OIG Blackboard Orientation
Why Email is Important
Though the majority of your course work will take place in Blackboard, email is an important communication tool for online courses. Being able to communicate via email with your instructor and fellow students is essential.
How Email Works in Blackboard
When you're enrolled in a Blackboard course, your account information includes an email address. This allows your instructor to easily send email to students through Blackboard. For the majority of you, the email address listed for you in Blackboard will be your UNC email address. It gets activated when you create your Onyen. You can verify the email address Blackboard will have listed for you at the UNC Directory.
Changing Your Email Address
Although you can edit your listed email address in Blackboard, this WILL NOT permanently change it. Blackboard will update nightly with the email address listed for you in the UNC Directory. In just about all cases, the email address listed in the UNC Directory cannot be changed to a non-UNC email address.
About Your UNC Email Account
Your UNC email address is your Onyen followed by @email.unc.edu. For example, if your Onyen is myonyen, your UNC email address is myonyen@email.unc.edu. Your Onyen and password provide access to your email account. You can create an alternate email address, called an alias, at the Onyen website (under Electronic mail management). A typical alias is FirstName_LastName@unc.edu. Email sent to an alias address goes to the same account as your default address.
Options to Use Your UNC Email Account or a Different Account
Most of you will already have one or more personal or work email addresses and you may prefer to use that for your online courses. You cannot change the email address listed in Blackboard, but this does not mean you absolutely have to use your UNC email account to handle course email. Read Email Solution #2 below.
If you do not have an email account, or do not want to use your work or personal account for your course-related email, see Email Solution #1, below.
The Two Email Solutions:
To ensure that you have a convenient way to get email sent through Blackboard, choose one of these solutions:
- Use UNC Webmail: UNC has a completely online email system, called UNC webmail. It's accessible through the Onyen website (under Electronic mail management), or at http://webmail.unc.edu. With webmail, you do NOT have to go through the process of setting up a desktop email client, and you can use it from any computer with an internet connection.
- Forward your Email: If you definitely prefer to receive your course-related email at your current email address, you can set up an Email Forward at the Onyen website (under Electronic mail management). This will automatically forward any email sent to your UNC address to an alternate address you designate.
If you use solution #2, make sure that the email address you have your email forwarded to uses a reliable service and does not bounce back mail due to inbox size limitations.
Task To Complete 2
If you haven't already done so, we recommend going ahead and testing out your UNC email address. If you've chosen to forward your UNC email, you may decide to so now. (It only takes a minute.) If you've got an Onyen already, click the link below and follow the instructions.
Continue to the next section: 3. Technical Requirements and Recommendations