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WebCT

Turn It In

- June 2008 -

Mon., June 30: 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm in the CIT (Wallace 222)

WebCT Discussions Area Workshop

The Discussions Area is one of the most popular and widely used of all WebCT Tools. It is flexible enough to be used for everything from whole class discussions to small group projects to individual private journals (the contents of which are visible only to you and the journal writer). In this workshop, you will get practice in setting up a variety of public and private areas (called Topics) and will learn the strengths and limitations of each as tools for teaching and learning.

You will also get hands-on practice creating and posting Messages to Topic areas, experience in reading and managing Messages, and practice organizing Messages and Topics. And you will learn to use the time saving features of the WebCT Discussion area: the Search, Compile, and Download functions.

Didn't that sound fancy! Need a plain English translation for that last paragraph? We'll show you how to set up online class discussion groups. The whole class can take part in these discussions or you can break the class up into groups. Each group will only see the postings by its group members.

You are also probably wondering about the Search, Compile, and Download business. In essence, these are time-saving ways for you to sort out individual student contributions to discussions when you (1) need to see if they are keeping up or (2) need to assign a grade for discussion participation.

The suggested prerequisite for this workshop is completion of the WebCT Introductory Workshop or some previous experience with a version of WebCT. If you want to attend this workshop, please send an email to Dr. Daryl Grider at griderda@wvstateu.edu or call him at 766-5702 and ask him to reserve a place for you.

- July 2008 -

Wed., July 2: 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm in the CIT (Wallace 222)

WebCT Quiz Workshop

This workshop will teach you how to create a WebCT quiz from scratch and how to create one using already existing questions from a publisher's test bank. You will be using Respondus, a third party software program. Respondus saves you time by allowing you to create WebCT quizzes and surveys on your own computer, without being logged into WebCT. The finished quiz is then uploaded to WebCT, tested, and set for release to students.

We have a sitewide license for Respondus which allows you to use it both on your office and home computers. You will receive a copy of the latest version of Respondus and of its companion program StudyMate, a program for making self-study games (Jeopardy, Flashcards, etc.) from your quiz questions.

The suggested prerequisite for this workshop is completion of the WebCT Introductory Workshop or some previous experience with a version of WebCT. If you want to attend this workshop, please send an email to Dr. Daryl Grider at griderda@wvstateu.edu or call him at 766-5702 and ask him to reserve a place for you.

Mon., July 7: 1:00 pm - 3:30 pm in the CIT (Wallace 222)

WebCT Gradebook Workshop

In this workshop you will learn how to set up the WebCT online gradebook. Once you have the gradebook set up, you will learn how to download the WebCT gradebook to a Microsoft Excel spreadsheet so that you can maintain your WebCT gradebook offline in Excel.

You then periodically load the grades back up to the WebCT gradebook so that students can view them in their individual My Grades areas. Students see only their individual grades and only if and when you choose to release those grades to them in the “My Grades” area unique to each student. Nobody but you sees all the student grades.

Keeping the grades in Excel is easier, more efficient, and safer than keeping them online. Even if you have no previous experience with spreadsheets, picking up only those spreadsheet basics needed to maintain a gradebook is fairly straightforward (hey, if an English type like me can muddle through it, how hard can it be!).

Unlike the WebCT gradebook, in Excel we can freeze columns so that student names are always on the same screen as the grades we are working with. And we can more easily use powerful grading formulas such as the Small Function that lets you drop two or more of the lowest quiz or daily grade scores from an average.

This is hands down the most popular tool with students. And once faculty learn to maintain the gradebook in Excel, it becomes one of their favorites too.

The suggested prerequisite for this workshop is completion of the WebCT Introductory Workshop or some previous experience with a version of WebCT. If you want to attend this workshop, please send an email to Dr. Daryl Grider at griderda@wvstateu.edu or call him at 766-5702 and ask him to reserve a place for you.

Wed., July 9: 1:00 pm - 2:15 pm in the CIT (Wallace 222)

WebCT Syllabus Workshop

In this workshop you will learn how to set up the WebCT Syllabus page and import an already existing syllabus in html or htm (we'll talk about the difference)file format. Students will then be able to go online and check the course syllabus any time outside of class.

The workshop will also show you how to convert an existing syllabus in Word format to a simple web page format (.htm). Your syllabus will be placed on a WebCT course site and made available to students.

Then you will learn how easy it is to make corrections and additions to your syllabus once you have it on a site: you will be able to edit it like a normal document in Word. Say, for instance, you want to change the due date on one assignment and add a reading assignment for another date. With this set up you could make those changes and have them available to the students on the website in less than five minutes!

By using a WebCT "live" syllabus, you can avoid having to wait for students to come to you in order to communicate crucial changes, additions or deletions to course business. The Course site lets you go to them without leaving your office.

The suggested prerequisite for this workshop is completion of the WebCT Introductory Workshop or some previous experience with a version of WebCT. If you want to attend, please send an email to Dr. Daryl Grider at griderda@wvstateu.edu or call me at 766-5702 and I'll reserve a place for you.

Wed., July 9: 2:30 pm - 3:45 pm in the CIT (Wallace 222)

WebCT Course Handouts Using WebDAV Workshop

Using WebDAV and a WebCT Content Module, in this workshop you will learn how to create an area where you can place all the handouts used in your course-in downloadable form. Your students will be able to get any handout they need outside of class, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, without needing to call on you.

If you need (or think you may need at some point) to load large numbers of files to one or more of your course sites, justing learning to use WebDAV may repay you many times over for the time you spend in this workshop. WebDAV (web-based distributed authoring and versioning) is small, specialized program for loading files and folders from the computer desktop to a website directory. Once it is linked to your WebCT course site, it is possible to overcome the WebCT restriction that only allows one file to be uploaded at a time. In this workshop, you will learn how to do the one-time-only setup for WebDAV necesaary for each course site, a 'workaround' that will allow you to drag-and-drop multiple files and even whole folders from your desktop to the directory of each of your WebCT class sites.

The suggested prerequisite for this workshop is completion of the WebCT Introductory Workshop or some previous experience with a version of WebCT. If you want to attend, please send an email to Dr. Daryl Grider at griderda@wvstateu.edu or call me at 766-5702 and I'll reserve a place for you.