Frequently Asked Questions

You can add your picture to your MERLOT profile if you have it on a server or can provide a URL. To do this, log in to MERLOT and go to your profile by either clicking the My Profile tab or the Edit your Profile link, both on the home page. From your profile page, click the Edit link on the right side of the MERLOT Account Details box. Once on the MERLOT Account Details page, enter the photo URL in the Photo URL field and click Save. The other option, if you do not have a URL for your photo, is to send it to webmaster@merlot.org and it will get posted to your profile.

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Can anyone see the information I put on my profile?

Members and users of MERLOT can only see the information you have entered into your profile. This is different than what you see (once logged in) when you go to your profile page. Instead, you see all the fields that you are able to enter information. For example, if you do not include Education history information, that heading will not be visible on your profile for others to see.

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I have logged in but want to change my username and/or password? How do I do it?

To change your username or password after you are logged in to MERLOT, do the following:

Click on the My Profile tab at the top of the page (or click the Edit my Profile link on the right side of the home page after you are logged in)
The top box of your profile is titled MERLOT Account Details. On the right side of that box is an edit link.
Click the Edit link
On the MERLOT Account Details (edit mode) page, enter a new username or password in the respective field (and in the confirm password field if you are changing your password).
Click Save. You will be taken back to your profile page in MERLOT.

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Is there a way to export my profile information from MERLOT?

There is a new feature in MERLOT which allows you to export your profile to a text file. After you have entered your profile information, there is a link on your profile page in the Authorized users’ box, Jumpstart my CV. When a user clicks that link, a file download dialog box appears asking the user if they want to Open or Save the .rtf file. This is start in that it downloads all the information you have entered into your MERLOT profile saving you time in re-entering it elsewhere.

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Is my email address shared with others or do you keep them private?

Only MERLOT members can see other members email addresses. If a user is browsing in MERLOT and not logged in, they will not be able to see a members email address; only after they log in can they see other members’ addresses.

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Some of my information has changed, how do I update my profile with my new email address and other information?

It is very easy now to update your profile information in MERLOT. Once logged in to MERLOT, you can update your account details on your profile page. From the home page, click on the My Profile tab or the Edit Your Profile which will take you to your profile page. At the top of your profile page is a burgundy box, MERLOT Account Details. Click the Edit link on the right side of the box. From the MERLOT Account Details page that comes up, make any changes to your profile and click Save. Your information will be updated.

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I forgot my username and/or password, how do I get them so I can log in?

On the right side of the home page near the top is the log in area. There is a link if you forgot your username and a link if you forgot your password. From the Forgot Username page, you enter your email address and the log in detail will be sent. For Forgot Password, conversely you enter your username and your password will be sent. Your password will be reset when it is sent to you.

If you email address has changed, you can send an email to webmaster@merlot.org and have your log in details sent.

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I joined MERLOT some time ago but forgot my information. Can you help me log in?

If you email address has changed, you can send an email to webmaster@merlot.org and have your log in details sent. You can also have your username or password sent to you from the home page. Click the appropriate link and have the information sent.

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Where can I find out if my school is a partner with MERLOT?

MERLOT provides a variety of tools and services to improve the quality of online materials, learning and pedagogy. If your school is a partner, you can locate them in the complete list at http://taste.merlot.org/allpartnerlist.html. If you are interested in becoming a partner and help increase the number of high quality online teaching and learning materials for faculty to use in their courses, contact Gerry Hanley, Executive Director of MERLOT at ghanley@calstate.edu

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We are a corporation looking to partner with a digital library such as MERLOT. Who do I contact for more information?

There are different categories of partnership within MERLOT. For an overview, see http://taste.merlot.org/partner_sum05-06.pdf Collaborating with MERLOT as a partner allows you to develop and promote services and resources that benefit our constituents; pursue and acquire grants to achieve shared goals, among other items outlined at http://taste.merlot.org/becomecorporate.html

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Is there a way to find out who from my institution is a member of MERLOT?

The fastest way to see who from your institution is a member of MERLOT or has contributed materials to MERLOT is to do an advanced search of members at http://www.merlot.org/merlot/advSearchMembers.htm Some of the fields to narrow the search include name, email address, organization or association. You can also search materials for a members name, email address or organization at http://www.merlot.org/merlot/advSearchMaterials.htm

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Faculty members at our university have been talking about MERLOT and are interested in a partnership. Who do I contact for more information?

