How to Access Student Email on the Web - UKZN Digital Learning Portal

Instructional Guide on Accessing and Using Student Emails

The following guide describes how you can access and use your UKZN student email platform.

Step 1:

Using your web browser (recommended: Google Chrome), go to this web address http://my.ukzn.ac.za/ and the screen below should display.

Step 2:

Click on Login.

Step 3:

On the screen that comes next, enter your UKZN student email address (that is, your student number ending with @stu.ukzn.ac.za) e.g. 123456789@stu.ukzn.ac.za. Click Next.

Step 4:

If you see the screen below, select Work or school account.

Step 5:

Enter your UKZN LAN Password. Click Sign in. If you forgot your password, click Forgot my password and follow the instructions that are provided.

Step 6:

If the screen below appears, decide if you want to stay signed in or not, by clicking either No or Yes. It is recommended to click No if you are NOT using your personal computer.

Step 7:

Next, the landing page below will be displayed after a successful login. All the applications displayed on the landing page are for Microsoft 365 and are free to use when using your student account.

To access your student email, click Outlook.

Step 8:

The labelled screenshot below shows some basic functions in the Outlook web application for Microsoft 365.

New message: Click this button to create a new message or email.
Search box: In the Search box, type what you want to search for. For example, type the name of a person you want to find messages from, or enter text that you want to search for to find a particular message.
Reading pane: The conversation or message that you chose appears in the reading pane. You can respond to any message in the conversation by using reply Reply, Reply all, or Forward at the top of the message.
This tab contains shortcuts to Skype chat, Calendar, Outlook Settings, Help, What’s new, Notifications and your Account Profile.
Folders list: The list includes Favourites, Folders and Groups. The Folders contain other folders like Inbox, Sent Items, Drafts, Deleted items, Junk email. Messages or emails that are received (sent to you by others) can be found in the Inbox folder. Messages that you send to others can be found in the Sent Items folder. New messages that you are just creating but not sent yet will be automatically saved in the Drafts folder. Junk email contains messages that have been determined as suspicious or inappropriate.
This tab contains shortcuts to your mailbox, calendar, People (directory) and To Do list.
Message list: Messages in any selected folder are listed here.

One of the primary functions of the Outlook application is creating and sending messages or emails. To create a new message, click the New message button (labelled “1” in the image above).

The screen below will be shown. The labelled screenshot below shows some basic functions in the Outlook web application for creating and sending a message.

This tab contains buttons to Send a message (after composing), Attach a file (from your computer or from cloud locations), Encrypt your message, Discard your message or perform other actions (by clicking on the ellipses “…”symbol).
To: Here, type in the email address of the person or persons that you want to send your email to (the email recipients).
Cc: Also known as carbon copy, this is where you type in the email address of the person(s) that you want to be copied in the email you are sending. The recipient(s) in the Cc gets a copy of this email and their email address is seen by others in the recipients list.
Bcc: Also known as blind carbon copy, click here to type in the email address of the person(s) that you want to be copied in the email you are sending. The recipient(s) in the Bcc gets a copy of this email and their email address is not seen by others in the recipients list.
Every message needs a subject! This is where you type the title or subject of the message you want to send.
This is an example of how and where attached files are shown in the application.
This is the body of the message. Your actual message content must be typed in here. This may also include a signature (extra information to identify the sender).
This is an example of how a signature could be. It is part of the body of the message. You can insert a signature that automatically appears at the bottom in the body of your message. Signatures can be created under the Settings section and inserted using in the ellipses (…) symbol in label 1 or 10.
This tab enables you to modify your message by using formatting options like adding colour to your text, increasing the size of your text, inserting tables, bullets, numbers, hyperlinks etc.
This tab contains options to send your message (using the Send button), discard your message (Discard button), Attach a file, insert an image, insert emojis, show or hide formatting options and perform more actions (using the ellipses “…” symbol).

Note: If you need to attach files to a message, it is recommended to use the words “attached” and “file” or “files” in the body of your message to refer your recipient to the attached file(s). This enables the Outlook application to remind you to attach your file or files, should in case you forgot, before sending a message.

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