Information You'll Need to Know Before Using WebCT
Introduction
WebCT is a tool that facilitates the creation of sophisticated World Wide Web-based educational environments. It can be used to create entire on-line courses, or to simply publish materials that supplement existing courses. WebCT requires minimal technical expertise on the part of the developer of the educational material (course from now on), and on the part of the student. WebCT was developed in the Department of Computer Science at the University of British Columbia. The faculty member in charge of the project, Murray W. Goldberg, has had experience building, delivering and studying the success of web-based courses, and of web-based material used to supplement existing courses. Thanks to Colorado State University for the content of this page.
If you are new to WebCT and want to try it out, here is what you should do:
1. Read this document
2. Obtain A copy of the WebCT Tutorial (Palo Alto College and see WebCT Homepage)
3. Create a temporary course on our demonstration server in which you can act as the designer (see WebCT homepage)
4. Go through the tutorial step by step - this takes you through some of the main steps in course design using WebCT.
5. Consider viewing or printing out entire on-line manual for further exploration on your own. If you are not quite that adventurous, you could first try accessing our test course as a student to see what a finished course could look like. See the WebCT homepage for details. Who Uses WebCT?
There are four classes of user in WebCT:
* The administrator
* The designer
* Graders
* Students
Each of the user classes operates as follows:
* There is only one administrator account. This person does not sign on to any individual course, but instead signs on to the WebCT administration page. Once there the administrator can initialize and delete courses, and change the passwords of course designers. This person does not actually configure or add any content to a course, but simply initializes a course and hands over the new empty course to a designer. The administrator username cannot be changed. However, the administrator can change his/her own password.
* Each course has one designer account. Normally, the designer is the instructor of the course. The designer can manipulate the course in any way, create quizzes, alter grades, check student progress, define student presentation groups, manipulate student accounts, etc. The designer account name cannot be changed. The designer password can be changed by the administrator.
* Each course can have any number of graders. A grader has the same privileges as a student, but can also mark quizzes and manipulate student grades. The course designer creates the grader accounts.
* Each course can have any number of students. Students cannot manipulate the course content (other than in the student presentation areas as defined by the designer). Students can change their own password at the discretion of the designer. The course designer creates the students accounts. When signing onto a course, WebCT provides a different view of the course depending on whether the person signing on is a designer, grader or student. The designer and grader views are supersets of the student view.
What Does a WebCT "Course" Look Like?
The content of a course is provided by the course designer (or instructor - the terms are used interchangeably here). Structure, interactivity, and educational tools are provided by WebCT. WebCT also allows the designer to alter the look of the course by, for example, selecting from existing (or creating custom) color schemes, choosing between formal and informal button sets, incorporating custom or WebCT built-in banners, and more.
Main Course Homepage and Tool Pages
A course developed using WebCT is organized around one main homepage. This homepage is the entry point for the course (the first page that designers and students see after having logged on to the course). It can contain, among other things, a banner image, a textual message, links to course content elements (notes and assignments, for example), and links to course tools.
While there is only one main homepage, there can be any number of subsidiary homepages (called tool pages). A tool page behaves exactly like the main homepage, except it is not reached immediately on entering the course. Instead, a tool page is reached by clicking an icon on the homepage, or another tool page. Thus the homepage and tool pages can form a hierarchy of pages with the main homepage at the root.
Course Content
A course can have any number of course content elements. A course content element can be: * a URL (which links to some page outside the WebCT course)
* a single page of content (appropriate, for example, to present a course timetable or outline)
* a path
A WebCT path is a set of individual pages of content organized both linearly and hierarchically for easy reference and navigation. The linear ordering of the pages is the expected order in which a typical student (if there is such a person) would view the pages. It allows for simple sequential perusal of course content. The hierarchical listing of the pages can be viewed by the student at any level of granularity, and allows for easy direct access to any page of notes.
All pages of course content that reside on a path consist of the actual content (created by the course designer) and a button bar. WebCT can shape the content provided by the course designer by, for example, automatically adding links to the glossary entries, providing access counters, or changing the page color scheme. The button bar is created by WebCT and includes buttons that provide access to general course tools, or to tools specific to that page.
What is a Course Tool?
A course tool is a feature supplied by WebCT that can be incorporated into any course. Tools can be made accessible (through a clickable icon) from the main course homepage, tool pages, or from content page button bars. Examples of tools include a conferencing system, timed quiz delivery, on-line grading, grade storage and distribution, e-mail between course participants, searchable image archives (both shared and private to a course), student self-evaluation, student presentation areas (both individual and group), student annotation facility, student progress tracking, course glossary and index, and more. This is only a partial list of WebCT course tools and features.
