How to use the Discussion Forum
How to use Quizzes and Surveys
How to use the Assignment Tool
How to use the Student Presentation Tool
How to use the Student Homepages Tool
You will have
been assigned a User Name (sometimes called a "WebCT ID") and Password to log
into WebCT.
After you arrive
at the WebCT Home Page, you will see a link saying "Log in to myWebCT." When you click on
this link, you will be presented with the login window. Enter your User Name and
Password exactly
as it was given to you. Warning!
The login is case sensitive.
This means it knows the difference between upper and lower case!
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Your WebCT ID/Username is the name part of your UALR email address (Please log
on to BOSS and click
on "Personal Information," then click on "View E-mail Address(es)" to find it). Your password is your UALR student ID number.
If your User ID is axjohn, you cannot enter AxJohn or AXJOHN
Once you have successfully logged into myWebCT, your login ID and password will be retained by the browser until you exit the browser.
Firstly, this means that you have to click on either Logout to exit WebCT or simply close the browser.
Secondly, it allows you to visit links outside the WebCT program without having to login again. You can also bookmark any page in WebCT and the login prompt will appear on the bookmarked page rather than at the myWebCT page.
When you visit links outside WebCT, be aware that the browser sometimes opens a second window. If you are having problems, check the taskbar to see if there is more than one copy of the browser open. Click on the taskbar icon for the window you want to view.
Your WebCT ID/Username is the name part of your UALR email address (Please log on to BOSS and click on "Personal Information", then click on "View E-mail Address(es)" to find it). Your password is your UALR student ID number.
If you wish you may change your password in myWebCT. Just click on Password Settings, enter the old password first, then enter the new password twice and click on Update password.
There may,
however be other reasons why you cannot access your WebCT learning materials. These
include :
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There are many
more reasons that can cause frustration. Internet access is becoming more
demanding, telephone lines are slow, servers have bottlenecks. Please explore
some of these avenues before contacting support. Thank you.
Selecting an icon on the homepage can link to:
learning pathway or contents page (learning materials, module guide)
WebCT tools (email, discussion board, chat)
Tool-page (student support tools - similar design to a homepage)
a URL (links to a page outside the WebCT module)
a single page (assessment)
Each of these options presents a slightly different way of navigating.
On the left hand side of the Home Page you may see a menu of available items. You can click on these links to go to different parts of your course. You will note that these links may be the same as the icons on the home page. The difference is that the menu can be visible throughout the course.
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If you want to see more of your course content, you can temporarily collapse the Course Menu by clicking on green arrow. To expand the Course Menu, click on the green arrow again.
Underneath the course title you will see a trail of links showing where you have come from. These are called 'breadcrumbs'. Here is an example -
This 'trail of breadcrumbs' shows that you are currently looking at the "Using Breadcrumb" page. You got to this page from the WebCT Navigation which you got to from the Homepage. You can click on any of the links to go back.
Linking to an Organizer Page from the Home Page opens a new page with a similar concept to the homepage. It allows the designer to put more WebCT tools on a separate page rather than crowd the homepage. This may include tools to change the password, search the learning materials, check results or check progress. If a separate Organizer Page is implemented in the design you will be able to return to the Home Page using the breadcrumbs..
Linking to a URL may open a new window in your browser, in which case it will have to be closed. If it uses the same browser window, you will need to use the back button on your browser as you will be outside WebCT.
Linking to a single page opens a new browser window but has a built-in close button because it is still under the control of WebCT.
Hints
Use WebCT's course menu to navigate where possible.
Use the 'breadcrumbs' to return to a previous section.
If you get lost, use the back button on your browser.
If you are still lost after trying the above, go back to homepage or contents and reselect the page.
Using e-mail (electronic mail) you can send mail to other students or the instructor.
The
mail icon in WebCT allows users to send e-mail to other WebCT users. WebCT also
allows for mail to be forwarded to any Internet mail address if the
administrator allows it.
This
icon will be displayed if you have new mail.
When you have new mail, click on the mail icon (or the Mail course menu item). You will see a page showing your mail folders.
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Select the folder you wish to view by clicking on the folder link. The Mail Messages screen appears.
The first section in the mail messages window is a row of buttons that deals with the messages.
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Compose message opens a pop-up
window that allows you to create and send an email. Update Listing will contact the mail server and retrieve any messages received since you were inside in the mail tool. Search will bring up a pop-up window for you to enter search criteria to find certain email(s). Mark all as read will remove special display features that normally indicate new, unread email ( as shown below). |
The second section in the mail messages window deals with how and what messages are displayed.
