Instructors: Test Drive WebCT

Instructors often perceive the construction of a new WebCT course site to be very time-consuming; time better spent on other course activities.

However, the truth is that instructors can fairly easily create a basic WebCT course site, which can contain a class announcements page, a course notes pages, and a bulletin board conferencing tool. There's no need to create new course content in HTML; you can simply link existing course content in its current format -- such as Word, PowerPoint, etc -- to a WebCT course notes page. And if the content already resides on another web site, then it can be easily linked to the course notes page on your WebCT course site. If the content is not on the Web yet, you can use the WebCT File Manager to upload it to your WebCT course site, and then link it to your course notes page.

If you would like to see just how easy a WebCT course can be, do the following:

1. Use Netscape Navigator to access the WebCT/Kiosk test site located at http://webct.rpi.edu:80/public/kiosk/

2. Click on the login button and login as kiosk, using the password kiosk

3. Click on the Class Announcements icon, which displays a page for communicating the latest course news (class meetings, readings, assignments, exams, changes to syllabus, etc.) to students. You can easily edit/update this list of announcements to the class right on the WebCT server without having to upload any new files.

Here's a simple exercise, in which you can try making a small edit to the Announcements page.

1. Click somewhere inside the text frame.

2. Pull down the File menu and select the Edit Frame option.

3. In the Netscape Composer window that appears, edit the page by making some minor change, then click on the Publish icon and click OK.

4. Pull down the File menu on the Netscape Composer window and select Close. If a separate Save Document window appears and the system prompts you about saving the file locally, click No.

5. Now reload/refresh the Class Announcements page to see the changes.

6. When you're finished with the Announcements page, click on the Close button to close the window.

Now click on the Course Notes icon. The course notes page is a good place to create links to course content files (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, HTML, etc.) and course-related web sites. Course content files must have been previously uploaded to WebCT or another web site somewhere. You can easily edit/update this course notes page right on the WebCT server.

To view a PowerPoint presentation, click on Lecture 1 on Learning Journals. When prompted, open the PowerPoint presentation and have a look at it. When you are finished, close the PowerPoint presentaton and the Course Notes window.

If you would like more information on how to get started quickly with a WebCT course site, or have any other WebCT-related questions, please contact Instructional Multimedia Consultant Don Bell by directing electronic mail to belld2@rpi.edu.

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