Using E-mail

Online classes depend a great deal on email to maintain student-to-instructor and student-to-student interaction. Using email in an online class, particularly at Oakton, brings with it several unique technical considerations with which a learner should be familiar.

In this section, we'd like to cover some of the basic technologies of email and how they pertain to Oakton online classes.

What is E-mail and How Does It Work?

If you're reading this page and seriously considering taking an online course, you probably know what email is. Rather than take time and space to explain the basics on this page, we recommend you read this external overview. This site is also a good source of information on email “netiquette.”

E-mail and your ISP

As an online student, you're expected to have an independent ISP (Internet Service Provider) which you will use to access your course (see the section on ISPs). This ISP will likely come with an email account. If your ISP is SBCGlobal, for instance, your email address is probably <username>@sbcglobal.com.

This is a mail account you can access when you dial into your ISP.

You can also set up an email account on certain web services such as Yahoo and Hotmail.

All these email services are independent of Oakton and your Oakton Online class. Access difficulties should be taken up with your ISP.

E-mail and Oakton

By virtue of being an Oakton student, you have received an Oakton network account, including an Oakton email address, though you do need to activate it. When you are on campus and log into the college network, you can easily check your Oakton mail via our Squirrelmail-based web mail application. This is best accessed via the email icon in MyOakton. This is also where you go to activate your Oakton email account.

If MyOakton is down, students can check their Oakton email from on- or off-campus by using the College's Webmail interface page.

E-mail & Oakton & WebCT

If you're taking an Oakton Online class, it is quite possible that you now have at least three mail addresses by which your instructor and classmates can contact you: one from your ISP, one provided to you with your Oakton network account, and one strictly internal to the WebCT course management program. These addresses/accounts will not automatically or necessarily work and play well together.  You cannot, for instance, use your WebCT email to write to anyone besides other WebCT students. You can use either your Oakton (or outside ISP) email address to write to any other non-WebCT address.

Your instructor will tell you which address to use for class purposes. If you wish to contact your instructor before the class starts, use your Oakton or ISP account to send to the instructor's public “___@oakton.edu” address. This address will generally be included in the course descriptions.