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Display All / Unread - Toggles between viewing all emails and just the emails which are unread. Select folder - select whether you'd like to see your Inbox (received messages), Outbox (messages that you've sent), Draft (unsent messages that you have saved for a future time) or All (messages from both the inbox and outbox). |
Threaded / Unthreaded toggles the display of email messages between sorted by date and sorted (and grouped) by topic. As you can see from the figure below, the current display is set to "threaded", so that all emails that are about "Questions about Reading" are grouped together.
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The third section in the in the mail messages window are actions that you can perform; you must select at least one email before selecting one of these actions.
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Compile -
Displays all selected emails in one window so you can view their content
all at once. Mark as read - Remove special display features that normally indicate new, unread email. Mark as unread - Adds special display features that indicate new, unread email. Delete - Permanently removes the selected email messages. Move To: - Moves selected email messages to another folder: Inbox, Outbox, or Drafts. |
Once you are in the Mail Messages screen, click the subject of the message that you would like to read.
A new window will pop-up with the message you selected to read.
Note: When you click on the subject of the message you want to read, and
nothing happens it means either you have a pop-up blocker installed on your
computer or your browser has one of its own. To resolve this issue, go to
Pop-Up Blocker help webpage.
If the mail includes a file attachment, you can download the attachment by ether clicking on he paper clip icon in the message listing or by clicking on the paper clip icon that appears at the bottom of the message.. For security reasons, it is recommended that you download the attachment to your own computer before you view it. To download the file attachment, click the paper clip icon. The Attachments screen appears. Select the file, and then click Download. Your browser's file download window appears. Select the save to disk option, and choose the saving location. When the download is complete, click Close.
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When you have finished reading the mail, you can either
From the Mail Messages screen, click on Compose Mail Message.
The Compose Mail Message screen appears in a new window.
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In the Send to: box, type in the login id name of the person you want to send your message to. If you don't know their login id, click on the browse button and you will see a list of of the names and login ids of all members of your online classroom. Click on the name you want. To select more than one recipient, hold the CTRL key while selecting the names. Click Select.
In the Subject: box type in what your message is about. Then click in the message box. This is where you type in the text of your message, just as you would type a letter in your word processor. When you are done, click on the Send button.
Why not send an email to the instructor to introduce yourself?
Open up WebCT Mail and click on the Compose button. Type in the login id name of the recipient, the subject of your message and a brief message giving your recipient some information about the file you are attaching along with the message.
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If you know the exact path to the file you want to attach type it in the box beside 'Attachments:' For example, you know the essay you want to send your instructor is in a file called essay.doc in drive C:, type in 'C:\essay.doc'. If you are not sure of the exact location of the file, click on the Browse button and if you are using Windows you will see a screen like the following.
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Find the file you want to attach by following the same steps you use when opening a new word processing document. Click on the file you want and then click on the Open button. The next screen you see will be similar to the following.
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Once you have chosen the file you want to attach to your email message, click on the Attach File button and you will see a screen like the one below.
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The attachment can now be sent with your message. You can attach further files or remove the attachments if you change your mind.
Click on Send to send the message.
If you ever receive a message with an attachment, you will see the paperclip icon next to your message. Click on it to see a list of the attachments and then click on the file you want to view.
Why not try
sending an attachment to yourself to practice this skill?
The Discussion Forum is a online bulletin board. It is used for discussion within a WebCT course. Anyone within the course may place messages on the bulletin board. This is called ‘posting a message’. Everyone within the topic can read all messages.
WebCT keeps track of the messages read by each student and will initially show only the new, unread messages. However, every message is stored, and can be easily accessed.
When you go into the Discussion Board you will see a menu at the top of the screen and any messages will be displayed below.
Click the topic containing the messages you want to read. The Discussion Messages screen appears.
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The first section in the discussion messages window is a row of buttons that deals with the messages.
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Compose message opens a pop-up
window that allows you to create and post a new message. Update Listing will contact the server and retrieve any discussion items posted since you were inside in the discussion tool. Search will bring up a pop-up window for you to enter search criteria to find certain message(s). Mark all as read will remove special display features that normally indicate new, unread discussion postings ( as shown below). |
The second section in the discussion messages window deals with how and what messages are displayed.
