Your profile, and what other people see

Your profile is reached from the menu under your name, top right. It holds how you appear to everybody else.

What is in it

• First and last name. Used wherever you are listed, and — this is the useful part — your surname is what an instructor searches the register by. A profile with no last name is harder for them to find.
• Display name, which is what actually appears beside your work.
• Photo.
• A short biography, if you teach.

Who sees what

It depends who they are:

• Other students see nothing of yours. No list of classmates, no names against anybody’s work.
• Instructors and assistants on your courses see your name and email address in the register, and your answers in the gradebook.
• Everybody sees your name, photo and biography on a course page — but only if you teach it. The Teaching staff panel lists the course’s instructors and assistants. Students and contributors are never on it.

Your biography

Only shown if you are listed as teaching staff, so most people can leave it empty. If you do teach, it is the one place a learner can find out who is running their course — two or three sentences is plenty.

Your photo

Shown beside your name in the Teaching staff panel. Non-square pictures are cropped to a circle from the middle, so something centred works best.

Your email address

Not changed here — see Changing your email address or password. It is your username as well as a contact address, so it is handled separately and more carefully.