Registering for an account

Getting signed up for Communities of Practice (CoP) is free, fast and easy. By signing up and logging in when you visit CoP, you will be able to ask and respond to questions or discussions, and post documents.

Create Your Account:

1. From the front page of CoP, click the "Register" link that appears near the top left side of the page.



2. Fill in the information on the "Create New User Account" page. The boxes marked with a red asterisk are required. Tip: Fill in as much information as possible. Communities is a way for ag educators to connect with one another on many levels, and the more someone can learn about you, the more likely you are to connect!



3. Enter the security code, and click the "Create Account" button. You should see the following screen:

4. As an extra security measure, you will receive an email at the address you specified when you entered your information. You must click on the link in that email to verify your account before you can log in to Communities of Practice.

5. Once your account is verified, log on to Communities of Practice by clicking the "Login" link at the top of the page. Tip: Checking the "Remember Me" box when you log in, will automatically log you in to Communities of Practice any time you visit the site on this computer.

Why register?

Without an account, you can't start a discussion, reply to a question, or post a resource. In fact, if you're not signed in, you don't even see these options on your screen. Registration is fast and free. For how to register, see the "Registering for an account" section of this document.

Completing Your Profile

When you registered with Communities of Practice, you were asked to fill in some basic information about yourself. If you'd like to add to or change that information, or if you'd like to add a photo to your profile, here's how:

Once you're logged in, click on the "Your Stuff" link at the top of the page. Choose the Profile link. To update your profile information, click "Edit profile" in the Actions box to the right.

Adding an Avatar

To add an avatar (a small picture that shows up whenever you participate on CoP) click the "Change avatar" link in the Actions box.

Next, click on the "browse" button to select a picture from your computer. Upon hitting the button, this box show below will appear. Search for your files for the desired picture. Hit "open" on the box and then the "upload" button in the lower left hand corner of your screen. From here, you can upload up to 5 photos to use as your avatar, or choose an avatar from the options already in CoP. To display with the least amount of distortion, your image for your avatar should be square, say 50x50 px.

After uploading your desired picture it should appear on the screen. Click on the picture and hit the "save settings" button to save your picture.

Adding a profile picture

You can add a larger photo that will appear beside your profile. To add this photo, after you've logged in, click on Your Stuff, then on Profile. Choose Edit profile from the actions box. On that page, the last line will say "Your Image." Upload an image by clicking the "Browse" button. Your file type must be bmp or gif.