Looking
at WebCT 6.0 from the
Instructor's
Viewpoint
Melanie
Kroening showed faculty a demonstration
course in WebCT 6.0 and focused on the Discussion
Tool. To enter the course, log
on to http://frostbite.mc.maricopa.edu
You can log in to the course with your MCC username and password if
you have registered for either the WebCT 6.0 Orientation Workshop or the WebCT
6.0 Migration Workshop held by the
CTL.
Key features
highlighted:
- There are three tabs the instructor utilizes: Build, Teach and Student View.
- The Student View is the same view students see. You will not have to have any more guest students in your course.
- Students cannot add photos to their discussion (bulletin board) postings. However, they can add attachments. (The instructor can post photographs however to the discussion board.)
- You have the option of using a WYSIWYG HTML editor when you post a message. It looks a lot like Word. You can bold, highlight, change the color of your text, do spell checking, word count, etc. using this feature. Students have access to the HTML editor also when they are posting their message.
- Discussion questions will be archived from one semester to the next with WebCT 6.0.
- If you want to change the icons that appear on the homepage, you must first add a file to the homepage. The default icon will be used. Then you can go back (with Build tab selected) and use the action link beside the icon to "customize link" . This option lets you browse to a new icon you have uploaded into your course.
- A good place to have a Photo Album of your students is in the Media Library. You can use the HTML editor available in WebCT and "insert image".
- The old WebCT Banners are no longer available. Instead you have two textblocks possible on a page - a header and a footer. The Header is where you can put a banner if you wish (can create it in Powerpoint) and then the Footer contains all the rest of the text on the page.
- Quiz/exam questions can still be created using Respondus. There are two new questions types available in WebCT 6.0 - multiple fill-in-the blank and ordering question. This is an example of a multiple fill-in-the blank question:
|
| |
| In addition to sunlight and chlorophyll, plants need and to carry out photosynthesis. | |
| |
This is an example of an ordering
question:
| In Classifying organisms, what is the
hierarchy of taxonomy? Place them in order from largest group (contains
the most organisms) to smallest group (contains the fewest
organisms). 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7 | |
|
When the student uses the pull-down
menu (select choice), they see the options. If they pick a particular
option for the first answer, it is no longer available to pick for the
second answer.
|
- When you open Respondus, you select that you are using Respondus version 6.0 (rather than version 3.8) and the two new questions options will be available to you.
- Self tests are available. The instructor constructs the quiz/exam using multiple choice and/or true-false questions. The student completes the quiz and submits it. It immediately is graded by WebCT but the grade is not posted in the gradebook. The student can access the graded quiz and obtain feedback if the instructor wants to make this option available to him/her.
The hand-out Melanie
created for this workshop about the WebCT 6.0 Discussions Tool is attached to
this message.
Peg
Johnson
Faculty Development
Consultant
Center for Teaching and
Learning
Mesa Community
College
1833 W. Southern
Avenue
Mesa, Arizona
85202
phone: (480)
461-7703
fax: (480)
461-7857