IT 100: Introduction to WebCT

1) What is my username for WebCT?

Your username for WebCT is the same as your username for New River email. For faculty and staff this is typically your first initial + last name (dayersman for me) and for students the username is typically last name + _ + first initial + middle initial (ayersman_dj would be mine if I were a student). If you don't know your username you may find it using our People Search by searching for yourself to find the first part of your email address. All New River usernames should be typed in lowercase, not UPPERCASE. If you can't find your name in our People Search, please contact our Help Desk.

2) What is my password for WebCT?

Your password for WebCT (and Email) is initially your 9-digit New River ID number. This number is printed on your New River ID Card and for students it is also located on your course registration receipt. If you need help locating your 9-digit New River ID number you should contact our Help Desk or any of the Student Services staff members. We strongly encourage everyone to change your password (to both email and WebCT) after you first login. If you change your password and then forget it, we can reset it back to your 9-digit number for you. Just contact the Help Desk. (304-929-6725 or itsupport@newriver.edu) and request that we reset your password.

3) What is WebCT?

WebCT Campus Edition 4.1 is the web-based course management system used at New River. WebCT is fully accessible to all New River instructors and students.

Using a standard Web browser, WebCT provides instructors and students access to course materials from anywhere at anytime. Instructors and students with little or no knowledge of HTML can easily use this tool. Instructors often adopt WebCT for one or two particular features that it offers and then discover other tools as they become more familiar with online instruction and with WebCT. There are many features that comprise WebCT but a brief summary of them includes:

Online Course Information

• Syllabus, Assignments, and Course Materials: fill in the blank forms for creating instructor and student Web pages that require little or no knowledge of HTML; course materials might include text, complex equations, images, video, or audio; assignments can be grouped into Learning Units with accompanying media and assessments; course documents (like your syllabus) can be uploaded as they are or created online
• Manage Files and Information: a file uploader makes it possible to upload any digital information (text, graphic, video, audio) that is then available via a hyperlink; facilitate learning using searchable indexes and glossaries; online bibliographies can provide external links to other sites
• Student Projects and Notes: students can build course-related Web sites; there is an online note-taking tool for students

Communication Tools

• E-mail: sending email to single or multiple students is simplified by the course-specific interface for communicating with your class; voice emails are possible if you have a microphone attached to your computer
• Discussion Board: built-in threaded discussion list capabilities for promoting out-of-class electronic dialogue and interaction; voice boards that use recorded audio enhance textual communication
• Chat and Whiteboard: real-time communication tools for online dialogues

Feedback and Assessment

• Quizzes and Surveys: an online quiz builder which enables quizzes to be scored immediately with results being available to the instructor and student; self-tests can be graded or ungraded
• Grade Book: an online tool for automatically tallying student scores from quizzes and assignments
• Course Statistics: enable the instructor to determine which student accessed various aspects of the course, how often they accessed it, and when

The IT staff will gladly offer you tips on how to more fully utilize WebCT. We are happy to consult with instructors to insure that online course information is instructionally effective. Instructors can quickly pick up the basics of WebCT through self-instruction or by attending a brief workshop. WebCT is administered by Dr. David Ayersman with assistance from the New River IT staff at each campus. If you are interested in learning more about WebCT please contact Dr. David Ayersman (dayersman@newriver.edu) for further information.

4) Are there any online instructional resources that I could use to get a Quick Start on developing my online course?

There are abundant resources online that you could freely use in your online course without worrying about copyright infringement. One site, the National Repository of Online Courses (NROC), requires an institutional affiliation to access their materials and New River has partnered with them. There are other Learning Object Repositories and open courseware initiatives where course developers can obtain some great ideas and perhaps even some learning objects or assets to be incorporated into an online course at New River. There is also an online PDF document called Getting Started with WebCT for instructors.

5) Is there a process to developing completely online courses?

