Your Public Profile

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How to set up your public profile


In this tutorial you will log in and edit the profile that will appear on the new website. Before you start, please locate a digital picture of yourself (a head shot). You will use this image in your profile. The objective is to create an official web presence within the department. We can get this done in 6 easy steps, so let's get started.

Step 1: Go to the Website


Open your web browser and go to the site you want to log into. If it is a new site it will be on a staging server. After we get sufficient information into the new site it will move to the live production server. The URL of the staging server was given to you in an email. Please click on that link to open the website in your web browser.

 

Step 2: Log In


You should have received a login link in an email. Typically that is something like http://example.edu/login. This will bring you to Okta where you will enter your ISU netid and password.

Okta login screenshot

Step 3: Click on Your Public Profile


After you log in you should be returned to the website. If you land on a page that says "Access Denied" please contact us (websupport@iastate.edu) for assistance.

But if everything worked well, you should now notice a slight difference in the website, namely a black bar at the top that contains a link called My Public Profile.

Click on that link. It will bring you to a page that has some minimal information about you that we got from the ISU directory. Your job is to build on this profile. Click the Edit tab just below your name to edit your profile.

 

Step 4: Fill Out Required Fields


Start by filling out the required fields. There are only a few of them. The first is your name.

Next is the field called Tags. These are words or short phrases that you would use to describe yourself and your research. Think of it this way: what would you search for on Google and expect to get your profile as the top search result?

Tags have two purposes: (1) to provide words for Google to index and (2) to establish relationships between yourself and others or other content on the site. If two people use the same tag, that establishes a semantic relationship between them.

You may use as many or as few tags as you like.

The position field is your official academic position. You can add more than one if you have more than one; for example, I have two positions.

Next up is "People Category". You will probably fit nicely into one of the three. I happen to land in two.

These categories may look different to you, based on the website you are editing.

Your Area of Expertise should be a very short phrase describing your subdiscipline.

Now you have finished all of the required fields. Scroll all the way to the bottom and click the Save button so that your information will be saved. You can come back and fill in the other fields later.

 

Step 5: Fill Out Optional Fields


You've created a profile with the minimal amount of information. Now it's time to flesh it out. You can return to editing of your profile the same way you got there before: by clicking the Edit tab under your name.

One of the important parts of your profile is your picture. Because your picture will be used on a grid along with others, we would like everyone to use a "headshot" style picture rather than one where you are out in a canoe, climbing a cliff, or something like that. Once you have decided which picture of yourself you want to use and you know where it is on your hard drive, it is time to add it to your profile. Under Profile Picture, use the Browse... button to find your picture on your hard drive:

This is me finding my picture on my hard drive. Your experience here might be slightly different but the goal is to find the picture and select it.

After you've done that, click the Upload button:

You should now see a thumbnail image of the picture you chose. Please fill out the "Alternate text" and "Title" fields so that those with disabilities will be able to make sense of your profile as well. For example, a blind person using a screen reader will hear the alternate text even though they can't see your picture.

The Education field should be self-evident.

The Biography field can be a bit more challenging. This should introduce you to the person who is looking at your profile for the first time. The first sentence or two should succinctly tell what you do for the institution. After that you are free to talk about your research, your history, the special approach you have to education, etc. If you have a laboratory website you might want to keep this brief since your longer bio will be on the profile that is on your laboratory website. If you do not have a laboratory website, this profile is your main identity so be as verbose as you like.

The CV field will take a PDF of your CV should you want to share that with the world.

The Website field is a place to link to other examples of your web presence. For example, I linked to my blog, my Google Scholar profile (after creating my Google Scholar profile I did a Google search for myself on Google scholar to find the link), and to BugGuide. You might want to link to your Twitter page if you are active on Twitter, or your laboratory website if you have one. It is probably best not to link to your Facebook identity unless you use that in a professional rather than personal manner.

Check the Location Fields to make sure that your address and phone are correct.

Then, go to the set of fields that are specific to whether you are a student, faculty member or a non-ISU person.

If you teach courses, you can enter the name of the course and the URL of the ISU catalog (or if you have a special website for your course, point to that).

If you are a student, be sure to click "Student Fields" and fill out the name of your advisor and your major.

When you are done filling out all of the optional fields that you want, click the Save button at the bottom of the page to save your profile.

 

Step 6: Congratulate Yourself!


Congratulations! You have created a professional profile on the new website which will be available to everyone when the website goes live.

If you have problems with the form or have more questions about how to do any of the above, please contact websupport@iastate.edu for help.

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