Courses LMS Student Guides

The most common reasons that you may not see a class site:

1. Your Professor May Need to Publish the Site. Did the semester just start, or is it about to start? All class sites start "unpublished" or only available to instructors. This gives them time to set up the site before letting students access it. So, check with your professor to see when they plan to publish the site. Please note: Use of the LMS is at the sole discretion of each professor. You may not see the site since the professor doesn't plan to use Courses. Always best to check in with the instructor, though.
2. Search Your "Sites" Menu. Your "Sites" menu (the grid or "waffle" icon at the top right) will list your active enrollments by the academic term.
   • Use the "filter sites" box to search for your class (e.g. ENG 101).
   • Use the star icon to show or hide sites in the top favorites bar of Courses.
   • Use the "Organize Favorites" feature to reorder your sites in the top bar. The favorites bar is limited to 15 sites; if you reach the maximum, you will need to remove ("unstar") older favorites to see new ones.
3. Newly Registered? Please Wait a Day. Class enrollment information is updated twice each business day. If you just registered for a class, you should see the site appear by the next business day. As stated above, whether or not you see a site will depend on whether your professor has published the site.

Learn more at "How do I find my class sites?"

The most common reasons you cannot access Courses:

1. Expired, Forgotten, or Incorrect Password. If you typed in the wrong password or the wrong NetworkID, your login would fail. Check your spelling and see whether the CAPS LOCK key is on. If you recently changed your password, it's possible that your password manager or web browser has the old version saved. Re-enter your NetworkID and your password carefully. If necessary, reset your password using the MyID password management service.
2. Recently Reset Your Password? Did You Update Your Mobile Devices? If you recently reset your Pepperdine password, one of your mobile devices may have the old password stored (to check email, for example).  If that happens, your phone or tablet may be "locking" your Pepperdine NetworkID account. To protect you, our systems will temporarily lock an account after too many attempts with the wrong password. Check your mobile devices and update the password in each. The temporary lock lasts for one hour, or you can call IT's Tech Central at 310.506.4357 to see if your account can be unlocked faster.
3. Use your NetworkID, not your CWID or email, as your username. If you are attempting to log in with your CWID or email address as the username, this will not work. Use your NetworkID, which is typically the first letter of your first name, a middle initial, and part or all of your last name (e.g. jndoe12).
4. Alumni Lose Access Approximately 90 Days after Graduation. After you graduate, your Pepperdine NetworkID will be disabled approximately 90 days after graduation. You will receive several notices and reminders about this transition. Be sure to manually download any key documents or information from Courses prior to account closure. Learn more about Student-to-Alumni Account Changes.

For other access issues or questions, please contact Tech Central at 310.506.4357.

Turnitin is an online plagiarism detection service that is fully integrated with the Assignments tool in Courses (powered by Sakai). 

1. Submitting a Turnitin assignment is easy. Be sure to view the documentation on "How to submit a Turnitin assignment."
2. You must wait for a short duration to view your Turnitin report. It takes some time to generate the similarity report. Please be patient. Within about an hour, you can typically view your Turnitin report in Courses. 

The most common reasons that you cannot submit an assignment or test:

1. Past the Deadline. If the due date for an assignment, forum, or assessment has passed, you will not be able to submit it. Check the activity details and dates, and make sure that you haven't missed the deadline or "accept until" date.
2. Maximum Attempts Exceeded. Some activities will allow re-submission, and others will not. It depends on how your instructor has configured the activity. Check the activity details and the number of attempts allowed and compare this to the number of attempts remaining.

Please see the "Assignments" and "Tests & Quizzes" best practices in the Courses Tools section of this guide.

The Courses LMS receives all name information from the University authentication directory. This is based on the legal name you provided when applying to the University.

Who to Contact

• Students: If you are a student and have legally changed your name, you must submit a name change with the Office of the Registrar (aka Office of the Registrar or OneStop). If Office of the Registrar approves the change, then the department will submit your change through a special WaveNet process to make the change in multiple systems (e.g. WaveNet, Google, Courses, etc.).
• Employees: If your primary role is either staff or faculty (and you are also taking classes), then you must submit a name change form with Human Resources (HR). Just like the Registrar's Office, the HR department will review your request. If approved, HR will submit a special WaveNet process to make the change in multiple systems.

Additional Information

• Name changes cannot be completed directly in Courses. You must work with either the Registrar's Office or HR to make a formal name change.
• The "preferred name" information in WaveNet only applies to WaveNet, not other systems.
• Name changes that have been submitted properly by either the Registrar's Office or HR can take 1-2 business days to populate through the attached systems.
• Not all systems or tools will receive your name change. If there is a special tool or service used by your school, you may need to contact your school's technical support representative for additional assistance.

Please refer to the instructions on how to "Add Your Name Pronunciation."