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myCourses

FAQs

• Where is my course?
• Where is my email?
• I cannot find the syllabus or outline, where do I find that information?
• How do I submit my assignment to the dropbox in my course?
• The professor says there are more discussion topics than the ones I see. How come I can't see them all.
• How do I see what I've submitted to the course Dropbox?
• How come I cannot create anything in the Discussions area?
• How do I chat in myCourses?
• Internet Explorer isn't letting me save Microsoft Office documents (.DOC, .PPT,. XLS, etc...) my professor has posted. How can I save these to my computer?
• How can I set up Internet Explorer 6.0+ to let me download files from myCourses and stop blocking myCourses pop-up windows?
• myCourses won't start and I get an error about RealPlayer. Or Everytime I log in to myCourses I get a message that says "Click to run ActiveX control on this webpage?" with "OK" as the only choice. What can I do?
• What are acceptable characters in filenames on myCourses?
• What information can faculty see about my usage of myCourses?

Where is my course?

By default, the categories in the Course Listing is collapsed. To see your course you will need to click on the '+' sign next to the appropriate category to expand the listing.

Students do not have access to courses until one week before the first day of classes. You will not see that quarter's category or any classes for that quarter until that time.

Student enrollments take one day to appear on myCourses after the have been processed by the Registrar's Office. They will not appear immediately.

If you still do not see your courses listed and you are sure they are listed properly with the Registrar's Office then please contact Support for assistance. Current Support contact information can be found on the My Home page of myCourses.

Where is my email?

Email sent to you through myCourses can be accessed at RIT Web Mail (http://mymail.rit.edu) using your RIT Computer Account information. Emails sent by you through myCourses are not logged or saved, but a copy of each sent message is automatically sent to your email address as well.

I cannot find the syllabus or outline, where do I find that information?

In this myCourses, all of the information for the course is located in the Content section instead of having a different section for each aspect. As a result, the syllabus, projects, lectures, and the course files will all be in the Content section.

How do I submit my assignment to the dropbox in my course?

1. Go into your myCourses course
2. Click Dropbox in the navigation bar
3. Click the corresponding dropbox folder for your assignment
4. Press the browse button and navigate the file upload window to the correct file
5. Select the file and press the Open button
6. Enter a description in the description box of your assignment
7. Press the upload button
8. The file will now be uploaded and accessible by your instructor

The professor says there are more discussion topics than the ones I see. How come I can't see them all.

The professor may have put some restrictions on some of the topics. For example, there may be a release condition meaning that you have to do something else before you can view that topic. Also, the professor may have put time restrictions on the topic so they can only be viewed within a certain time frame. Make sure you are within the time frame for the discussion topic and have fulfilled any release conditions.

How do I see what I've submitted to the course Dropbox?

1. Go into your course
2. Select Dropbox from the navigation bar
3. Press the History button at the bottom left of the Folder List window.
4. A list of submitted files will appear showing the file name, comments, and date submitted.

How come I cannot create anything in the Discussions area?

Students are not able to create any discussion topics, but can add messages and reply to messages in previously created topics.

How do I chat in myCourses?

1. First, go into the course you wish to chat in.
2. Once at your course home, select the Chat/Canvas link in the course navigation bar.
3. If your instructor has created a chat room, it will be listed in the Chat List.
4. Before entering a chat, you must first have the Java Runtime Environment version 1.4.2_x installed on your machine. Click here to download it.
5. Once the Java Runtime Environment is installed, you may click the name of the chat room to enter it.
• If, after clicking on the name of your chat room, you see a message asking you to save the 'mojo.jnlp' file you must save this file and the chat application will open automatically. To eliminate this message you must turn down the security level on your browser.
6. Once in the chat room, you will see a list of others in the chat on the left, the chat dialog will be in the bottom middle of the window, and the chat input area is at the bottom.

Internet Explorer isn't letting me save Microsoft Office documents (.DOC, .PPT,. XLS, etc...) my professor has posted. How can I save these to my computer?

Microsoft Office integrates itself with Microsoft Internet Explorer on Microsoft Windows machines. It's trying to be helpful and showing you those documents right away in your web browser.

On Windows XP you can override this feature and get a dialog which lets you choose an Open or Save option instead by doing the following:

1. Open My Computer on your Windows desktop.
2. On the Tools menu, select Folder Options.
3. Select the File Types tab.
4. In the list choose the file type you wish to view.
5. Click on the Advanced button.
6. Make sure the 'Confirm open after download' option is checked.
7. Press Ok.
8. Press Close.

How can I set up Internet Explorer 6.0+ to let me download files from myCourses and stop blocking myCourses pop-up windows?

Internet Explorer 6.0+ includes new security features to protect users from pop-up advertising and to try and prevent users from inadvertently downloading files which may have a virus. Unfortunately this can be annoying when you do need to download files or use pop-up windows. You can give myCourses "clearance" on your computer to keep Internet Explorer from intervening.

1. Under the Tools menu select Internet Options... to open the Internet Options dialog.
2. Click on the Security tab to change to those settings.
3. Click on the Trusted Sites icon which is a green Circle with a Check-mark on it.
4. Right below the icons click on the Sites... button to open the Trusted Sites dialog.
5. In the Add this Web site to the zone: field enter: https://mycourses.rit.edu
6. Click on the Add button.
7. Click on the OK button, this will close the Trusted Sites dialog.
8. Click on the OK button, this will close the Internet Options dialog.
9. Close all your Internet Explorer windows to quit the web browser.
10. You may now open Internet Explorer and use myCourses normally.

myCourses won't start and I get an error about RealPlayer. Or Everytime I log in to myCourses I get a message that says "Click to run ActiveX control on this webpage?" with "OK" as the only choice. What can I do?

RealPlayer has an issue with playing WAV sound files from a secure web site (https). myCourses is trying to play a beep sound when you log in becuase you ahve received a "Page" on the system. This will also be indicated by the tiger paw logo blinking. Click on the tiger paw logo to read your message. Step by step instructions on configuring Windows to Windows Media Player instead of RealPlayer for WAV files can be found here.

What are acceptable characters in filenames on myCourses?

Files posted on myCourses should use only alphanumerics [0-9a-zA-Z], or the special characters $-_.+!(), in their filenames.

The following characters cannot be used in files names, as they may be refused outright by myCourses or cause problems with downloading:

Even if myCourses does allow a file with these characters to be uploaded they will give errors when a user tries to interact with them. Most commonly the user will be told the file cannot be found or there was a "Bad Request".

The myCourses dropboxes will also list files with accented characters in their filename with the standard letters. The file may appear okay in the list when the file itself includes accented characters. For example the file ÀliçiäJournal.doc will be listed as AliciaJournal.doc. The only solution is to have the user post the file again without inappropriate characters in the filename.

What information can faculty see about my usage of myCourses?

Faculty see essentially the same information you see when you click on your "My Progress" link in the Welcome section of your myCourses home or on the "View Progress" icon next to your name in the Classlist. There are just three differences.

Faculty only see the information listed for the course(s) you are taking with them, not the cumulative view you have of all your enrolled courses.

The two remaining differences are with the Discussion section of the User Progress. With the grand summary -- Course Messages, User Authored, User Read -- the professor also sees a summary of those number for each Forum and Topic as well. The professor is also provided with a Details button for Discussions. This button provides them with a summary window listing the subjects of all messages posted by the individual they are viewing. They may click on a subject to quickly read the messages posted by the user. This details overview is used by many faculty to assist with grading quality over quantity in their Discussion areas.

Example Student view of the Discussions summary:

Example Faculty view of the Discussions summary, including the Details window: