Student Guide

Most courses (85%) have an online component using our course management system, Blackboard. Faculty post their syllabi and other course documents and assignments and library materials are placed on e-reserve. This allows students to gain access to course information at any time and from any location. Faculty also use Blackboard for threaded discussions, a way to keep the vibrancy of the course continuing outside of formal class meetings. Groups of students within a class can also use Blackboard as a shared space to post notes and project timelines, and to develop the project content.

Portfolios are being used extensively in our Business School and in individual departments, such as Modern Languages & Literatures, English, and Education. They are used both as tools to help students integrate their many academic experiences into one integrated whole, as well as a way for students to present their credentials to potential employers or graduate schools. We provide students with a series of portfolio templates that they may use or students may choose to build their own. The University allows students to maintain their portfolios after they graduate and we help students to create business card CDs of their portfolios to send to potential employers.

The University of Richmond has many different types of classrooms to meet the needs of faculty and students. These include classrooms in which every student has a computer, multimedia classrooms in which the instructor has a full range of technologies to enhance the classroom experience, and classrooms where equipment, including laptop computers, is brought in upon request. Every classroom on campus is equipped with at least one network jack and a TV/VCR and we are moving towards having wireless access in every classroom.

The technology resources of the University are available to all students, regardless of their major or the course in which they are enrolled. Project work is encouraged by our faculty in courses that span the curriculum. Students will be able to gain access to whatever they need to meet and exceed the professor's expectations.

Any course taken at another institution must be reviewed and approved prior to the credit being accepted by the University. Online courses are treated no differently.

The Technology Learning Center, located on the third floor of Boatwright Library, is a premier new media laboratory. Students will find all of the hardware and software they need to develop multimedia projects. This includes digital cameras and video cameras for loan, a photography studio, an audio recording studio, and five workstations devoted to digital video editing. The facility is staffed with highly-trained student assistants to ensure that students have the help they need to take full advantage of the facility.

The University of Richmond provides proxy server service which allows UR students to connect to the Libraries' online databases, electronic journals and books, and course reserves through any Internet provider service located off-campus. If you are a current student and your username and password has been activated, you just need to enter this information when prompted to use a database. Online access to Special Collections that have been digitized are also available on the library Web site. The UR Library Catalog does not require a password and is available to any interested user.

Interlibrary Loan Service (ILL) is available to University of Richmond students as an aid to research and study. Students should consult with a reference librarian before relying on interlibrary loan to ensure that the resources are not available locally. Once your item is received, Interlibrary Loan staff will notify you by telephone or e-mail. If an article arrives electronically, it will be delivered to you via e-mail. While the libraries subsidize the cost of this service for students, staff, and faculty, careful use of this resource is encouraged.

All first-year students are required to participate in a Library Skills course that teaches basic information fluency skills. These basic skills are reinforced and deepened through course assignments. Specific competencies are developed within each student's major discipline.

The University offers students the opportunity to develop specific skills through a variety of training opportunities, both formal classes and informal Web-based tutorials.

We also encourage students to consider a part-time job within Information Services. We provide extensive on-the-job training and help students to develop skills that will benefit them now and into the future.

Using Bannerweb, a totally Web-based system, students are able to view their contact information, class schedule, grades, an unofficial transcript, financial status and any financial holds on their account.

• Check admissions status: applicants can review a list of items still required to complete their applications.
• Register for, add, and drop courses: registration is done completely online
• Learn course grades: students can access course grades within 24 hours of when the faculty member has posted the grades
• Check progress toward completion of degree requirements: we prefer that students work with their academic advisor to ensure that they are making appropriate progress towards completing their degree
• View and print unofficial transcripts: these are accessible online at any time
• Make campus bookstore purchases: purchases can be made through the bookstore's Web site
• Students are not yet able to pay their bills online nor can they apply for and view financial aid awards.
• Students are able to renew library items online and check on which materials they still have checked out. They may also establish a personalized book bag of items from the catalog for future reference.

The University takes the requirement to protect student information quite seriously. We follow FERPA guidelines explicitly and use the guidelines when designing systems, policies, and procedures. All of our faculty and staff are trained regarding these policies.
 
