MyUSI is USI’s portal which allows access to multiple products with one easy login.

Blackboard is classified as course management software or courseware.

Both share a few similar features such as chat, announcements, calendar.

The course resources found under myUSI are basic tools delivered with the product, but myUSI is not courseware. If you have already created a Blackboard site for your course, you may choose to add a link for this site under the Course Homepage in myUSI.

If you have not already designed anything for your course under Blackboard and need only basic chat, message board, e-mail, and a way to add links for your course, you may choose to use the Course Resources under myUSI.

It is possible, but depends on a number of factors…

myUSI Groups:
All members of myUSI Groups may send email to other members of their Group using the Group tools email interface. Members can also post announcements that will appear in the Group tools interface and in the Personal Announcements channel on the myUSI tab.

Campus and Personal Targeted Announcements:
Targeted announcements appear in the Personal and Campus Announcement channels within the myUSI tab.

Campus Announcements will appear for all members of the myUSI portal, faculty, staff, students, and alumni.

Personal Announcements are targeted towards a specific subset of the myUSI population such as Freshmen, or Nursing Majors, or students, or faculty, or some combination. Those announcements will only appear in the Personal Announcements channel if the viewer is a member of the audience that was targeted.

Targeted Announcements can also be configured to only display for a set time period. As targeted announcements require fewer computing resources to process and don’t clutter up inboxes in a manner similar to SPAM, they are more likely to be approved.

All requests for Targeted Announcements should be sent to myusi@usi.edu

Mass Email:
MyUSI includes the ability to send mass email to members of the myUSI portal. Mass emails can be sent to either the entire myUSI population or a specific subset of themyUSI population.

As mass emails require greater computing resources to process and can clutter up inboxes in a manner similar to SPAM, they must be approved by the Director of the Computer Center, Wayne Bohm.

All requests for mass emails should be sent to wbohm@usi.edu

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Every request for Mass Emails and Targeted Announcements must include:

• The full text of the message as it is to appear on myUSI or be sent via email, including appropriate dates, times, and locations for the event(s)
  • NOTE: We don’t have the ability to send attachments of any kind. Email messages must be text only with no formatting.
• Information about the intended audience (all campus, students, faculty, students and faculty, freshmen, a specific major, etc.).
• Complete contact information as it is to appear in message which the audience may use in order to find further information.
• For Targeted Announcements that are to appear in the Campus Announcement (for all members of the myUSI portal) or Personal Announcement (for subsets of the MyUSI population) channels, please include start and end dates during which the announcement is to be displayed.

Note:
Do not create and use your own mass email lists in MyUSI as they may violate the Data Communications and Computer Use Policy.

No, we currently don’t support POP or IMAP access to the myUSI email server.

The POP and IMAP protocols are insecure because they generally send your username and password in clear text over the Internet.

Because myUSI contains much more confidential information than just your email (i.e. Your transcript, home address, marital status, for example), USI would like you to always use the secure web login provided through the myUSI website. This means that you can only get your email through the myUSI web interface and can not use external clients such as Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, Eudora, Mac’s Mail.app, and others.

This process also allows us to post announcements in the portal so we do not have to “spam” everyone’s email inbox with important University communications.

There is a chance, as our technologies and services change and evolve, that remote access to myUSI mail using other email clients may be possible. However, as of right now, there is no expected change.

MyUSI is a campus web portal that lets you access many of the university’s school services online. Faculty and students can read and create emails from their USI email account. It has email and chat features specific to each USI class. You can access a calendar of USI events, and receive announcements specific to your role within the university. There are also links for students to get to the online Blackboard system.