The UL Lafayette systems an online nursing student runs on
One login, your ULID, opens nearly every system an online UL Lafayette nursing student uses: ULink, Moodle, Outlook email, the library and university software. MSN courses taught at the other ICMSN universities show up inside UL Lafayette's Moodle, and the consortium expects all communication with faculty and preceptors to go through your university email. This guide lists each system by UL Lafayette's own name and what it does during a clinical semester.
Get your placement plan
Tell us your UL Lafayette program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your UL Lafayette course.
ULID, ULink and Banner
Your ULID is the username behind almost everything. UL Lafayette describes it as one login for "the University web portal (ULink), email, your online courses, library materials and services and University-offered software." Your university email address is built from it as well.
ULink is the portal you will open most. It houses your Moodle courses, email, advising and registration information, financial aid updates, tuition and payment details, grades, account holds and university announcements, and it shows your registration time ticket. Check ULink for holds well before registration for a practicum semester, since a hold that blocks registration can stall a clinical course just as a missing site can.
Behind ULink sits Banner, which the IT Service Desk lists among the systems it supports and the catalog describes as an integrated student information system with web registration. Each online student also has an assigned advisor: the online advising page names a faculty advisor for the MSN and the PMHNP post-master's certificate, and a separate advisor for the DNP.
Moodle, including consortium courses
Every online course runs in Moodle. UL Lafayette's technology page tells online students they will reach their courses through the Moodle learning management system, and the ICMSN handbook notes that all participating universities use Moodle. Courses taught at McNeese, Nicholls or Southeastern appear inside UL Lafayette's Moodle, so the platform stays the same whichever school teaches a course.
Reaching those partner courses takes one extra step. Each advising period, MSN students complete the Online Enrollment Form on the consortium's website so they are loaded into courses taught at the other schools; the ICMSN consortium guide explains the form and why skipping it puts a seat at risk. Partner schools may also keep their own start and end dates, which the academic calendar guide covers.
Two tools work alongside Moodle. TurnItIn checks written work for plagiarism inside your courses, and ProctorU runs proctored online exams, which need a webcam and a microphone. Moodle is separate from the clinical tracking system the consortium requires for NP practicums, which has its own guide.
Outlook email: the channel for faculty and preceptors
UL Lafayette's official email runs through Outlook, which you reach from the Outlook Email card in ULink. The consortium handbook makes that account more than a convenience: all communication with faculty and with your preceptor must go through your university email account.
That rule shapes a clinical semester. Introductions to a preceptor, confirmations of clinical dates, schedule changes and anything you send about the letter of agreement should leave from your university address, and a preceptor who writes to a personal address can be asked to reply to the university one instead. The thread becomes the record of what was agreed, and course faculty can be copied without forwarding anything out of a personal inbox.
Set up Outlook on your phone before your first practicum. A clinic can move a day at short notice, and a reply that waits until you reach a laptop can cost you a clinical day.
Moving a preceptor conversation to a personal email account or to text messages steps outside the consortium's rule; keep it in your university Outlook account.
Meetings, software and support services
Live classes and meetings run on Zoom, and Microsoft Office 365 comes with your student account for papers, care plans and presentations. For academic help, online students reach tutor.com through a Moodle course, and the Writing Center OWL is set up as a Moodle course too, which is handy for the scholarly writing graduate nursing courses expect.
Support reaches past coursework. Uwill offers teletherapy around the clock to online students, and the Counseling & Testing Center serves the wider student body. The Office of Disability Services, in Agnes Edwards Hall, Room 126, handles accommodations; if you need one that affects a clinical course, start the conversation well before the practicum so course faculty and the site can plan for it.
Keep these services bookmarked in your first semester rather than searching for them during a heavy clinical term, when time is shortest.
Dupré Library from a distance
The Edith Garland Dupré Library, known on campus as Dupré Library, serves online students through databases, eBooks and off-campus access with your ULID. Two research guides are worth saving: the Distance Learners guide, which explains how remote students use the library, and the Nursing guide, which gathers nursing resources in one place.
