Important information for students: major IT outage and migration
As Athabasca University (AU) continues to make progress with the Integrated Learning Environment (ILE), a significant information technology (IT) change is required that will impact all AU students.
It is critical that you as an AU student back up any AU Microsoft data that you will need before Nov. 11, 2022, as well as any emails in your AU Outlook inbox.
If you will need an email, for example: confirmation and instructions for an upcoming exam or important instructions from your tutor or academic expert, please either save those emails as a .pdf or forward it to a non-AU email account.
Outage details
There will be a significant outage from 12:01 a.m. (Mountain) on Nov. 11, 2022, until 9 a.m. (Mountain) on Nov. 14, 2022.
During the outage students will have no access to the following:
- AU Outlook email (including the ability to access/send/receive emails)
- Microsoft collaboration tools (OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, etc.)
- Web versions of Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)
Students can still access myAU, Moodle, and other systems that use AU email for logging in (VitalSource, for example). Students can also still access AU Microsoft Office products such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint, but only if you have them installed on your computer.
You will need to back up your files by saving them on your local drive such as your computer’s hard drive or an external drive.
Student email updates and access to AU Microsoft accounts after the outage
During the outage, AU will be updating all student email address endings. Your email address ending in @athabasca.edu will still receive emails, but to access your AU Microsoft account including your Outlook inbox, you will need to sign in with the new email ending— yourname@learn.athabascau.ca.
The prefix of your email address and your password will remain the same, just the ending will be updated. For example:
- jsmith9@athabasca.edu will become jsmith9@learn.athabascau.ca
You will find the full step sheet on how to log into your AU Microsoft account using your new @learn.athabascau.ca email address and updating your Outlook settings.
You will only need to log in with the new email ending in @learn.athabascau.ca AFTER Nov. 14, 2022. Your password will remain the same.
Please note that it may take until Nov. 29, 2022, for all your AU Microsoft data to be migrated. That could include your Outlook emails, OneDrive files, Teams content, and SharePoint data.
Why is this happening?
This migration will increase opportunities for AU students and team members to connect, and puts AU one step closer to launching the ILE, which will greatly enhance students’ learning experience and digital security.
Data migration details
At the end of the technical outage on Nov. 14, students will be able to send and receive emails and access their Microsoft accounts including OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, and web-based applications such as Word and Excel.
It may take until Nov. 29, 2022, to fully migrate all data.
Is this process secure?
AU will use an automated tool to manage the data migration securely to protect student information from unauthorized access and against potential loss or misuse of information.
More information available
All information and resources AU students need can be found on the Office 365 for students page.