Navigation
When students log on to the course, they are presented with the main home page. If they had ever been signed on before, WebCT can take them to the page of content they were at when they ended their previous session (using the "resume session" tool). Otherwise they can click on a path icon (perhaps the main set of notes), a tool page icon, or any other icon available on the homepage.
Once they are on a page of content, included in the button bar are navigation arrows that will take them to the previous or next page of notes in the path. If they ever stray off the path, perhaps to view an off-site URL, a single click returns them to the point from which they left the path. This avoids the reorientation otherwise necessary after an prolonged foray off the path. The navigation buttons also allow the student to go directly to the homepage, to retrace through the last few accesses, or to view the hierarchy of the current path for direct access to any page on that path. Also, the status bar at the bottom of the browser always displays the name of the path the student is on, and the page number currently being viewed.
Finally, the button bar on each page of content provides direct access to any course tool that has been included on that page by the designer. These might include links to that page's multiple-choice questions, a link to a conference forum for that page of notes, or a link to reference material for that page.
WebCt Tools and Features
This section introduces tools and features of WebCT that can be used to assist both the student in the act of communicating and learning, and the instructor in act of providing and maintaining an educational environment. For a complete description of each tool, please see the on-line help. We first cover the tools and features used by the students, and then cover those used by the course designer.
Student Tools
Unless otherwise noted, tools can be made available by the course designer directly from either the main homepage, a tool page, or from any (or every) page of content.
Course Conferencing System (aka Bulletin Board). This allows communication among all course participants (instructor, graders and students). WebCT keeps track of which articles are read by each student and, by default, initially presents only unread articles. The conferencing system can be searched (new and old articles) for content, sender, date of sending, and more. Articles can have embedded URLs which are made clickable by WebCT. The conferencing system can have any number of fora. Pages of content automatically have a dedicated forum so that questions about a page are easily found later for reference. When a message is posted directly from a content page, the reader can click on the message subject to present that page in a separate window.
Electronic Mail. An electronic mail facility can be added to a course allowing one-to-one message transfer among course participants. Like the Bulletin-Board, messages can be searched for based on the sender, content and the date of sending.
Chat Tool. WebCT also provides a chat tool for real-time communication among course participants. The student's view shows the chat rooms, their names, and a list of course participants in each room. The list of users in each chat area is available. Most of the chat rooms are exclusive to students in that course, but there is also one general chat room that allows communication among students in any course on the same WebCT server. Finally, four of the chat rooms are logged in case the instructor wishes to peruse the exchanges taking place there.
Student Self Evaluation. Multiple-choice questions can supplement any page of notes. If there are any such questions associated with a page, WebCT generates a button on the button bar for that page to make them accessible. Clicking on that button presents the questions. Student responses are automatically marked correct or incorrect by WebCT. An explanation can accompany each answer saying why the chosen answer was correct or incorrect, and perhaps supplying hints or extra information.
Searchable Image Archive. The course-author can upload images to be included in the course. WebCT provides a page that allows the association of annotations and free text with each image. Students can search for images based on these. Search results are presented in the form of a page containing thumbnail-sized versions of the matching images (the thumbnail versions are generated automatically by WebCT). Clicking on any of the thumbnails presents the corresponding full image. Image databases can be private to a course, or can be shared by any number of WebCT courses running on the same server.
Searchable and Linkable Glossary. A searchable glossary of terms can be created by the course-author, and links from the notes to the glossary entries are added automatically by WebCT (under the control of the designer). Thus the glossary can be reached by the student in one of two ways: Clicking on a highlighted word or term in the notes displays the glossary entry for that word or term. Clicking on the glossary button in the button bar produces a page that allows display of portions of the glossary, and arbitrary searches of the glossary.
Student Presentation Areas. WebCT allows the designer to designate icons which serve as the document homepage link for student-generated web pages. The designer can give authoring privileges to a single student, a group of students, or to the entire class. Students with authoring privileges can upload pre-prepared web pages to their area for view by all course participants. This tool is useful for displaying course projects, student work, student newsletters and more.
Timed On-Line Quizzes. Quizzes can be written by the designer and delivered on-line on a predetermined day. A clock on the quiz page counts down the number of minutes assigned to the quiz once the student has begun. Once completed and marked, the grade assigned is, along with comments, made available to the student.
External References. This tool allows the placement of a button on the button-bar of a content page which is linked to an external reference. There are several built-in types of external reference including textbook references, paper references, and URLs. Depending on the type of reference, fields such as page number and image (for, perhaps an image of the textbook cover) are available.
