---
title: How do I get student names to appear in the sidebar with posts and comments tracked?
description: All blogs are setup by default to track all users that publish posts or comments on the blog. The feature that provides this tracking is called the User and Profile widget. If your site is not current
---

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# How do I get student names to appear in the sidebar with posts and comments tracked?

All blogs are setup by default to track all users that publish posts or comments on the blog. The feature that provides this tracking is called the User and Profile widget. If your site is not currently tracking user participation in the sidebar, please try the following troubleshooting steps.

1\) Verify that your User and Profile widget settings are correct. 

Make sure you have a page published to track participants. By default all blogs have a Participant Profile page created.

Go to settings \> User Widget and Profile and make sure that Select Profile Page is set to Participant Profile page.

Next, go to Appearance \> Widgets

Make sure the User and Profile Widget is in a widget sidebar for your theme. Drag the widget to the sidebar where you wish for it to appear.

2\) If your participants widget is active, but still is not tallying posts and comments by authors, please verify that the author has completed his or her profile information. The participants widget needs profile information in order to properly list the author. You may want to ask your students to complete their profile and avatar as an [assignment](https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DY85N7n2NyL97gvsnm8qcbJByuRdiX5PoI5EgSh7F40/edit?usp=sharing) for the class.

To verify that profile information is complete, have the user navigate to their dashboard and click on profile. All users should complete the First Name, Last Name, Nickname, and "Display name publicly as" fields. Once the participants widget has this information, the user should be listed correctly.

If this does not resolve the issue, please contact an educational technologist.

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