Instructor/Designer/TA FAQs
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FAQ List
FAQ Details
WebCT (Web Course Tools) is a suite of educational tools that allows an instructor/designer to create a web-based interactive learning environment. The learning environment includes: educational tools to facilitate learning, communication, collaboration
and evaluation of learning
2. Why use WebCT? See Advantages of Using WebCT
3. How do I get a WebCT site
for my course? If you would like a Troy on-campus WebCT course site, please complete a WebCT Course Request Form
4. What software do I need to access a WebCT course? For basic course access, all you require is a web browser that has Java and Javascript enabled, and accepts cookies. You can use a variety of software programs to create your course materials, ranging from Microsoft Word and PowerPoint to HTML editors. You can also include any content in your course that can be displayed using a Web browser (e.g. PDF files, audio and video clips, animations, and graphics). If you use material in your course that requires students to use a browser plug-in or special software for viewing, remember to provide the necessary information on how/where to acquire and install the programs. Information on a number of common plug-ins and viewers is available from the WebCT plug-ins page. 
5. Which web browser should I use? You can use any supported browser - Microsoft Internet Explorer, Netscape and AOL. Other browsers, such as Opera, Safari, and Mozilla, are NOT supported for use with WebCT. Supported Browser Versions for WebCT Ce 4.1 Go to the WebCT Browser Tune-up page to get the most up-to-date information about supported browsers and recommended browser settings.
6. How do I login to my WebCT course? For Troy on campus courses Click on the 'my WebCT' login button at the top of this page (or at the top of any page on the WebCT @ Rensselaer site). You may also view a complete listing of WebCT courses available on the Troy server by clicking on the 'Course LIsting' button. For Troy campus distance (RSVP/EWP)
instructors/designers/TAs,
go to the RSVP Course Schedule 7. Where can I get help/training/support? For all instructors/designers/TAs:
For Troy on campus course instructors/designers/TAs
For Troy distance (RSVP/EWP) instructors/designers/TAs,
go to the RSVP 'Course
Schedule'
9. Why can't I connect from off-campus? Some Internet Service Providers use a Proxy Server for access to your e-mail, etc. This proxy server may prevent access to WebCT courses. If you can connect to your courses while on-campus but not from home, check your proxy server settings (in Netscape, go to "Edit", "Preferences"; in Internet Explorer, go to ""Tools", "Internet Options"). If there is a proxy server setting displayed, you will need to remove it temporarily while you access your WebCT courses (don't delete it - you will need to re-enable it after your WebCT session).
10. Why is WebCT sometimes slow when I access it from home? The server that WebCT runs on is a powerful computer and very seldom is it heavily loaded. Generally, the reason that WebCT's response is slow is due to network connections that a person uses to reach WebCT. The connection speed is no faster than the slowest network link between the client and the server. Most of these network links are not under the control of you, the customer, nor Rensselaer, the service provider. 11. How do students get added to courses? Most students are automatically added to WebCT courses. At least twice a day, a program loads students into courses based on the latest information in the Banner registration system. Students cannot add themselves to courses (the 'Add Course' button on the my WebCT page has been removed). Instructors can add a student to their own courses, provided the student already has a WebCT account. Students who are enrolled in other WebCT courses may already have gotten a WebCT account automatically. To add a student to your course, select: Control Panel > Manage Course > Add or Import Students > Enter the student's RCS/WebCT id, click 'Add' If a student cannot be added by an instructor/designer in this way, then the student does not yet have a WebCT account. As instructors cannot create WebCT accounts, the choice is to either wait for the student WebCT account to be created automatically (within a day of their registration appearing in the Banner registration system) or ask the student to create their own WebCT account using the RPI account utility at :https://www.cis.rpi.edu/AFS/dept/arc/webct/cgi/WebCTAdmin.cgi. To access this utility, a student needs to first supply their RCS id and password. Once a student has created their own WebCT account, they should then inform the instructor. The instructor can then easily add them to the course.
12. How do student drops (from a course) get handled? Students who drop a course are not automatically deleted from a WebCT course. Students can delete themselves from a WebCT course using the 'Remove Course' button on their my WebCT page. Instructors can also delete students. To delete students select: Control Panel > Manage Course > Manage Students > click on the name of the student to delete > click 'Delete' Under 'Manage Students' instructors can also temporarily deny access to students or set a student's status as 'inactive'. The inactive status will remain until the next time the student logs, at which time the status will be changed to 'active'.
13. How can I add a guest to my course? Instructors can add guest users who already have a WebCT account If the user has an RCS id but not a WebCT id, you can ask them to
create their own WebCT id by going to: Guest users who do not have an RCS account will have to use a generic guest account as we do not create accounts for users who are not in the RCS system. To request a generic guest account for your course, send email to webct-support@rpi.edu.
