FREQUENTLY ASKED TECHNICAL QUESTIONS

How do I Get Started with the Course?

Firstly, it is good to be familiar with the Welcome Pack.
 
To change your “Display Name”
Go into My FBT on the Foundations of Buddhist Thought site (top left).
Log in if you haven’t already.
Go to “Your Account Details.”
In the menu on the left go to “Account Details”
There you can choose “Display Name”.
 
To get into the Forum & write an entry
Go into My FBT on the Foundations of Buddhist Thought site (top left).
Log in if you haven’t already.
Go to “Your Learner Dashboard.”
Go down the list of courses in red to “Visit Your Forum: September 2020 Peter’s Group”, for example
Click on “Go to Forum” in red
Scroll down to your forum “September 2020 Peter’s Group” and click on it to enter.
Under Topic, you will see two for now.  
First click on “Welcome & Introduce Yourself.”
Later, once you’ve done the reading etc, you will go into “Your Week 1 Discussion.”
Scroll down past the other entries to the box under “Reply to: Four Noble Truths: Welcome & Introduce Yourself.”
Write your entry in there.
Press “Submit”.
 
To get into the course.
Go into My FBT on the Foundations of Buddhist Thought site (top left).
Log in if you haven’t already.
Go to “Your Learner Dashboard.”
Scroll down to 01: The Four Noble Truths in red
Click on the writing “Welcome & Orientation” and go from there.
Click on each of the topics, first being “viewing:…”  
Click on the circle to mark you have done it.
Don’t forget to press “Mark Complete” (yellow button) after you’ve finished all the topics, and then the red button to move on to next week.
You will see that you reach the forum from there too, it is the same with each of the Weeks.
 

How do I upload a photo or avatar to use in my Forum, or for commenting on the FBT Blog?

It seems our developer wasn’t able to get this to happen through the ‘Account’ page, which is where you change most of your profile details.  Instead, you need to go to WordPress.com and create an account using the same email address you have used for the FBT Course. WordPress will automatically send you on a journey of setting up a blog or website.  There is no need to bother with this.  Instead, go back to your email inbox where WordPress.com will have sent you a confirmation email.  Clicking through this (or just clicking here:  https://wordpress.com/me ) will take you to WordPress.com/me, where you will be able to upload a small photo or thumbnail and change your user details. The next time you use that address to log in to your FBT Course account your picture should just show up.  

If you already have a WordPress.com account registered under that email, (but clearly haven’t yet uploaded a photo – otherwise it would appear in the FBT stie) then login.  You may be asked questions about the blog or website you want to set up. Ignore all this. Instead google https://wordpress.com/me  and you will be able to upload a small photo or thumbnail and change your user details.  

Somewhat mysteriously (to us, at least), the passwords and usernames do not need to be the same for your FBT Course account and your WordPress account – it seems the photo will follow your email address when in WordPress anywhere. The good news is that your photo should now appear on all WordPress sites you are registered with as a user using that email address.

I'm having trouble making a payment for the course.

This happens occasionally.  We’ve made a step by step document to serve as a guide, including screen images of the whole payment process.  Please use this document to help you.  If your payment still does not go through, it’s almost certainly due to a serious technical issue, and we advise you how to let us know about that at the end of the document.  Read the document here: Step-by-step Payment Guide.