FACULTY USER GUIDES
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ulearn (Blackboard Learn) is the university's learning management system used in the delivery of course materials for all modalities |
uSucceed (Starfish) is the university's advising, retention, and early warning system. |
Many third-party tools are available for faculty use in ulearn. View more information about ulearn Third-Party Tool Integrations including upcoming upgrades. View publisher integration user guides and support: |
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A Zoom Educational license is available for all active JWU staff and faculty. |
The university has acquired a site license for Qualtrics, a survey collection tool that faculty, staff, and students can use in their research. |
All Faculty Development Fund requests and expense reports must be entered into Concur with chair/dean approval.
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ulearn Frequently Asked Questions for Faculty
These frequently asked questions describe the policies and procedures related to ulearn, the university's learning management system.
How do I access ulearn?
It is best if you log in through jwuLink because jwuLink allows you to log in to many university resources (email, grading, course rosters, ulearn, etc.) with only one login.
When I access ulearn, I see "unavailable" next to my course name. What does this mean?
On the My ulearn tab, a course that displays "unavailable" next to the name is not visible to students enrolled in the course. Only instructors have access to unavailable courses. On-campus courses are not automatically made available to students so instructors have control over when students can access the course. You must make the course available to students when you are ready for them to see it. Online courses are made automatically available to students 3 days before the start of the semester.
Can I use ulearn from home?
You can use ulearn from home or any location with Internet access.
Can I use ulearn from a phone or mobile device?
You can use ulearn on any internet-capable device such as a smartphone or tablet. However, there may be restrictions with posting and accessing some content on some of these devices. For the best overall experience, it is recommended you use a laptop or desktop with Firefox as the recommended web browser.
How are students trained on ulearn?
Generally, students do not need much training since many traditional undergraduates have used similar systems in their high schools. Still, a variety of communications and resources are available to students to inform them of ulearn. For help with using ulearn, students may reach out to the IT Service Desk.
- Students receive email and jwuLink announcements about ulearn.
- New student orientation leaders have received basic training on ulearn so they can share that information with incoming students.
- Information sessions with demos are scheduled for early in the fall term and students will be invited to attend.
- A ulearn orientation course is available to all students so they can learn about the features of ulearn.
- A Student ulearn Help link is in all ulearn courses and links to a webpage where students can view user guides and contact ulearn support via phone or email.
Can I copy my ulearn course?
You can now easily and quickly process your own course copies from a prior term or semester into a current section or request that the IT Academic Technology Systems or IDT copy them for you. If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course in one term, you can prepare the course site for one section and copy it yourself or request that it be copied into the sites for the other sections. To request a course copy, please submit a Course Copy Request. If you need to copy only a few content items, it is more efficient to copy them yourself using the move or copy feature.
How do I copy course content to another course site?
If you want to move a single or a few items from one course site to another, you can do that yourself using the move or copy option for each item. If you want to copy an entire course site into another course site, you must either complete your own course copy or submit a Course Copy Request.
Can I change the time zone for my ulearn course site?
It is not possible to change the time zone for specific courses. The official time zone for all ulearn course sites is Eastern time (EST or EDT, as appropriate). Faculty and students at the Denver campus must make accommodations to handle the time difference. For example, if you would like an item to be due at 8:00pm MST, it must be set to 10:00pm EST.
When are course sites available to faculty?
Course sites for undergraduate courses are created about 6 weeks before a semester starts. After courses are created, faculty who are assigned to them in Banner can access them in their My ulearn course list. Course sites for graduate courses are created about 8 weeks before a semester begins. Faculty should be sure their course will run and not be canceled before setting up their ulearn course sites.
When do students have access to course sites?
For on-campus courses, students gain access to the ulearn course sites when the faculty member makes them available. For online courses, students gain access to course sites three (3) days before the start of the term so they can check the syllabus, determine what textbook they need, etc.
How long are courses available in ulearn after the term ends?
Beginning with Fall 2019, two years' worth of courses are available to faculty. Faculty have access to the terms feature which allows the sorting of classes by term or semester. After that time, courses are removed from the server to save space and archived in a secure third-party location. You may request access to a prior course site by emailing ulearnhelp@jwu.edu.
Can students who are not enrolled in my course see my ulearn course site?
No, only students enrolled in the course can see your ulearn course site.
Will students show up in the Grade Center?
All students enrolled in your course automatically appear in the Grade Center.
Do the course roster and Grade Center in ulearn reflect students who add or drop?
During the add/drop period at the beginning of each term, students who add your course are visible in jwuLink Class Rosters, uSucceed, and in the ulearn Grade Center within the following timeline based on student registration:
- jwuLink Rosters are updated in real-time
- ulearn Grade Centers are updated every hour
- uSucceed Course Rosters are updated overnight
Does the Grade Center in ulearn reflect students who withdraw from my course?
Students who withdraw from a course are visible in the Grade Center with an icon next to their name that looks like a circle with a line through it. These students do not have access to the ulearn course site. You can hide student rows for those that drop in the ulearn Grade Center.
Can students see other students' grades?
No, students can only see their own grades through the My Grades link on the course's left menu.
Do I have to enter grades in both ulearn and jwuLink?
Yes, grades must be entered in both places. In ulearn, you must record all graded items throughout the course. All faculty are required to have % Grade to Date and Letter Grade to Date calculated grade columns. In jwuLink, you only need to enter final grades. To save time, you can import final grades from ulearn into jwulink directly.
What do I do if I need to submit a grade change?
Grade changes are submitted to SAS via normal procedures and are not done through ulearn.
Can I copy the Grade Center to my other course sites?
If you are teaching multiple sections of a course, you can set up one section with all of your content and Grade Center (including grade columns and calculated grade columns) and have it copied into your other sections. Only entire course sites can be copied, not individual areas such as the Grade Center. When a course is copied, the student enrollment is not copied. Either complete your own course copies or submit the Course Copy Request. Keep in mind that when a course site is copied, you may still need to tweak the content (e.g. syllabus and course schedule) to be appropriate for the course site that it was copied into.
If I send an email through ulearn, where does it go?
Mail sent from ulearn goes to the JWU mailbox of the recipient. No mail is kept in ulearn. You should request a copy of the email be sent to your JWU email.
Can I add a guest to my course site?
Non-JWU guests can be added to your course if they need access in order to aid in the delivery of the course. As an example, you may invite an industry expert into your classroom and then make them available for a week afterward to answer questions in a discussion board. Please see the Non-JWU Guest Access Request form.
Faculty and staff not assigned to teach a course may request access to a ulearn course site if such access is related to their job duties. See the JWU Administrative Access Request form.
I need a blank course shell to prepare a course for a future term. How can I request one?
Email idt@jwu.edu or ulearnhelp@jwu.edu to request a prep course be created for you. If, for example, you are preparing to teach BPA1010, in your email you would include information about teaching BPA1010 so that a prep course could be created for you for that specific course (F2FPREP_BPA1010_jsmith). You would later request a course copy into your future course.
Does ulearn ever 'go down'?
Occasionally there are ulearn outages. Most outages are scheduled for server maintenance or upgrades. Planned outages are usually scheduled during term breaks to minimize the impact on courses. IT provides at least 48 hours of advance notice for scheduled outages. Typically you will receive an email announcing a scheduled outage and a notification will also be posted on the "my ulearn" screen. Whenever possible, we aim to give a week or more of advance notice. Sometimes unscheduled outages occur for reasons outside of our control. In the event of an unscheduled outage, we do our best to communicate with ulearn users while we work with our vendor to resolve the issue.
Last updated October 13, 2023