Start Up Information and Technical Requirements

How to Google Authenticate to gain access to your moodle courses

Click here to read instructions or read below:

In your application form below you will be asked to Google Authenicate. This links your palliser email @prs26.ca to moodle, our learning management system that hosts your online course.

• If you are a new student to Palliser you must have your @prs26.ca account set up before you can authenticate.
• The application form will ask you if you have one. If you don't one will be set up and your credentials will be sent to the external email you have provided.
• Once you have received your @prs26.ca credentials you must go back and complete the google authenitication.
• There will be a delay before your moodle courses are added

Once we have your authentication we can assign your courses to your account. 

Your Palliser Google email and Google Apps for Education (GAFE)

Palliser Google Apps for Education (GAFE) account - once students are registered, they will be provided with a GAFE account. This account will provide many tools offered by Google within a restricted area of which students will be using two on a daily basis - Gmail and Google Drive (documents). To access GAFE:

• Go to http://google.ca
• From the top right corner, select the blue ‘Sign In’ button
• Username - enter firstname.lastname@prs26.ca
• Password - enter the password provided (first time access - you will be prompted to change this provided password)
• Once you are into the Palliser GAFE, check the top right corner for

1. +your.name 
2. the Mail link 
3. the Google Apps icon (this is where you will find your Google Drive and other Google tools ( the square icon made up of 9 smaller squares)

Please note that students from China use their own local email to communicate. Palliser Beyond Borders will not create GAFE accounts. 

Logging in to your online courses

Palliser Beyond Borders Moodle account - Moodle is a ‘learning management system’ which will be the location on the internet where students will access the course materials and carry out the various assignments and assessments.  Once students have registered for a course, they will be granted access to the course via a login which will be provided to them either through the Palliser Gmail or by the teacher through a face-to-face meeting.

Students will receive a confirmation email to the email the student registered with for Moodle log in information. If you have questions about your student access to a Moodle course, please email Kourtney Skipworth. 

• Go to http://moodle.prs26.ca
• Sign in with google so you have single sign on access to moodle and google accounts. Please note  international students from China will use the moodle username and password instead. 
• Once you are into the Moodle site, check the left hand side of the display area and select/click on the link ‘My Courses’ This link should then open a page with all of the courses you are actively registered in
• Select the course and this should give you access to the content required to work within it.

Watch this video of how to login to Moodle

Watch this video to learn how to log into your Blackboard Live Instruction

Logging in to Blackboard Collaborate

Access to Palliser Blackboard Collaborate (BB) - this is a tool which will be used to provide students with a ‘virtual’ face-to-face meetings with their teachers.  Teachers will be using BB to facilitate various lessons and to be provide assistance in the form of tutorials and ‘just in time support.

To access BB:

Each course has the link to the live instruction that is timetabled for each subject. See the link at the top left hand corner . Click on the image. To configure Blackboard Collaborate:  Current version of Java (see http://java.com) to Configure your computer to operate Blackboard Collaborate Web Conferencing tool.

If you are having trouble configuring your computer Blackboard Collaborate has a very efficient helpdesk. Phone numbers are linked here. 

Technology requirements

You can check your browser using this online tool and if you are missing required programs, follow the links to get the downloads.

Students will also need:

• A reliable high speed Internet connection
• Noise cancelling headset with attached microphone, required for all students. (Logitech recommended.)
• Pentium 4 1.2 GHz Processor or better
• 512 MB RAM or better

Hardware requirements

You will need:

• a desktop or laptop computer. Note: A Chromebook will NOT work with Blackboard Collaborate.
• headset with microphone.

You can download a Moodle and a Blackboard app for mobile devices so you can attend to your learning when you are not at your desktop computer.

Using Chromebooks - FYI

• Chromebooks are cloud based devices, so a wifi connection is needed to take full advantage.

• Because they are cloud based, hard drive space is not as important as RAM; I would suggest nothing less than 4GB of RAM.

• Chromebooks all of a date when they stop receiving feature and security updates (Auto Update Expiration - AUE), this has just been increased to 8 years, but there are still devices for sale that expire well before that (I found a great deal on a Samsung Chromebook that “expired” in 2022) and the AUE cannot be extended by the user.

• The Auto Update Expiration of Chromebooks can be found here. I suggest that this be looked at, prior to a Chromebook purchase is made

Using Google hangouts and meets