First Time Online?
- Please Note: Some courses have an on-campus Orientation. Please see the Course Orientations Link for more information. Online composition classes involve at least 2 on-campus meetings per semester, days/times arranged by instructor on consultation with students.
- All CASL Distance Learning Courses are taught using CTools.
- See our page for Technical Requirements for the computer configuration needed to support taking CASL Distance Learning Courses.
- Check to see if your course has a face-to-face orientation session: check our "Orientations" page to see if your course has a required orientation. The day, time, and place of course orientations will be listed here. If your course is not listed, our office has not been informed about an orientation for the course.
- Logon right away to CTools using your uniqname and KERBEOS id
- Follow the CTools link available above, on our menu, and from Quick Links on the UMD homepage. Bookmark this page.
- Link to this explanation and follow these instructions to link your KERBEROS uniqname to the email address where you want to receive course email.
- Once the course is "published" or "live", you will have a "tab" for it along the top of the CTools page after you have logged on. Select that tab to enter the course. The course instructor or someone in the DL Office will "publish" the course once the instructor is ready for students to enter it. You may not see the tab until the first week of the semester or the day the course starts.
If the tab does not appear, look ot the top right of the page, there may be a drop down box that is titled '-more sites-', click here and select your course form the drop down list. - You will find announcements, the syllabus, testing information, and other resources on the course site. You should check this course site once a week minimally or as often as the instructor tells you.
- For CTools technical help:
- See this page for answers to common problems.
- Call 313-593-1392 (Mon-Fri, 8:00-4:00) or
- Email distancelearning(at)umd.umich.edu or
- Come by the Distance Learning Office - 1150 Social Sciences Building (8am-5pm M-Th and 8am-4pm Fri.)
- After hours, you may also try ctools@umich.edu
- In general, there is no help on weekends, and limited help afer 5:00pm.