile and other areas?
You can load a picture, or avatar, of yourself through the gray navigation bar that appears at the very top of the page. Go to “My Account > Profile > Change Avatar” to upload a new image.
You can also create a Gravatar at http://en.gravatar.com/ ; doing so will enable you to use that same image across many different websites.
How can I change my password?
You can change your password through the gray navigation bar at the top of the page. Go to “My Account > Settings > General” to change your password.
How do I change my display profile name?
1. Select: My Account> My Profile> Edit Profile
2. To change your display name, re-write your preferred name in the ‘Full Name (required)’ field
3. Select Save Changes
How do I change my display email?
1. Select: My Account> My Profile> Edit Profile
2. To change your display email, re-write your preferred email in the ‘Email Address’ field
3. Select Save Changes
What are @mentions and how are they used?
The @mention system links others to the hyperlinked profile of the individual while notifying the individual of the mention via email.
If you are trying to reach out to specific group members, simply put the @ symbol in front of their username and it will send a notification to their email address and show up in their @mention activity stream.
To learn more about the @mention system read this blog post.
What are “friends”?
In Facebook, “friending” is social networking: Members search for people whom they know, used to know, or want to know. The friending tool enables them to contact these people or to accept someone’s request for contact (and determine the extent to–and ways in which–the person can contact and interact).
On Blogs@Baruch, “friending” is “academic social networking”: it enables us to contact one another and share resources and knowledge. By accepting a person’s friend request you become part of his or her “‘network.”
To accept a “friend request,” you can either follow the link in the e-mail you receive requesting friendship, or once you’ve logged in, look again at the gray tool bar on the top right; hover your mouse over “Notifications.” Then click on the number of notifications you have pending. You will then be directed to a web page that allows you to accept or reject the friendship request.
What are “notifications”?
The Notification link (at the top of the screen if you’re logged in) indicates if you have a new message, friend request, or invitation to join a group.
How do I change my email account where I receive email notifications through the Blogs@Baruch?
1. Select: My Account> My Settings> General
2. Re-write your preferred email account in the ‘Account Email’ field
3. Select Save Changes
How do I send a private message?
To send an email to another member, you can either find them on the member list or you can go to the Blogs@Baruch home page and click your avatar, click the “Messages” link on the left, and click “Compose.” Start typing the person’s first name in the addressee box and the program will give you a list of all the members whose names include the letters you’re typing. Next to the addressee box is an empty box for copying other members. Do the same thing in this box that you just did for the addressee. Each time you do this, a new box will appear for another person to whom you might want to send a copy of the message.
How can I toggle my email notification settings?
The settings on your profile page (available by going to the top gray navigation bar and clicking My Account > My Settings > Notifications) allow you to choose whether you want the site to email you in response to a variety of different actions, such as a message being posted on the forum of a group to which you belong. Please visit this page to easily change your preferences.
Can member profiles be made private? How can I prevent my profile from showing up in a Google search?
Right now, Profiles are visible only if a user is logged in to Blogs@Baruch. If users are worried about privacy within the system, they should avoid using their full names on their profiles. Instead, they could use some combination of initials and first or last names.
How Do I Delete My Account?
To delete your account, log in to the site and look for the gray navigation bar at the top of the page. Mouse over the Welcome message in the top right to expand the menu, then go to My Settings > Delete Account and follow the directions you see. Remember, this will delete your account and all content associated with it, including blogs posts you’ve written. You will lose all this data if you delete your account. For information on how to export your data to take with you to another web space, submit a question through this contact form.
(special thanks to our awesome colleagues at the CUNY Academic Commons for allowing us to crib from their BuddyPress support page)