The JSU systems a nursing student uses, and what each one is for
A JSU nursing student works across a handful of university systems: MyJaxState for registration, GEM for email, Canvas for courses, Honorlock for proctored exams, Navigate360 for advising and Houston Cole Library for research. Clinical compliance sits in a separate tracker, CastleBranch. Here is what each system does, how you get in and which one to use when a clinical question comes up.
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Tell us your JSU program and where you live. A placement advisor replies with the preceptor and site options that fit your JSU course.
MyJaxState and JSU single sign-on
MyJaxState, at my.jsu.edu, is JSU's student portal. Graduate students register for courses "online using their MyJaxState accounts," and the registrar's Fall 2026 calendar says schedule changes are posted there as well. Your sign-in uses your MyJaxState username, which is not the same as your JSU email address.
JSU protects its systems with JSU Single Sign-On and DUO multi-factor authentication. JSU describes DUO as required across MyJaxState, GEM and Microsoft 365, so set up the DUO Mobile app early and keep a way to reach it when you change phones.
Registration dates matter for clinical students, because a practicum and its paired lecture course are taken together. For 2026-27, JSU lists priority registration for graduate and doctoral students on October 26, 2026 for spring and March 8, 2027 for summer. Our academic calendar guide has the full term dates.
GEM: JSU email on Microsoft 365
JSU calls its student email GEM. It runs on Microsoft 365, so the same account opens Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. JSU's GEM page notes that DUO is now required for every GEM user signing in from off the JSU network, which covers nearly every online nursing student.
GEM is the channel that counts for faculty decisions. The graduate handbook says extensions are communicated in writing through JSU email and documented in Navigate, so ask for anything agreed by phone to be confirmed there in writing. Keep clinical conversations with faculty in GEM, and forward nothing important to a personal inbox you might stop checking.
One naming trap: JSU's library search is also called GEM, as GEM Finder. The email system and the library search share the name but are separate tools.
Canvas: where your courses live
"Canvas is JSU's official Learning Management System," and every nursing course, clinical ones included, runs through it at jsu.instructure.com. Students gain access to their Canvas courses on the first day of each semester, so a syllabus for a spring practicum may not be visible until the term opens.
The graduate handbook points students to the Orientation and Student Support Module in Canvas for tutoring and Writing Center links. Your clinical course site is the natural place to look for how the course faculty want hours, evaluations and assignments submitted.
JSU's public pages, graduate handbook and catalog do not name a platform for logging clinical hours, so the first-day syllabus and your course faculty are the authorities on that. What counts toward those hours is covered on our guide to clinical hours.
Online@JSU supports Canvas, Canvas Studio, Honorlock and Turnitin on weekdays, and Instructure's own Canvas 24/7 Help is reachable from the Help menu inside Canvas.
Honorlock and Navigate360
Honorlock is the online proctoring service named in JSU's guide for online students. The graduate handbook sets the threshold: "any assessment equivalent to 15% or more of a student's final course grade may require utilization of online authentication and proctoring services." Check each syllabus for the exams that are proctored, and test your webcam and connection well before exam day.
Navigate360 handles advising and tutoring through the Navigate360 Student app. It also has a quieter role in nursing: the handbook's late-work policy says approved extensions are documented in Navigate, so it holds part of your academic record.
Advising for undergraduate health students is based in Kennamer Hall, with links to Navigate. Graduate nursing students also receive an individual plan of study at admission from the Director of Online and Graduate Academic Services, and our clinical roles guide lists the other titles you will deal with.
Houston Cole Library for nursing research
Houston Cole Library is a twelve-story building holding over 1.5 million bound volumes, and much of what a distance student needs from it is online. The search tools are GEM Finder, an EBSCO discovery search, and JaxCat, the library catalog, with LibGuides and LibAnswers for help.
Nursing has its own guide, Medicine, Health, and Nursing, run by the Health and Sciences Librarian on the library's ninth floor. It points to CINAHL Ultimate, Cochrane and ProQuest databases and includes a RefWorks tab for managing citations.
