Graduate Orientation

FIRST STEPS

Your orientation will take place through various methods:

1) Online Graduate Orientation (the content of this page; please read thoroughly)
2) Online Graduate Orientation Document
3) The Catalog is the contract between you as a student and BUF. You will be responsible for the catalog requirements. Please pay extra attention to pages 14-45, 48-71, and 76-79. If you are beginning this semester or returning after a break of two or more fall or spring semesters, your contract with the university is the current catalog.
4) Student Handbook
5) Registrar Packet and New Student Orientation Form - Email your forms to Mrs. Stephanie Orr at sorr@buf.edu no later than the end of the first week of the semester. (Or use postal mail to Mrs. Stephanie Orr, BUF, 5400 College Drive, Graceville, FL 32440)

Submit the New Student Orientation Agreement Form and the Registrar Packet by the first week of the semester.

In the meantime, if you have any questions, please contact:

Doug Hankins, Ph. D., Associate Vice-President for Graduate Studies and Distance Campuses dhankins@buf.edu
Learning Management System Assistants, lms@buf.edu or 800-328-2660 ext. 523

The information below will help you learn more about BUF

Please note: All navy blue texts are "Links" and must be clicked on to access needed information.

WEBSITE

You will find valuable information on our website, http://www.buf.edu/, such as:

myBUF

 You receive your student username, password, and ID number from IT once you are admitted to the university. These will be emailed to your personal email account that you provided to BUF. Do not share your password with anyone. Your ID number is a unique 6-digit number and will be used at times when verifying your identity. Keep your login and ID number in a safe place for future reference. If you have just been admitted, your student email and password will arrive soon.

Our learning management system is called myBUF, which is a collaboration of Jenzabar's academic software and Canvas by Instructure.

You will access myBUF in two ways:

❕ You must use your Baptist University of Florida student username and password to log in to myBUF and gain access to your personal data ❕

Go to the website and choose the myBUF link at the top of the page. By following the link, https://mybuf.buf.edu you will land on the log in page. You will need to log in with your myBUF credentials. Enter your assigned username in the “Username" box and your assigned password in the “Password" box and click “Login" or press [enter] on your keyboard.

You will access your courses and course content by logging in to Canvas with your BUF Office 365 credentials (university email and password).

2. Go to the website and choose the Canvas link at the top of the page, OR if you are logged in to myBUF, click on "Canvas" listed under "Quick Links" on the left side of any myBUF webpage.

Logging in to myBUF

Signing in to Canvas

MyBUF TRAINING

Once you have logged-in to MyBUF, look at the left sidebar at the pages entitled “Getting Started” and “Student Navigation.” These will help you navigate around MyBUF.
A tutorial on navigating MyBUF is available under “Getting Started.”
IT 110 N provides more specific training about how to use MyBUF. As a graduate student you may take IT 110 N, but it is not required.

EMAIL

- You will receive a BUF email account. All correspondence with the university will be through your BUF account. You are responsible to check it regularly. Find the email link at the top of the BUF website. You will use your assigned BUF email address as your username and your assigned password as the password.
- After setting up your email, you will be required to set up or complete 2-factor verification (a text message with a 6-digit code, a phone call in which you press #, or Microsoft's authenticator app).
- For more information on setting up your BUF email, you can go here.

Payment

All students who do not receive Financial Aid must pay seventy-five percent (75%) of all accessed charges by the end of the drop/add period or the end of the first week of class. The remaining balance is due forty-five calendar days from the day classes begin. Students who have approved Financial Aid, as documented by the Financial Aid office, will have the aid applied toward the current semester charges. The student must then pay 75% of any remaining charges by the end of the drop/add period or the end of the first week of classes. The remaining 25% balance is due forty-five calendar days from the day classes begin. In either case, students that fail to make the required initial payments will be dropped from classes at the end of the Drop/Add period. You may pay online, send a check, or call by phone with a credit card. Call BUF (800-328-2660) ext. 418, or press “0” for the University Operator and ask for the Business Office.

ID CARDS

You can request a student ID card once the school has your photo on file.
Requests for an ID card should be sent to Stephanie Orr at sworr@buf.edu. We ask that you submit a passport-style photo of yourself (no t-shirts, please) via email to her.
The picture file name must include student ID number, student name, and that you are an online student. 
- An example file name would be Doe, John –ID123456-online.

FERPA

Your rights to privacy concerning your student information are protected. If you want your academic information to be discussed with someone other than yourself, you will need to sign the FERPA Permission to Release Information form. This form will be part of a packet of documents sent by email to you at the beginning of the semester. You will need to stipulate persons with whom your academic information can be shared. Return the completed form via mail to the university. This only applies to those 18 years and older.

