Frequently Asked Questions

Transcription

1 What is ecentral? Who can use ecentral? What can ecentral do? Frequently Asked Questions How do I start using ecentral? What if I forget my User ID? Step-by-step: How to find your User ID Can I change my User ID? What is a PIN? How do I change my Password/PIN? What are the parameters when creating an ecentral Password? What kind of Password should I have? What if I forget my Password? Step-by-step: How to find your Password What is the difference between my student ID number and my Password or PIN? What is FalconMail? Do I have to use FalconMail? Can I forward messages from my FalconMail account to another account? What about security? How do I view my grades and East Central College transcripts?

2 How do I receive an official transcript or copy of my degree? How do I view my East Central College financial account? Can I make a tuition or fee payment through ecentral? How do I log-in to the East Central College library? Where do I complete my FAFSA? Where can I go for technical assistance? Which browsers can I use with ecentral? How do I print a form using my browser? Does ecentral leave a cookie on my desktop to support its navigation? I am getting a slow response on ecentral. What is the problem? What is the history of ecentral? What are the Accessibility Features for ecentral? What is ecentral? ecentral is a web-based portal to East Central College network services, allowing users to log-in and view official information. A link to ecentral is located at the top of every page throughout the East Central College website: Who can use ecentral? ecentral is available to applicants, students, faculty and staff. Users may also view parts of ecentral as a guest.

3 What can ecentral do? ecentral allows users to do the following and more: Check the status of Financial Aid Register for classes Add and drop classes View course grades and GPA academic advisors Make tuition and fee payments View East Central College transcripts Print unofficial transcripts View assessment scores Change ecentral and FalconMail Password View Personal Information How do I start using ecentral? Users must have a User ID and Password (PIN) to activate an ecentral account. The User ID is a unique identification based on a user s name. The User ID and initial Password (PIN) will be communicated to students by means of a letter from the Admissions Office. To begin, go to the East Central College web site at and click ecentral. Select LOG IN from the menu bar. Enter your User ID and Password (PIN) and click SUBMIT. NOTE: First-time users will be prompted to change their PIN to a unique password that the student assigns. This Password is not accessible to anyone other than the student.. What if I forget my User ID? If a student cannot remember the specific User ID assigned to enter ecentral, the student can retrieve the information by doing the following: From the main ecentral menu click on Students. Under the User Account menu select What s my User ID? Enter Last Name and either your Social

4 Security number or East Central College Student ID number. Click Submit. Step-by-step: How to find your User ID: 1. Go to the ECC website: 2. Click: ecentral icon 3. Click: Students 4. Click: What s my User ID (under User Account menu) 5. Enter your last name 6. Enter your Social Security number or your student ID number 7. Click: Submit Can I change my User ID? No. The User ID cannot be altered and will remain constant for students enrolled at East Central College. What is a PIN? A PIN is a numerical password that is used to activate an ecentral account. The PIN is also used as an account password when a student loses or forgets a Password. If you are using a PIN to enter ecentral, be sure to change to a unique Password. How do I change my Password/PIN? The initial Password (PIN) will be communicated to a student through a letter from the Admissions Office. After a student s first log-in, a prompt

5 will appear to enter a new Password and a My Password Hint. Passwords can be changed at any time through ecentral in the User Account menu. What are the parameters when creating an ecentral Password? ecentral Passwords must be at least 6 characters in length and contain at least one letter and one number. ecentral Passwords are case sensitive, meaning that lower case and upper case letters are specifically recognized. For example, if a Password is THX1138 (capital letters), ecentral would not recognize the password if it was entered as thx1138 (lower case letters). What kind of Password should I have? Keep in mind that an ecentral Password must be at least 6 characters in length and contain at least one letter and one number. A password should be easy to remember and difficult for someone else to guess. Passwords should not be based on dictionary words, or the name of anyone or any close family member. A good system is to use the first letter of each word in a verse, saying, song title, or other phrase which is meaningful (and therefore easy to remember). Capitalize some letters (consonants or vowels), and add a numeric portion (choose a number easy to remember.) Finally, be sure to enter a My Password Hint that will jog a memory as to what the password is. What if I forget my Password? If a student loses or cannot remember the Password to enter ecentral and FalconMail, the student can use the Reset My Account tool. Reset My Account can be found by clicking on Students in the ecentral main menu,

6 then by selecting the What s my Password? function in the User Account menu. A student using the I don t remember, reset my Password process will be assigned the original Password (PIN) via an outside account. A student will then need this Password (PIN) to enter ecentral and set a new Password. Step-by-step: How to find your Password: 1. Go to the ECC website: eastcentral.edu 2. Click: ecentral icon 3. Click: Students 4. Click: What s my Password? (under User Account menu) 5. Select appropriate function in the What s my Password screen What is the difference between my student ID number and my Password (PIN)? A student ID number is the seven-digit number that is assigned when a student enrolls at East Central. If you have an ECC picture ID, you will find the student ID number at the center of your ID below your name. A Password or PIN, along with an ecentral User ID, will enable a user to log-in to online services such as ecentral, Falcon Mail and Moodle. What is FalconMail? FalconMail is the official East Central College service for students. FalconMail will be the primary means of communication for the college. Information sent to this account includes: updates on financial aid and billing, academic progress, registration information and other items of concern to students at East Central College. Additionally, instructors may use FalconMail to send class information.

