Kiva Help
Frequently asked questions
Q. What is a Kiva?
A. A Kiva is a Mayan sacred meeting place where communities
gather. Typically they are round and underground. Ours is
worldly and virtual.
Q. I can't log in. What's wrong?
A. If your instructor told you that your password is the same
as your andrew id, that means your user name and password are
both your andrew user id. (We don't know your andrew
password.)
Be sure that javascripts are enabled in your browser and be
sure that at least session cookies are enabled. In most
browsers, you can edit the Preferences files to change these
settings.
Q. How do I change my password?
A. You can change your password by editing your profile. to get
to your profile, you can click on the Kiva
members link on the header of any page and then click on
your picture. You can also get to your profile page by clicking
on your picture in a thread. On the profile page, you can
change your password as well as your picture, affiliation,
etc.
Q. I forgot my password, so I can't log in. How to I get my password?
A. If you forget your password, follow the forgot your password? link on the log in page.
Your password will be reset and the new password will be sent
to the email address stored in your profile.
Q. Can I remove posts from a discussion topic?
A. No. In the interest of keeping the integrity of
communication, you are not able to remove posts. However, you
may sometimes create posts that should be removed, for example,
if your browser hiccups and you create multiple, identical
posts, or you post a corrupted file that you don't want other
people to open. If this occurs, click the button to send email to the
Kiva administrators. Please be specific about which Kiva, which
thread, and which post should be deleted.
Q. How can I change information about a meeting?
A. It depends. You can reschedule or cancel a meeting using the
or buttons that are in the
first post of a meeting thread. If you make changes to a
meeting, email is sent to the group members, and the meeting
thread is flagged with a Rescheduled or Cancelled tag on the
home page. If you want to change meeting details, such as the
agenda, you can do it within the discussion thread. This way you
can document the changes, meeting notes, and decisions.
Q. Can I spread my posts out to more of my screen?
A. Yes. The home page is intended to give you an executive summary of your
Kiva content. You can see a full screen view of a view by clicking the name
of the View in the Views page.
Q. Can I change a saved view?
A. No. If you want to change a view, delete the orignal view and create a new one.
Q. Can I see a view on my home page?
A. Yes. You can control which views and what order views are displayed
on your front page. Go into the views page. Find the view you would like
to display on your home page in the Saved views area. Check the box on
the same line in the display column. The box will turn orange; the box
next to it in the order column will turn white. This means that it is
active. You can now enter a number. Make sure not to have any repeat numbers
or the Kiva will prompt you to make the change.
Q. Can anyone see my views?
A. No. Views are private. No one can see your custom views, and you cannot
see others’.
Q. My column sorts keep reverting. How can the Kiva save them?
A. You can make your sort permanent by resorting it on the Views page
and saving it.
Q. Can I add or remove people from groups?
A. Yes, you can do both. If you click on the link to a group
it will allow you to select new members, or deselect current
members. Don’t forget to save your changes
though. Any change to an existing group will produce an
automatic post under your username to the original new group
discussion thread for that group.
Q. Can a post to a group that I am not a member of?
A. Yes.
Q. Can I form new groups?
A. Yes. All Kiva members can form groups. Once created,
however, a group cannot be deleted. Special requests should be
posted to faculty and staff or the Kiva Masters group.
Q. Can I add users to the Kiva?
A. No. In the interest of privacy, only faculty and staff can decide who
is able to enter and participate in a Kiva. If you would like a user added,
clear it with the course faculty or staff for your Kiva.
Q. Why does my post show up three times in the All Posts view?
A. Many users filter their view of the Kiva by their group membership. In order for your post to be visible to each group, it must be listed for each group. All copies of the post on the home page lead to the same thread.
Q. I'm trying to post a formula and the Kiva keeps eating my inequality signs. What's wrong?
A. If you need to include a less than or greater than sign within a
post, you should enclose it in quotation marks. So, ">"
will show up as ">" in the preview and in the post itself.
If you want to the inequality sign to appear without the quotation marks, you can enter the special characters < or > in the body of your post. Any text after the special character will not show up in preview post, but will show up in the actual post.
