TFA Hub: Member Help & FAQs

This area should answer common questions you may have about the TFA Hub and give you more details about how things work.

If you don’t find what you’re looking for, or you need more information, email community@teachforaustralia.org and your Community Manager (Venessa Paech) can offer a hand.

Contents:

1. Accounts & Logging In
2. Profile, Settings & Notifications
3. Contacts & Connections
4. Member Home
5. Communities (Discussions, Libraries & Events)
6. Discussions
7. Libraries
8. Events
9. Search
10. Safety & Moderation

1. Accounts & Logging In:

How to access the Hub

Q: How do I know if I have a Hub account?

A: If you’re participating in a TFA program, are an Alumni of a TFA program, or a TFA staff member, you’ll likely have a Hub account created for you by TFA.

The Hub is our primary digital gathering place - where our community gathers to connect, collaborate, learn and work together - and it’s an important part of our programs.

You’ll get an official email from the Hub letting you know your account has been created and explaining how to log-in and set your password.

If you didn’t receive an email and you think you should have, first - check your spam filters in case it got waylaid. If it’s definitely not there, let us know at community@teachforaustralia.org.

Q: How do I log in for the first time?

A: You’ll get an email from the Hub (to the email address TFA has on record for you). 

You’ll be asked to click on a link to go to the Hub, where you’ll then set your own password.

Your email and password will log you into the Hub from then on. 
If you check the Stay signed in box, you’ll remain logged in for a longer period of time (make sure only you have access to your computer or device if you do this, for security reasons).

Q: What is my username/password?

A: Your login credentials are the email address TFA has on record for you, and password that you set when you first accessed your account. 

Q: I forgot my password - how do I reset it?

A: Visit the RESET PASSWORD link (https://community.teachforaustralia.org/HigherLogic/Security/ResetPassword.aspx) and you'll receive a link to choose a new password. Make sure it's secure and you save it somewhere safe. 

Tips:

• Check your spam folder if the email doesn't arrive
• You might need to speak with your IT administrator if you have strict firewalls that may restrict your ability to receive external emails from specific systems or providers

If you're still having trouble logging in or resetting your password, email community@teachforaustralia.org and we’ll help.

Q: How do I change the email address my account is registered to? 

A: We'll need to manage this for you - simply email community@teachforaustralia.org and tell us your new email address. 

(We may need to give you a quick phone call to verify that it is you requesting this change). 

30 minutes after we've made the change, you'll be able to log back on using your updated email address and your existing password.

2. Profile, Settings & Notifications

How you manage your identity and important settings on the Hub

Q: What is my Profile all about?

Your Hub Profile is where you share information about yourself that’s relevant to the TFA work you’re doing, and that you'd like to share with your fellow community members.

There you can:

• Upload a profile picture
• Provide your contact details, including relevant social networks
• Write a personal bio
• List your education history
• Provide your job history

It’s the place to share your TFA status - are you an Associate, a Fellow, an Alumni, a Staff member, or several of these? 

You can also share relevant study, professional accomplishments and subject matter expertise - are you a STEM guru, or a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion specialist?

The more you’re comfortable sharing, the more you’ll get out of connecting and collaborating with fellow members (always only share what you’re happy to have accessible by other members of the TFA community).

Your Profile is where you control your Hub settings, such as privacy and notifications.

Q: How do I access my Profile?

You can get to your Profile at any time by clicking directly on your Profile picture and name in the upper right hand corner of the Hub.  

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(If you have notifications in your inbox, they’ll show as red numbers on your profile picture).

Q: How do I add or change things on my Profile?

A: Click into your Profile and you’ll see a variety of fields you can choose to fill out.

To upload or edit your Profile picture, click Actions under your blank avatar, then choose Change or Delete. You’ll be asked to upload a new image if you’re changing it - select from storage systems or platforms like Box, or your own device. 

You’ll see a preview of your image (cropped to fit). Click Save and Upload.