Yes. Anytime you create something it is helpful to have a plan to guide your development. There are various theories on instructional design that are useful to guiding the course development process (more information). Typically, instructors first adopt WebCT as a supplement to a traditional class and use only a few features (perhaps posting a syllabus online or using the course-based email for communication). This course (and instructor) will then often progress to teaching a WEWCT course (web-enhanced WebCT). These courses actually have fewer in-class meetings but the instructor is using WebCT to deliver course content, for communication, and possibly for assessments. Finally, as the instructor has gained sufficient experience with WebCT and the challenges of teaching in the online environment, a course is then taught completely online. At New River, the course developers are typically full-time faculty while adjuncts are provided with a course already developed that they deliver (instruct).

6) How can I easily convert existing course materials (syllabus, assignments, tests, etc.) into online course materials?

The first step is to identify the existing course materials. Begin gathering them together into one folder on your computer. You'll probably end up having a number of different file types (DOC, XLS, PPT, PDF) and that is perfectly okay. You can upload files to WebCT and then make them available to your students. Some files can be displayed within the browser (PDF, HTML) but others must be downloaded and may require other software to open (DOC, PPT, XLS require Microsoft Office on the client computer). It is helpful to know how to create a PDF document and how to compress multiple files into one ZIP archive.

7) What if a student doesn't show up on my WebCT course roster?

Enrollments are updated daily during the initial few weeks of the semester using data extracted directly from Banner. If a student isn't showing up in your course, as the instructor you may manually "Enroll" the student by using the Control Panel options within WebCT. The student must be in the WebCT "Global Database" for the instructor to enroll him or her. Otherwise, an account must be created for the student by the System Administrator.

8) When are courses removed from the WebCT server?

Courses are made unavailable to students after scheduled finals have completed. At the end of the following semester the courses are made unavailable to instructors. One year after the course was created it is removed from the server. This is required because New River doesn't use unique CRN numbers (instead they are used again one year later). It is the responsibility of each instructor to maintain backups of course files on his/her computer.

9) Can I re-use my course content from a previous semester this semester?

Yes. At the end of each semester Instructors should (1) backup the course to create a ZIP file. This file should then be (2) uploaded and (3) restored into a new empty shell each semester to avoid re-creating all your course content (see #11).

10) Can I remove students who have dropped my course (they don't appear on my roster from Banner)?

Although enrollments are updated daily, students are NEVER removed from WebCT courses by these updates. Instructors must manually remove students from courses. Any progress that a student may have made in a particular course should be preserved so rather than removing these students, we suggest that instructors simply make them "Inactive" and then "Hide Inactive Students" from your WebCT gradebook.

11) How do I create and then restore a backup for my WebCT course ?

Instructors are responsible for performing their own course backups. My recommendation is to keep at least two backups of your course on the server (the limit is 3). To create a course backup, login to your course and choose the Control Panel. If you're viewing the Basic Control Panel you won't see the option for backups so choose Expanded Control Panel (and make that view the default by clicking the "Set as default view" button). Under the Manage Course heading choose Backup Course. Then choose Create backup. You'll be prompted to type a short description of the backup file. I typically put the date and my name in this text field but you can leave it blank. Click Create. After a few moments you'll see a message that the backup was completed and then click Continue.

If you would like to restore the backup into a new empty course shell, simply download it to your desktop then upload it to your new course shell. When you restore it, be sure to choose KEEP STUDENTS so that your enrollment is accurate for the new semester (you wouldn't want the students from the prior semester in your new course). Here are the steps:

1. Login to your course and choose Control Panel.
2. Under Manage Course, choose Backup Course.
3. Click Backup Course and in the notes field type any descriptive information about the backup, then click Create.
4. When it completes, click Continue.
5. To move a copy of the file to your computer, click the bubble next to the backup file then click Download.
6. To restore this backup file into a new empty shell, login to your new course and choose Control Panel.
7. Under Manage Course, choose Backup Course.
8. Click Upload Backup and find the file you created earlier on your computer, then choose Upload.
9. Click the bubble next to the backup file, then choose Under the Restore area choose Keep Users (this keeps the new enrollment and brings in your old content).

12) Is there an FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions) for WebCT?

Yes. The WebCT FAQ is here.

13) Who do I contact if I need help using WebCT?

If you need any assistance using WebCT please contact itsupport@newriver.edu (or call 304.929.6725).