Teaching American History Forum

Peopling the American Past: A Collaboration of 7 School Districts

What do I use the forum for?• Posting workshop reflections• Posting book group reflections• Posting replies/comments to other

reflections• Reading replies/comments to your own

and others’ reflections

Why the forum format? Where is the forum?

• Online community to facilitate discussion• Connected to the main website:

http://chnm.gmu.edu/7tah/Collaboration > Workshop Reflections or

Collaboration > Book Groups• http://chnm.gmu.edu/7tah/forum/login.php• After your username and password are

created for the first time you will receive a notification e-mail.

Logging InUsername format: First_Last (e.g. Elly_Greene)Password: your first name with no spaces, all lowercase

(e.g. elly)

TAH Main Forum Page

TAH Main Forum Page

TAH Main Forum Page

Navigation

TAH Main Forum Page

Categories

TAH Main Forum Page

Forums

Post a Reflection1. Locate the category you need to post to. (e.g. Workshop Reflections)2. Locate the forum you need to post to. (e.g. Summer Institute)3. Click on the forum title to enter the forum.

Post a Reflection (cont’d)1. Inside the forum, you will see a list of the program participants’

names. 2. Find your name and click on it to post your reflection.

Post a Reflection (cont’d)1. You will see a screen with your name at the top left. This screen is

where your reflection and all replies to it will be posted. (Notice that the screen shows you in the Workshop forum called Summer Institute.)

2. To post your reflection here, click on the “post reply” button beneath your name.

Post a Reflection (cont’d)1. You will see a box called “Message body” to write your reflection in.

(You can copy and paste text from Word or any similar program in here.)

2. After you have finished writing your reflection, press the “submit” button to post it. (If you decide to first “preview” you must still click “submit” or the reflection will not post!)

Post a Reflection (cont’d) After posting a reflection you will be redirected shortly after to

see the “message” you just created:

Posting a Reflection (final)• After a reflection is posted, the

moderator of the forum will be notified via e-mail that you have posted.

• Every time someone posts a reply to or comments on your reflection you will receive an e-mail. This e-mail will also contain a link to the reflection.

Reading and posting replies to other reflections

• You can read and post replies to everyone within your group. • You can read all reflections from anyone who uses the forum.• Groups are divided in the forum according to the book groups.

Read and post replies to other reflections1. Once inside the forum you can see if someone has posted their reflection if the “replies” column next to

someone’s name there has a number greater than 0. 2. Click on someone’s name under the “Topics” heading to read what they’ve written and what other

people have replied.3. To read other people’s reflections, go to the TAH Main Forum Page and find the forum you wish to read

from. Click on the forum to enter it.(e.g., “Mount Vernon” or “Group 1”)

Reading other reflections and replies1. Other reflections and replies/comments will be posted underneath the original

reflection. Scroll down to read them.2. If you wish to reply/post a comment to a reflection, click the “post reply” button. If you

wish to go back and read someone’s else’s reflection, you can click the back button or click on the forum name (e.g. TAH Main Forum Page > Frederick Douglass House, click on “Frederick Douglass House”).

Posting replies to other reflections1. Enter a message in the box “Message body” in the middle of the page.2. Click the “submit” button to submit the reply. (If you click the “preview” button first,

you must still click on “submit” to have your reply actually post.)

Posting replies to other reflections1. Your reply/comments to another reflection will show right beneath the original

reflection or below the last reply/comments posted by someone else.2. Every time you respond to someone else’s reflection they will receive an e-mail

notification with a link to read what you have posted.

Other Forum Features

• Forum Instructions - posted guidelines, these slides for step-by-step instructions

• Search - search all the messages on the forum• Memberlist - everyone using the forum • Profile - your personal profile information

Memberlist• Access to the memberlist for the forum• Shows school affiliation, number of posts for a user• E-mail button (will bring up a new window to send an e-mail to

that user)

Profile• Change your e-mail address, school name, or password• Create a signature with name, address, school, contact information• Check a box to “always attach signature” if you would like• Click “submit” for changes to take effect

Logging Out1. To log out of the forums, simply click the “log out” button in the top navigation bar.2. To log back in, you can re-enter your username and password on the next page that

displays.3. To get back to the Main TAH website, click on the link to it from this final page.

Questions, Comments, Help

**These slides will be on the main Teaching American History/Peopling the Past website:

http://chnm.gmu.edu/7tah/Collaboration > Workshop Reflections andCollaboration > Book Group Reflections

**Other questions or help, contact Patrice Morston at pmortson@gmu.edu