Guidelines for New Students:
a Tech Timeline
To begin your academic journey at CCAC, you first need to
apply at
Discover CCAC. Once you have completed your application
and registered for courses, you will have a wide array of
technological services available to you, from your academic email
account to free applications you can install on your home
computer.
Your key to the
use of these tech tools is your NetID account - NetID for Network
Identification - the network account that gives you access to
computers on campus, to the student portal, to Blackboard and to
much more. For these and a variety of other reasons, it's important
to get your NetID account set up as soon as you can. Please follow
this simple timeline to set up your account.
1. Apply for Admission
(Contact Admissions
Office for answers to questions about this stage.)
The first step is to apply for
admission at discover.ccac.edu. You will
be asked to create an account at the beginning of the application
procedure. This account is not the NetID account.
Your Discover account will enable you to submit your application
and to schedule placement tests. But it is not the account you will
use to access your academic email or log onto computers on campus
when you are actively taking classes at CCAC.
The username for your Discover account will be an email address
you supply. If you forget the email address you used to set up your
Discover account, the Admissions
Department can help you. To schedule placement tests,
click Events.
(Note: if you have applied for Financial Aid, you will have
limited NetID availability after you have completed this first
step.)
2. Register
(Contact Registration
Office for answers to questions about this stage.)
The next step, after you've taken the placement test, is to
register. To register for your first semester at CCAC, you will
need to meet with an advisor. This usually takes place on a
campus, but under certain circumstances exceptions can be made. For
details, review the registration
procedures. If you are a first-time visiting student (a student
enrolled at another college), be sure to review the information for
visiting students.
3. Create NetID
(Contact the ITS
ServiceDesk at 412.237.8700 for answers to questions about
this stage.)
After you've registered for a course at CCAC, you will be able
to create your
NetID account, and to unlock the technological tools available
to you at CCAC.
- VisitNetID
Self-Service to create the account.
- When your name is displayed, check it carefully. If you see
any misspellings or mistakes, stop and contact the ServiceDesk
right away.
- Keep your student ID number in a safe place where you can
access it.
Upon creating your NetID account, you should be able to log into
computers on the CCAC network. One to two days after you've created
your NetID you should have access to MyCCAC (my.ccac.edu), where
you will be able to view your financial and registration
information. If you are not able to access MyCCAC by the end of the
second day after you've created your NetID account, please contact
the ITS ServiceDesk. You should also be able to access your academic email
account 24 hours after the NetID account is created.
Blackboard accounts are created separately, but they will use
the same credentials for authentication. Blackboard accounts are
typically created approximately two weeks prior to the beginning of
a course utilizing Blackboard. Online courses will generally be on
Blackboard. However, if your course meets on a campus, it's up to
your instructor as to whether he or she wants to use Blackboard. So
it's possible that your course will not be one that uses
Blackboard; and if it isn't, you will not have a Blackboard
account. They're created only for students who need them.
4. Maintain Your NetID Account
For the sake of information security, NetID account passwords
are good for 120 days only. This means you will need to change your
password regularly. You can change it or reset it (even if you've
forgotten it) at NetID Self
Service. If you are not able to change your password at NetID
Self-Service, please call the ServiceDesk at 412.237.8700. For
security reasons, we cannot reset passwords by email or by
chat.
You will need your student ID number to reset your
password.
Password requirements
Your password will expire every 120 days
- Your password must contain at least 8
characters from at least
three of the following categories:
- Uppercase letter
- Lowercase letter
- Number (0 through 9)
- Special character (for example,!, $, #,
%)
- Any Unicode character that is categorized as an alphabetic
character but is not uppercase or lowercase. This includes Unicode
characters from Asian languages.
- You will not be able to change your password less than
2 days since you last changed it.
- Your new password cannot be the same as any of your
last 6 passwords
- Your password cannot contain your account
username
- Your account will lock if you experience 5 invalid
attempts to log in over 3 minutes; once this occurs, you will need
to wait 15 minutes to try again