14. How can I add a grader/TA? Instructors can add grader/TAs (WebCT refers to them as TA accounts)
who already have a WebCT account For new graders who do not already have a WebCT account, send them to the RPI Student Account Utility (https://www.cis.rpi.edu/AFS/dept/arc/webct/cgi/WebCTAdmin.cgi) to create their own WebCT account first and then you can add them as a grader They will need to login to this utility using their RCS id and password
15. How can I add a designer to my course? If you are the primary designer for a course, you can add shared designers to the course: select Control Panel > Manage Course > Share Designer Access The person you wish to give shared access to must have a valid WebCT account. If they don't have a WebCT account but they do have a valid RCS account, they can create a WebCT account for themselves by going to https://www.cis.rpi.edu/AFS/dept/arc/webct/cgi/WebCTAdmin.cgi If you are not the primary designer for a course, then email webct-support@rpi.edu
16. Why are students having trouble uploading an assignment file? It could be a browser problem. If you are using an unsupported browser or browser version you may not be able to upload an assignment, the assignment filename may show up on the upload screen as corrupted, strange-looking characters. When this happens, you will not be able to delete the file or submit an assignment. The instructor/designer needs to reset the submission before you can try to submit the file again. Check to see if you are using a supported browser. Does the file name have any spaces in it? WebCT does not recognize file names with spaces in it. Rename files to remove spaces or special characters. You can use an underscore character to replace a space in a file name. Is the document you are attempting to upload open on your desktop while performing the upload? This problem occurs more often when using Microsoft software, but can happen with non-Microsoft products. It is recommended that your document is kept closed before performing the upload. Do you have DSL connection which passes through a router (e.g., Yahoo DSL) or an older model of a D-Link router? A quick way to determine if the router’s the problem would be to bypass it by going straight to the DSL modem from your computer. Be aware that if you do this, you should have firewall software running on your computer in addition to an anti-virus utility. Otherwise, your computer will be a target for spam mail and viruses. Zone alarm is recommended. If you have an older model D-link router, go to D-link’s website at www.dlink.com and download the latest version of the firware software. Does the uploaded assignment appear with extraneous characters in the file name? Refer to questions 1-3. Before you can upload your assignment again, the course instructor/TA/designer must reset your assignment submission. If none of these solutions work for you, submit a WebCT
problem report. 17. Why can't I (or my students) view PowerPoint files using Windows XP? Summary: When attempting to view Microsoft PowerPoint files inside
your WebCT course, the file may not open, you may receive error messages,
or your WebCT ID and password may be rejected. For more information, see Microsoft Knowledge Base Articles Q314535
PPT2002: Web Session and Cookie Information Lost Opening Presentation See Also: KB0000000001060: How do I view a Microsoft Word, Excel, or PowerPoint file in my WebCT course if I do not have these programs?
18. I can't access Discussions and/or Quizzes in my WebCT course. If you have a personal firewall security program installed on your computer, it may be performing content filtering that is affecting your access to WebCT. To test whether this is the case, you can try temporarily disabling the firewall to see if this alows you to access WebCT discussions or quizzes. 19. The Whiteboard and/or Chat programs don't
work properly. http://java.sun.com/getjava/download.html Your Internet Service Provider may also be blocking access to the ports that the Chat/Whiteboard programs run on. You may need to contact them directly for information. 20. I can't view video files using the Windows
Media Player.
21. How do I logout
of a WebCT session? 22. Problems Viewing PDF Files Some problems viewing PDF files on the web appear to have been fixed in the most recent upgrade of the Acrobat Reader (5.05). If you don't have the most recent release, then you can download it at: http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html If after installing the most recent version of the Acrobat Reader (5.05) you are still having problems viewing a pdf file in WebCT, then disable the Acrobat browser integration feature so that the file will view in the Acrobat viewer instead of the browser window. Adobe refers to this as configuring Acrobat as a 'helper' application. This solution works for both browsers. Configuring Acrobat as a Helper Application After you configure an Acrobat viewer as a helper application, Navigator starts the Acrobat viewer in a separate window and displays PDF files within that window. Acrobat 4.x and later viewers include a preference option that enables you to specify the viewer as a helper application. To configure an Acrobat 5.0 viewer as a helper application: To configure an Acrobat 4.x viewer as a helper application: The next time you select a link to a PDF file in Navigator, a dialog box will ask what you would like to do with the file. If you select "Open it," Navigator opens the PDF file in your Acrobat viewer as a helper application; if you select "Save it to disk," Navigator saves the PDF file to your hard disk.
