Announcements

The UW-Platteville Distance Education website and campus e-mail (Zimbra) will be unavailable for off-campus students and faculty on Friday, Nov. 20, from 4:15 PM CST until 5:45 PM CST, because of scheduled network maintenance.  This includes the Karrmann Library website which will also be unavailable.

Off-campus students and faculty should be able to access most D2L courses during the outage, but a limited number of D2L courses that require access via NetID will be affected, so all students and faculty are urged to plan for this outage to avoid inconvenience.

If you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact the Distance Learning Center.

The Distance Learning Center is holding a celebration reception for our fall graduates immediately following the morning graduation ceremony on December 12, and everyone is invited. Graduates, alumni, faculty and staff: If you haven't already, please visit our online graduation itinerary and submit the registration form to let us know if you'll be able to join us to celebrate the accomplishments of our newest graduates. If you have questions, contact Travis Courtney in the Distance Learning Center (courtnet@uwplatt.edu).

As the Spring 2010 semester is about to begin, make sure to check your VISA (Verified Individualized Student Accommodation) to ensure everything is in order. Contact me regarding any unforeseen accommodation service needs in order to discuss adding them to your accommodation plan.

If for the spring semester you are requesting alternative format for your textbooks, please register early and provide us with your textbooks so the appropriate accommodations can be made. This needs to be done at least eight weeks in advance of the semester to ensure timely provision.

As always, you should contact your instructors prior to the start date of class to discuss your accommodation needs. Your instructors will not know that you have a disability until you tell them. Please be prepared to send or fax a copy of your VISA to your instructors. If you need assistance with this, contact me. Please note that accommodations are not retroactive.

Contact me as soon as problems arise with the provision of accommodation services. The longer you wait to ask for help the more difficult it is to remedy the situation.

If you have, a disability and are would like to know more about receiving accommodations please contact me.

Amy Griswold, ADA Coordinator
foleya@uwplatt.edu

Two new courses for the Master of Science in Engineering program are being planned. Engineering Management (ENGRG 7800) will be offered beginning Fall 2010. The purpose of the course will be to facilitate the transition from technical to managerial positions. Related topics will include managing engineers, managing a diverse workforce, managing for change and innovation, motivation theory, and ethical issues in management.

Beginning with Spring 2011, Lean Techniques (ENGRG 7860) will be offered to students. This course will focus on the basic techniques and the philosophy upon which lean has been developed. Topics will include: the development of lean production, continuous improvement, 5S, TPM, standardized work, Jidoka through Poka-Yoke, Kaizen, Hoshin planning,A3 reporting, value stream mapping to identify Muda, lean applied to the office and sustaining a lean culture.

Maintenance is scheduled for the UW-Platteville Distance Learning Center website all day Sunday, November 1, 2009.  This will affect all resources found at http://www.uwplatt.edu/disted/ but will not affect online courses or the advising website.  The maintenance is scheduled to begin at 12:00 AM CST on Sunday, November 1, 2009, and the maintenance may potentially last all day.  Website visitors may not be impacted by the maintenance at all, or visitors may encournter minor inconveniences like temporarily broken links.

Here are direct links to important resources so that you do not have to rely on links at our website during this maintenance period:

Online Courses: https://uwli.courses.wisconsin.edu/

Advising Website: https://uwplatt.courses.wisconsin.edu/

If you encounter any problems related to this website maintenance, please feel free to contact John A. Vieth at (608)574-8731 or via e-mail at viethj@uwplatt.edu.  John will be standing by to assist you while maintenance is being performed.  For all other assistance, please contact the usual support staff for that area.

If you plan to apply to one of our graduate programs for the Spring semester, you should be aware of our application priority date. Submitting your completed application and supporting materials by December 1, 2009, ensures the completion of the admission process in time for the spring online registration period.

Application Priority Dates:
Spring: December 1
Summer: April 15
Fall: July 15

If you have questions about submitting an application or the supporting documents, please feel free to contact our office at 800.362.5460 or send e-mail to disted@uwplatt.edu.

If you plan to graduate at the end of the fall semester, and if you have not contacted your advisor regarding graduation, you need to do so soon! All it takes is an e-mail to your advisor to start the process and ensure that you are included in the weekend festivities. Commencement is December 12, 2009, so please hurry!

For information regarding December commencement dates and times or to RSVP for the Distance Learning Center Graduation Reception, please visit the virtual graduation section of our website or contact Travis Courtney toll-free at 800.362.5460 or send e-mail to courtnet@uwplatt.edu with questions.

Here’s your chance to start your degree or certificate program! (or if you are already enrolled, your chance to stay on track toward degree completion) Register for Spring 2010 courses no later than January 6. Classes run January 19 through May 14. Courses can be viewed at http://www.uwplatt.edu/disted/announcements.html. Then register online at http://www.uwplatt.edu/disted/started.html?registr.

Contact the Distance Learning Center staff at 800.362.5460 or your advisor if you have any questions about spring registration.

The last day to withdraw from an online course and receive a 50% tuition refund is September 29. The last day to drop an online course is October 27.

The 2009 Alumni Survey will be sent to all UWP Distance Education Alum during the first week in October. Alum, please complete the survey and return as soon as possible. This information informs the DLC's policies, procedures and projects.

While much of the UWP population was enjoying the summer, dedicated people at the Distance Learning Center spent their time revising and enhancing the course content for 12 of our online courses. (See our article in The Plexus (http://www.uwplatt.edu/disted/edp/plexus/2009-07/index.html). If you are enrolled in any of these courses, you will encounter the enhancements. Please let your instructor know how you think the enhancement adds to the course so we can continue to improve our instruction.

ACCT 2010
ACCT 7000
BSAD 2330
BSAD 2630
BSAD 3400
BSAD 3650
BSAD 4630/6630
CJ 7030
CJ 7430E
NGR 5030
ENGR 7540
ENGR 7820

Over the summer UW-Platteville completed a transition from our previous e-mail system to the Zimbra Collaboration Suite, which includes e-mail, an integrated calendar system, tasks, and other student needed features.

To log into your campus e-mail account, visit zimbra.uwplatt.edu. You can bookmark this page for future convenience. Log in using your NetID and password. You may already be using your NetId and password to access your advising website or Karrmann Library. If you don't know your NetID or password, please go to: http://www.uwplatt.edu/disted/passwordreset.html

IMPORTANT NOTE: The NetID password does expire every 90 days, so please also set up the Forgotten or Expired Password Service. Learn more at http://www.uwplatt.edu/oit/howto/forgotpwd.html#b. You will be reminded via e-mail prior to expiration so that you have time to change your password before it expires, but the reminder messages are sent to your campus e-mail address. To insure that you receive the reminders, you can either check your campus e-mail on a regular basis using the Zimbra website, or you can log into Zimbra and configure your account so that all campus e-mail messages sent to you are forwarded to a personal e-mail address that you choose.

How to forward campus e-mail

If you would like all messages sent to your campus e-mail address to be forwarded to a personal e-mail address, just follow these instructions.

1. Go to http://zimbra.uwplatt.edu/ and log in with your NetID and password.
2. Click the "Preferences" tab.
3. Click the "Mail" sub-tab.
4. Scroll down to the "Receiving Messages" section and in "When a message arrives: Forward a copy to," enter the complete e-mail address to which your campus e-mail should be forwarded.
5. If you don't want a copy of the forwarded messages saved in the Zimbra system, then check the "Don't keep a local copy of messages" check box.
6. Click "Save" at the top.

Utilizing all tools available to you as a student can help increase the opportunity for success!