Frequently Asked Questions

The MyBCC portal is a web-based framework that provides one central access point to commonly-used tools, applications and services. After logging in, MyBCC recognizes the user and delivers information relevant to his or her role (student, employee) at BCC. Information can then be personalized and filtered to best meet the individual’s daily school or work needs. In addition to providing customized information, the portal can promote the growth of an online community by providing tools that allow for easy collaboration and dialogue between students, faculty and staff. Read more about MyBCC.

Streamlining access to services and resources on the web is an important long-term strategic initiative identified by the college to better serve the campus community. The MyBCC portal 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 MyBCC services from campus, from home or any other computer with an Internet connection.

Students and employees can access MyBCC 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@bcc.ctc.edu (your complete BCC e-mail address)
  • Password: ******* (your BCC password)

Yes. Always end your MyBCC 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.

Students will eventually be required to use MyBCC to access web-based services such as registration, class schedules, grades and online tuition payment. The existing “My Online Services” menu is anticipated to be phased out by spring quarter 2005.

Employees are required to use MyBCC on a regular basis to access frequently-used employee applications (eTools), locate resources such as college forms and documents, and receive announcements and news. Most web applications are also accessible outside of the MyBCC portal through a direct URL, but MyBCC provides the only centralized menu to access these resources. The BCC employee intranet and “Faculty & Staff Menu” (which is linked off the BCC splash page) have been replaced with this new tool.

The MyBCC web portal is provided free of charge to currently enrolled students, new students who have been accepted for admissions, and BCC employees. To access MyBCC 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 MyBCC 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.

BCC 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 MyBCC 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 MyBCC require at least Internet Explorer 5+ on a PC.

Optional web part features, such as MSN weather and news channels, 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.

For some administrative employees, advanced features such as institutional report cards and Microsoft Office integration will only be available to users running Internet Explorer on a PC. If these tools are required, users will need to coordinate alternative access with the BCC Information Resources office.

Students:

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

Employees:

Please report problems or issues to Request Center at https://requestcenter.bcc.ctc.edu or call the HelpDesk at (425) 564-4357.

You will use your network account to log in to MyBCC and access many technology services at BCC. Students must initially create a student network account, which can then be used to access e-mail and log in to computer labs. Network accounts are set up for all BCC employees and provide a way to log in to the computer, check e-mail and access other online applications.

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?” You’ll be asked to recall the answer to your challenge question in order to reset your password.

Any student who has either been accepted for admissions at BCC or is currently registered in a credit or Continuing Education class may create a student network account.

Employee network accounts are active through the duration of employment. Student network accounts are lifetime accounts and 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.

You may add your own personal links on the ‘Home’ tab of MyBCC 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 BCC.

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 MyBCC 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 MyBCC Course Site is a secure, online website that allows BCC 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 BCC network account to log in to MyBCC. If you have not signed up for an account yet, go to https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam to create your account.

MyBCC Course Sites are accessed from a class schedule called “My Classes” which is featured on your MyBCC Home page. You can also find My Classes in My Site, as well as under Registration & Records (if you are a student). Log in at http://mybcc.net and find your list of classes listed directly under college bulletins and news. Click on any class title to enter the Course Site for that particular class.

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

• All MyBCC Course Sites begin with: https://go.mybcc.net/sites/ 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. 2007-08) and the last digit indicating the specific quarter in that year.

Example of year/quarter codes for 2007-08 classes.

• Summer quarter - A781
• Fall quarter - A782
• Winter quarter - A783
• Spring quarter - A784

Using the formula above, for a class offered in fall quarter 2007 with the item number 3000, the web address for the MyBCC Course Site would be https://go.mybcc.net/sites/3000A782. Please note: only the instructor and students enrolled in the class section are granted permission to access MyBCC Course Sites.

My Site is a personal space given to every member of the MyBCC community. MyBCC Course 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 MyBCC Course Sites. Each teacher decides for themselves what works best for them.

Also, privileges for accessing a MyBCC Course 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 MyBCC Course 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 still the primary courseware used for conducting BCC online classes taught through the BCC Distance Education office. Teachers have the option to use either Vista or MyBCC Course Sites for communicating with their students. Students should ask their instructor each quarter how they intend to make class materials available to them.

All class sections that BCC offers are provided with a MyBCC Course Site. BCC 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 MyBCC (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 MyBCC Course Sites, students must sign up for a BCC student network account. Go to http://mybcc.net and select “Create Your Account" or go directly to https://bellevuecollege.edu/sam/.

It takes 4-6 hours before modifications or changes you’ve made with your class schedule appear in My Classes. Updates may occur more frequently during less busy registration periods. If BCC 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. For students, grades are displayed on the My Classes list once your instructor has submitted them at the end of the quarter. Check the quarterly enrollment calendar for quarterly deadlines when to expect your grades to be posted.

Instructors possess full administrative rightst to post or modify content on their respective MyBCC Course 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.