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Display All / Unread - Toggles between viewing all postings and just the postings which are unread. Select folder - select for which topic you'd like to view postings. Your instructor may set up topics for each learning objective or chapter in your textbook. |
Threaded / Unthreaded toggles the display of discussion postings between sorted by date and sorted (and grouped) by topic. As you can see from the figure below, the current display is set to "threaded", so that all postings that have "What is the author's point" in the subject line are grouped together. The posting titled "Question 3, page 45" is given a new grouping.
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The third section in the in the discussion messages window are actions that you can perform; you must select at least one discussion posting before selecting one of these actions.
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Compile - Display all selected postings in one window so you can view their content all at once. Mark as read - Remove special display features that normally indicate new, unread postings. Mark as unread - Adds special display features that indicate new, unread postings. |
Once you are in the Discussion Messages screen, click the subject of the message that you would like to read.
A new window will pop-up with the message you selected to read.
Note: When you click on the subject of the message you want to read, and
nothing happens it means either you have a pop-up blocker installed on your
computer or your browser has one of its own. To resolve this issue, go to
Pop-Up Blocker help webpage.
If the message includes a file attachment, you will see a paper clip icon in the Status column in Discussion Messages as well as in the message itself. To see the attached file, click the paper clip icon. The Attachments screen appears. Note: It is recommended that you install updated anti-virus software before viewing or downloading attachments. To display the file attachment, click the hyperlinked file name. The file opens in the view frame. To download the file attachment, click the paper clip icon. The Attachments screen appears. Select the file, and then click Download. Your browser's file download window appears. Select the save to disk option, and choose the saving location. When the download is complete, click Close.
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When you have finished reading the discussion posting, you can either
Click on REPLY.
Or
Use the QUOTE option. This is similar to reply but the original message is included into the reply as a quote.
Click on COMPOSE MESSAGE. The Compose Discussion Message screen appears in a new pop-up window.
Choose the Topic in which you want to raise a new issue for discussion.
In the Subject text box, enter the subject for your message.
In the Message text box, enter your message.
If you want to attach a file
Once you are done, click on Preview if you'd like to preview your message before posting, then click on Post.
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To read new messages that may have been posted while you were in the Discussion Board, Click on UPDATE LISTING.
All new messages subject will be in "bold."
This feature allows you to select messages, compile them into one file, and download the file to save or later print. This saves you from downloading each message individually.
From the Discussions page, click the topic that contains the
messages that you want to download. To select messages from all topics click
All.
You will then see a list of all the discussion messages posted under that topic
as in the figure below. If you selected All you will see every
discussion message. Select all the messages that you want to compile and then
click on Compile.
All the compiled messages will appear in a new window. You can either print them or save them as text file.
Chat allows you to communicate with others who are in the chat tool section of your WebCT topic. You can only chat to people who are in the chat session at the same time. Typing messages is the way in which you chat to others. To use Online Chat you must have the Java option enabled in your browser. To configure your browser, go to Enabling Java webpage.
Click on a chat room you want to go into. A separate window
will come up. The upper right box lists the people logged into that chat room at
the moment. Type your comments in the box at the bottom of the window and press
'enter' to see them displayed in the upper left box. Everyone in the chat room
can see your message, although you can only see the messages which have been
sent while you are in the chat room.
To send a private comment to a specific person, highlight them in the upper
right box, then type in your comment and press enter.
To send a URL (Universal Resource Locator), i.e. a web address as shown in the image below, click on Send URL button on the main chat window. This opens a separate window wherein you can type the web address and click on send. Everyone else in the room then receives a 'URL Received' window with the URL asking permission to open that URL in a new browser window. Click Okay to open or Cancel to close.
When the chat is finished, to exit, press the 'Quit' button.
A Quiz is an online questionnaire that your instructor may setup. A Quiz may be part of your assessment, or they can be just for practice. Before taking a quiz, please ensure that you are aware of the instructions. Some quizzes have certain dates they must be taken on, others have time limits, and/or limit the number of attempts you can make. Select the quiz you wish to do, by clicking on the link on the Quiz tool page.
2) View statistics on all questions in a quiz for yourself and the class
The calendar is a quick and effective tool that allows you to view scheduled events posted by the instructor or other students. You can add private entries to the calendar (visible only to yourself) and, if the instructor has allowed it, public ones (visible to the entire class). Entries can be simple text or HTML. Hypertext links can take the user to exams, posted documents, or other web pages.
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or go to the Course Menu on the left edge, and click on "Calendar",
you will see the monthly calendar page with the current date "Today"
highlighted:
You can select any particular month to view by finding it from the drop down list in the upper level of the screen, or use "Previous Month"/"Next Month" to locate it.
