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Residence Abroad - How to

Signing up to Residence abroad 1

Logging into the Residence Abroad 2

Changing passwords 2

User profile 2

Editing your profile 2

Adding / changing your profile Picture 3

Befriending other members of the Residence Abroad Site 4

Your Personal Blog 5

Creating a Personal Blog 5

Using the dashboard 6

Writing a blogpost 7

Writing a blogpost for a selected audience 8

Viewing your blog 9

Changing your blog’s template 10

Groups 10

Creating a Group 10

Joining a Group 11

Signing up to Residence abroad- Go to http://abroad.salford.ac.uk/register - Type the relevant information and click on ‘Complete Sign Up’- Check your email to activate your account. - You should be registered with the site.

Tips: - Make sure that to ad your real name to the ‘profile details section’. This will be the name that will be displayed as part of your activity on the site

- Add a picture to your profile. It’s useful to connect a name to a face :-) - Read the terms of use [http://abroad.salford.ac.uk/about/terms-of-use] and agree to it when signing up.

- An email will be sent to you to activate your account. If you haven’t received one, there’s a good chance it went into your junk mail. Please check your spam box.

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Logging into the Residence Abroad

Go to http://abroad.salford.ac.uk

Type your user name and password on to the respective fieldsThis step will give you access to the collective spaces (groups), as well as to your personal profile page.

Changing passwords

Once you are logged in, go to “My Account” (the menu on the top of the page), select ‘Settings” and then click ‘General’.

You will be taken to your ‘Personal Space’Change the password by typing your new password twice. Remember to ‘Save Changes’

User profileEvery user will have a profile page where he/she can provide relevant information about him/her.

Editing your profileGo to “My Account” (the menu on the top of the page), select ‘Profile’ and click on ‘Edit Profile’

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You will be taken to a new page, where you can add information to the fields available. Only the filled out sections will be displayed on your public profile.

Make sure to provide as much information as possible in order to help others identify your areas of interest.

N.B: agreement with the Residence Abroad terms of use is a mandatory filed. Please make sure to signal your choice.

Remember to click ‘Save Changes’ to publish your profile.

Adding / changing your profile Picture

Go to “My Account” (the menu on the top of the page), select ‘Profile’ and click on ‘change avatar’

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You will be taken to a new page, where you will be able to upload a new picture.

Click ‘Browse’, select a picture from your hard drive, and then click ‘Upload Image’.

Befriending other members of the Residence Abroad Site

Befriending members within the network is not a mandatory activity. Yet, this step will be particularly important if you wish to share blogposts with only selected members, as opposite to open up some sections of your blog to the wide world web.

To add your tutors to your ‘friend’ list, for instance, go to the front page of the Residence Abroad site. Select Community >> and click on Members. You will get access to the Member Directory.

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You can search for members by typing their name on the search box or go through the list. Once you have found the relevant person, check their profile and click on “add friend”. They will receive an email with your request and will then accept you into their friend list.

N.B.: the friend list will be especially useful when sharing blogpost with just selected members. See

Your Personal BlogAs a member of the Residence Abroad site you will be able to create a personal blog.Even if you haven’t created one when you signed up, you can still create your personal blog. If you created a blog when you signed up go directly to the next step = using the dashboard

Creating a Personal Blog

Go to “My Blogs” (the menu on the top of the page), and click ‘Create a Blog’.

You will be asked to add information regarding your future blog. Type the relevant information to the field boxes and click ‘Create Blog’ to activate it:

Blog Name: that will be the web address (url) of your blog. Choose something short and user lower cases. [Please notice that this cannot be changed once the blog has been created]

Blog Title - this is the title that will appear on the top of the blog. This can be changed at any time, through your blog’s dashboard

N.B: Regrading Privacy of your blog, you can chose “not to have it appear in search engines like Google and Technorati”. Yet, if you decide for this option, please be aware that your blog will not appear on the network’s blog directory nor will it be included in your profile.

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Using the dashboard

The dashboard is the ‘engine house’ of your personal blog. It is where we can modify the settings, and also through which we make our writings, pictures, etc available. In short, it is where - with the exception of comments - everything related to one’s blog.