These tools carry real weight in the DNP. The quality-improvement project behind the residency starts in DNP 8796, with a formal proposal and IRB applications in the fall that follows, and all of it rests on a literature search. Our DNP 8796 guide covers the course. Setting up CINAHL alerts and a RefWorks library before that course begins saves time later.
Where to get help
JSU spreads its help across several offices. Knowing which one owns which problem gets an answer faster.
- Technology Support Center: GEM Outlook, DUO Mobile, MyJaxState and Microsoft 365 apps, through Submit a Support Ticket
- Online@JSU: Canvas, Canvas Studio, Honorlock and Turnitin, on weekdays
- JSU Writing Center: Stone Center 230, with a Digital Writing Lab in Stone Center 228
- Student Success Center: second floor of Houston Cole Library, including Disability Resources
- RMC/JSU Health Center: west wing of the JSU South Complex, run jointly with RMC
JSU's pages disagree on tech support hours: the IT page lists weekday business hours, while the guide for online students describes round-the-clock support. Plan around the weekday hours and treat anything more as a bonus. Every nursing program page also links JSU's Student Laptop Policy, which is worth reading before you buy equipment.
Where clinical records fit, and where we fit
None of the systems above holds your clinical clearance. That lives in CastleBranch, where JSU tracks immunizations, CPR, insurance, your license and the approval of your malpractice proof. Our CastleBranch guide covers it item by item, and the on-campus requirements guide covers the times an online program brings you to Jacksonville.
Jax State Preceptor works alongside all of this. However your placement comes together, with JSU's help or without it, we find a preceptor and site that meet JSU's rules and prepare the preceptor's credentials and the site's details so they are ready for JSU's faculty. You keep using GEM and Canvas for everything official with JSU, and we keep the search and the paperwork moving in the background. See how it works.
Questions JSU students ask
How do I sign in to MyJaxState?
Use your MyJaxState username, not your JSU email address, through JSU Single Sign-On. JSU requires DUO multi-factor authentication for MyJaxState, GEM and Microsoft 365, so install DUO Mobile and register your device before your first term. The Technology Support Center handles sign-in problems through its support ticket form.
What is GEM at Jacksonville State University?
GEM is JSU's name for student email, which runs on Microsoft 365 with Outlook, Teams and OneDrive. DUO sign-in is required for GEM users off the JSU network. The graduate handbook treats JSU email as the written record for extensions, so keep faculty conversations there rather than in a personal inbox.
Does JSU use Honorlock for nursing exams?
JSU's online-student guide names Honorlock as its online proctoring service, and the graduate nursing handbook says any assessment worth 15% or more of the final course grade may require online authentication and proctoring. Check each syllabus in Canvas for which exams are proctored, and test your equipment ahead of time.
Where do JSU nursing students record clinical hours?
JSU's public program pages, graduate handbook and catalog do not name an hour-logging platform. The syllabus in your Canvas clinical course and your course faculty are the places to find out how hours and evaluations are submitted. CastleBranch, the one compliance system JSU names, holds your clearance documents rather than your hours.
Which library databases does JSU offer for nursing?
Houston Cole Library's nursing guide, Medicine, Health, and Nursing, points to CINAHL Ultimate, Cochrane and ProQuest databases, with a RefWorks tab for citations. GEM Finder searches across the library's collections, and the Health and Sciences Librarian on the ninth floor supports nursing students, including those studying online.
Related pages
Last checked 2026-09-27
We check these pages against JSU's 2026-27 catalog, nursing handbooks, program pages and licensure disclosures. Your course faculty and your plan of study have the final word.
Whether JSU helps or you start alone, we find the preceptor.
Tell us your JSU program, your next practicum or residency and the town you train near. We find preceptors and sites that fit the course and gather what JSU's faculty need to clear them, early enough for the semester.
- Preceptors matched to the course: family practice across the lifespan, adult-gerontology acute care, DNP residencies
- License, certification and site details ready for JSU's clearance, with your CastleBranch and malpractice items in order
- Across Alabama and in Georgia, Florida, Mississippi and Tennessee
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