Kaplan Community Participation Guidelines

Paul Bradley

Kaplan Community Participation Guidelines

Kaplan Community provides a trusted environment for the general public, our students and alumni to get answers, share ideas, collaborate, and learn best practices. This is a community designed to help all members upskill and collaborate, as well as to provide our students with private resources to augment their product experience and the career beyond it. The minute anyone enters the community, they are gaining a network of thousands of their existing and potential peers to collaborate with.  

This document — which functions as a subsidiary of the Terms of Use — is intended to serve as a definition of our participation guidelines in Kaplan Community and to encourage appropriate behavior so the Community remains a trusted environment. We want to encourage full participation from everyone here and this post is intended to document what is inbounds, out of bounds, and who to escalate things to, if a situation requires it. 

YOUR PARTICIPATION IN THE COMMUNITY

Be honest and transparent. As a member of Kaplan Community, we prefer that you do not participate or represent anonymously, or with a pseudonym. This is an enterprise business community where we encourage our members to represent themselves authentically to get the most out of the collaborative nature of the community.

What you can expect when you participate in Kaplan Community is an open, honest, and supportive exchange with a wide variety of professionals. We rely on our community members to notify us of behaviors that are inconsistent with these Community Participation Guidelines.

Users with anonymized profiles will be subject to more meticulous moderation. Testimonials or advocacy for Kaplan competitors from such accounts will not be permitted and any violation of the Terms of Use or these guidelines will trigger view-only status. In both scenarios, users will be given the opportunity to confirm their identity to reinstate posting permissions.

Always respect your audience. Please do not use ethnic slurs, personal insults, or obscenity. Please do not engage in personal attacks or disparage any other participant in this community. 

Get involved, but don’t spam. We encourage active participation from all segments of our population, but discourage blatant promotion of products or services, or recruiting / soliciting community members for employment. Other community members may monitor the community in order to help keep it a trusted and useful environment, free of self-promotion and spam. 

Think before you post. Before you post anything, please think about how it will be perceived. With the real-time web, there is no undo button. If something makes you even the slightest bit uncomfortable, figure out what needs to be changed, fix it, then post.

Also, please recognize that you are legally responsible for any content you post and that you may be subject to liability if your posts are found defamatory, harassing, violation of any applicable law, or our Terms of Use — in which we reserve the right to pull down content for being disingenuous or malicious towards other members; as well as Kaplan, its competitors, its students and its alumni.

You may not attempt to recruit other users for employment and Kaplan students are subject to any codes of conduct relating to the programs in which they are enrolled.

TIPS FOR ENGAGING IN THE COMMUNITY

Log in or register. First things first, you must be logged in to engage in the community. You can surf the site all you want while not logged in, but you must be logged in to join in the fun. 

Create your profile. In order to get the most out of the Community and build your network, take a few minutes to complete your community profile. 

Start by sharing your name, bio, employment information, location, etc. – then upload your picture, description, industry, location, etc.. Plus, add a little of yourself to each of your posts by setting a custom signature. 

Please note that your profile is not publicly visible, but can be seen by other logged in Kaplan Community members. 

Build your network. The Community is filled with dynamic and knowledgeable people that you need to know. Join conversations on topics that interest you and meet/connect directly with your fellow members. To send a private message to a user, click their username and select Message. 

Post discussions, questions and polls. Contributing original content is the best way to get the most out of any online community. Click New Post from anywhere in Kaplan Community – look for it at the top of your right-hand panel – and you can start a discussion, ask a question or even fire up a poll. 

Is there a solution that continuously eludes you? Do you have an insight or resource you’d like to share (if so, don’t forget to ask others for similar insights after you do)? Do you need feedback from people who are in your shoes – or who’ve been in them in the past – right now? Throw it out there! And after you’ve gotten so much great insight, don’t forget to thank your fellow members. 

Tip: If you ask a question, make sure to mark the response that helps you achieve a solution as “Best Answer” – that helps people with the same question get quick confirmation that they found what they’re looking for. 

Respond to and Like content. Kaplan Community is here to fuel your interests and the best way to let the community know its content interests you is to spark conversations with responses. Feeling a bit more shy? That’s ok, too. You can also flag your interest to fellow members by clicking Like on any post or response. Each time you do either of these things, we will be one step closer to giving you more of what you want. 

Follow Categories and get notifications – on-site and via email. A truly collaborative community is where everyone from the career curious to industry experts drive the content and determine what is most valuable. To stay on top of your interests, you’ll want to follow categories and manage your notifications. 

To follow a category, click the bell icon above any discussion queue. If you see a queue with no icon, that means it’s a parent category and you have to drill down to one of its sub-categories from that parent page to follow directly. Track your followed categories by receiving site and email notifications and in your Followed Content page. 

Adjust your email settings. You can receive email notifications for different activities and adjust your email settings for groups that you’re a part of. Additionally, you can edit email settings for groups.

Use search. One of the most common ways our members find great info is through search. A large search bar is located on the homepage and on every sub-community homepage – you will also find one via the magnifying glass icon on top-right on every page in Kaplan Community. It searches across the page or category you’re in at that time. You can filter your search to narrow results or remove all filters to search everything.

Suggest and vote on ideas. We’re listening! If you have a great idea for our product, suggest it in the Ideas section the Community. There are also thousands of ideas already out there, so help them bubble up to the top by commenting and voting. You never know, your idea might be the next great idea that impacts our product roadmap!

COMMUNITY TERMINOLOGY

Here some terms that will help you get the most out of the community:

Mention. When you post an update, you can mention a person or group name to make sure they see your update. Mentioning a person is a way to keep them informed when you're discussing something you chatted about with them / saw them chat about, relevant to their expertise and/or topics you know they’re interested in. Enter @ followed by the first few letters of the person's username and you’ll see options populate. Choose the person you want, finish your message, and post it! 

Bookmark. When you come across an important post that you want to stay up-to-date on or want to easily find again, you can bookmark it. Select the bookmark icon at top-right on any post and you will ensure your future access. 

Public Discussions / Communities. Anyone can see the group's posts, comments, and files, but only members can post, comment, and add files. Anyone can join a public group. 

Student(s) Discussions / Communities. Only members can see and add posts, comments, and files. People must ask to join or be added by the group's owner or managers. 

Like. By liking a post, you’re automatically connected to that conversation and receive notifications when someone adds a new comment. Liking can help you easily keep track of the posts in your feed that are most important to you. 

Private Messages. Private messages let you have secure, private conversations with other Community members. Use messages to send a question privately or to communicate with a few select people when a discussion isn't relevant to more than a few people.

Messages don't appear in your feed, your profile, global search results, or any other part of the Community that's publicly visible. 

Tagging. When you post you can associate your update with all other posts and comments on the same subject by adding a tag. This will help people find it easily and keep the community organized. Start typing relevant keywords in the tagging panel and select the right one when you see it. If you can’t find the right tag, simply click the tab button and it will create a new tag for you.