7 To use FalconMail, go to the East Central College website at and click on FalconMail. Enter the User ID and Password that is used to enter ecentral. Do I have to use FalconMail? Yes. Students are required to monitor their FalconMail account on a regular basis. Can I forward messages from my FalconMail account to another account? Yes. For their convenience, students may forward messages sent to a FalconMail account to another account. Students may choose to retain the message or automatically delete the message when forwarded. Also, students may set up an notification which will notify the student at an alternate address when there is an waiting in their FalconMail account. Both Forwarding and Notifications can be access on the Preferences tab in FalconMail. Scroll down the page to the Receiving Messages section. For Forwarding, type in the alternate address. Be sure to type carefully. Mark the check box for Don t keep a local copy of messages. This means copies will not be kept in your FalconMail. This helps to prevent your FalconMail from overloading. If the check box is not marked, FalconMail must be monitored to prevent overloading. For notifications, mark the Send a notification message to check box. This will send a notification that there are s in FalconMail to the address listed.

8 What about security? ecentral is a secure web-based portal that cannot be accessed without a User ID and Password. Students are strongly advised to protect and keep private their User ID and Password. ecentral has a My Password Hint feature that can help prompt students if a Password is forgotten. Students should enter a My Password Hint when changing the Password. For security reasons, an ecentral User ID and Password cannot be given out by telephone. If a student loses or cannot remember the User ID or Password to enter ecentral and FalconMail, the student should follow the procedures listed in this FAQ under: What if I forget my User ID and What if I forget my Password. Additionally, a student can present a proper photo identification card at the main East Central College campus or one of the satellite locations at Rolla or Sullivan to get this information. If the student cannot determine this information online and is unable to travel to an East Central College campus, the student may call the Student Service Center at (636) to have their username and PIN number mailed to the student s address on file with the Student Service Center. The student will then need to follow the procedures listed under What if I forget my User ID on ecentral. Again, users of ecentral should protect themselves and their information by keeping the User ID and Password private. Users of ecentral should be sure to log out of their account when their online activity is complete so that someone else will not have the ability to view or enter their account. How do I view my grades and East Central College transcipts? Students can view course grades and unofficial student transcripts through ecentral. Log-in to ecentral, click on Students and select the appropriate function under the Academic Profile menu.

9 Please note: Degrees and certifications are not currently posted online. A free, unofficial copy of a transcript with the degree and/or certificate listed can be ordered by visiting: to print off a transcript request form that can be submitted to the Student Service Center on the main campus or the offices at the satellite locations in Rolla or Sullivan. How do I receive an official transcript or copy of my degree? Students who require an official transcript can request a transcript through their ecentral account or can submit a written request to the Student Service Center on the Main Campus or to one of the Satellite locations in Rolla or Sullivan. To request an official transcript on ecentral, log in to ecentral and go to the Student menu. Click on Official Transcript Request Payment Required. You will need to enter the information for the receiving institution and pay the service fee online with a credit card. To print off a transcript request form to be mailed or faxed, visit A service fee will apply to official transcript requests. Students who would like a copy of their diploma must contact the Associate Registrar at To request a copy of a diploma, a service fee will apply. How do I view my East Central College financial account? Students can view their financial accounts through ecentral. Log-in to ecentral, click on Students and under the Financial Information menu select Account Summary by Term.

10 Can I make a tuition or fee payment through ecentral? Yes. Log-in to ecentral, click on Students and under the Financial Information menu select Make a Payment. Payment must be made in full. How do I log-in to the East Central College library? Found at the link to the East Central College Library site provides access to the library s databases and information about the library. Also, students can use MOBIUS to utilize over 20,000,000 books. To order or reserve books, students will need their student ID number. Student ID numbers can be found in several places within ecentral. The quickest way to find a student number is to log-in to ecentral and click: Students. Under Academic Profile select My profile. The student ID number is the seven-digit number listed on the profile. Also, if you have an ECC picture ID, you will find the student ID number at the center of your ID below your name. Where do I complete my FAFSA? Found on the FAFSA web site offers information on how to sign up or renew your application. This is not done through ecentral. For more information regarding financial aid or the FAFSA, contact the East Central Student Service Center or the satellite locations in Rolla or Sullivan. Where can I go for technical assistance? If a user is experiencing difficulty in activating or entering ecentral and FalconMail accounts, assistance can be provided by the Learning Center or the Student Service Center on the main college campus.