Automatic Indexing and Searching. This tool allows the automatic creation of an index of course content and terms. The designer can add index entries to point to pages of content. Index entries are ordered alphabetically. Each entry can be annotated by the designer to indicate some special attribute (for example, an annotation "definition of" might be added to a reference for a term for the page on which that term was defined).
If the student does not find the term they are looking for in the index, they can enter their own term. The course content can be searched to a selectable depth, with the results shown as a series of links that can be perused.
Page Annotation. The designer can add a button to any page of notes which, when clicked by a student, allows that student to make personal annotations for that page of notes. The annotations created are private to that student and persist as long as the student has an account for that course. This might be used by a student to remind himself or herself about some insight or clarification gained.
Grade Tool. Each student can view his or her own marks as entered by the designer. The student also has access to minimum, maximum and average grades for each course component (at the discretion of the instructor). Students also have on-line access to the comments and grades for each on-line quiz written and marked.
Designer Tools These are tools that are used by the course designer and grader in tracking and administering the course.
Progress Tracking. Progress tracking pages allow the designer to monitor student progress in the course. Indicators such as date of first and last access, time spent on system, percentage of pages visited, and more is available. An indication of course participation by way of the bulletin board is also available in terms of number of original and followup postings, and percentage of articles read. The students can be sorted on any tracking field in order to easily identify students who, for example, have stopped making access to the course, or who are prolific posters to the conferences.
Other progress tracking is available which indicates the total number of accesses to, and on average the duration of access to each course page. This can be used to make inferences about the level of interest or difficulty of a page.
Timed On-Line Quizzes. As mentioned above, quizzes can be written by the designer and delivered on-line on a predetermined day. A status page available to the grader indicates for each student whether that student has not yet begun, begun but not yet completed, or completed the quiz. A completed quiz, along with an indication of how long the student took to complete the quiz, is available to be marked on-line. Once marked, the grade assigned is automatically entered into the WebCT grade database and, along with comments, made available to the student.
Student Management. Class lists can be entered one student at a time, or can be uploaded (in a simple, predetermined format) as a whole. Class lists can be presented and printed in a variety of configurations and orderings. Grades are entered automatically by the on-line quiz tool. Grades for other activities can be entered manually by the grader. Weightings can be assigned to each activity, allowing WebCT to automatically generate final grades (which can be viewed on-line by students).
Course Look and Feel. Courses can be customized in terms of several attributes. For example, the layout of the links on the homepage and tool pages can be displayed as one or two columns. The color schemes of the home page, tool pages and content pages are configurable by the designer. Defaults can be chosen, and overridden for individual pages. Likewise, a default set of tools can be made available from every page of content. This, too, can be overridden for individual pages. Several sets of icons are available to be chosen by the course designer, one providing a formal look, the others providing a more casual look. WebCT also provides a set of built-in images that can be used, for example, as course banners and icons. If none are suitable, the course designer can upload his or her own. Finally, a counter can be added to any page that records and displays the number of accesses to that page.
What Hardware and Software is Required to Use WebCT?
All WebCT users (designer, graders and students) access WebCT using a web browser (Netscape 2.0 or above). Thus, other than the browser, there is no special software to install. All that is required is that the user have access to a networked computer (a computer that has a modem or is permanently connected to a network). Using this computer and browser, the user can access a WebCT server to create and edit a course, to grade student's work for a course, or to learn (read notes, take quizzes, perform exercises, communicate with the instructor or other students, etc.). The WebCT server to which the users connect to can be installed by the course developer or by the network administrator at the developer's institution. Currently, the server must be running the UNIX operating system (Solaris, SunOS, Irix, FreeBSD, Linux, AIX, HPUX, and others are supported). One WebCT server can be used to develop and serve a large number of courses.
What Knowledge is Required to Use WebCT?
A complete set of on-line help is available for WebCT. Designing a course is somewhat similar to using a word processor or spreadsheet; you click on what you would like to do next, and you are prompted for choices and text. The course content provided by the designer should be in HTML. There are several excellent editors that allow you to create HTML documents without knowing any HTML at all. One such editor which is very easy to learn is the one built into Netscape Gold 3.0. (in fact, I am using it right now). If instead you would like to learn a bit of HTML, you need only learn the text formatting portions as links and more sophisticated features are done for you automatically by WebCT. The simple text formatting subset of HTML can be easily learned by anyone in an afternoon. Primers describing the most used features are available. If you already have an electronic copy of your content, this can probably be converted to HTML using an automatic conversion program. There are many available now for most popular word processing formats, and more are constantly being developed.
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