I’ve had a lot of trouble finding the answer in the University’s FAQ, but I was able to configure Thunderbird to access the University of Phoenix’s Online Learning System (OLS).

  1. Open Thunderbird (duh!)
  2. Open Account Settings (on Windows, it’s under Tools. On Linux, it’s under Edit)
  3. Click the “Add Account” button.
  4. In the New Account Setup dialog, select the Newsgroup account radio button and click the “Next” button.
  5. In the Identity dialog, enter you name and your UoP email address.
  6. In the Server Information dialog, you need to enter in the URL of the class in the format of ClassroomNumber.phoenix.edu. You can find this address by “going” to class in your browser and looking at the URL.

  7. In the Account Name dialog, enter in a name for this newsgroup account and click the “Next” button.
  8. Verify the info and click the “Finish” button.
  9. In the main Thunderbird window, right-click the class and click Properties. Under the Server Settings section, enter the following information:
    • Tick the “Use secure connection (SSL)” check box, this should change the to 563. If it didn’t, you need to change it manually.
    • Tick the “Always request authentication when connecting to this server” check box.

  10. In the main Thunderbird window, right-click the class and click Subscribe.
  11. In the Website Certified by an unknown Authority dialog box, select the “Accept this certificate permanently” radio button and click the “OK” button.
  12. Enter in your UoP user name and tick the “User Password Manager to remember this value” check box.
  13. Enter in your password and tick the “User Password Manager to remember this password” check box.
  14. Every one of your past classes will be shown in the list. Expand the tree and subscribe to any forum that you need!