Frequently Asked Questions

MyBC is a web portal for students, staff and faculty at Bellevue College that provides a secure, password-protected space to access all commonly used online services, class materials (posted by instructors), and interactive online community features such as discussion boards, and personal sites (My Site) for each community member to store files or share information about theirself with the broader campus community. College news, reminders and bulletins are also centralized on the MyBC home page for disseminating important information to students, staff and faculty when needed.

Streamlining access to services and resources on the web is an important long-term strategic initiative identified by the college to better serve students and the overall campus community. MyBC helps to condense the vast number of forms, tools and applications provided to students and employees in an easy-to-use, secure format. The portal allows information to be customized so that it’s more efficient and relevant to each user. Students, staff, and faculty can access MyBC services from campus, from home or any other computer with an Internet connection.

Students and employees may access MyBC on or off campus. Follow the same steps whether you are logging in from BCC, from home or any other location with an Internet connection.

Student Log-in Procedures:

• After you’ve set up student network your account, go to http://mybcc.net
• Select “Log in.”
• Enter your user name and password, then press “OK.”

 

Employee Log-in Procedures:

• Go to http://mybcc.net
• Select “Log in.”
• Enter your network credentials using the following format:
  • User name: jsmith@bellevuecollege.edu (your complete BC e-mail address)
  • Password: ******* (your BC password)

Yes. Always end your MyBC portal session by closing your browser to protect your personal information. Follow these tips to protect your privacy and personal information when using the portal.

MyBC provides access to class materials and optional tools for students to store files online and collaborate with other members of the college community. The portal is not required, but is made available to all students, staff and faculty.

Employees are required to use MyBC on a regular basis to access frequently-used employee applications (tools), the college forms library, institutional files and news. Most web applications are also accessible outside of the MyBC portal through a direct URL, but MyBC provides the only centralized menu to access these resources. Some of the same links found inside MyBC are alternatively available through the “Faculty & Staff Menu” linked off of the college home page, however some links to faculty resources such as Instructor Briefcase is only available inside MyBC.

The MyBC web portal is provided free of charge to currently enrolled students, new students who have been accepted for admissions, and BCC employees. To access MyBC and its services, you are required to create a student network account (user name and password) or use the employee network account issued to you by the college. Read the complete MyBCC Terms of Use.

The MyBC web portal complies with most Section 508 Information Accessibility Standards defined in federal law by the United States Department of Justice. Some advanced or interactive features of the portal that are available to a small and limited number of users may not be supported according to these guidelines. In these cases, if alternative access is required by users, the college will respond accordingly to provide alternative means for access.

Bellevue is committed to providing information and services to all users, regardless of their method of access or the constraints of the technology they use to access information. For more information, review the following reference links:

• Section 508 Information Accessibility Standards
• BCC Information Accessibility (ADA) Standards for Websites
  

All information, content, applications and services distributed through MyBC are available to both PC and Mac users. There is some extra functionality if you are using Internet Explorer on a PC, read more.

Supported browsers:

• Internet Explorer 5+ (PC only) [extra functionality notes]
• Firefox (Mac and PC)
• Netscape 7.2 + (Mac and PC)
• Netscape 7.0 (PC only)
• Netscape 6.0 (Mac and PC)
• Safari
• Mozilla
• Camino

Unsupported Browsers

• Internet Explorer 5+ on Mac
• Netscape 7.0 on Mac (version 6 and 7.2 work on the Mac)

 

Notes: Certain Microsoft Office integration and administrative functions within MyBC require at least Internet Explorer 5+ on a PC.

Certain web part features located in ‘My Site’ are only be available to users running Internet Explorer on a PC due to the reliance of Active X controls required in pulling the data, however all basic functionality in posting files, accessing files and participating in forums and other interactive sites is available for all platforms and browsers.

For some administrative employees, advanced features such as institutional dashboards, business intelligence will only be available to users running Internet Explorer on a PC. If these tools are required, users will need to contact and coordinate alternative access with the BC Information Resources office.

Students:

Please report any technical problems or issues having to do with MyBC, MyBC Class Sites, your BC student network account, e-mail, or wireless access or connectivity to the Student Technology Support Center (STSC) at https://bellevuecollege.edu/stsc/. You may also contact seek technical assistance in person in room N250, by phone at (425) 564-5555, or via e-mail at help@student.bellevuecollege.edu.

Employees:

Please report all technical issues with MyBC or any other campus technology to Request Center at https://bellevuecollege.edu/requestcenter/ or call the HelpDesk at (425) 564-4357.