To add or edit biographical or information fields, click into them and fill out the sections you choose. Click Save at the bottom of the screen, and your Profile will update.

To Edit or Delete these, click the Pen or Trash icon next to that item.

Q: How do I control the information that’s visible on My Profile?

A: Go to your Profile page, then select My Account, then choose Privacy Settings from the drop-down menu:

This section lets you control what information is visible to whom, including whether you want to opt out of the Directory entirely.

After you’ve made changes, click Save Changes at the bottom of the page.

We recommend you strike a balance between your security and sharing meaningful information that can help us build a useful community home together.

Q: How can I control the frequency and format of emails I receive from the Hub?

A: Go to your Profile and click on the My Account tab. 

Choose Community Notifications from the drop-down menu. On that page, there are three subscription options: 

• Real time: sends an email every time something new is posted to the Community
• Daily digest: sends one email to you each day, consolidating all of the Community content from the previous day.
• No Email: allows you to be part of the Community without having emails sent to you. You can still interact as usual if you log in.

Q: What are the different menus and tabs within my Profile?

There are four main areas in your Profile:

• My Connections
• My Contributions
• My Account
• My Inbox

My Connections

To make it easy to view and message your Contacts (people you've chosen to connect with), these connections are accessible from the My Connections menu in your Profile.

• Contacts - Here, you can see the people you've connected with, either by sending invitations they've accepted or by accepting theirs.
• Communities - Here you’ll see a snapshot of all the TFA Communities you’re currently a part of (including any you may have created)
• Following - This page lists all content you've followed across your Communities, providing a one-stop shop for you to quickly jump to the things you’re most interested in

My Contributions

This section in your Profile highlights your contributions to the different TFA communities you’re a part of - divided into a Summary, Achievements and a Contributions List:

• Summary - This page provides a breakdown of your earned achievements and points, along with a graph providing a breakdown of all the content you've contributed. You can click the graph and its index to see the content itself.

• Achievements - This page lists any Badges and Ribbons you may have earned through your participation in the TFA Hub.

• List of Contributions - This page shows all of your contributed content in one handy, scrollable list.

My Account

From the My Account section of your profile, you can manage a number of important settings and preferences.

• Privacy Settings - TFA has set default privacy settings for your profile information, and you can update these at any time, giving you complete freedom over the personal information you want visible to other users viewing your profile.
• Email Preferences - This is where you set the email address where you'd like to receive email communications from across your Thrive Community. In addition, you can control what email messages you want to receive at this address by toggling the various email categories to YES or NO.
• Community Notifications - On this page, you can manage your community subscriptions, establish notification overrides, and create Consolidated Digests. Note: You will always receive these messages in your Profile inbox, regardless of these settings: opting-out only controls whether a category's associated messages are sent to your email address.
• Discussion Signature - Here, you create an optional signature that can be added to the bottom of each of your Discussion posts. TFA has provided some optional fields you can automatically populate from your Profile if you like.

My Inbox

Your Hub inbox works just like email or private messages on a social network.

It stores messages you've received from other members, as well as system notifications you've received (such as contact requests, community invitations or comments on your content). 

You can reply, delete and manage messages as you wish.

The search bar enables you to quickly locate specific types of messages or all messages from a specific person, or of a specific title. It's especially useful if you have a large number of messages in your inbox.

Here, you can mark messages as read or unread and delete selected messages (if you want to delete all messages at once, check the ALL box to select them all).

To send a message to another member: Click Compose, use the editor to write your message, then hit Send.

3. Contacts & Connections:

Finding & interacting with other people in the Hub

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 users based on basic criteria, such as first and/or last name or email address.

Switch to the “Advanced Search” tab to refine your search results by:

• City
• State
• Country
• Community
• Education

Remember: You can only find people using information they’ve included on their Profile and chosen to make public.

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

A: There are a couple of ways to add contacts. 

When you search in the Directory, you’ll see an Add as contact button to the right of each person in your search results. 

