Navigating Your Academic Journey: A Comprehensive Guide to the DePaul Student Portal (myDePaul) and D2L

DePaul University provides its students with a comprehensive suite of online tools designed to streamline their academic experience. Two key platforms, myDePaul and D2L (Brightspace), serve as central hubs for accessing essential resources, managing coursework, and staying connected with the university community. This guide offers a detailed overview of these platforms, empowering students to navigate their academic journey with confidence.

Introducing myDePaul: Your One-Stop Hub

myDePaul, accessible at my.depaul.edu, serves as the university's internal portal, replacing OneDePaul as the primary online gateway for students. It provides centralized access to various resources and information, simplifying administrative tasks and enhancing the overall student experience.

Key Features of myDePaul

Schedule and Manage Advising Appointments: Students can conveniently schedule and manage their advising appointments directly through the portal.
View Personalized Alerts and Notifications: Stay informed about important announcements, deadlines, and personalized alerts relevant to your academic status.
Access Student Accounts and Financial Information: Manage your student accounts, view financial aid details, and access billing information in one secure location.
Link to Courses in D2L Easily: Seamlessly access your courses within the D2L learning management system with direct links from myDePaul.
Quickly Access Key Student Resources: Find quick links and access to essential student resources, such as the library, academic support services, and student life information.

Getting Started with myDePaul

DePaul University provides resources to help students navigate the new myDePaul portal, including a QuickStart guide and an overview video. These resources offer step-by-step instructions and visual demonstrations of the platform's key features.

D2L (Brightspace): Your Learning Management System

D2L, also known as Brightspace, is DePaul's Learning Management System (LMS). It serves as the primary platform for online course delivery, communication, and assessment.

Accessing D2L

Students can log in to D2L using their BlueKey credentials. Once logged in, courses are organized by academic quarter on the D2L Homepage. A course becomes visible once the instructor activates it. If a course does not immediately appear, consider the following:

Check the Academic Quarter: Ensure that the correct academic quarter is selected. If you are unsure, select "All" among the academic quarter headings and then select "View All Courses" to search for the course.
Recent Registration: If registration occurred within the last 24 hours, the registration may not be processed yet.
Course Activation: Instructors are responsible for activating the course. Contact the instructor to inquire about when the course will be activated.
Course Start Date: If the course has not yet started, it may not be visible in D2L. Contact the instructor to confirm when the course will be accessible.
Contact the Help Desk: If the course cannot be found after considering the above factors, contact the Help Desk for assistance.

To see a previous course, use the academic quarter options on the D2L homepage to navigate to the term during which that class was taken. If it is not there, the instructor may have deactivated it.

Navigating D2L: Key Features and Functionality

D2L offers a range of tools and features to support student learning and engagement.

Course Content: Access course materials, including readings, lecture notes, videos, and assignments, organized by module or topic.
Communication Tools: Communicate with instructors and classmates through discussion forums, announcements, and email.
Assignment Submissions: Submit assignments electronically through designated submission folders.
Quizzes and Assessments: Take quizzes and exams online, with various question types and feedback mechanisms.
Grades and Feedback: View grades and feedback on assignments and assessments in the Grades section.

Interacting with Assignments

D2L provides functionalities for submitting assignments, including video submissions. If the submission folder has a textbox for assignment submissions, the video will first need to be uploaded to Panopto. If the submission folder asks for an uploaded attachment, the video file can be attached as with any other file.

Troubleshooting Quiz Issues

If a quiz cannot be accessed, and a “Not Authorized” or “Internal Error” message appears, this can be for one of a few reasons:

Due Date: The quiz may not be available because the due date has passed.
Quiz Release: The quiz may also not have been released yet, in which case the instructor can be contacted.
Maximum Attempts: If the maximum number of attempts for the quiz have been reached, access may be denied.

Viewing Quiz Feedback

To view feedback on a quiz:

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Go to the Quizzes area of D2L and locate the quiz.
If the instructor has provided feedback, it will show up under the “Evaluation Status” column as a link that reads “Feedback: On Attempt.”
Select this link to be taken to the feedback page.
Select the attempt to view feedback for.
If the Quiz has been set with Lockdown Browser, locate the quiz to view feedback on, and select the On Attempt link in the "Evaluation Status" column.
Select the Launch LockDown Browser button, and select Open LockDown Browser if a popup opens.
Lockdown Browser will launch, and the link for Attempt 1 can be selected to view feedback.

Resolving Panopto Video Loading Issues in Safari

If Panopto videos are not loading in Safari, the most common cause is related to the blocking of third-party cookies and/or the use of an incognito/private browser. It is recommended to avoid using the Safari incognito/private browser option when viewing Panopto videos. Issues with this browser occur across all devices. Instead, access the course using either Chrome or Firefox.

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