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Student Computer Orientation Exercise

Summer 2008

On the attached pages are several exercises designed to familiarize you with law school network services. You may complete them in any order, but do complete as many as possible before classes begin.

Course Information

Course List

Blackboard Course Sites

Class E-mail Lists

DukePass

Student Portal

Other Network Activities

View a Webcast

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Course Information

Course List

A list of courses and for the current semester is available from the Duke Law homepage < Open a web browser and go to the homepage URL.

  1. Click on the ACurriculum@link.
  2. Under “Quick Links,” selectACourse List (for Blackboard and Class Email)@.

3.Click on the link for one of your classes

Blackboard Course Sites

Blackboard is a learning management system in widespread use at Duke University. All law school courses that have online materials – with very few exceptions – will have a Blackboard site. These sites will be linked from the Course Page. You can also access Blackboard directly by going to .

1.When you have followed the link to a Blackboard Course Site, you will be asked to log in using your ANetID@ and password.

2.You will see ACourse Documents@ in the left menu. Click on it, then click on a particular document to download or view that document.

3.Your professor will tell you what other features of Blackboard will be used in your class.

4.For some classes, some materials will be on the Duke Law server and will require a separate generic login. If you see a link that includes the“eMaterials” directory then you should log in using the generic username “blue” and password “devils.”

Class E-mail Lists

Nearly every class in the law school has an email class discussion list. The list may be used by your instructor to send announcements or distribute materials which are not duplicated in paper. You can also hold discussions with the instructor and other students using the list. You are pre-subscribed to the discussion list for all of the classes you are enrolled in.

Sending a message to the Class Email List

Please note: if your class is using ABlackboard,@ you may be asked to use the ASend mail@ function within Blackboard rather than a Class E-mail List. Please consult with your professor to learn his or her preferences.

  1. Don=t send a message now, but for future use when classes start, if you want to send a message to everyone subscribed to the list, send the message to: , e.g. . (You can find the listname on the semester’s class schedule at

DukePass

DukePass is a Web portal for Duke students that brings together many of the university’s Web-based services, as well as outside services. Law students see a specially modified version of the portal that includes law school information.

Select “Customize” for “Current Students” on the law school home page. Click on the link for DukePass and log in using your NetID and password. You can also go directly to .

DukePass services are divided into a number of different groupings by tabs. You will probably see the “Social” tab first. You can set up this page to show your university email as well as your law school email. It also displays pictures from Flickr and allows you to set up connections to your Facebook and Del.icio.us accounts.

The “Academics” tab displays your courses in the “Dashboard,” along with links to their Blackboard course sites.

The “News” tab provides “news feeds” from both general interest publications/websites. Note that you can add your own RSS newsfeeds (here or under other tabs); click on the “Help” icon for more information, if you are interested in this feature.

The “Law” tab includes several newsfeeds, both here at Duke Law and elsewhere in the legal education community, to keep you informed.

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Viewing a Webcast

Many of the events at Duke Law are recorded and made available as on-demand videos (webcasts). You need to have installed the free Real Player to view our webcasts; if you have not done so, please go to to locate the link for the free Real Player and to download and install it (there is no need to download the Plus player or to engage in a free trial). Note that recordings of some classes that are requested by faculty members will only be available as Real video webcasts, so it is highly recommended that you have Real player installed. Most audio recordings will be in MP3 format, which is supported by a wide variety of player software; some video recordings will also be in QuickTime format (available for free from

Go to the Law School homepage, click on “News & Events” and then “Webcasts, Audio, and Video.” Select a webcast that interests you and click on it. The Real player should open up and play the webcast.