Click this to send them a contact request.

If you’re viewing someone’s profile, you can click the Contact request link to the right of their profile picture to do the same.

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

A: Creating your Hub address book makes it easy to send your contacts messages and stay in professional contact.

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).

4. Member Home

Your checkpoint when you visit the Hub
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Q. What is your Member Home page?

A: It’s that place you’ll first arrive at and you’ll see what’s happening in your social feed and around your Communities. 

It’s the best starting point when you’re logging on.

It contains:

• Headline news and content for you
• Your key profile details 
• Quick links to important stuff that TFA or Community Leaders have added for you
• A feed of the latest Discussions a nd Library items added to your Communities
• Upcoming Events
• Quick links to things you’re Following
• Quick links to Contact the Community Manager and your Community Guidelines
• Details on the most engaged members in your Communities (how do you compare?)

5. Communities: Discussions, Libraries & Events

What are they, how do I join them and what do we use them for?

Q: What are Communities?

A: Communities allow you to participate in discussions and share resources with other members. It’s our shorthand for describing groups in the wider TFA community you can participate in.

Communities can be part of a specific program (such as TFA Associates or the Future Leaders Program), they may reflect your relationship to TFA (such as Alumni), or they may be specific Communities of practice, affinity or action fellow members have created (such as a group for educators working in regional Victoria, or a group for LGBTQI+ Alumni).

Q: What Communities do I already belong to?

A: Go to Communities in the Hub navigation menu. Select My Communities to view the communities you currently belong to. 

When you first join the TFA community Hub you’ll be added to specific Communities relevant to your status and what you’re working on (such as Associate, Future Leaders or Alumni). 

If you think you’re in a Community by mistake, email community@teachforustralia.org and we’ll help you sort it out.

Here you can also see All Communities across the Hub that are publicly listed.

Q: How do I join/subscribe to a Community?

A:  Click on Communities in the Hub navigation menu and click on All Communities in order to see a list of available communities. 

Click on the Community you want to join.

If it’s available to you, you’ll see a Join button to click (then choose a notification option for posts in that Community - Real Time, Daily Digest or No Email.


(Note that some announcements or system notifications will still be sent to you).

If you don’t see a Join option, alas, that Community is private and unavailable to you at this time.

6. Discussions

What they are, how to find and join them?

Q: What is a Discussion?

A:  Conversations that make up the DNA of our community as a whole. They work just like most other social media you’ve used, Comments are posted to a thread, and threads accumulate into a discussion forum for each Community.

Anybody can start or join a Discussion in a Community they’re in.

Q: How do I view Discussions for a specific Community?

A:  Conversations that make up the DNA of our community as a whole. They work just like most other social media you’ve used, Comments are posted to a thread, and threads accumulate into a discussion forum for each Community.

Anybody can start or join a Discussion in a Community they’re in.

Discussions you’re involved in or following appear in the centre of your Member Home page as a feed (alongside other Community updates). This is generally the easiest way to keep track of your Community activity.

You can also see all Threads on your Community main page. Click on Threads and you’ll see a full list of conversations:

Q: How do I start a new Discussion thread?

A: There are three main ways.

The most common is to visit the Community you want to post in.

Go to Threads/Discussions and click on Start New Thread on the right-hand side.

You can also post a new Discussion by clicking on Create, next to your Profile in the upper right-hand corner, and choosing Discussion from the drop-down menu:

Lastly, you can post directly from a Hub email for a particular discussion forum. Simply click the Post Message link at the top of the email.

Q: When should I start a new Discussion thread?

A: The Hub is for sharing information and resources, building a knowledge network together, and reaping the benefits of learning and work-out-loud.

Here are some times you might like to start a new Discussion:

• Sharing a link or item of interest for member to discuss together
• Sharing a discussion prompt that invites diverse answers and perspectives
• Asking for specific information or assistance 
• Celebrating achievements and victories along the way with peers

Q: How do I reply to others’ Discussion posts and threads?

