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General | Top

Q: What is my username/password?

A: You will use the same username and password that you use to log in to the main site. If you have forgotten your login credentials or need assistance with your login information, click here.

Q: How do I update my contact information?

A: From your Network.NAFSA profile page, click the pencil icon next to "Contact Details."

Q: How do I control what information is visible in my Profile?

A: Go to your profile in Network.NAFSA and click on the “My Account” tab. Choose "Privacy Settings" from the drop-down menu. This will let you control what information is visible to whom. After you’ve made changes, click the “Save Changes” button at the bottom of the page.

Q: What are the ribbon designations on my profile?

A: Ribbons will appear under the contact details of a user’s profile to indicate levels of engagement based on a user’s use of the Network NAFSA community platform. The engagement points are determined by such actions within Network NAFSA such as writing a Discussion Post, joining a Community, adding a Contact, Updating a Profile Picture, etc. Other ribbons indicate if a user is a NAFSA Member, Board Member, or Member Leader or NAFSA award winner.
The table below outlines the engagement points by ribbon:
 All Star Ribbon- User with more thean 500 engagement points 
 Champion Ribbon-                           User with more than 200 engagement points and fewer than 499 
Pro Ribbon- User with more than 75 engagement points and fewer than 199

Contacts / Connections | Top

Q: How do I find other members?

A: Click the “Directory” link found in the main navigation bar. The Directory lets you search for other members based on:
  • First and/or last name
  • Company/Institution name
  • Email address

Switch to the “Advanced Search” tab to increase your search to:

  • City
  • State
  • Country
  • Community
  • Education
  • Region

Q: How do I add contacts to my contact list?

A: There are several ways to add contacts. When you perform a search in the Directory, you will see an “Add as contact” button to the right of each person in your search results. Just click this button to send a contact request. If you click through and view an individual’s profile, you can click the contact request link to the right of his or her profile picture.


Q: Why should I add contacts to my contact list?

A: Creating this virtual address book makes it easy to send your contacts messages through the community site to stay in touch, ask questions or even build a referral network. Additionally, when you view another member’s profile, you’ll be able to see any contacts you have in common. You can also choose to let your contacts view certain demographics in your profile that others can't.

Communities / Discussions | Top

Q: What are Network.NAFSA communities?

A: Communities are organized by area of interest and include resources specific to topics that concern those who work in/with that population.  Once you join a community you can share resources, and post questions to the group.

Q: What communities do I already belong to?

A: Go to “Communities” in the main navigation bar. Select “My Communities” to view the communities you’re currently a part of.

Q: How do I join/subscribe to a community and the affiliated Discussion Group?

A: Hover over “Communities” and click on “All Communities” in order to see a list of available communities. Click on the community that you wish to join and simply click "Join," then choose a delivery option for community notifications (Daily Consolidated Digest, Weekly Consolidated Digest, or Don't include), and your Discussion Notifications (Real Time, Daily Digest, or No Email).

Q: How do I create a new Interest Group community?

A: Please go to the Interest Group page to learn more.

Q: How can I control the frequency of emails I receive? 

A: Go to “Profile” and click on the "My account" tab. Choose "Community Notifications" from the drop-down menu.

For community notifications, you have the following delivery options:
• Daily consolidated digest sends one email to you each day, consolidating all posts from the previous day. This includes announcements, blogs, discussions, library entries, and events.
• Weekly consolidated digest: sends one email to you on a specific day of the week of your choice, consolidating all the posts from the previous week. This includes announcements, blogs, discussions, library entries, and events.
• No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by directly logging into the community site.
 
For each discussion, you have the following delivery options:
• Real time: sends an email every time a new message is posted
• Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the posts from the previous day
• No Email: allows you to be part of the group without having emails sent to you. You can still post and read others’ messages by logging directly into the community site.

Q: How do I leave a community or unsubscribe from following a discussion?

