Distance Education Student Cards  Distance Education Student Cards for Fall 2008 semester will be mailed to all distance education students.  The card will now include your ECU ID number (Banner ID), along with a place for your signature.  The card will be included in letter form, and you will just detach it from the bottom of the letter.  You should receive your card by September 11th.  The Distance Education Student Card grants access to ECU computer labs and allows students to check out books from the ECU libraries.  Please note that the Distance Education Student Card will not provide access to the Student Recreation Center, Student Health Services, Athletic events and other activities that are available to on-campus students because DE students do not pay these additional university fees.  The Distance Education Student Cards are valid for one semester and are mailed to your home address.  If your address has changed, you will need to update your address in order to receive future cards.  You will do this by logging into OneStop, and going through Banner Self Service. You will need to click on personal information, and then proceed to update addresses and phone.  Please contact Kim Wilson for replacement cards, or if you have not received your card by September 11th at wilsonki@ecu.edu.     Helpful Information EMAIL (Piratemail) and TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE Your ECU e-mail account (Piratemail) is your official e-mail account when contacting anyone at the university.  This is the account your instructor and the university will use when corresponding with you.  If you have problems accessing your ECU email account or experience other difficulties accessing the campus system, contact the Help Desk at 252-328-9866 or 1-800-340-7081 or www.ecu.edu/9866.  For an online tutorial on how to use Piratemail, visit our website at: www.options.ecu.edu/tutorials.cfm. INTERNET CLASSES  If you have registered for an Internet class, your class will be offered either on the Blackboard Course Management System or on a departmental server.  If the course is offered through the Blackboard Course Management System, your course information will be posted on the Blackboard site at https://blackboard.ecu.edu on or just after the first day of class.  To view your course information, log onto the site using your ECU mail user name and password (PirateID and Passphrase). If your class is offered on a departmental server, your professor will send course information to your ECU email account during the first week of the semester.  If your course information does not appear on the Blackboard site or you have not received an email from your professor by the end of the first full week of classes, contact the academic department or your professor by email or telephone. For online tutorials on how to use Piratemail and Blackboard visit our website at: www.options.ecu.edu/tutorials.cfm To contact  your professor, go to the Options website (www.options.ecu.edu) and choose the link “What Courses are Offered?”  In the drop down window, select the desired term and click the SUBMIT button. Select the subject and enter the course number, choose the campus “DE/Internet” for distance education courses and then click the Class Search button. No other attributes need to be selected. Your professor’s name will appear next to an envelope. Click the envelope to contact the professor.  Email addresses can also be found at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-ecu/email_phone.cfm.  If your professor’s name is not given, please contact the academic department offering the course.  If you have difficulty contacting your academic unit, contact the Division of Continuing Studies at dcs@ecu.edu for assistance. TEXTBOOKS   Textbooks can be purchased online through the Dowdy Student Store’s website at http://www.ecu.edu/cs-admin/studentstores/Textbooks/index.cfm.  You may also call 1-877-499-8398 or 252-328-6731.  All distance education students are urged to order books as soon as possible to allow time for shipping.

To learn more about the ECU Virtual Computing Lab, go to http://www.ecu.edu/cs-itcs/vcl/index.cfm