Having Discussions in Mindomo

CEP806

Get an account

Please go to http://www.mindomo.com/index.htm, and sign up for a basic account.

Get an accountYou will be asked to provide a valid email address to receive a confirmation mail. Please BE SURE to use the email address you used to get registered for CEP806. (If you forget it, you can find it on the course site under the “Communication”— “Course Roster” tab). When you are done, go to the email address you provided, and activate your account.

Find the CEP806 discussion groups

After you activate the account, go back to http://www.mindomo.com/, and sign in. Under the “Home” page, check “public maps”, type in “cep806”, and click “Go”, you will find all CEP806 discussion groups.

Under the “Home” page, check “public maps”, type in “cep806”, and click “Go”, you will find all CEP806 maps.

Add the groups as favorites

Add each of them to “Favorites”, so in the future you can access them easily.

Go to the Sandbox

Go to “Favorites”, you will see a list of maps for CEP806. Double click “CEP806: Sandbox” to open it.

Go to the Sandbox

You are going to practice how to use the tool in the sandbox. Please do not post on other CEP806 groups for now. We will ask you to complete a few tasks in the sandbox.

Task 1: Add a starter post (1)

If you want to add a starter post to the discussion topic, first click on the “Central Discussion Topic” bubble, and click “subtopic” under the “Home” tab, then a “Main topic” bubble will appear.

Step 1: Select the “Central Discussion Topic” bubble

Step 2: Add a subtopic

Task 1: Add a starter post (2)

Change the words “Main topic” to your name. Select the bubble with your mouse, and add a note to it by click “Notes” under the “Home” tab.

Step 3:

Type in your notes here! You can also adjust the font and size.

Step 1: Select the bubble, and change the title to your name.

Step 2: click “notes” to add a note.

Task 2: Add a reply to a post (1)

Add a reply to a post on the map by selecting the post and clicking “Subtopic” under the “Home” tab.

Step 1: select the post you want to reply to

Step 2: Click “Subtopic”

Task 2: Add a reply to a post (2)

Add a reply to a post on the map by selecting the post and clicking “Subtopic” under the “Home” tab.

Step 1: select the post you just created, change the title to your name

Step 2: Click “Notes” under the Home tab, and write down your comment.

Task 3: Delete a post

Add a few more starter posts and replies, and then delete them by following the instruction below.

Step 1: select the post you want to delete

Step 2: Click “Delete”

IMPORTANT: Please don’t delete a post with replies. Otherwise, the replies will be deleted together with the post!!!!

Task 4: Add a floating post (1)

Add a few more starter posts and replies, and then delete them by following the instruction below.

Select “Floating topic” under “Home”- “Topic”, and click the place you want the floating post to be.

Task 4: Add a floating post (2)

Add links to indicate the posts you are related to.

Select “Relationships” under Home tab, and click the two bubbles you want to link together one by one.

Task 4: Add a floating post (3)

Add links to indicate the posts you are related to.

Use the yellow button to adjust the shape of the links.

Task 5: Zoom out to view the full discussion

Click “View” tab, and click “- Zoom Out”, and you will be able to see the discussion in full.

Use the yellow button to adjust the shape of the links.

IMPORTANT: If you did something wrong, please click the “Undo” button at the top left corner. Every time you finish editing, please click the “Save” button at the top left corner.

If you have any questions or problems regarding completing the above tasks, please email Fei Gao at gaofei1@msu.edu with your specific questions. She should be able to help you.

If we see a few bubbles in the sandbox with your name on them (Please title all the posts you created with your name in the Sandbox and in the subsequent group discussion!), and if we do not get any questions from you, we are going to assume that you have learned how to use the tool to have discussions.

After you have learned how to discuss in Mindomo, you can go to your group and start the discussion. Have fun!

A few more things…