General

What is Trailhead?

Trailhead is the Colorado School of Mines web portal that provides personalized access to various web services. All registered students, faculty and staff have access to course information, campus life, work life, email, and more.

How do I login to Trailhead?

Point your web browser to https://trailhead.mines.edu/ and login using your MultiPass username and password. You must first activate your MultiPass account before you can log into Trailhead.

Is Trailhead available off-campus?

Yes, when you are off-campus you may access Trailhead. Note however that some web services will not be available to you unless you are using the Mines VPN (Virtual Private Network).

What is my portal username and password?

Trailhead uses your campus username and password you were assigned or chose when activating your MultiPass account.

Is my information secure? Why don't I see the key lock security symbol?

Security for Trailhead is provided by InCommon CA.  Because some pages are actually frames within a page you may not see the lock icon that indicates a secure page; however, the pages are still secure.

Your personal information on Trailhead is protected through your login. Only by logging on with your username and password can your information be accessed. For this reason, it is very important that you do not share your password with anyone. No one, including support staff, needs to know your password for any reason. For your protection, it is essential that you log out of Trailhead and close the browser window whenever you leave your computer so that your personal information is not exposed.

When is Trailhead available and how long is the time-out for inactivity?

The portal is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Some channels rely on data from systems that are down for backup and maintenance during the evening. These channels may not be available in the portal during that time.

If you forget to log out of Trailhead, the portal will automatically time out after a set amount of inactivity. This is a security feature that helps prevent others from gaining access to your private information (student records, financial information, your online coursework, and so on), particularly when you are using a public computer. Warning: This is not a substitute for logging out. The only way to absolutely ensure that your information remains secure is to LOG OUT before you leave the computer.

How do I get help with Trailhead?

If you have questions or problems, contact ITS via the Mines Help Center at https://helpcenter.mines.edu/TDClient/Requests/ServiceDet?ID=30274&SIDs=1312.

Who can I contact to make comments or suggestions for the portal?

Your comments and suggestions are most welcome at the Mines Help Center.

How can I get training on Trailhead?

Submit questions via Mines Help Center.

Can retirees use Trailhead?

Generally, no, but if you need it for access to some information on Self-Service (e.g., for access to tax information), you can call the Mines Service Center and ask for your account re-enabled.

Can alumni use Trailhead?

If you have never had a Trailhead account, then no. If you had a Trailhead account as a student, you will retain access to that account.

Why does Trailhead log me out without letting me know first?

Trailhead will log you out automatically after a certain period of inactivity on your account. It will show you a message that your account will expire with a countdown. This is in place to protect your personal data and privacy. In rare instances, you may also be logged out as part of a scheduled maintenance process.

Why don't my browser's "back" and "forward" buttons work properly in the portal?

The best way to navigate through the portal is to use the tabs and the links within Trailhead. The “back” and “forward” buttons in your browser may move from tab to tab or channel to channel, but if changes have been made or other logins have been made, using the browser’s navigation buttons may not have the desired effect.

What is Luminis?

You may see the term “Luminis” on various portal-related web pages. Luminis is the name of the platform that runs Trailhead.

Content, Channels, and Tabs

What web services can be accessed through Trailhead portal as "Single Sign-On" (requires no additional user authentication) services?

Current Single Sign-On services are

  • SSB (Self Service Banner)
  • International Student Portal
  • Residence Life Housing Portal

In order to activate the single sign-on service to the following: ePrint, Vacation Sick System, and Cognos, Trailhead will ask you to re-enter your Luminis (Trailhead) password. After this is completed once, your user authentication will occur automatically for these services each time that you login to the Trailhead portal.

Do faculty, staff, and students all see the same view of Trailhead?

No. Faculty and staff see a different default view of Trailhead than students see. The content that an individual sees is determined by their role at Mines. Currently the possible roles are student, faculty and staff. Individuals are presented with a different set of pages and portlets containing the default content for their role.

How will I know when new channels (portlets) are added?

New channels (portlets) will be added occasionally. Watch for a notice on the Home tab showing Trailhead News that will describe a new channel and its location.

I have a great idea for a new channel (portlet). How can I contribute a channel to Trailhead?

Departments are encouraged to develop their own channels and other portal information resources.

Contact ITS via the Mines Help Center at https://helpdesk.mines.edu and request a meeting with the Portal Admin. Written permission must be obtained for use of copyrighted materials such as text, logos, images, etc.

How can I recommend that an externally generated RSS feed or other information source be added to Trailhead?

Courses

What course tools are available in Trailhead?

Through Trailhead, instructors have access to Self-Service to:

  • Send personal announcements to students in their courses.
  • Set office hours.
  • Submit grades.
  • Much more.

It is up to the instructor to determine which of the available campus tools best fits his/her course needs. For example, an instructor may choose to use the portal tools, Canvas, or a standard web site to disseminate class information.

Email

Can I access my email in Trailhead?

Yes. Although it is not a single sign-on, you can access your email system by clicking the email icon in the Go Bar portlet.

Troubleshooting

Why do I get a 'Not Found' error when trying to access any of the Services?

After the recent upgrade of Trailhead, the browser cache on your system may need to be cleared. If you see something similar to this message when trying to access any of the services:

try the following:

  1. Log out from Trailhead.
  2. Delete any Trailhead bookmarks you currently have.
  3. Clear your browser’s cache. Every browser is different and how you do it depends on the browser’s version too. This might be different in your case:
    1. Firefox: Open Menu – History – Clear Recent History – Time range to clear: Everything
    2. Internet Explorer: Tools – Internet Options – General – Browsing History – Delete
    3. Chrome: Customize and Control Google Chrome – History – History – Clearing Browsing Data – Select The beginning of time – Clear Browsing data
  4. Close your browser and open it again.
  5. Log into Trailhead https://trailhead.mines.edu
  6. Click on the Service button.
  7. If this doesn’t solve your problem or now you are getting a different error message, please let us know as soon as you can via the Helpdesk at helpdesk.mines.edu.
    Information we’ll need to speed the process:

    1. Did you clear out the browser’s cache?
    2. What browser are you using?
    3. Were you on campus or off campus at the time you got the error?
    4. Date and time you got the error
    5. A screen shot of the error