Information For Students
About Learn@UW River Falls
- Learn@UW River Falls is our campus course management system (CMS). Currently we are using a software product called Desire2Learn (D2L).
- Instructors may be using D2L in a blended environment (blended environment is where you meet traditionally in a classroom and utilze D2L for collaboration, file sharing and asynchronous/synchronous communication) or you may be taking a fully online course.
- Your instructors will explain to you how they will be using D2L. Once you login, you will see your courses IF the instructor has activated the course and IF the start date of the course is set.
- Check your system for compatibility (there is a link on our login
page that will perform this when you click on it) This will check
your browser to ensure it is compatible and will behave.
- Log in with your Falcon Account
(w number) and password.
- use the password you chose when your account was activated or last modified.
Login Help
Do you have a Falcon Account? (if not see below)
- Did you encounter trouble logging in? Please try the following:
- You will not be able to login to D2L until the next day after registering for a course. Once you register it takes an overnight batch cycle to enter you into the D2L system. Even after that, you may be able to login to D2L, but you won't see your courses until the start date or until the date the instructor has set for the beginning of the course.
- If you receive an error stating invalid username or password, please verify you have the correct username, this will
be your Falcon Account. (example - w2600000) and the correct password
(case sensitive)
- If you think you have the correct credentials and you are still
unable to log on, try your username and password to access your
email in SquirrelMail (this uses the same credentials). You can
access SquirrelMail here:
- If successfully logging into SquirrelMail and you can't log
into Learn@UW, then you may have an internal problem and will
need to contact the Helpdesk@uwrf.edu
or call 715-425-4357.
- If your password doesn't work in either place, then chances are
you have an incorrect password and will need to create a new one here:
I do not have a Falcon Account
If you are enrolled in a non-credit course you will not have a Falcon
Account. Instead a login account was created for you and you were enrolled
in your class. Your instructor should send you your login information.
If you are unable to login, please contact us at d2l-help@uwrf.edu and
let us know the name of the course, the instructor, and that you are
a non-credit student.
Class rosters are loaded into each course nightly at 11pm. If you register
for a course before 11pm on that day, then the next day after 8am you
should be able to log into Learn@UW River Falls.
After following the above suggestion and you still cannot log in, please
ask for help!
Help Accessing Your Courses and
Files
How to access your courses:
Once you are logged into Learn@UW River Falls, you can access
your courses in the "My River Falls Courses" widget. You will
need to expand the "+" sign next to the semester to display
your courses. Enter your course by clicking on the name of the course.
How to access your course materials:
After you enter your course, your instructor will have materials for
you. You might see a news item with, or a calendar item. Most often
you will need to access the materials by clicking on "content"
on the navigation menu bars at the top.
Unable to see your course?: If your course is not
listed in the "My River Falls Courses" widget this is probably
due to the fact that your instructor has restricted access to the course
until a specific date. Another reason may be that your instructor has
not made the course active. Please email your instructor and indicate you are unable to see the course.
Can't download instructor files? Popups being blocked?:
- Are you unable to access content in your course?
- Are you unable to download some of the Word or Powerpoint files?
- Do you receive "pop ups being blocked" messages?
- Do you get a message saying "unable to display this page?
- Do you receive a message at the top of your browser that this page has been blocked?
If you are using a PC, and Internet Explorer with SP2 (Service Pack 2) or even Internet Explorer 8, you will need to configure your browser to add D2L web page as a trusted site, allow popups and if using IE 8, make it a compatible site.
To make it a trusted site and open popups, open your browser and choose "tools" from
the menu bar. Then choose "Internet Options". Now click on
the "security tab" and choose the "trusted sites"
icon. Then click on the "sites" button to the right: See below:
Once you click on sites, then add the Learn@UW River Falls (D2L) site in,
which is this:
uwrf.courses.wisconsin.edu
Then click "ok"...now to set your browser to allow popups from D2L, choose the "privacty tab" above and in the "pop up blocker" section, choose the "settings" button and add the D2L site in as above. Save your changes, close your browser and start it up again to login to D2L.
If you are using IE 8 we recommend setting D2L as a compatible site. To do so open the browser and choose "tools" and "view compatibility settings" and add the D2L site in here also.