A network account is used to access (log in) to technology services across campus. Students create their own student network account online using the Student Account Management (SAM) tool at https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam. Employees are issued their network account when they are hired with the college.

The student network account is a passport to several technology services, the MyBC web portal being one of them. All students are provided with a college issued e-mail account as well which they would use their network account to access. E-mail and MyBC access is available to all students currently attending Bellevue College.

Students who pay the quarterly Technology Fee also use their student network account to log in to computers in classrooms, labs and access the wireless network on campus. These additional services are only available to students who have paid the Technology Fee.

Employees:

Your employee network account is issued to you when you begin working at the college. Contact your supervisor to coordinate this request.

 

Students:

• Go to https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam/
• Select “Create Your Student Network Account”
• You will need your student ID number (SID), personal ID number (PIN) and birth date or social security number.
• Follow the steps to set up your new account, where you’ll create your own user name and password.

Go to http://mybcc.net. Click on the link labeled “Forget Your Password?” or "Manage Your Account." You’ll be provided with options to reset your password or look it up.

Any student who has either been accepted for admissions at Bellevue College or is currently registered in a credit or Continuing Education class may create a student network account to access MyBC and college-issued student e-mail.

Please note: Only students who have paid the BC Technology Fee are eligible to use their network account to log in to computers in labs and classrooms, or the student wireless network.

Employee network accounts are active through the duration of employment. Student network accounts are maintained throughout the time the student is enrolled at the college. Accounts do not expire unless the student notifies the college to formally request that his or her account is removed.

You may look up your SID online at www.bellevuecollege.edu/services/sidlookup.asp

Students:

Your personal number (PIN) is initially set as your birth date, using the MMDDYY format. If you don’t remember your current PIN, you must request a new PIN in person at the BCC Student Service Center in B125 on the main campus or the main desk at North Campus.

You should change your PIN on a regular basis to further protect your personal information.

 

Employees:

Your personal number (PIN) is initially set by Human Resources and is different than your student PIN. If you don't remember your current PIN, please contact Human Resources at (425) 564-2274.

My Site is a personal website space provided to all students, staff and faculty may add your own personal links in My Site. Look for the area called My Links the ‘Home’ tab of MyBC or in your ‘My Site’ personal area. Click on “Add a Link” and create as many links as you’d like. You can organize your links into categories and manage your links in ‘My Site.’ You may also add links to your list when you’re browsing the portal. When you find a link titled “Add to My Links” in the left margin, click on this to add that particular page to your current list of links.

Content and links are directed to each portal user based on your student or employee role at the college. You may receive specialized information based on the type of classes you register for or the courses you teach. You may also receive personalized messages or information if you are involved in any committees or activities that utilize the portal for work space. The college intends to provide information that is helpful and useful to you during your time at BC.

All portal users have access to a personal space called ‘My Site.’ Features and services you’ll find in ‘My Site’ will vary depending on the level of privileges you’ve been given in the portal. Generally, all users may upload private or shared documents in ‘My Site,’ and may access personal links, alerts and announcements. The first time you click on the ‘My Site’ link (in the top right corner of your portal view), your ‘My Site’ will be created. This process takes just a few seconds.

‘My Site’ features a public and private view—the public view contains limited information at start-up. You may choose to provide other information about yourself by editing your site profile. The information you add to your site profile will display in the public view of your site, which may be viewed by any other portal user when they use the MyBC search feature.

In the private view, you’ll access the interactive features available to you in ‘My Site.’ You can upload documents to store on the BCC server for your own use in the private documents library, you may post documents in your shared documents library that can be viewed by others in your site’s public view.

You’ll also be able to add your own content, such as other document or image libraries, alerts, favorite links, and personal web parts for weather or news.

You can create document and picture libraries, calendars, surveys, task lists and other content. Any of the documents you create in your personal site can be shared with other users by adding them to your shared document library.

Under “Modify My Site,” you’ll find a “Restore Settings” link. Choose this link when you wish to restore your ‘My Site’ page to its original state. Your links, lists, alerts and documents will not be affected when you restore settings.

To change the color and style of your ‘My Site’ private view, click on “Site Settings” in the top menu, then choose “Change Site Theme.” Choose from a number of different pre-set themes and styles.

Your personal site has a private view that contains information of interest to you. From the private view, you can organize and access your documents, view and manage your alerts and information, view your e-mail and maintain a calendar — all from one location.

In the public view, you may edit your public profile if you wish to provide other portal users with more information about yourself. Always keep in mind you are publishing this information and all other portal users may be able to see it if they locate your site through a search. You may choose to share the links and documents on your public view.

