UHD Teaching and Working Online and Remotely
In the event of a campus closure due to weather, illness, or other emergency, the University of Houston-Downtown offers several alternative methods for continuing instruction and support services remotely. Any closure will be officially announced through the University's website and via campus emergency alerts.
Click a topic below to view more information:
Sign Up For Campus Emergency Alerts
Communication, Collaboration, & File Sharing
- Office 365 Email (University Email System)
- Office 365 OneDrive (Online File Sharing and Storage)
- Blackboard (Online Course Delivery System)
- Microsoft Teams (Online Group Collaboration)
- Zoom (Web Conferencing)
- Departmental Network Share Drives (Network Shared Drives)
- Veritas Desktop and Laptop Option (DLO) Web Access
- Adobe Sign (Sign Documents with a Digital Signature)
- Adobe Markup Tools (Comment and markup a PDF)
Remote Access
- Work from Home IT Security Guidelines
- Find Your Computer Name
- Installing VPN (Preparing Your Home Computer)
- Using Remote Desktop (Accessing Your Work Computer)
- Accessing Library Resources Off-Campus
Get Support
Additional Resources
- Cengage: For US colleges experiencing unplanned, mid-semester impacts due to COVID-19, Cengage is offering students a 7 day trial access to all our digital platforms and 14,000 ebooks through Cengage Unlimited.
- Wiley has made WileyPLUS, Knewton Alta and zyBooks available through the Spring 2020 term. Also, the company has made more than 5,000 COVID-19-related articles freely available on a Wiley Online Library site.
- Using Your Smart Phone as a Webcam: When using Zoom or recording lecture videos from home, you may need to use a web camera. If you are using an older computer that doesn't have one built in you may think you need to buy one. But why spend money for a separate webcam when you can easily use your smart phone's camera as a webcam?
- LinkedIn Learning Curated Resources: LinkedIn Learning is a free resources for UHD Faculty, Staff, and Students. LinkedIn Learning offers engaging, top-quality courses taught by recognized industry experts with thousands of courses and 255,000+ video tutorials that can be accessed across desktop and mobile devices. Note: You will need to login with your UHD username and password to access these resources.
Sign Up For Emergency Alerts
To ensure you are set up to receive Campus Emergency Alerts, please follow the steps below in myUHD:
- Faculty & Staff Instructions (UHD Main Campus)
- Student Instructions (UHD Main Campus)
- Faculty, Staff & Students: Locate Lone Star College System Alerts (UHD faculty, staff, and students who visit LSC Northwest, CyFair, and Kingwood campuses will have to sign up as community members to be added to Lone Star's Emergency Notifications System.)
Faculty and staff are also encouraged to ensure all contact information is up to date with their departments.
Communication, Collaboration, & File Sharing
Office 365 Email 
In the event of closure faculty and staff will need to communicate with students and each other. It is a good idea to become familiar with Office 365 email as most official communication will be via email.
- Logging Into Outlook on the Web
- Sending an Email
- Adding an Attachment
- Setting Up Mobile Email for Faculty & Staff
- Setting Up Mobile Email for Students
- Finding Student Email Addresses
- Forwarding Office 365 Email
- More Information about Office 365 Email
Office 365 OneDrive 
OneDrive is a cloud-based file hosting service similar to Google Drive and Dropbox. All current UHD faculty, staff and students have 1TB of space available in OneDrive. In the event of closure you may want to store large files, such as videos or recorded lectures, in OneDrive and share them with students via email or Blackboard.
- Uploading and Sharing Files in OneDrive
- OneDrive App for Windows
- OneDrive App for Mac
- Sharing a Recorded Video in OneDrive
- More Information about Office 365 OneDrive
Blackboard 
UHD's learning management system, Blackboard, is typically used for online course delivery. In the event of closure Blackboard would be ideal for posting content, communicating with students, and assessing and grading student work.
- Logging in to Blackboard
- Sending Messages
- Sending Announcements
- Sending a Email from Blackboard
- Adding Files and Information to Your Course
- Downloading the Blackboard Mobile App
- Using Respondus LockDown Browser
- Switching Modalities (a quick start guide for switching from face to face online)
- Faculty Resources
- Student Resources
Microsoft Teams 
Ideal for working with people in your department, Microsoft Teams is a hub for collaboration. Use Teams to communicate, file share, video conference, collaborate on documents and so much more.
- Logging in to Teams
- Using Microsoft Teams
- Starting Chats and Making Calls in Microsoft Teams
- Uploading Files to a Team
- More Information about Microsoft Teams
Zoom 
Hold virtual meetings or even record video lectures using Zoom. Zoom allows for video and audio conferencing while screen sharing on computers, mobile devices, and tablets. Record your video session using Zoom Cloud and share your video with students or coworkers.
- Zoom FAQs
- Downloading the Zoom Client
- Logging into Zoom
- Chatting in Zoom
- Starting a Zoom Meeting
- Recording and Sharing a Video in Zoom Cloud
- Securing Your Zoom Virtual Classroom
- Sharing a Recorded Video in OneDrive
- Updating Zoom
- Using a Document Camera in Zoom (Video)
- Using a Tablet in Zoom
- More Information about Zoom
- Additional Useful Tutorials
Departmental Network Share Drives 
By signing in to Network Share, you will be able to access your department's network share drive from any computer that has access to the internet.
Veritas Desktop and Laptop Option (DLO) Web Access
Access the data backed up by Veritas Desktop and Laptop Option (DLO) Agent by using the new Veritas DLO Web Access.
Remote Access
Work from Home IT Security Guidelines
Finding Your Computer Name 
If you are wanting to utilize VPN or connecting to your work computer off-campus, you will need to know the name of your workstation.
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Installing VPN Client 
VPN allows faculty and staff to access on-campus resources, including your desktop computer, from an off-campus computer. The VPN client will need to be installed on your home computer.
- Logging into VPN
- Downloading the Palo Alto VPN Client You may only access this link from off-campus
Note: You do not need to use VPN to access PeopleSoft, Blackboard, or Zoom. You will only use VPN to access your work computer via Remote Desktop. All other services are available without the use of VPN.
Using Remote Desktop 
Accessing Library Resources Off-Campus 
Some library resources require faculty, staff, and students to login when attempting to view them from off-campus. If you are having trouble viewing videos or accessing journals, Contact a Librarian in a virtual chat session. If you are specifically needing assistance with films on demand from off-campus, visit How to Access Films on Demand From Home to troubleshoot.
Signing Documents from Home
Adobe Sign allows users to sign documents and/or have documents signed by others quickly from anywhere using a web browser or mobile device.
Getting Support
IT Service Desk
Phone: 713-221-8031
Email: itservicedesk@uhd.edu
Hours: Open Daily 7 a.m.–Midnight
Blackboard Support
Phone: 713-221-2786
Email: bb@uhd.edu
Hours: Monday–Friday, 7:30 a.m.–6 p.m.
IT Training
Need training or assistance? Register for remote training sessions on the following topics:
For additional information on other IT services, visit Information Technology's home page.