Important: Please note that before speaking to your parent/spouse/representative, we will ask the registrar to look at your file to see if we have this permission form. If it is not on file, we cannot legally speak with anyone other than you once you are officially admitted to the university.

DISABILITY/SPECIAL ACCOMODATIONS STATEMENT

Baptist University of Florida is required to provide reasonable accommodations for all persons with disabilities who have submitted appropriate documentation of the disability to the Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs. Students who need special accommodations should contact the Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs' office prior to, or at the beginning of, the semester. The Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs will then inform the professor of each of the student’s courses of the needed accommodations. Then, the student should contact each professor to discuss the implementation of the accommodations. See the current Student Handbook, Students with Disabilities.

TEXTBOOKS

Once you have registered, textbooks are on your student schedule. Books will have to be ordered online from any desired online retailer, or from the LOGOS Digital Books online store found at https://www.logos.com/bookstore .
Order your books as soon as you register to ensure that you get them in a timely fashion. Please remember to allow time for shipping.
You can also view your textbooks on the registration module after completing a search for classes and on your student schedule after registering. Click the + sign.
If you need help ordering textbooks please contact Beth Andrews | Administrative Assistant to the Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs bandrews@buf.edu or 800-328-2660 ext. 414.

BUF LIBRARY

The Ida J. McMillan Library should be your first choice for all your academic research needs and is fully available to online students.   

Extensive resources are available to all BUF students. These resources include:  

Print and electronic materials ready for checkout and music scores
Subject - encyclopedias & dictionaries, fiction, literary criticisms, commentaries, and teacher education books
On-demand 24/7 databases that provide scholarly research materials, WorldCat 24/7 to view resources available worldwide, and Inter-Library Loan (ILL) services for articles and books.

You have the opportunity for personalized research assistance by phone, email, or virtual meetings. For more information, please visit the Library tab on your MyBUF portal, email, library@buf.edu, or call (800) 328-2660, ext 449.  See the Library Statement in the Participation Information section of all university syllabi. 

Please note: Materials are mailed out at the library’s expense. Return postage is the responsibility of the student.  

Do You Need Help with Academic Research? Email the librarian to set up your personal or virtual appointment, library@buf.edu.

Click here to view informational videos.

COMPUTER USAGE POLICY

You should have received an email from our IT department with your student username and password and a computer usage policy.

The policy can be found here.

OFFICE 365

Great news! As a BUF student, you now have a Microsoft Office 365 education account. On myBUF, look for the “Office 365” link under Quick Links on the left side of the page. Use your BUF email and password to log in and look around.
Your account provides you with unlimited cloud storage and the Microsoft Office Suite web version as well as the full version of the programs (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, OneNote, Access, Publisher, etc.) for *free* on up to 5 personal computers and up to 10 smartphones, iPads and/or tablets as long as you have an active BUF email address.
If you do not have the latest version of Microsoft Office, it is highly recommended you download and install the *free* Office suite using your account, to avoid issues students sometimes encounter with older versions of Microsoft Office.
An Office 365 account linked to your BUF email address will be necessary for viewing lectures and some other materials. If you receive a message saying you do not have access to a lecture or other material in a course, make sure that the Office 365 account tied to your BUF email address is the active account. Contact LMS Faculty Assistants for help.

BASIC COMPUTER PROFICIENCY

BUF courses, both classroom and online, require computer usage.
For academic success, at a minimum, students must be proficient in the following areas:
- Document processing: creating, editing, formatting, saving, and printing a document in Microsoft Word (or a similar word processor).
- Internet: accessing the internet, using a search engine, navigating within a website, writing and sending email correspondence.
Students who do not meet these computer proficiency requirements for BUF courses should take IT 101 (Introduction to Computer Use) in their first semester.
Students who have concerns about meeting the proficiency requirements or need to improve their computer skills should enroll in IT 202 (Information Technology Applications) during their first semester.
- If necessary, the professor of IT 202 will direct students to IT 101 N during the drop/add period.
Students taking their first BUF online course are required to take IT 110 N (Orientation to Online Learning) to prepare students for navigating the Learning Management System and for successful online learning practices.
Additional computer skills will be required for some courses that are online or have online components.
- These courses include, but are not limited to, speech-related or music-related courses offered in an online format.

BASIC COMPUTER EQUIPMENT NEEDED

For successful work, Baptist University of Florida students must have up-to-date computer hardware and software.
All courses, both online and classroom, contain some online components using Canvas' LMS (Learning Management System).
Students are expected to:
- Receive email messages
- Find information
- Complete and submit assignments
Having the needed computer hardware and software, or access to it, is the student’s responsibility.
- Needed items are described in the catalog.
- Devices such as phones, tablets, and Chromebooks are NOT sufficient for completing all work required.

