WebCT news at SFU

The recent WebCT performance issues appear to have been resolved. SFU
staff have been working closely with the WebCT vendors ( Blackboard and Oracle) to identify and resolve the issues and have implemented several changes. So far this week, stability and performance appear to be back to normal and expected levels.

The issues arose this semester due to increased use, which put new pressures on the system. (The numbers of courses and students have reached new highs.) Resolution was complicated by the fact that some of the symptoms were intermittent. Staff are continuing to work to anticipate future growth and take all possible measures to ensure stability in the coming semesters.

Create a seamless link between large class lectures and your WebCT course container to provide learning opportunities for students outside the classroom.

If your lecture hall lectures are recorded, you can now place a quick link to the recording in your WebCT course. Check here for instructions: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/External#adding_SFU_lecture_recordings

or:
1. Open the BUILD tab in your WebCT course container
2. Add the WebLinks tool (go to Manage Course, click on Tools, select “WebLinks” and click save).
3. From Home Page or any Learning Module or Organizer Page, Expand “Add Content Link” drop down menu
4. Select “Web Link”
5. Click “Create Web Link”
6. Enter a title (e.g. SFU Digital Lectures)
7. Enter the URL: http://podcast.sfu.ca/mylectures

The WebCT performance issues that you may have experienced this last week have been addressed.

Due to the increased number of courses in WebCT for Spring08 semester, the size of the database and activity increased to levels previously unseen. The increased activity resulted in poor performance, to the point WebCT became unavailable during peak times.

Projections and plans to accommodate future growth are being reevaluated.

There continues to be some performance issues with WebCT at SFU - some pages are taking longer than usual to respond. The WebCT administrators at SFU are aware of this, and are continuing to work on this problem as their number one priority.

ADETA has a list of the top 10 free tools that can be integrated into WebCT. Many of the tools provided will provide some HTML code or script that you can add to an HTML page for a direct link between the two applications.

There are some really good ideas here - I am going to start playing with Hot Potatoes, and link to a few google tools. Hmmmm, and what about Flickr? The theme here is to use the tools that you are comfortable with, and making things accessible to your students. These are opportunities to supplant lectures and readings with images, movies, sounds, maps and collaborative documents.

Section numbers such as tutorial or lab numbers now appear in the WebCT Grade Book automatically.


The column is titled “Section” and will be all the way to the right in your grade book. To reorder your grade book columns, consult the instructions here: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Student_grades#Navigate_and_customize_the_grade_book If you do not wish this column to appear in the Grade Book, click on the action link next to the column titled “Section” and choose “hide column” from the drop down menu.

Finding and sorting by section number in the Grade Book

• Sort by section number: click on the column title, and choose “sort column” from the drop-down menu.
• Use the “Find Members” function in the “Grade Book Options” drop down menu to find specific section members. Choose “Section” in the drop down menu under the header “Column”, and in the “Value” box, type in the section number (e.g., D102). Click on “run query” to show results.
• If you manually change a section designation (e.g., a student registers in D105, but attends the D108 section) in the grade book, the symbol “^” will appear in front of it. This will not impact the students registration – only how it appears in WebCT.

Selective release of content according to section number
If you have a folder on the home page of your course, you can use the selective release to share it only with specific sections.

• In either the Build or the Teach tab, click on the “Selective Release” button found under the Designer or Instructor tools.
• You will see a list of folders – click on the button “set release criteria” for the appropriate folder.
• Choose “Add Grade Book Criteria.”
• You will get a pop-up window. Choose “Section” in the drop down menu under the header “Criteria”, set the “Condition” to “contains” (this is the most general option – other options may suit you better), and in the “Value” box, type in the section number (e.g., D102).

Selective release of discussion topics according to section number
If you are using the discussion tool, you can use the selective release to share individual discussion topics with specific sections.

• Open the discussion tool, and create the topics you require.
• Click on the action link next to the topic you wish to release.
• Choose “Set Release Criteria” from the drop down menu.
• Choose “Add Grade Book Criteria.”
• You will get a pop-up window. Choose “Section” in the drop down menu under the header “Criteria”, set the “Condition” to “contains” (this is the most general option – other options may suit you better), and in the “Value” box, type in the section number (e.g., D102).

WebCT has been slow for many this Friday, January 4th, 2008. Currently, the WebCT administrators at SFU are aware of this, and are working on allocating more memory for WebCT. They will also do some maintenance on the weekend that will improve performance. In the meantime, your best option is to try and logout and login again, or to wait until Sunday.

Enclosed is some information for setting up your Spring 2008 WebCT container.

Adding lecture recordings to WebCT
Create a seamless link between large class lectures and your WebCT course container to provide learning opportunities for students outside the classroom. If your lecture hall lectures are recorded, you can now place a quick link to the recording in your WebCT course. Check here for instructions: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/External#adding_SFU_lecture_recordings

Add your Teaching Assistants to WebCT
Your Teaching Assistant can use WebCT to administer and deliver grades, review completed quizzes or surveys, or moderate online questions and answers in the discussions tool. You will need your Teaching Assistants’ computing IDs (the login name they use to login to WebCT, for example) to add your TAs or colleagues to the WebCT course container.

Open the Teach Tab in your WebCT course, click on “Grade Book” under the header “Instructor Tools”. Once in the Grade Book, click on the button “Enroll Members” (found above the Grade Book spreadsheet). Enter in the computing ID for your TA, and check next to Teaching Assistant (this will give them access to the Teach Tab. To give them access to the Build Tab, select Section Designer as well). Click on the “Enroll” button, and remember to click “Save” before exiting this page.

Request your Spring 2008 WebCT course container
Use the course request form found at: http://webct.sfu.ca The course request form has options to add your Teaching Assistants, copy course content from a previous WebCT course, and modify the dates that students will be able to access WebCT (by default, students have access from the first day of the semester to the last). It will take one to two working days for your course container to appear in WebCT.

Weekly WebCT Office Hours
We are holding weekly WebCT Office hours on Thursdays, between 12:30 and 1:30pm at the LIDC (EDB 7560). Please drop in with questions, to get resources or to discuss your plans.

Online Resources for Instructors and Students

• Troubleshooting hints for instructors and students: http://toolkit.sfu.ca/webct/browser/
• Student resources: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Student_FAQ
• Online tutorials, pdf downloads and quick answers for faculty, instructors and teaching assistants: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/ If you have any questions, please email instructional_support@sfu.ca