An additional feature for employees includes the ability to create workspaces that allow you to invite other employee users to join in discussions, develop content online or discover other ways of collaborating with co-workers in a shared portal workspace.

Documents you post in ‘My Site,’ either in your private or shared documents library, are stored in the portal system in a database that is linked with your account.

You are the owner of the content you post in the private view of your ‘My Site’ area. You have the option to share links, documents or information about yourself in the public view of your ‘My Site.’ For more details, read What is My Site?

A MyBC Class Site is a secure, online website that allows BC instructors to distribute their syllabus or other class materials in an electronic format directly to the students after they have registered for classes.

If you are a student, you must have an established student network account to log in to MyBC. If you have not signed up for an account yet, go to https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam to create your account.

MyBC Class Sites are accessed from a class list under an area on the MyBC Home page called “Class Sites." Click on the link of your class title to enter your class site for each particular class. .

Use the following formula to locate the web address (URL) of a MyBC Course Site.

• All MyBCC Course Sites begin with: https://go.mybcc.net/classes/ and end with a combination of the class item number and the year/quarter code.
  • Example: https://go.mybcc.net/sites/[item number][year/quarter code]/
• Year/quarter codes consist of four digits, the first three characters corresponding to the academic year (i.e. 2008-09) and the last digit indicating the specific quarter in that year.

Example of year/quarter codes for 2008-09 classes.

• Summer quarter - A891
• Fall quarter - A892
• Winter quarter - A893
• Spring quarter - A894

Using the formula above, for a class offered in fall quarter 2008 with the item number 3000, the web address for the MyBC Course Site would be https://go.mybcc.net/classes/3000A892. Please note: only the instructor and students enrolled in the class section are granted permission to access MyBC Class Sites.

My Site is a personal space given to every member of the MyBC community. MyBC Class Sites are dedicated secure websites given to instructors for each of their classes. Some BCC instructors may prefer posting their documents to their My Site Shared Documents instead of using MyBC Course Sites. Each teacher decides for themselves what works best for them.

Also, privileges for accessing a MyBC Class Site are set up exclusively for the teacher and his/her students that are enrolled in that particular class. No other portal member may access a MyBC Class Site unless the teacher for that class invites them to join the site. My Site is an open area in the college portal for any portal member to access shared files posted by its owner.

Blackboard Vista is used as the primary courseware for online classes offered through BCC Distance Education. Bellevue College instructors who do not teach online classes are given the option to utilize either Vista or MyBC Class Sites to enhance their classroom-based classes if they wish. Students should ask their instructors at the beginning of each quarter if they intend to make class materials available using either of these resources.

All class sections that BC offers are provided with a MyBC Class Site. BC instructors possess administrative privileges to manage their own sites. After a student registers for a class, the student is automatically added as a member of that Course Site and a link to the site is added to their class schedule in MyBC (located under the My Classes tab). If a student drops the class, they are automatically removed as a site member and the link from the class schedule will no longer be listed.

To access MyBC Class Sites, students must sign up for a student network account. Go to http://mybcc.net and select “Create Your Account" or go directly to https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam/.

It takes 6 hours (sometimes up to 24 hours during heavy registration times) to see changes in your class site listin in MyBC. If you've dropped a class or added a new class to your schedule, please be prepared for this time delay before reporting an issue. If it has been more than 24 hours since you changed enrollment and you do not see the change in your Class Site list, please report it as soon as possible.

If the college cancels a class for which you’ve already enrolled, you may see the word “CANCELLED” listed next to your class in your schedule. This should only appear for a short amount of time until the Registration office removes you from the cancelled class.

Please not that your listing of MyBC Class Sites is not your official class schedule.

Instructors possess full administrative rightst to post or modify content on their respective MyBC Class Sites. Students automatically receive read-only rights unless the instructor chooses to modify their privileges. Read-only rights allow students to open documents and navigate the site as they would a traditional website.

No. MyBCC Course Sites are provided as a resource to all BCC instructors as means for distributing their class materials directly to their students online using the college portal, and/or communicating with their students utilizing the web. It is left up to the instructor to choose if they wish to use this resource.

Instructors are given unlimited storage for posting materials in MyBCC Course Sites.

Certain types of file formats that may be harmful to college servers such as executable files are not allowed to be posted in any area of the portal including MyBCC Course Sites, Community Forums, or My Site document libraries.

This message indicates the Course Site previously existed but has been deleted. All instructors have the ability to delete their MyBCC Course Sites through the site administration screens. If you encounter this message, check with your instructor, he or she may have intentionally deleted the site. If you are the instructor for the class and you believe there is another problem with your site, please report this issue.