You can find information on becoming a partner with MERLOT in our Partner Support and How To Get Involved sections of this About Us..

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Does MERLOT share their members email addresses?

No MERLOT does not share member email addresses or sell the list to other organizations. MERLOT member email addresses are available only to MERLOT members when the member is logged in.

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How often does MERLOT send emails to its members?

MERLOT does its best not to flood members with emails. As part of your membership of MERLOT, you will automatically receive an educational newsletter, The Grapevine, a few times a year. If at any time you do not want to continue receiving the newsletter, feel free to unsubscribe. From time to time, MERLOT also sends information to its members. MERLOT never sells or distributes its membership list.

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What is MERLOT’s involvement with Learning Management Systems?

MERLOT has determined that through the marketing efforts of leading LMS vendors, our collection and services will be exposed to hundreds of thousands of higher education instructors and their students, worldwide. This exposure can lead to increased partnership possibilities, an increase in the number of individual MERLOT members, and the potential for significant growth of our collection. Since all of these companies also have aggressive international sales programs, partnering with them will significantly improve the quality of our services that will offer through the GLOBE initiative.

MERLOT has signed Partnership MOU's with Desire2Learn, Angel Learning, and (prior to their merger) Blackboard and WebCT - without conferring specific MERLOT "approval" on any one of them. Our strategy was and continues to be to work with vendors such as these so that MERLOT will be exposed to an increasingly large number of higher education faculty who will see the MERLOT website as they use one of these LMS's. For more information, visit http://taste.merlot.org/lms.html

If your university has a LMS system and you wish to see what MERLOT has to offer in the way of content, please obtain a key at http://fedsearch.merlot.org:9090/jaxrpc-MerlotKey/keysignup.html

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I found your website and see that it’s very complimentary to ours. I would like to suggest a link sharing relationship or allow us to advertise on www.merlot.org. What is your procedure to do have this reciprocal relationship?

MERLOT does not allow advertising on website. If you have a site that would be beneficial to MERLOT members, please join MERLOT and feel free to add the site. Membership is free.

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I see an orange RSS button on some of the pages, what RSS feeds can I get from the MERLOT site?

You can save an RSS feed from any material search in MERLOT. Once a search has been conducted, frosm the search results page, click the RSS button at the bottom. You will be taken to a page that lists the XML file. You can cut and paste the file into a RSS reader of your choice. For more information on readers, go to http://taste.merlot.org/rss.html

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Where can I get access to your RSS feeds for my website?

The MERLOT RSS functionality (http://taste.merlot.org/rss.html) has been created to allow controlled, distributed access to MERLOT data for display on websites beyond MERLOT. The format is designed to make it easy to incorporate MERLOT content into a large number of websites, portals, and applications that otherwise would not be able to display MERLOT content (or would have a much more difficult time doing so). RSS allows current MERLOT content to be displayed on anyone's web site. With RSS the content updates automatically given additions to the MERLOT materials collection. The content is displayed using the RSS format (a standards-based XML format that has been widely accepted for the syndication of frequently changing content such as news).

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How many discipline communities are in MERLOT? Are new ones being formed? How do I get information about the discipline communities?

There are currently 15 discipline communities in MERLOT, each with its own community portal, full of information specific to that discipline. http://taste.merlot.org/disciplinecommunities.html

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What do I do if a link to a material doesn’t work?

MERLOT runs a link checker on a monthly basis but since we don’t store the materials, some links change quicker than we can find them. If you come across a bad link, please email the URL of the material page in MERLOT. Every effort will made to locate the correct URL and update the detail page. If you come across a material where the URL link is bad, please send the name of the material and the URL to the MERLOT Webmaster.

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How do I save materials to a personal collection? Can I have more than 1 personal collection?

A personal collection is a great way for a member to save a number of materials to use in a course or to group together without having to bookmark each one on your computer. As a member of MERLOT, you can have a multitude of personal collections. To save a material to a personal collection, it is done from any material detail view page. You can see a box on the right side, Add Your Own. (This is only visible if you are logged in to MERLOT). From that box, you can select to add the material to a new personal collection or an existing one listed in the drop down menu. After you decide where it will be placed, click the Add button below the drop down. You will see a pop up window to enter additional descriptive information. Once you save, the material will be added to the collection.

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How can I edit a material without going through all 5 steps of the wizard?