A: Go to “Profile” and click on the "My Connections" tab. Choose “Communities” from the drop-down menu. Here, you will see a list of available communities and those to which you’ve subscribed. Select the community that you want to leave, and then on that community’s homepage, select “settings” and click “Leave community”. For the discussions you wish to leave, go to your “Profile” click the “My Connections” and locate the discussion thread you want to unfollow. From there unmark the star next to “Follow”.

Q: How do I respond to others’ posts?

A: To reply to a discussion post by email, click “Reply to Group” to send your message to the entire community or “Reply to Sender” to send your message back to the sender only; both links are located to the right of the post. We recommend replying to the sender for simple comments like “me too”, or “Thank you for sharing this!” that add little value to the overall discussion; and replying to the entire community when you are sharing knowledge, experience or resources that others could benefit from.
When replying to a discussion post directly on the discussion’s page, click “Reply” to send your message to the entire community or click on the arrow and then “Reply Privately” in the menu to send your message back to the sender only.

Q: How do I start a new discussion thread?

A: From a discussion notification email for a particular community’s discussion forum, you can use the “Post New Message” at the top of the message.  When you are on a community’s discussion page, look for the. “Post New Message” link in the right navigation bar on the main discussions page.


Q: Can I post a job announcement?

A: NAFSA's official job posting board is the Job Registry which offers the widest exposure for your job opening. The job registry receives an average of 18,000 views per month and employers looking to hire can gain access to a resume database of 2995 active job seekers. Employers can also receive added promotion through NAFSA News, X feeds, and regional web pages. To learn more, view the job registry page for more details. Network.NAFSA subscribers that do not use the NAFSA Job Registry can post a job announcement of 2 brief sentences with a link to the position. Job postings longer than 2 sentences will be edited, and the subscriber will be notified.

Q: Why do I have to post messages and reply through the website?

A: There are many features made possible because of the web interface:
  • When you send an attachment through this system, it automatically places it in the Community’s library and sends a link to members.
  • Because it sends a link, you can share files up to 1GB in size and just about any file type.   
  • All posts and associated resources are automatically archived and easily searchable.

Q: Can I search for posts across all the communities?

A: Yes. Enter a keyword in the top search bar. From the results page, you can filter on content type, comments, tags, date range or posted by. You will only see results from the communities that you have joined or have access to.

Q: How do I see a listing of all of the posts to a specific Community?

A: Locate the community you are interested in viewing from the appropriate community’s page.  Click through the community's home page, then click on the “Discussions” tab. If you see a post you’re interested in, click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. “Original message” at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion. The “Author’s Messages” link is the arrow at the top of the post and when clicked, it will show you all of the posts that particular member has contributed to that community over time.
Libraries | Top

Q: How do I find resources that may have been uploaded by other members?

A: If you know which library the resource might be located in, find the library on the appropriate community's page. Click through the community's home page, then click on the “Library” tab. If you do not know where the resource might be, enter search terms in the main search box the same way you might enter search terms into Google or another search engine.

Q: How do the libraries get populated?

A: The libraries are populated in two ways: When you include an attachment in a discussion post, the system automatically places it in the library. You can also select "Create a new entry" on any community's library page. Library resources are not required to be associated with a discussion thread.

Q: How do I upload a file?

A: Select "Create Entry" on any community's library tab. Please note that uploading a document is done in a few steps, and each step must be completed before you can move on to the next: •Choose a title for your document, include a description (optional), select the library to which you’d like to upload it, select a folder to which you’d like to upload it (optional) and choose an Entry Type (most will be Standard Files, but be cognizant of any copyright licensed material). Then click “Next.” •Browse and upload your file. Click “Next” if you want to add tags to your file or click “Finish” (you may have to scroll down to access these buttons).

Q: What kind of files can I upload?

A: The system supports dozens of file types including hyperlinks, standard files (Images, Word, Excel, PowerPoint), webinars, copyright licensed files, and YouTube videos.

Q: What are the “tags” for?

A: Tags are another way of organizing and searching for documents. You can help others find the file you uploaded by including tags when you upload it. There are many pre-loaded tag categories to choose from.