23. Can I use web pages created from Word documents? The Microsoft Office Word program lets you save a Word document as an html page. The problem with Word's normal conversion to html is that it adds a lot of extra code to the web page to allow the page to be resurrected as a Word document. Generally speaking, when you create a web page using Word's 'save as html' command, there will be problems viewing the document in WebCT. Usually it is best to just leave the document in Word format. Any user who is using Internet Explorer browser or has Word on their PC can view the Word file. If you really need to convert a Word document to a web page, it is
best to save it using the Microsoft Office HTML filter. If you are
using Windows XP, save as a 'web page filtered'. If you are not using
XP Office, download the web filter at : http://office.microsoft.com/downloads/2000/Msohtmf2.aspx (So many people had problems with Word's 'save as html' command that Microsoft was forced to come up with a solution. Macromedia's Dreamweaver has the best solution - it includes a special command 'clean up Word html.) 24. What's the best way to manage a course with multiple sections? Courses that have multiple sections usually have core, common content. Having multiple copies of content on different course sites is a waste of disk space and very inefficient in terms of updating content. Solution 1: One Course Site With Core Content and Restricted Access to Section Specific Content Create one course site for all sections. Add a column to the student database for each section number. Enter section numbers in the column for each student. Create section pages or section organizer pages for section-specific content. Use selective release to only show section-specific content links to students in that section. In this situation quizzes, calendars, student presentation area, discussion boards, etc are all shared by all students. The student records database contains all students. Solution 2: One Master Core Content Site with Links to Separate Section Sites Create a master course that contains all of the content that is common to all sections. This way you only have to modify the core content once if needed. All students in the course are assigned to this course with their WebCT account. Only the primary instructor/designer has designer access to this course site. Then create a secondary course sites for each section that contains the quizzes, calendars, student presentation area, discussion boards, etc. for that section We then register each section's students in this course using the same ID. The section instructors have shared designer access in these courses. Now we can put links on the master course's homepage pointing to the secondary section courses. If you are up to entering section number data for each student in a column for section number, you can use selective release to show a section link to only the students in that section. Then we can put a link on the home page of each section site back to the master course site. The net effect is that students have a pretty seamless experience moving between the main course site and the secondary course sites and the section instructors have a manageable number of students to deal with. Don't worry about both courses showing up on the student's my WebCT page as you can title them clearly as something like HIST 1102 Main Course Area, and HIST 1102 Student Assignment Area. Recommendations - solution 1 is simpler and thus easier to maintain
25. How do I make a backup of my course? There are 2 different kinds of backups - whole course site backups and file/folder backups. The whole site backup makes a complete copy of the whole course. It can only be restored to a WebCT site using the WebCT restore function. If you accidently open it with another program (e.g. WinZip) then the file will be corrupted and unusable. See the online documentation for Backup Course. To make a backup of folders or files, see the online documentation for downloading files. 26. How do I grade assignments that have not been submitted? If you are using the assignment tool (dropbox), you (instructors,
designers or graders) can override a student assignment grade in the
Manage Students area. Students who have not made a electronic file submission for an assignment
would normally get a zero grade for that assignment. A student may
have made a late paper submission rather than an electronic submission
or the student may be a member of a project team where only one student
made the group submission. 28. How can I get section numbers inserted into a multi-section course site? To get section numbers for students, the Section Number quiz simply create a short-answer one question quiz that asks students "What is your course section number?" is. If they enter 1, they get a 1% grade, if they enter 2 they get a 2% grade...etc. Of course, for the Section# column in the course database the number does not represent a grade but simply a section number. Provided students do the quiz and enter the right section number, you will end up with a column for section numbers that you can search or sort on. If you want to force students to do the section# quiz first, you can use conditional release to make the display of all course icons dependent on having a value in the section# column first. If they enter the wrong section number you can override their section number (regrade). To account for students changing sections you can allow more than one attempt and take the last entry. Force the grading by putting in the quiz settings submission message: Upload an example of this question to your WebCT quiz database.
29. How can I add group grades without having to do each one manually? For group grades, compose a one question short-answer question quiz. e.g. "To see your grade for Group Assignment 1, enter your group number." The %value for each group number answer is equivalent to the grade for that group. Students enter their group number in the quiz and the corresponding grade gets automatically entered in the Group Assignment 1 column. Force the grading by putting in
the quiz settings submission message: Upload an example of this question to your WebCT quiz database.
30. How can I solve problems with pop-ups, downloading files, chat, whiteboard, Internet Explorer SP2? For problems with popups & WebCT - See #6 Disable Pop-Up Blocking
for WebCTat: If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer with Windows XP Service Pack 2 you may experience problems downloading files and/or running Chat and Whiteboard. To fix this Internet Explorer problem, follow these steps:
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