I have an online class right now where most of the students don't go by their given name (Matthew is Matt, Jeffrey is Jeff, and, oddly, Everett is "Geno", etc.). Could their given name be in the database under INFO for each student, but their DISPLAY name be what they prefer to be called? It would be especially helpful for threaded discussion where the students keep referring to one another by their formal names. The personal touch would be nice.
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8 comments
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Carlos Marin It would also help for the alias to be available to choose from in Communication Plans, e-mail and letter templates. It's rather counteractive to try to be personable when you use a name they don't use. Thanks!
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Adam Sentz @Brian - You can enter "preferred name" on contacts in Populi. When preferred name is entered it will be substituted for their first name in many places throughout Populi. When you are adding a new person you can put their preferred name in quotation marks, or you can just edit their name from their profile and add it to the preferred name field. Let us know if there's somewhere you'd like to see it used where it isn't already.
@ Carlos - I believe we already substitute preferred name for first name where applicable in the areas you mentioned. Let us know if it's not working for you.
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Brian Dunbar Adam,
I didn't realize this was an option. I don't have administrative privileges, so I wasn't aware that this could be done when entering or editing student information. I'll touch base with the people on our end who enter student information to get it resolved here. Thanks!!
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Adam Sentz @Brian - you need, at minimum, the Staff role to edit a contacts name.
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Brian Dunbar The status of this says, "done," but here's the problem. If you click on a student's profile, you can see their name with what they prefer to be called, i.e., "Everett 'Geno' Pyse." Most of my students aren't doing that. In our DISCUSSIONS, his name just shows up as "Everett Pyse," and everyone is calling him "Everett" although he never goes by that and strongly prefers "Geno." If there is a way to make the online learning component more PERSONAL, it would be greatly appreciated!
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Adam Sentz @Brian - Sorry we weren't using preferred name in discussions already. I patched it up for you.
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Ryan Griffith @Adam - Is it possible for the email feature to list the preferred name as the FROM name? In other words, when I send an email, it comes from "Christopher Griffith" even though my preferred name is listed as "Ryan." Those of us who had parents who used the strange convention of calling us by our middle names would be greatly appreciative.
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Adam Sentz @Christopher - Thanks, I'll make a note of that.
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