I am registered for the course, but the Ning site says that I do not have an account.

The Ning site for your course is a private site.  So, the only way to create an account for yourself is by responding to a personal invitation email.  We will send the first of these invitations immediately following the first class of the course, and subsequent invitations roughly once a week.  Look for a message from Ning in your Inbox (and do check your Spam folder as well) with the subject line beginning, "Come Join Me...”  Inside that email is a ‘Click to Join’ button, and clicking that will allow you to create your account on the Ning site.

If your invitation is missing, please let us know at:   http://support.theshiftnetwork.com/anonymous_requests/new

Password and Email address tips:

If the system tells you that you entered the wrong password during the sign-up process, this means that you already have a Ning account associated with your email address.  Please use your current Ning account password.  This might be something that you created for another prior course that also involved Ning.

If you don’t remember your password, you can reset it by clicking the ‘Forgot Your Password?’ link below the 'Sign In' button.  Please note that your Ning password is unique to your own personal account.  It is something that you created and is protected even from us, NOT the password for the Course Recordings Page provided in your course emails.

When logging in to the Ning site, please use the email address with which you registered for the course.

Why does Ning need to know my birthday?

The question asked is required in order to comply with to a governmental regulation which requires that users of social networking sites be at least 13 years of age (www.ftc.gov/ogc/coppa1.htm).

How do I use the Ning site? 

Our technical staff have created a video tutorial to guide through the main features and structure of your Ning-supported website. You can find the link to this tutorial on the 'Main' page, in the center column, near the top.

How do I add a photo to my Ning Profile page?

To upload your 'Avatar' photo, click 'Settings' in your admin menu at the upper right.  The 'Photo' option will then appear in the center of the screen.  Click the 'Browse' button there and select the desired photo on your computer. When your picture has 'Uploaded,' you must scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page and click the 'Save' button.

This process is illustrated in the Ning video tutorial, which can be found at the top center of the 'Main' page.

How do I add my biographical information to my Ning Profile page?

View your 'Profile' by clicking ‘My Page’ in the main menu bar, and find the Text Box module in roughly the center of the screen.  Click the 'Edit' button at the top right corner of that box, and type freely into the box.  When you have finished, click the 'Save' button.

The Ning site is not working in my web browser 

Ning works well with these browsers:

• Firefox 5 and 6
• Google Chrome
• Internet Explorer 8 and 9
• Safari 4 and 5

Ning should work well in Firefox 7 and 8 as well. 

Some browsers get updated more rapidly, and a newly-released version of any browser might still contain some bugs that are not  compatible with Ning.  If you recently updated your main browser, try reverting to the previous version of that browser or use a different browser.  Although you are welcome to use Ning with a browser that is not in this list, some of the features on your Ning Network may not work correctly if you do so. 

Please make sure that Cookies and JavaScript are enabled on your browser.