MyBCC Course Sites were introduced in fall 2005, which is why only classes from that date forward appear in the class schedule on MyBCC (under the My Classes tab). You may view your entire unofficial transcript online by clicking on the Registration & Records tab in MyBCC or by going to www.bellevuecollege.edu/services.

Faculty and staff training is offered usually on a quarterly basis since winter quarter 2006. Employees are encouraged to browse upcoming class topics and times scheduled by selecting the Employee Training & Tracking (ETT) link from MyBCC eTools. Use ETT to reserve your space in any class for free. Web Services staff is also available to provide custom training for small groups by appointment. To arrange this type of training, contact webmaster@bcc.ctc.edu. Self-service online movies and handouts are also available and recommended for all users at http://mybcc.net/training/. Handout material is designed to print and follow along and focuses on how to work with basic features.

No, not yet. For PC users who use the Internet Explorer browser (see version requirements), users may open two sites (one in a seperate browser session) and using the Explorer View in a document library, drag and drop files between windows. This can be complex for some users. BCC is currently working on a wizard-style tool to allow MyBCC users to move content more easily. This enhancement is targeted for release sometime in 2008.

Yes, documents up to about 60MB in size are the maximum file size for document uploading capabilities. If files are larger than this, depending on your connection rate and computer, you may encounter time-outs or issues with files larger than this.

MyBCC features a Single Sign-on feature that recalls your SID and PIN (for students) or your employee SID and PIN (for employees) when you log in to the portal with your network credentials. For students, the single sign-on feature is currently available for one service: Blackboard Vista courseware. In the future, all student services, e-mail and eTools are planned to be made available with this time-saving feature.

For employees, services and applications (eTools) that you normally access with your network credentials, such as Request Center and EMS, are available with single sign-on when you’re on campus. When you’re accessing MyBCC services off campus, you will be required to type your network credentials the first time you use any of these services. Single sign-on is currently unavailable to employees for Instructor Briefcase, OSCAR or Employee Earnings History. Please log in to these applications by manually entering your employee SID and PIN.

In the future, single sign-on for all web-based services and applications will be available through MyBCC. Thank you for your patience while we work on these enhancements.

Bellevue Community College delivers the MyBCC web portal through a Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) connection. After you log in to the portal, you may verify that your portal connection is secure by looking for a locked padlock icon at the bottom of your browser. When this icon is displayed, you can be assured that the information you’re viewing on the screen is being transmitted securely.

It should also be emphasized that protecting the confidentiality of your records and information is your responsibility. To protect your privacy and prevent unauthorized use of your network account, you must always end your session (log out) by completely closing all web browser windows when you have finished using MyBCC. See complete and detailed guidelines for logging in and out.

The personal information you add and store in MyBCC is not disclosed or monitored by college administration unless such action is necessary to comply with the law, to protect BCC property or to enforce BCC policy. Read MyBCC Terms of Use.

Other portal users may use the MyBCC search to locate the public view of your ‘My Site’ area. The public view of your My Site is, by design, intended for you to share documents or links with other users in the college community if you choose to do so. When you add links to "My Links" and choose the “share links” option, or upload files in your shared documents library or pictures library in My Site, you are choosing to make this information available to others to access, open and view. At start up, the only personal information that is automatically displayed about you is your name. Be careful not to post documents that contain sensitive information in the shared documents or shared links areas of your ‘My Site’ section.

Follow these tips to protect your personal information:

Tips for Logging In & Out

1. Keep your information private! Avoid writing down your password and other personal data.
2. Keep your password secure:
• Don’t use your name or a word that would be easy to guess
• Don’t choose a word that can be found in the dictionary
• No one needs to know your password for any reason.
• Change your password regularly.
3. Always end your session by closing your browser after you’ve finished using MyBCC to protect your personal information.

Tips for Protecting Your Information at a Public Workstation

1. Don’t leave your workstation unattended—even for a few minutes. If you must leave the computer, always end your session or lock your computer so no one can access your information.
2. Be aware of others standing behind you or next to you when logging in and viewing your records, grades or personal information on the computer screen

Alerts notify you when content on specific portal pages has changed. Once you set up an alert, they will be listed on your MySite. Also, if you have a BCC e-mail account, you can be notified by e-mail when content is updated.

The MyBCC search feature is located directly under the content navigation on the top portion of your screen. You may choose to search the contents of the portal, the BCC public website, both together, or limit your search scope to locating only portal users. Choose an option from the drop down list next to the search bar to select a type of search.