The Academic Success Center provides the help you need to successfully complete your coursework and eventually your program. Free in-person and online tutoring is available to all Great Falls College MSU students, and no appointment is necessary. For more information, visit the Academic Success Center's website at https://students.gfcmsu.edu/asc/

All courses at GFCMSU are required to have their course activated in Brightspace with, at least, an instructor widget, syllabus, and welcome announcement. However, some courses may utilize other online resources to deliver the course content, submit assignments, etc. Please review the course announcements and syllabus in Brightspace for specific information on how your online class will be delivered. 

Yes, you can research library databases from your home by logging in with your Net ID and password, the same username and password you use for D2L and the campus computers. If you have any questions about library resources, please contact the library directly by calling them at 406-771-4398, emailing them at library@gfcmsu.edu, or via their online chat at http://library.gfcmsu.edu. 

Exams and tests are given differently for online courses depending on the type of course and the instructor. Some online courses allow students to take their tests using the Quizzes tool in D2L, while other courses require students to use a free tool called Respondus LockDown Browser to take exams while still using the Quizzes tool in D2L. Courses that require the student to login to another website to complete coursework, (typically a textbook publisher's site), typically allow the students to take tests and exams through the publisher's site. Some courses, such as all math courses, require that all exams be given in a professional testing environment with a qualified proctor. If you live in Great Falls, you can schedule your tests with the GFCMSU Testing Center. A link to their site is provided below. Distance students may need to locate a test proctor in their area. If the instructor requires proctored tests, they will provide some additional information to students to help them locate one. Visit the link above to visit the Testing Center's page for hours and to schedule a test.

The first place students should look for their instructor's contact information is in their course syllabus. Full time faculty have offices on campus and will typically list their office hours in the syllabus. They will also list other ways that they can be contacted such as through D2L Brightspace email, by emailing their gfcmsu.edu email address, or by phone. If you are unable to locate your instructor's contact information in D2L another method you can use is to search Banner Web (course schedule) to determine who is teaching the course and then refer to our campus directory or click on the link to the right online instructor directory for a phone number and email address. If your instructor is not listed or you have any questions, please contact the eLearning office for assistance at elearning@gfcmsu.edu or by phone at 406.771.4440.

Students can view their official final grades by logging into Banner Web with their Banner ID and Banner Pin. After logging in, click on the Student Services tab and then on the Student Records link and then on Final Grades.

To make name changes in the D2L Brightspace environment, please visit our Admissions department in Student Central to fill out a name change request form. Be sure to circle Yes for the options labeled, "Does your name displayed in D2L need to change?" and "Does your university email need to change?". The Admissions office will make the initial changes in Banner and forward the request to the proper I.T. office to make the email and D2L changes. If you are unable to come to campus, you can visit http://records.gfcmsu.edu/documents/forms/ChangeOfNameForm.pdf to print the form, fill it out, and mail or fax it to Admissions at the information located at the top of the card. Note: Once the changes have been made by I.T. you may be unable to login to D2L Brightspace until later that day, typically within a couple of hours. If you’ve recently requested a name change through Admissions and you are unable to login to D2L Brightspace, please contact the eLearning Department by phone at 406-771-4440, by email at elearning@gfcmsu.edu, via our online chat located at http://elearning.gfcmsu.edu, or feel free to stop in! We can confirm that this is the reason you are unable to login and help you get in if it’s not the reason. 

You can update your personal email address that is used for correspondence from the college by logging into Banner Web. You can list multiple email addresses, however, you will mark one as ‘Preferred’. The ‘Preferred’ address is the one the college will use for communications.  Point your web browser to www.gfcmsu.edu.  Click on “Banner Web/My Info”. Click on “Log in to BannerWeb/MyInfo using your NetID”. Enter your Net ID (ex., a12b345), and your password.  Click on “Personal Information”. Click on “Update Email Addresses”. From here, you can add as many email addresses as you would like or you can click “Edit” to edit the current email address.  While you are adding or editing accounts, be sure to check the “Mark preferred” checkbox for any account that you would like to use for official communications from the college.  Be sure to click save after making any changes.  Click “Exit” and you’re done!

The eLearning Department at Great Falls College MSU offers many options to get you the help you need when you need it. One of these options is our online chat. eLearning staff members monitor the chat lines during the day beginning at noon, (we’re often on the chat in the morning also!), and going until 9:00 p.m., Monday through Thursday, and  until 5:00 p.m. on Friday.  To initiate a chat request: Either login to D2L or go to the page at http://elearning.gfcmsu.edu.  Look for an orange “tab” near the bottom left corner of the page that says, “Click to chat with eLearning!”. (If the tab reads, “Click to leave a message for eLearning!” we are offline. You can leave a message that we will respond to by email.)  Click on the orange tab to open the visitor form.  Enter your Name, Email address, a brief message describing the question or problem, and your role at the college, (student, staff, faculty, or other).  Hit the “enter” key or click on the checkmark to begin your chat.  Within a few moments one of the eLearning staff members will welcome you to the chat and begin investigating the problem or answering your questions. Please note that the more information you can provide regarding the problem, the more efficiently we can determine the cause of your problem and find a solution.  Be sure that you don’t navigate away from this page while the chat is in progress. If you do, simply click the back button to get back to this page and click on the chat tab again to resume.   When the chat is finished, click on the orange part of the chat window to minimize the chat. If any follow up is needed regarding the question or problem, you will receive an email at the address you used to initiate the chat. 

Installation Instructions From your browser go to https://login.microsoftonline.com. For username, use your netid@gfcmsu.edu ex: a12b345@gfcmsu.edu. For password, use the one that you use to login to the computers on campus and your student email.  You should see a screen similar to the following. You are now logged into Microsoft and you can download and install Office 365 Pro Plus by clicking on "Install Office" and then "Office 365 Apps".  If you have problems downloading the Office apps, which is the case with Google Chromebooks because of limited storage space, you can use the individual apps online by clicking on them. These apps are located in the cloud (see apps illustrated above). Any files created using these apps would be saved in OneDrive and you would have to login to access your files. Please read the following IMPORTANT notes: Important Notes: You can install Office 365 Pro Plus on up to 5 devices. Laptop; desktop, PC or Apple. You can also install Office 365 Pro Plus on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets. Please contact IT Services at helpdesk@gfcmsu.edu for instructions. Before you click the install button please remove/uninstall any previous versions (including trial versions) of Microsoft Office. This will just insure a clean install of this version. Also, you must make sure you are logging on to Microsoft from the computer/device that you want to install Office 365 Pro Plus on. You can use the login.microsoft.com site to manage your installs. You can install to devices or deactivate an install to use on another device. If you go on to MSU Billings, MSU Northern or MSU Bozeman, your student licensing should follow you. However, if you leave the MSU system your licensing will expire. If you move on outside MSU system, your new school may offer O365 but that will be under new licensing.