Help Reference

The My WV Tab

The My WV tab appears only to users who are logged in to the e-WV Web site. From the My WV tab users can edit their user profile, create and manage portfolios of e-WV site information, connect to other users through forums and live chats, and access many other features available only to those with the free e-WV Web site user account.

Profile

The user profiles on the e-WV Web site hold basic information about a user. The user is allowed to edit this information, which includes changing passwords if they want to. The Profile option is located on the My WV tab under the “Navigation” heading on the left side of the page. When the user clicks this option, they can view their profile information and edit it, if necessary.

Portfolios

When a user is logged in to the e-WV Web site, they will see an extra option on information pages and articles that reads Add to Portfolio. By clicking the Add to Portfolio option, users are creating a bookmark to that article that will be stored with their user account and can be accessed later via the My WV tab by clicking the Portfolios option under the “Navigation” heading.

Users can have multiple Portfolios that can contain links to just about any content on the e-WV site. Portfolios can be organized however the user deems logical, meaning users can create Portfolios for certain subject matter, for just articles, or for anything else they can imagine. To create a portfolio, the user can go to their “Your Portfolios” page by clicking on the Portfolio option on the My WV tab. Once on the “Your Portfolios” page, the user can click the Add a New Portfolio link which will let them create a title for their Portfolio and give it a description. Once the user has added the Portfolio, they are free to browse site content and add it to their new Portfolio by clicking the Add to Portfolio option on informational and article pages.

Forums

e-WV Web site users will have access to forums on the site. Forums connect users to other people with site accounts, and they help people connect to those that share an interest in West Virginia history. To get to forums on the e-WV Web site, first go to the My WV tab, and then click on the Forums option under the “Navigation” heading. The user will be directed to the “e-WV Forums” page, which will list all of the forum categories.

Users can click on a category title to be directed to a list of the category’s topics. Topics that have a yellow icon next to the title are ‘sticky’ topics. This means those topics will stay at the top of the topic list and will usually hold important information for people participating in the discussion. Users can post comments on topics by clicking the topic title, scrolling to the bottom of all the posts, filling out the “Post Your Reply” text field, and then clicking the Submit Your Response option.

Users can also create their own topics for a category from the “e-WV Forums” page or from the category’s topic list page by clicking the New Topic option. After clicking this option the user must fill out the subject, description, and choose if the topic is sticky before clicking Create a New Topic. The topic will appear on the category’s topic page and will be available for comments from other users of the site.

Live Chat

Live Chats can connect users with accounts for the e-WV Web site to each other in real time (think instant messaging but topic based). The content managers of the e-WV Web site have the ability to schedule live chat sessions which users with accounts can join to talk with other users about a certain subject related to West Virginia.

To participate in the Live Chats the user should navigate to the My WV tab and then click on the Live Chat option that is located under the “Navigation” heading. This will direct the user to the “Live Chats” page where they will be able to view ongoing chats, future chats, and view old chat transcripts that they might be interested in.

To join a chat the user can click on the Join Chat option, or if the user wants to get more information about the chat they can click the View Description option. Users can also view the description of future chat sessions. To view old chat transcripts, the user should click on the View Old Chat Transcripts located on the top left of the page. When viewing the expired chats, users can click either the View Transcript link or View Description link.

When a user has joined a chat, they can post messages to the chat by typing their message in the “Enter Your Message” text field and clicking Submit.

e-WV Newsletters

On the My WV tab, there is an “e-WV Newsletter” heading located underneath all the navigation links on the left side of the page. By clicking the Update Your Interests link, the user will be taken to a page that will allow them to select topics of interest. By selecting these topics, the user will be subscribing to e-WV newsletters that deal with the selected topics. Any interest topic that is selected can just as easily be unselected for the user to be removed from the newsletter list.

Quizzes and Quiz Submissions

Users with accounts can have the results of quizzes they have taken on the e-WV Web site stored with their other user information of the My WV tab. By going to the My WV tab the user will see the View Your Quiz Submissions option. By clicking this option the user will be directed to the “Your Quiz Submissions” page where they can see the submissions they made to the quizzes they have taken. The user will also be able to click the Click Here option located under the “Looking for Quizzes?” heading on the right side of the page, which will direct the user to the “WV Quizzes” page.

On the “Your Quiz Submissions” page, the user can click the name of a quiz they have taken to revisit the questions in the quiz, the answers they submitted, and the correct answers to questions they answered incorrectly. They will also see the option to Take Another Quiz! on the quiz results page, which will direct the user to the “WV Quizzes” page where they can view all site quizzes.

User Suggestions

There are two options on the My WV tab that deal with users with accounts making suggestions to the site content managers. The first option is the Suggest Updates for Existing Content and the second option is Suggest Brand New Encyclopedia Content. These options help the people managing the e-WV Web site to keep site information up to date and accurate, and to gather information they may not have been able to find otherwise.

The Suggest Updates for Existing Content option will direct the user to the “Push Back” page where the user will be able to type the subject and body text into a message to send to the content managers about something they read or saw on the site that they have questions about, or that may need to be updated. When the user has completed composing the message they can click the Send to e-WV Administrators button. This button will send messages to the content managers who will decide if they need to update information on the e-WV Web site. On the My WV tab, the user will also see the Click Here option located beneath the descriptive text of the Suggest Updates for Existing Content option. The Click Here option will direct the user to a page where all their submitted push backs will be listed.

The Suggest Brand New Encyclopedia Content option will direct the user to the “New Submission” page where they can type a title and body text, choose a category for their content, and fill out any other details about their submission before clicking the Submit Content button. The body of the submission should be all the content that the user wishes the e-WV Web site to display. When the user has completed composing their submission, they can click the Send to e-WV Administrator button. This button will send the submission to the content managers who will decide whether or not the information should become an official e-WV article. On the My WV tab, the user will also see the View Your Submissions option located beneath the descriptive text for the Suggest Brand New Encyclopedia Content option. This option will direct the user to a page that allows them to view past submissions to the site and the submissions’ status.