Connect with People

Student-to-student and faculty-to-student communication has never been so easy. There are lots of tools commonly used to facilitate communication in class and outside of class.

ODU Student Email

Official communications from the University will always be sent to your @odu.edu email address. Please use your ODU student email account whenever you need to communicate with your site or faculty members.

You can access student email from the links in the myODU portal or by going to the Shibboleth Single Sign-On Site. Your login is your MIDAS user name and password.

Have more questions about email? Please visit the OCCS web site for more detailed instructions and email technical support.

Discussion boards

Many faculty use the course management system's Discussion Boards for communication and a tutorial on this feature is available online.

Web Conferencing

Web conferencing tools, like Adobe Connect, are also used for communication between students and faculty. Some of our courses are taught online entirely using Adobe Connect. If your course is going to rely upon a web conferencing tool, your instructor will let you know and provide instructions.

Instructional Technologies

In extended campus distance learning courses, video and audio exchanges occur using satellite broadcast video and voice over internet protocol (VOIP), as well as video streaming online. Many of these courses also use a variety of online tools including discussion boards, chat, web conferencing, etc.

Contacting Faculty

Faculty are very accessible. You can reach them by email, by phone, through chat and discussion boards, and social media outlets. Many faculty have web sites where they provide course information and information about their research interests. Faculty contact information also should be on each course syllabus.

Faculty Student Communication System (FSCS)

FSCS allows instructors to keep class communication separate from personal communication and gives professors the option of letting teaching assistants share the workload. Find out more about this system at the OCCS web site.