We use sets of internal and external network access controls with multiple layers and we enforce a policy that all machines on the network are fully patched and virus-free. We require periodic password changes, have responsible use policies for the network, and we actively monitor and scan for security issues.

Our Help Desk staff assists students to ensure that their machines are fully patched and are virus- and spyware-free.

We view good security and privacy practices as the best defense from identity theft and that is why we have so many layers of protection, coupled with an active enforcement policy.

We do not use an individual's social security number as their University ID.

The University of Richmond notifies students annually through a SpiderByte message to all active students, giving them the URL from the Registrar's page which houses both the FERPA Act and the University's policy statement regarding FERPA.

Incoming students also receive a card, during orientation, detailing their rights as it relates to their educational record and whether they wish to sign a release to allow their academic advisors or dean to speak with their parents.

The University believes that we must ensure that network resources are available to meet the academic needs of our students and faculty. We do this by limiting the amount of network bandwidth that is available for non-academic pursuits. We guarantee bandwidth availability for normal protocols such as http. While we do not guarantee bandwidth for other applications, our policies of keeping the network clean assist in increasing available bandwidth for all legal uses.
 
We do not filter Web pages, however we will block pages or entire sites if they represent a security issue.

Absolutely. Our responsible computing policy is available online.

There are many useful ways that peer-to-peer file sharing can be used to enrich the educational experience and the University of Richmond works to ensure that our community has those advantages. Illegal uses of peer-to-peer file sharing are just that--illegal. The Responsible Computing policy makes this explicit.

The protection of intellectual property is an important issue on university campuses. Our faculty and students are both users and producers of intellectual property, with the creation of new knowledge building on the discoveries and insights of others. The University of Richmond fully complies with all associated laws and guidelines. Learn more about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The University requires that all students use a specific anti-virus software. We provide that software free-of-charge to all students and our Help Desk will assist students to ensure that their computers are properly protected.

We use a software program (SpamAssasin) to identify spam and provide the user with information on how to set their mail client to filter these messages.

Yes, we do and the e-mail address belongs to the student for life. Students receive an e-mail account as soon as they have been accepted and made their initial deposit. After graduation, students may keep their University e-mail address and forward their e-mail to a new e-mail provider, changing the forwarding address whenever necessary.

Yes, we do. These accounts are automatically created when the student activates their e-mail account.

The search function off the University homepage provides easy access to faculty and staff on-campus contact information, including their e-mail address. Students have the option of allowing access to this information online or declaring this information confidential.

All organizations and clubs are given space to create their own Web site and most do so.

The Career Development Center maintains an information-rich Web site that includes links to hundreds of publicly available websites. In addition, they subscribe to a number of employment and career resources to which students have online access.

We do not require students to purchase a computer. Most of our students (about 96%) do bring a computer with them and more are choosing laptops over desktops. However, if you do not bring a computer, you will find many machines available for your use.

The University has partnered with Attronica Computers to offer students several options when purchasing a new computer system and printers. Attronica Computers is a local vendor with a location on campus that provides technical support.

We publish our hardware and software standards every April after an extensive review process. Hardware standards are outlined in two categories: recommended and minimum specifications. The recommended specification outlines the specifications associated with the purchase of a new system. This is also the typical configuration purchased by the University for faculty and staff. The minimum specification outlines the minimum equipment configuration necessary for supported use on the campus network.

The standard office productivity software for the University is MS Office XP. Standard software is available on every public access machine and in every classroom. Support is available from the Information Services staff for any of the software that is in our standard and for most of the specialty software that are found in particular labs.

The University of Richmond Help Desk will attempt to diagnose hardware problems for students, but the Help Desk does not replace hardware on student-owned machines. Students may work with Attronica Computers (on-campus computer vendor) to purchase and repair equipment that may be out of warranty. We also recommend that you check with Attronica if your system is under warranty from the manufacturer, as they do perform warranty work for most PC manufacturers.
 
Support is available from the Information Services staff for any of the software that is in our standard and for most of the specialty pieces of software that are found in particular labs.
 
The Help Desk is open between the hours of 8:30 a.m. and 9:00 p.m. weekdays during the academic year.

The University employs a three-year replacement strategy for all faculty, staff, and lab machines.

Please see the student printing policy.

Higher quality printers and large format printing is available through the Technology Learning Center.