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IT 098: Orientation Overview (for everyone)
1. What is my New River username, password and email address?
Your New River email address is username@newriver.edu.
STUDENTS: Your username is usually your last name followed by an underscore "_" and then your first and middle initial added to the end (e.g., Tracy Viola Evans would be evans_tv).
FACULTY/STAFF: Your username is usually your first initial followed by your last name (e.g., Tracy Violoa Evans would be tvevans).
Currently, student usernames are created by Bluefield State College (VisualBasic script that works with Banner) and then adopted at New River for use on all systems. If you need to find your username, you may query our People Directory for your name. Initally, your password is your New River ID number and you should change it when you first login.
2. How do I access my New River email?
You can access your New River email from anywhere using a web browser. You will need your username and password as explained above. Open a web browser and go to this site http://email.newriver.edu. Faculty and staff who are on campus may also use an email application (Outlook for Windows or Entourage for Macintosh) to access their email but some technical support is required to configure this. Please contact us (itsupport@newriver.edu or 304.929.6725) to request this assistance.
3. How do I access Web Self-Service?
You can access Web Self-Service by using your New River ID number (9 digits) as your User ID and your 6-digit date of birth as your PIN. If you do not know your 9-digit New River ID number you may obtain it from any of our campus Student Services personnel or by contacting our Help Desk (304-929-6725 or itsupport@newriver.edu). You'll need to provide sufficient information to prove your identity to obtain the information.
4. How do I change my email password?
First, you must determine which password you wish to reset (email, WebCT and Web Self-Service currently use separate passwords). You can change your password for any of these services independently, but to change your email password please follow these directions. If you believe that any of your passwords has been compromised, please contact us (itsupport@newriver.edu or 304-929-6725) for assistance with resetting them. Identity theft is a real issue and taking some easy precautions can certainly save you much grief (more info about identity theft).
- If you are on campus and logged in to a Windows computer, you may press CTRL + ALT + DEL to change your password for both your computer and your email accounts at the same time.
- You may change your WebCT password after logging in by clicking on the Password Settings button at the top of the myWebCT screen.
- For Web Self-Service, after you login click Personal Information and then choose Change Your PIN.
When you reset your password it should conform to these requirements to be considered a strong password (Web Self-Service is an exception since it must be 6 characters):
1. be at least 6-12 characters
2. include at least one uppercase letter, one lowercase letter, and one number that is not at the beginning or end of the password
3. contain no spaces, and
4. not include any special characters (#, >, %, @, *, etc)
If you ever forget any of your passwords the New River User Support staff doesn't know your password but we can reset them for you.
5. What is the primary method of electronic communication at New River?
The primary method of communication at New River is your @newriver.edu email account. All New River email accounts are available from the searchable user directory. It is generally expected that communications sent to your New River email account will be received and read within a day or so. Instructors should communicate this expectation to students at the beginning of each semester.
6. How do I access WebCT?
You can access WebCT with the same username and password that you use for email (unless you've changed your WebCT password). The login page for WebCT is: http://webct.newriver.edu
7. How do I forward my email to another account?
Although your New River email account is your primary email account used for electronic communications, if you prefer not to check your New River email you can configure it so that all your New River email will be forwarded to an account that you do check frequently. Forwarding email from one account to another also allows you to easily consolidate your email messages and to check all of of your email more easily.
To forward your New River email to another account follow these steps:
1) Login to your New River WebMail account using a web browser (this is the URL http://email.newriver.edu
2) Click on Continue to see your list of email messages and to see the Personal Account Options drop-down button (see screen capture).
3) Click on the Personal Account Options button and choose Change Mail Forwarding Information (see screen capture). Type in the email address where you'd like to forward your mail and click Save.
8. What software is used at New River and how can I obtain a copy?
New River uses many software applications but the most commonly used include our operating systems (Microsoft Vista Business and Mac OS X 10.5) and our office applications (Microsoft Office 2007 for Windows and Microsoft Office 2008 for Macintosh). Our campuswide license agreement with Microsoft allows us to provide faculty and staff with a copy of Office 2007 (or 2008 for Macintosh) for home use on their personal computers. To obtain a copy of the installation disk please contact anyone in the IT department. Unfortunately, it is cost prohibitive to include students in this license agreement but we have partnered with retailers to obtain the best prices for our students to purchase their own copies of office applications. To purchase Office 2007 from a third-party vendor contact a company such as journeyed.com ($84) or theultimatesteal.com ($59). Both of these sites now recognize New River as an academic institution and offer these prices as their academic discount.
9. Are there any Group Addresses or listservs that I can use to contact groups of faculty, staff, and/or students?
Yes, there are group email addresses that can be used to quickly communicate with groups of people. All of these groups are available in the searchable Active Directory so anyone with a New River email account can query for them. Please don't abuse the lists by sending information too frequently or by sending information unrelated to the New River academic mission. By appending the @newriver.edu suffix to the group names, you can use the following New River public groups:
- admin (contains all administrators)
- allusers (contains staffall and facultyall)
- staffall
(contains the 4 groups below)
- staffbeckley
- staffbluefield
- stafflewisburg
- staffsummersville
- facultyall (contains the 5 groups below)
- facultybeckley
- facultybluefield
- facultylewisburg
- facultysummersville
- facultyvirtual
- studentsall
(contains the 5 groups below)
- studentsbeckley
- studentsbluefield
- studentslewisburg
- studentsoffcampus
- studentssummersville
10. What are the Web Self-Service tasks that a faculty member should know?
There are many options in Banner for faculty who access Web Self-Services. Common tasks include obtaining the most recent version of your class roster, inputting mid-term and final grades, obtaining information on advisees, and verifying your teaching schedule. Each of these tasks is available after you've logged in (more info on Web Self-Service).
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