1. Click on a hyper-linked date for which you would like to make an entry.
2. The following page appears:
You can add an entry by clicking
Add entry.
You can go to a different day by clicking Previous Day/Next day buttons.
3. Choose "Add entry". You will see the following page:
Summary: Enter a brief description of the entry. This field is required.
URL: Makes the Summary a link to that web site. If you plan to link to a web page, add the "URL," or web address, beginning with http://.
Detail: Elaborate on the text in the Summary text box by entering an explanation or task description.
Start/End Time: The Start time and End time dropdown boxes allow you to select the hour and minutes for the task, such as the start and end time of a class meeting. For example: 9:00am -11:00am.
Access Level: You can only enter Private messages, meaning you are the only one who can see your entries.
Add: Click Add after you have completed your entry. The Calendar screen appears displaying the new entry.
Note: Only "Summary" field is necessary, if you want to save time.
A feature you may use is Compiling Calendar Entries. This allows the user to collect all the public and private calendar events for an identified time period, and view them as a list. For example, all entries created within the calendar tool during the whole semester.
From the main calendar page, click on "Compile entries".
The following page appears.
Select the range of dates you would like to compile. To compile all of the events during a given period, choose "None" for the Criteria. Select the radio button for type of entries (public, private or both) you want to compile. Click on the Compile button.
Note: Once the compiled list of events are displayed, you can print the events list from your browser.
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The Assignment Drop Box enables students
to submit their assignments directly into WebCT in an organized manner.
Once the student submits an assignment, the instructor will then
download the assignment, evaluate it, and assign a grade for the
completed work and post the results and comments directly into WebCT.
Depending on how your instructor set-up the assignment tool, you may have to download some assignment-related files to complete your work. |
Before using the Assignment Drop Box, students must type and complete your assignment in Microsoft Word, NotePad, or Simpletext. Please use only these types of software formats, so that your instructor is able to open your document and give you proper credit.
Save your document with your username_assignmentname as the file name, e.g., "jmsmith_chapter1" without the quotation marks. Make sure the file name is all lower case with NO spaces, and if you are working on a Macintosh, be sure to include the .doc or .txt suffix on the file name. Be sure to remember where you saved the file on your computer so you can find it again to upload it into WebCT!
Note: Most instructors indicate what they want you to name the file, so follow the assignment instructions for saving files.
From the WebCT course homepage, click on the Assignments link. The Assignments screen appears.
The Assignments screen will display all the assignments your instructor has assigned to you. When an assignment is available, the title of the assignment will show up as a link. To complete an assignment, you have to click on the title of the assignment, follow the instructions and submit the assignment for grading.
You can also select form the drop-down menu beside the Display to show (i) All assignments (ii) All assignments that are available (iii) All assignments that are due soon or (iv) All assignments that are late.
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The Student Presentation tool enables you to create a web-based presentation and upload it to your WebCT course. Other students within the course, your instructor and you can then see the work that you and/or your group has done. You can also view other groups' presentations. |
<a href="webpresentation.ppt">Group
1 Topic</a>
When you click on Edit Files, you will come to your Manage Files area. The Manage Files screen looks like that below: On the right hand side under Options: Files, Click on Upload.
Click on the Browse button and locate your PowerPoint file first. Note you will repeat this step to upload your Notepad file (index.html) as well. Locate the file you want to upload, select it by clicking on it, and then click Open. Your file name should appear in the box next to Browse. Click on Upload to finish.
Note: If you have graphics or images on your webpage, don't forget to upload these files as well!
Repeat step 9 to upload the Notepad file (index.html) as well.
Your WebCT files should look something like the box below:
Click on Student Presentations and locate your Group name and click on the link (title of your project) under the Description box.
Click on the link (project title of your group) on the webpage that pops up to open your PowerPoint presentation.
You should now be able to go through your PowerPoint Presentation by using either the mouse or the keyboard
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Student Homepages allows you to create a personalized homepage that contains information about yourself, the projects you are working on, links to your favorite web sites, and perhaps personal information you want to share with your classmates. The Student Homepages screen displays links to all students registered in the course, only those students who have created a Homepage, or only your name, depending on administrator settings. |
Some of the options you can add to your Student Homepages are:
Editing or Adding an upper textblock
Note: How a course is presented online depends on the content and complexity of the learning material, and the delivery methodology used by the instructor. We have used standard WebCT icons and images in this help file and they might be different from what your instructor uses in his/her course.