A: To respond to a discussion post, go to that post and click Reply to Discussion to post your message to the entire community.  

To send a message to the only author of the post, select Reply to Sender (in the Reply to Discussion drop-down). 

If you’re subscribed to email notifications, you’ll notice you can also reply from within your email directly, rather than logging on to the main Hub. This can be handy if you’re in a hurry, on-the-go, or don’t want to open new tabs on a desktop.

We recommend replying to the person individually for simple reactions or comments like “me, too” (that won’t add much to the conversation as a whole), and replying to the entire community when you’re sharing knowledge, experience or resources that others could benefit from.

Q: How do I see a listing of all Discussions in a specific Community?

A: Locate the Community you are interested in viewing from the appropriate Communities page. Click through the Community's landing page, then click on the Discussions or Threads tab. 

If you see a post you’re interested in, click the subject line which will take you to the entire thread. 

Show Original Message at the bottom of all of the posts in a thread will display the original message that started that discussion.

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

A:  Go to your Profile and click the My Account tab. Choose Community Notifications from the drop-down menu. 

Here, you will see a list of available communities and those to which you’ve subscribed. Select Leave Community under the Actions column for the Discussions you wish to leave.

Note: If you’re part of a Community associated with a TFA Program, we ask that you don’t leave the Community without talking to us first. It’s important you participate here, and if there’s something preventing that we can work to resolve it together so you get the most out of your TFA experience.

7. Libraries

How do we organise our resources and information?

Q: What are Libraries?

A: Libraries are the main organisational tool for uploading, managing and accessing files and resources within TFA Communities.

They’re where you’ll find policies, handbooks, slide decks, videos, and other resources that you’re working with as part of your TFA experience.

 Libraries are a key tool in building our shared knowledge repository together.

Q: How do I view the Library for a specific Community?

A: Go to your desired Community page. Click through the Community's landing page, then click on the Library tab (next to the tab you’ll see how many items are in the Library).

You’ll see a full interface of that Community Library, including any folders and separate sections it contains.y resources, events, and more. 


(Note that tagged items come first in search results. Click on tags in your search results to filter by tag).

Q: I need to find a specific resource for a Program. Help! 

A: You’ve got a couple of options. Go to the Community for your Program and click on the Library tab. Scroll through until you find the item you need.

Search for the item directly in the global Search bar, right next to your Profile in the upper right-hand corner. Type the name of the item (or keywords relating to it) and hit enter. It should come up in search results immediately.

Often Community administrators will make sure important documents are pinned to the top of the LIbrary, or within a key Discussion post or Announcement - you may find it there.

8. Events

What are they, where do I find them and use them?

Q: What are Events?

A: Events are a calendar tool that Hub members can use to promote and view any kind of events relevant for their community.

Community leaders and administrators will post event details for members to learn about - such as training sessions, webinars, offline coffee catch-ups, courses, conferences and more. 

You’ll find TFA facilitated events, but also external events people have shared that are relevant for your Community.

Q: Who can post Events?

A: It will depend on the Community and your member status.

Usually only Community leaders and administrators will post events, but in some groups members can upload their own (and are encouraged to).

If you have this ability you’ll see an Add Event button on the right-hand side. 

Q: How do I find Events posted to my Community?

A: Visit your Community and click on the Events tab. This will show you all the Events posted by your Community leaders and administrators. 

Q: Can I view all the Events across the TFA Community?

A: Yes - you can view all publicly posted and shared events across different TFA Communities by clicking on Events in the top navigation bar of Hub.
The direct URL for this is: https://community.teachforaustralia.org/events/calendar if you want to bookmark it.

This is a great spot to stay across everything happening that might be interesting or relevant to you. (Make sure you check the event details to see if it’s something you’re able to attend).

Q: Can I save Event details to my calendar?

A: Click on a specific Event, then click Download to Your Calendar on the upper right-hand side.