Absences and Participation

Participation in online courses is tracked and is vital to your success as a student. You must participate each week and remain active in your courses. You will be held to the university attendance policy of the current catalog.
Participation is measured by:
- Submission of a forum post or reply
- Submission of a quiz or test
- Submission of any gradeable assignment
- Personal, phone, or email contact with the professor regarding specific coursework.
Please know that regular attendance and participation is required. Online courses are not the same as correspondence courses.
If you become inactive, you will receive notification via email and a phone call.
Staying inactive could lead to failure of the course.

Academic Integrity

Plagiarism will not be tolerated.
According to The College Writer: A Guide to Thinking, Writing, and Researching (Van Rys et.al., 2018, p. 434), plagiarism is defined as, “using someone else’s words, ideas, or images (what’s called intellectual property) so they appear to be your own. When you plagiarize, you use source material – whether published in print or online – without acknowledging the source.”
In essence, plagiarism is using any type of intellectual work—intentionally or unintentionally—as one’s own creative thought or work.
The most common form of plagiarism is when a student reproduces or submits another person’s words or sentences as his or her own without citing the original author.
Even if the words are changed and are not verbatim, if the context and thought of the structure of the words remain the same, it still constitutes plagiarism.
All research – whether quoted or paraphrased – must be cited (footnotes and bibliography).
Plagiarism may also include self-plagiarism: that is, when a student submits for course credit a version of his or her work that has been submitted for a previous class or assignment without explicit permission from the course professor.

Plagiarism Statement

University policy includes three steps, or levels, of discipline for plagiarism during a student’s academic career. First offense: reduction of the student’s grade on the assignment by a justifiable amount based on the offense and the student’s intent; second offense: failure of the student for the course; third offense: failure for the course and referral to the Executive Vice-President of Academic Affairs for disciplinary action.

Withdrawing from classes

Students dropping a class after 8 weeks automatically receive the grade of “F.” If a student is having difficulty, he is advised to withdraw prior to that time to receive a WP (withdraw passing) or WF (withdraw failing).  See current catalog for more information.   

Title IV Federal Aid recipients must complete 60.5% of the calendar days of the term to earn all awarded aid. If the amount disbursed to the student is greater than the amount earned the university will return the unearned funds back to the appropriate Title IV program. Depending upon the withdrawal date, the student may also have to repay funds directly to the appropriate program in addition to the funds the university returns.     

Students are encouraged to contact Financial Aid to become aware of any liability they may incur before officially withdrawing or dropping a class.  The student will be responsible for repaying the university for funds the university has returned on the student’s behalf before the student may register for future classes or receive a transcript.

Financial Aid 

Financial Aid is available to online students just the same way it is available to on-campus students, though some requirements apply. IMPORTANT Financial Aid Information: Participation in online courses is tracked and is vital to your financial aid. You must participate each week and remain active in your courses. Participation is measured by forum activity, quizzes/tests, any gradable assignment, and contact with the professor regarding specific coursework.  If you become inactive you will receive notification via email and a phone call. Staying inactive could have severe consequences for your financial aid and could lead to failure of the course.

Future Registration

After speaking with your academic advisor, you will be able to self-register in MyBUF. Please Note: New students cannot register themselves. If you have been regularly admitted and have talked to your advisor, your advisor can request registration from the Registrar via email. If you are unable to register yourself via MyBUF, you will need to send an e-mail to the Registrar’s office (sorr@buf.edu). Be sure to include the course number (ex: SF 101 N=online ). Registration instructions will be provided in a separate document.

Writing Center 

BUF has a Writing Center where you can find information and receive assistance concerning paper structure, formatting, and one-on-one help with your papers. This is available to all students, including online students! Look for the Writing Center link on MyBUF’s homepage or click here or email writingcenter@buf.edu. See the Writing Center statement in the Participation Information section of all university syllabi.

Do You Need Help with Writing Papers?  Video meetings are available with the Writing Center. Email writingcenter@buf.edu. The Writing Center staff encourages all students to schedule appointments as soon as possible in the semester. 

Echoes – BUF’s quarterly newsletter is available at our website here. It contains news about the university and is a great way to stay connected with the BUF community.

CONTACTS

-Dr. Doug Hankins | Associate Vice-President for Graduate Studies and Distance Campuses | Director of BUF-Calvary College | Associate Professor of Ministry Studies
dhankins@buf.edu