Getting Started with MyUNL—A Student's Guide
Look Up Your Account Every student already has a username on MyUNL (Blackboard). If you have not used the system before, all you need to do is look up your account information. This is done through the What About Me (WAM!) page.
Log in to WAM using your NUID and the four-digit Personal Identification Number, PIN, you use to register for classes.
Once logged in, click on the My Records tab followed by the link for Address and E-Mail Information. At the bottom of the page, you will find your Blackboard login username. It should look something like "s-jdoe7." Your password (until you change it) is your NUID number.
Update Your E-Mail Information in WAM! It is important that your E-Mail address appears properly within WAM. This is because My.UNL uses your official student E-Mail address when your professors or classmates use Blackboard to send E-Mail.
IMPORTANT: While Blackboard will allow you to change your E-Mail address in the Personal Information area, it will be overwritten overnight by data from WAM. Therefore, if you want to use a particular E-Mail address for class-related correspondence, update your e-mail address in WAM, located under the My Records tab and then Address and E-Mail Information.
Also note that WAM! shows your official record of registered courses. While My.UNL reflects your enrollment, the course names that appear may vary slightly due to cross-listed course mergers, etc.
Log in
Go to My.UNL. This is the home page for the My.UNL academic portal. It can be accessed from anywhere in the world. You will need to have a Version 6 Web browser or higher of Internet Explorer, Netscape Navigator 8 or Firefox 2 or newer. Mac users need Firefox 2 or Safari 2.
Click the Login button. On the next screen, type the username and password you found on the WAM! page. You should now see a box listing your courses for the current semester. Clicking on these links will let you access your courses. If you need to access older courses, click the Courses tab or customize your My Courses module by clicking on the pencil icon to the right of the My Courses box.
Especially when using a public computer, be sure to log out of My.UNL when you are finished with your session. To log out click on the Logout button at the top of your My.UNL screen.
Using Hotmail or Other E-Mail Providers
Due to the growing problem of unwanted E-Mail (spam), many E-Mail providers such as Hotmail and Yahoo! have begun aggressively filtering E-Mail that is potentially unwanted. E-Mails with more than a handful of recipients or which have the recipient list suppressed (Blackboard does this to hide E-Mail addresses from other students) are often deleted automatically by these E-Mail services by default.
To ensure your messages from professors are not being deleted, we strongly encourage you to turn off filtering if you are using a web-based E-Mail service. Depending on your service, there may be an option to sort messages that might be spam into a junk folder that is automatically cleared out at regular intervals. If you choose to do this, be sure to check this junk folder for messages from your professors and classmates. Consult the manual of your web-based E-Mail provider for directions on changing these filter settings.
It is also possible to use a Bigred e-mail account and set a forward that bounces messages to your preferred e-mail address. This will avoid most filtering issues. The IS Computer Help Center can help you configure this. See the sections below for setting up a Bigred account and contacting the IS Computer Help Center.
…or use BIGRED
UNL provides a web-based E-Mail service through Bigred. Bigred is free for students, easy to use, and does not stick advertising at the bottom of every message. Additionally, users typically receive less junk mail than with a Hotmail account.
To sign up for your free account, go to the What About Me (WAM!) page and log in using your NUID and four-digit PIN you use to register for classes.
Click on the My Records tab and then the link Address and E-Mail Information. Look for the section titled UNL E-Mail Account and click on the button below to configure your online account, following the directions on the screen.
Get Help
If you encounter problems, call the IS Computer Help Center at (402) 472-3970 or (866) 472-3970 outside of Lincoln. They are available from 7:30am to 11:30pm daily and can help you with many technology problems, including resetting My.UNL passwords.