11 Students can also visit one of the offices at a satellite campus. Students requiring assistance also can call (636) or at helpdesk@eastcentral.edu. Before you call the Help Desk: Please be in front of your computer when you make the call Check that all cables and cords on your computer equipment are plugged in. Restart your machine, log on, and see if that fixed the problem. If your problem occurs again, write down the exact wording of the error message that you see on your screen. Knowing the exact wording can help the staff to pinpoint the problem more easily. Be prepared to answer to following questions: 1. When did you first notice the problem? 2. Did you make any changes to your computer (i.e. install new hardware or software, or download something from the Internet) before the problem occurred? 3. What exactly were you doing when the problem occurred? 4. What was the exact wording of the error message? Gathering this information will help minimize the troubleshooting time spent on the phone. Which browsers can I use with ecentral? ecentral will operate effectively with the Mozilla Firefox, Netscape Navigator or Microsoft Internet Explorer browsers on PCs or Macintoshes. For best results the browsers should be Release 4.x level or later. How do I print a form using my browser? For PC Users - You can print a form by clicking the Print icon on the Toolbar of your browser. Alternately, you can click File, and then click Print in the drop-down menu. Then click OK in the displayed Print dialog box. The document will be printed on the printer indicated in the text field Name

12 in the Print dialog box. If available, you can change the destination printer by selecting another printer in the Name drop-down list box and then click OK. Some of the forms will be more legible if you print them using Landscape mode. To print a form in Landscape mode, click File, then click Print, and then click Properties in the Printer dialog box. A Document Properties dialog box will appear. Click the Page Setup tab and then the Landscape radio button in the Orientation section of the dialog box. Click OK to set the Landscape mode and OK once more to cause the form to print. After the form has printed you might want to reset your system back to Portrait mode by following the same procedure you used to set Landscape mode. For Macintosh Users - You can print a form by clicking the Print icon on the Toolbar of your browser and then click Print in the pop-up dialog box. Alternately, you can click File, and then click Print in the pop-up dialog box. The document will be printed on the printer indicated at the top of the popup dialog box. If available, you can change the destination printer by clicking on the Apple icon in the upper left-hand corner of the window and then clicking Chooser in the drop-down menu. The Chooser dialog box will display a graphic of all the printers set up for your Macintosh. Select the new printer by clicking on the appropriate icon and then close the dialog box by clicking the upper left corner of the box. Some of the forms will be more legible if you print them using Landscape mode. To print a form in Landscape mode, click File and then Page Setup in the drop-down menu. Click the Orientation icon to change the printer setting from Portrait to Landscape mode. The accompanying graphic will illustrate that you made the change. Click OK to enable the setting and print the form using the instructions presented previously. Does ecentral leave a "cookie" on my desktop to support its navigation? ecentral puts a session cookie on your desktop when you log into the system. When you close your browser, the cookie is erased. I am getting a slow response on ecentral. What is the problem?

13 There are a number of conditions that might affect your response time in ecentral. Often an increase in the response time is related to traffic over the communication lines. ecentral uses campus Intranet and the Internet. The number of users on any portion of those systems will often slow the response time for everyone. Downloading large files via your institution's communications lines will drastically increase response time for all other users on the system. High levels of ecentral use by other members of the college also affect your response time. This is caused not only by increased user traffic, but also by the additional processing required of the institution's host machine to respond to ecentral queries. An example of a high-use time period would be on the first day of East Central s registration period. You may also experience slower performance during peak usage periods for your Internet Service Provider (ISP). What is the history of ecentral? ecentral is a Web interface that allows you to access information contained in the administrative database used by East Central College. The application system that creates this database, known as Colleague, is the product of Datatel Inc. of Fairfax, Virginia. ecentral is a form of WebAdvisor, also a product of Datatel, and consists of the forms and supporting infrastructure to extract and deliver information from this database to your desktop browser. What are the Accessibility Features for ecentral? The following information may be helpful when using ecentral with screen reader software. This web site is best read with JAWS 3.7 or higher and Microsoft Internet Explorer version 5.0 or higher. You may find it useful to use the down arrow key to read a form before you fill it out. To move around in tables, Use Tab and Arrow keys for normal navigation and Ctrl - Alt - Arrow keys to navigate the Tables.

14 Filling out a Form with JAWS The following keys will help you to fill out a form using JAWS. Remember to use the Enter key to turn Forms mode on. Enter your information, then Tab to the next field on the form. For check boxes, use the Space bar to check or uncheck the box. For combo boxes, use Alt + down arrow to open the combo box. Use arrow keys to move around in the list in the combo box. Use Alt + up arrow to close the combo box. After you have entered the information on the form, press Enter, or Tab to the Submit button and click on the button to submit your information Access Keys The following keys provide access to ecentral pages: For the menu, press Alt M. For answers to frequently asked questions, press Alt F. To log out, press Alt O. For help on using the current Web page, press Alt H. If no help is available for that page, there will be no response. To submit the information you entered in an ecentral form, press Alt S. Accessibility Compliance Statement ecentral, as delivered, was certified by an independent testing organization to be compliant with Section 508 of the Federal Workforce Rehabilitation Act and has Level A conformance with the W3 Organization Web Content Accessibility guidelines. Updated March 2012 SSC