To access the dashboard, go to “My Blogs” (the menu on the top of the page), hover the mouse over your ‘Blog’s Title’, and then click on ‘Dashboard’

You should see the following screen:

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The menu of the left hand side displays a series of commands which will allow you to post (write) your blogposts; create pages; moderate comments to your blogposts, change the blog’s appearance; and also change the standard settings of your blog. We will cover some of the dashboard features in the following items

Writing a blogpost

- Go to your dashboard, ie., just as mentioned in the the previous: - Go to “My Blogs” (the menu on the top of the page), select your ‘Blog’s Title’ (in case you have

more than one blog), and click ‘Dashboard’

This step will take you to the backend of your blog. It should look similar to the image below.

- To write a new post (text), click On ‘Post’, on the left hand side menu, and then on “Add New’

The ‘add new post’ page should look like this:

The ‘Add New Post’ page features two main text boxes, where you will be asked to:

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- Type the title of your post in the top text box; - Type your text.

Tip: Preferably write your text in a word document and copy and paste it on to the main ‘text box’, as not to lose your text in case something fails while saving it.

Once, you have written your text, hit the blue ‘Publish’ button on the right hand side frame to publish your post.

Tip: Posts are usually described with relevant tags (keywords) and categories (themes). Tags are a kind of micro meta-data used to describe the content of your blog posts. They are quite important in the online publishing world as they improve the “searchability” of your content, both within and beyond your Social Network Site presence. Tags and Categories can be added while you are in ‘edit mode’. Tags and categories text boxes can be found right below the blue ‘Publish’ post button

N.B.: - As part of your assessment you will be able to categorise your blogpost with the relevant categories, such as ‘photostory’; ‘Intercultural Knowledge’; “Prof & Academic Development’, etc.

- You will also notice that a standard category in your blogpost Dashboard is ‘Invisible’. This category is used to share a blogpost with only selected users within the network.

Writing a blogpost for a selected audience

Writing a blog post to a selected audience follows the same procedures as the step above. The only difference consists in making the blogpost invisible to the rest of your blog readership.

To share your blogpost with a selected audience remember to do the following before publishing your text:- Categorise your blogpost with the relevant categories- Remember to Tick the category ‘Invisible’

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- Select from your list of friends who you want to allow into that post. To do so, while in blogpost edit mode scroll down and you will see a list of your ‘friends’. Tick the radio buttons next to their username accordingly to the permissions you want to grant them regarding that blogpost.

Viewing your blog

To view your blog, go to “My Account” (the menu on the top of the page), and click on ‘Blogs’.Click on the name of your blog and you should be able to see it.

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To see other members’ blog, go to the Blog Directory on the main page. You will find it on the “Community’ menu. [http://abroad.salford.ac.uk/blogs] Changing your blog’s template

Go to “My Blogs” (the menu on the top of the page), select your ‘Blog’s Title’, and click on ‘Dashboard’

Click on ‘Appearance’, on the left hand side menu, and then on “Themes’. After identifying the theme you want to use for your personal blog. Click ‘Activate”. It will update the ‘looks’ of your blog.

GroupsIn the Residence Abroad Site you will be able to ‘Create’ new groups and ‘Join’ existing groups.The group feature is useful if you want to join or create thematic discussions. There will also be generic groups such as Living and Working [in the country you will be living in] which we encourage you to join.

Creating a GroupGo to the “Community” tab on the Residence Abroad main page, and select ‘Groups” from the drop down menu. You will be take to a new screen where all existing groups are listed. You will also be able to create a new one using the ‘Create a Group’

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This step will take you to a new page, where you will be able to set up a new group by: 1. Naming it and describing its purpose; 2. Defining its privacy settings, enabling the discussion forum and/or a wall for

comments by its members; 3. Creating a group blog (please notice this is optional – only use this feature if

considered relevant to the activity of the target group) Uploading a ‘Group Avatar’ (=an image identifying the group) [Please respect copyright]

4. Inviting new members to the group (Optional)

The group will feature on the Groups’ list of the Residence Abroad. It will also be listed on your profile page, under the option ‘My groups’ too.

N.B.: although we have no objections to members creating groups, make sure to manage the groups you create. Don’t create groups just to test the software. Use this feature to develop groups of interest and enhance people’s learning experiences. Group Administrators are ask to take Group moderation responsibility, i.e., facilitate dialogue, set activities, etc.

Joining a Group

- To join a Group, simply browse through the ‘Group List’, using the ‘Community’ tab >> on the Residence Abroad’s homepage.

- This step will take you to a new page, where all the existing groups in the Residence Abroad are listed.

- After identifying the groups you would like to join, click ‘Join Group’.

N.B: You need to be logged in to join a group.

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Created by Cristina Costa for the Research and Graduate CollegeUniversity of Salford, UK

Last updated: November 2010

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