For material that is not online, Dupré Library's Document and Book Delivery service sends items to online students. Order early in the semester. Evidence-based practice papers in the MSN and the literature review behind a DNP Synthesis Project both lean on sources that can take time to arrive.
The library also supports your clinical work. The articles you cite in case presentations and care plans come through the same databases, so learning the search tools in your first semester pays off in every practicum after it.
The IT Service Desk and your Cajun Card
When a system fails, the IT Service Desk in Stephens Hall, Room 110, is the place to go, and online students can reach it by chat through the Service Desk website. It supports accounts and sign-in access, GeauxWiFi, email, ULink, Moodle, Banner, WebAid, university software and the mobile app. Contact it at the first sign of trouble before a proctored exam or a submission deadline, not the night before.
The Cajun Card is UL Lafayette's student ID, and it doubles as a library card and a building and parking pass. UL Lafayette's published pages show no on-campus requirement for the MSN or the certificate, so ask your advisor whether you need a card at all. DNP students come to campus for the DNP Orientation Intensive at the start and the Synthesis Project presentation at the end, and nursing student services sits in V.L. Wharton Hall, Room 254.
Why UL Lafayette students choose us
Your systems carry the coursework; we bring the preceptor. Whatever support UL Lafayette gives with placement, we set you up with a clinical setting and a preceptor who satisfy its rules, then hand you the details in a form that moves easily through its channels: preceptor credentials ready for the graduate nursing office, contact details for your university email, and the site information a contract needs.
Your placement advisor checks the start and end dates of your practicum course, including one a partner school teaches, so the preceptor's availability matches the term you are registered for. UL Lafayette's course faculty approve every preceptor; we make sure what reaches them is complete and fits the rules the first time. Read how it works or tell us your program through the contact form.
Questions UL Lafayette students ask
Where do ICMSN courses from McNeese, Nicholls or Southeastern show up?
Inside UL Lafayette's Moodle. The consortium's universities all use Moodle, and a course taught at a partner school appears in your home school's Moodle once you are enrolled in it. The Online Enrollment Form, completed each advising period on the consortium's website, is what loads you into those partner courses.
Can I email my preceptor from a personal account?
The ICMSN handbook says no: all communication with faculty and preceptors must use your university email account. Send introductions, date confirmations and schedule changes from your UL Lafayette Outlook address and ask your preceptor to reply there. The thread also gives you and course faculty a clean record of what was agreed.
How do online nursing students borrow library books?
Through Dupré Library's Document and Book Delivery service for online students, alongside databases and eBooks reached off campus with your ULID. The library's Distance Learners guide explains the process, and the Nursing guide gathers nursing resources in one place. Request print items early in the term, since delivery takes longer than a download.
Who helps when ULink or Moodle will not load?
The IT Service Desk, in Stephens Hall, Room 110. Online students can reach it by chat through the Service Desk website, and it supports accounts, email, ULink, Moodle, Banner and university software. If an outage threatens a proctored exam or a deadline, tell your course faculty in writing from your university email as well.
What do I need for a ProctorU exam?
A computer with a webcam and a microphone, since ProctorU supervises online exams remotely. Test your setup before exam day, choose a quiet room, and read your course's Moodle instructions for when the exam opens and how to book it. Contact the IT Service Desk early if your equipment gives you trouble.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against UL Lafayette's 2026-27 catalog, its online program and state authorization pages, the ICMSN student handbook and Louisiana's nursing rules. Your course faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
Whether UL Lafayette helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your UL Lafayette program, the practicum coming up and the Louisiana town you train near. We look for preceptors and sites that fit the course and gather the license, CV and agency details that must be on file before your first clinical day.
- Preceptors who meet Louisiana's rules: an active Louisiana license, most hours with an APRN in your population focus
- The preceptor's CV, the agency details and your letter of agreement items gathered early
- Across Acadiana and the rest of Louisiana, plus DNP residencies in your home state
Start your placement plan
Your program, your town and your next clinical semester is all we need to begin.