If you are the submitter of a material or the author, you can edit the material. On the detail view page of a material, click the Edit Material link on the right side of the page. At the top of each edit page, are links to each step. As you edit, you can jump between pages to only go to the ones you have to make changes to. You will have to go to Step 5 to submit the changes.

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How do I select categories for the materials I submit?

The subject category defines the material by discipline so others can search and find it easily. You can include multiple subject categories for a single material in MERLOT. By including as many as you think it fits into, more members can locate it in a search.

Based on the material you are contributing to MERLOT, select the primary category that fits best from the list of categories in the drop down menu. Once you select your primary category, it will be shown above the drop down. The drop down menu will then repopulate with a more detailed list to narrow your focus as deeply as you want, given the category.

You can continue to select sub-categories which will be displayed above the drop down. If you wish to change any level of the categories selected, click on the title link and you will taken back to that level. By selecting UP from the drop down, you remove the most recent choice of category selection and can re-select a category topic.

This process will continue until you are have reached the lowest level of subcategories. Click Add for the category to be added to the material metadata.

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I found a material perfect for a colleague’s course; how can I let them know about MERLOT?

From any material detail view page, you will find a Send to a Friend button towards the top right of the page. If you click on the button, a window will pop up where you will enter your friends name and email address as well as your own. There is a message populated in the message box with the URL of the material. Send this to a friend and they can link directly to the material in MERLOT.

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Can I contribute material to MERLOT if I don’t have a URL for the material?

MERLOT does not store the materials found in the collection. Only the metadata is stored on the MERLOT site. To maintain an accurate site, MERLOT runs a link checker on a monthly basis to ensure the validity of the materials. Every effort is made to maintain as many of the links as possible. For more information, contact the MERLOT webmaster at webmaster@merlot.org

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What does it mean if a material has a classic or editors’ choice award icon on its detail page?

The MERLOT Awards Program for Exemplary Online Learning Resources recognizes and promotes outstanding online resources designed to enhance teaching and learning. The awards honor the authors and developers of these resources for their contributions to the academic community by conferring the MERLOT Classics and Editors' Choice Awards. Each MERLOT Editorial Board selects an outstanding, peer-reviewed resource in its discipline to receive its annual MERLOT Classics award according to program criteria. The MERLOT Editors' Council reviews the designated Classics award winner from each discipline and selects, from among them, those resources considered to be exemplary models for all disciplines. The Council then confers upon these exemplary resources its highest honor, the MERLOT Editors' Choice Award. For more information, visit, http://taste.merlot.org/awardsoverview.html

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I am puzzled about the way the overall ratings are computed and displayed on a hit list in MERLOT. Can you explain?

An overall rating is disjoint from the other peer review ratings and can be anything the reviewer wants to give it. For example, a material can have a rating of 5, even though its components are 4, 3 and 4. If one site has three 5’s and another site has two 5’s and one 4, you would expect the former to be listed before the latter even though they both have overall ratings of 5. The truth is, when materials are ordered by rating, it's more than just the review rating; it is also awards, number of comments, number of personal collections, number of assignments, and the existence of a snapshot that are figured in to the ordering.

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As I browsed the list of MERLOT members, I wondered what the designations for gold level, silver level are. The key I found said each level corresponds to a particular number of points, but I didn't see an explanation for how a user gets points. What do these points and levels signify?

MERLOT tracks member participation in the services offered on this website and automatically presents contributors with awards commensurate with their participation. A member earns a point for each material they submit as well as a comment, assignment or a personal collection. A goal of MERLOT is to increase the number of faculty who successfully use academic technology in higher education. Our target is to achieve a “15% solution” where 150,000 faculty of the 1 million faculty members in North America are certified as having demonstrated skills in academic technology within 5 years.

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How do I become a peer reviewer?

The Peer Review Process for evaluating the teaching and learning resources in MERLOT follows the model of the peer review of scholarship. Faculty members are selected in accordance with MERLOT guidelines. The peer review process is led by Editors and an Editorial Board. For more information, please contact Cathy Swift at cswift@calstate.edu or visit http://taste.merlot.org/peerreviewprocess.html

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How many new members or materials have been added in the last 30 days?

Another new feature of MERLOT is the accessibility of information right on the home page. In the bottom left of the page. The information is continually updated to reflect the total number of members and materials and the number of recently added members and materials in the last 30 days. For more on what’s new in MERLOT including reviews, assignments, comments and more, go to http://www.merlot.org/merlot/whatsNew.htm

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