Even after configuring Internet Explorer, you may still have some browser issues. Another possibility is that you receive an error like this if you are using Internet Explorer 8:
In order to alleviate the above error, you need to answer this security message with "NO" when it appears:
This security warning message usually appears when you click on the class link after initial login to D2L. If
you had answered "yes" to the message, the above error will not allow you to navigate to certain pages. This is because some of the content pages may be linking to "http" sites and some may be linking to "https" (secure sites). Thus by answering "yes" the message below explains that you will NOT be able to view those sites.
You may still have to "undock" your file if you see a blank page in your browser. You can "undock" a file by clicking on the "undock" button in your window that appears as below:
Alternative Browsers:
If none of the above solutions work you may need to try using a different browser.
Recommended browsers can be downloaded from the links provided below; each of these are free.
Mozilla or Firefox (this works
well on both Mac and PC platforms) This is installed on Davee Library
Labs and the ETC lab PC's. Firefox is the recommended browser for D2L.
Safari and
Firefox are supported
for Mac OS X (Safari doesn't display the submit button in discussions, nor does it display the basic/advanced tabs in the html editor within D2L).
Google Chrome (Google's new browser).
Internet Explorer on Mac is NOT RECOMMENDED (strange and unexplained
behavior may occur).
If you still experience trouble logging in or navigating Learn@UW River
Falls, please send a message to:
d2l-help@uwrf.edu
Recommended System Requirements
We recommend you use these system components with UW-River Falls Learn@UW
(D2L).
This will ensure you have a user friendly experience with our online
courseware
| Component |
Component Requirements |
| Operating System |
MS Windows 2000, XP, Vista |
Apple MacOS X |
| Internet |
Internet connection via ISP
(Internet Service Provider)
(ex: MSN, Earthlink, NetZero, Yahoo DSL, Comcast, etc.)
DSL, or Cable
(dial-up not recommended...slow and sluggish) |
Browser
Browser needs to be
Java-Script enabled
and cookies enabled.
Check the browser
help file for setup Check our DoTS support page
for other setups
|
Internet
Explorer 6 with SP2
Internet
Explorer 7
Firefox |
Firefox
Safari
|
| Browser Plug-ins |
Java
Adobe
Acrobat
RealOne
Player
Flash
Player |
| E-mail |
Ability to check email either with client or web based |
Office Suites
Purchase MS Office
at discount from WISC
|
MS Office 2000, XP, 2003, 2007 |
MS Office 2004,2008 |
| Multimedia |
Monitor capable of 800 x 600 resolution
Sound card and speakers/headphones |
Audio Help
Your instructor may use audio files in the course. Most of the time using either Internet Explorer or Firefox browsers, when you click on the audio file link, it will open in your browser window and you will see a control bar such as this to play your file: 
If your audio control bar does not appear in your window or does not function you may need to "undock" the file, which will open the file in a new window. To undock it, click on the "undock" icon as below:
The most common type of file is mp3 format. You may need browser plugins (you might be prompted to download this) or you will need to have a program such as Windows Media Player, QuickTime or RealPlayer to name a few. If you do not have either of these programs on your computer you may download for free here:
Windows Media Player (support info and setup...Win only)
QuickTime (support info and setup...Win and Mac)
RealPlayer (support info and setup)
Note that the above audio programs may need to be configured. In a perfect world they should just work after you download them. If you are unable to listen to audio files there may be other things on your computer preventing this. You may need to open your audio program and go into the "tools" and "options" or "edit" and "preferences"to see what files the program is associated with.
If you are using the computers in our labs it should work fine by undocking as noted above. If you are using your own computer at home and are still experiencing difficulty listening to audio files, please use the following links to help you troubleshoot:
Troubleshoot listening to Audio files in Firefox
Troubleshoot listening to Audio files in Internet Explorer
Still can't listen to audio files? Send us an email by clicking on the link below and let us know the course and instructor, the name of the file and what browser on what system you are using. Also let us know the audio program you are using.
Help me I can't listen to the audio files!
24 Hour Support
There are 3 areas of support available for you:
Primary level of support:
- Learn@UW River Falls Admin support (use for specific course help)
- Let us know the specific name of the course and semester
- IT Services Helpdesk: (use for general access help)
Secondary level of support:
Secondary support is available through the Learn@UW system in Madison,
Wisconsin. This support is available to you if the above mentioned support
is not available or after hours.
Contact Learn@UW Madison directly by phone at 888-435-7589.
You will need to identify yourself as a River Falls student or faculty
member. For those who do not have a "Falcon account" please indicate you are a non-credit student.
