Distance Education Student Cards  Distance Education Student Cards for Spring 2009 will be mailed by request only.  If you would like to receive a card, please send your request to wilsonki@ecu.edu and please put in the subject line DE Student Card Request.  Please also make sure to include your mailing address.  With the volume of cards that are requested, it takes a lot of time to look up the mailing address. If you have already requested a DE card you will not have to make a second request, those requests are being processed. The card now includes your ECU ID number (Banner ID), along with a place for your signature.  The card will be included in letter form, and you can just detach it from the bottom of the letter.  You should receive your card approximately one week after requested.  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 does 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 you have any questions relating to the cards, please contact Kim Wilson at wilsonki@ecu.edu.     Our Third Annual DE Day   Attention DE Students!  Please come join us for our THIRD ANNUAL DE DAY , honoring pirates from a distance.  This special day will be held during one of our ECU Spring baseball games, when we will play the Southern Miss Golden Eagles, Saturday, April 25th at 3:00 p.m. Please mark your calendars.  More details will be coming in a separate email within the next few weeks regarding discounted tickets, registering for free prizes, and more.     Go Pirates!!   Helpful Information For tutorials about Email, Internet Classes (Blackboard), or contacting your professor please visit : www.options.ecu.edu/tutorials.cfm. Important Dates: ·         February 20, 2009 -  Last day for undergraduate students to drop/withdraw from classes without grades ·         March 23, 2009 -  Registration for Summer session and Fall semester begins ·         April 16, 2009  -  Last day for graduate students to drop courses without grades   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.   Free Software for Students The Virtual Computing Lab saves students time and money. On-campus and distance education students can now access software they need for their courses without having to purchase it themselves or worry that a program won’t run properly on their personal computer or even come on campus to use a computer lab. Students can log into the Virtual Computing Lab from home or their residence hall and choose software from an “image” designed for their course(s) by their professor. For more information or to login to the Virtual Computing Lab, go to http://www.ecu.edu/vcl/ or email Susan Thornton at thorntons@ecu.edu. Joyner LibraryNew Connections For DE Students &  Faculty    Joyner Library's distance education (DE) website has yet another new and improved look!  Please do not forget we also have another way to contact the library for help with our new toll free telephone number:  1-866-291-5581. To help expand our DE service contacts, the library also has added another Distance Education Coordinator, Angela Whitehurst.  Both she and Yolanda Hollingsworth serve as Co-Coordinators for Joyner Library Distance Education services and feel free to contact either of them for assistance. Our library DE newsletter, DECOVE is still available online.   Past issues are archived.