This gives you the option to save the event details to your calendar of choice.

9. Search

Finding things around the Hub

Q: How do I find content I need, or am curious about?

A: Use the global Search bar, right next to your Profile in the upper right-hand corner.


Type your keyword/s and hit enter.

Everything that’s not private on the Hub relating to that term will be retrieved.

You can filter and refine your results using a range of categories on the left-hand side:
You can also sort by Relevance and Recency on the right-hand side.

Q: Can I search for specific file types?

A: Yes. Enter your keyword/s in the main search box. 

From the search results page, click Show Advanced Search.  

Then click on Search for Specific File Types. This gives you the option to specify file type: Document, Image, Spreadsheet, etc. to filter your search results.

Q: Can I search for content across all Communities?

 A: You sure can - in fact, that’s the default. 

First, enter a keyword in the Search bar located in the main navigation and content of any kind (Discussions, resources in a Library, Event details), will be retrieved. 

To refine your search results, select Show Advanced Search.

If a Community is private and unavailable to the wider Hub, you will not be able to access their content through Search. Instead, you might talk to the Community leaders or members and ask about the content you’re interested in.

10. Safety & Moderation

The why, what and how of how we all keep our Hub safe

 

Q: Is the TFA Hub moderated?

A: Yes. We believe consistent, proactive moderation (as part of community management) is an essential part of a healthy and safe online community. Our Community Manager is a trained moderation professional and is responsible for overseeing moderation on the Hub.

Community administrators can also moderate if needed, and all members have a role to play in reporting content or behaviour that’s in breach of our Community Guidelines and our shared community values (more on that below).

Q: How does moderation work?

A: The TFA Hub is moderated for legal and regulatory purposes (e.g. hate speech or harassment, defamation, copyright breaches, restricted content), as well as cultural and social purposes (e.g. Is anyone feeling unsafe or uncomfortable? Is someone being intolerant of diverse viewpoints? Is someone behaving in a way that could hurt their professional reputation?)

We use both Reactive Moderation and Post-Moderation

Reactive: Someone alerts us to an issue (via the Report Inappropriate content button, by emailing community@teachforaustralia.org, or telling us in-person) and we respond as required.

Post: The Hub is consistently and systematically reviewed for issues and concerns (such as a breach of Guidelines), and any necessary intervention is taken.

When assessing a situation and taking an action, moderators consider legal responsibilities, cultural and social responsibilities, duty-of-care to individuals and to the community as a whole. They weigh benefits and risks and take actions to reduce or remove harms wherever possible.

We believe that we all have a role and responsibility to keep the Hub safe, productive and enjoyable.

We are compliant with Australia’s Online Safety Act (2021).

Q: How do I report content or a problem? 

A: If you see a Discussion post or a Library item  that you believe breaches our shared Community Guidelines, or that causes you concern, please let us know.

When you’re on the Discussion post or individual Library entry, click the Actions menu on the right-hand side of the content.

 Click Mark as Inappropriate.

You’ll be asked to provide some context about why you’re concerned. Please give as much information as you reasonably can under the circumstances. You may choose to indicate how urgent you believe the issue is.

Click Submit and the item will be immediately removed from the Hub for moderation review.

Q. What happens if I need a moderator's urgent attention outside office hours?

A: If you experience an emergency or urgent matter while using the Hub regarding your safety, you may contact the Community Manager via community@teachforaustralia.org or +61 435 217 315.

If you believe you are in physical danger, please contact legal or medical authorities in your area immediately or find safety with people you trust.

If something you have experienced on the Hub that has prompted mental or emotional distress, please reach out to support services best placed to assist you, such as Lifeline (13 11 14) or Beyond Blue (1300 22 4636).

Q. Will I be notified if something I post is edited or removed from the Hub? 

A: Yes - you’ll usually receive both a Private Message notification to your Inbox and an email letting you know there’s been an issue and offering context. You can contact community@teachforaustralia.org if you have any questions.