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.

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.

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

I`ve been sending out regular emails to our users at the beginning, middle and end of each semester. Here is the end-of semester email:

As the end of semester approaches, enclosed are some quick links to information on moving grades to SIMS, student access and preparation for the next semester.

Move final grades to SIMS
Save time in calculating final grades: if you have access to the TEACH tab in WebCT, you can use the gradebook to create a file that is ready for uploading final grades to SIMS. Step by step instructions are available here: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Student_grades#WebCT_grades_and_SIMS

Students have access until the last day of the semester
Unless you have requested otherwise, students will have access to WebCT containers for Fall 2007 courses until January 6th 2008 (the day before the spring semester starts).

How did the Fall semester go?
Is there anything you’d like to streamline? Use more frequently? What are you spending the most time on? Contact instructional_support@sfu.ca if you wish to discuss any of these questions.

Request new course container
Get ready for planning the new semester: beat the early semester rush and request your Spring 2008 WebCT course container now. Use the course request form found at: http://webct.sfu.ca

Use the date rollover
Do you use the calendar tool, the assessment or assignment tools? All WebCT tools that have a date field can be updated all at once using the date rollover function. In your new course container, go to the TEACH tab. Click on the Instructor Tool “Manage Course” and choose the option “Date Rollover.” Follow the instructions there to adjust either all dates or individual dates. Note that if you have old calendar items (from previous semesters) it can impact the calculations.

Course planning: decide on tools
You may wish to try something new in the Spring semester.

• Reflective practice: a journal topic (found in the discussion tool) can encourage weekly reflection on course readings.
• Group Work: The group manager tool can create custom or automatic groups, and provide a private group forum in the discussion or chat area for group members.
• Self-tests: The assessments tool can be used to create either quizzes or self-tests (ungraded, and for immediate, formative feedback).
• Surveys: Why wait until the end of the semester? The assessments tool can also be used to survey your students at the beginning of the semester to assess their prior knowledge, or mid-semester to find out what they are thinking.

Delete old files from your File Manager
The end of the semester is a good time for spring cleaning. In your new Spring 2008 course container, go through the “My Files” and delete old files (such as old semester outlines), rename files for clarity, and organize files into folders. Folders such as “course outline,” “assignments,” and “course content” will make it easier for you to find and update necessary files. This organization will not impact how your students see any uploaded files.

Demonstrate your use of WebCT
We would like to host a series of show and tells by SFU faculty, instructors and TAs in the spring semester. Volunteer to demonstrate to the community how you use WebCT, and get valuable feedback and ideas during the discussion. Contact Amy Severson (ajs@sfu.ca) for more details.

Your students will have varying levels of comfort and self-sufficiency. Consider how your online presence will help guide and support your students. When they first log in to WebCT, will they know what your objectives are, and what kind of information they should look for online and what they should ask you about? You spend time in the face to face classroom introducing them to yourself, each other and the course content and assignments. Some time spent showing them the online environment will likely reduce repeat questions, and show them the resources you’ve compiled to help their learning.

I found a posting the other day that provides some excellent ideas on giving students an effective introduction to your online course container. In particular, I like the one that suggests giving the students a low-stakes quiz on the syllabus or other course information. It will give them more reason to read it, reinforce your points, and also give them an introduction to the quiz tool. If you use the quiz or self-test tool later in the semester, this familiarity will provide them with some extra confidence.

In WebCT, one of the things that you can do to customize your course container (just a little) is to modify the header (or footer) of the main page (the Course Content Home) if you want to use official terminology.

Keeping in mind that whatever you add to the header will “push down” any icons you have on the main page, what could you add there? Would you wish to be informative or provocative? Keep the information administrative or learning-related? Add an image or text?

Here are some of the ideas that I came up with:

• your office hours (and a reminder for what they’re for)
• an approaching due date
• the weeks theme (encourage them to consider how the readings, class content and any assessments all connect)
• a question for students to ponder while they do the readings or homework. Ideally, it would be a broad question requiring analysis or synthesis of their learning
• a link to a new resource: a journal article, a you tube video, a blog posting or a photograph that ties in with that weeks concerns
• if you wanted to get fancy with formatting, you could add an RSS feed, guaranteeing a fresh item each time
• a general comment or observation on the last class you had with them (it might cover a common misconception, something that surprised you, or an ah-ha moment).

I like the idea of the homepage header being a revolving insight into the state of the classroom learning. Who knows what you’ll get from this.

The assignment drop-box in WebCT assumes that one person will be doing all of the grading. You can’t sort the assignments, for example.

On the WebCT user forums, this thread asks that very question. About half-way down, someone describes how to use the group tool and assignment tool to sort assignments according to tutorial.

Alternatively, you can download all the assignments at once, and then “throw out” the ones that you are not responsible for grading. That is a simple manual way of managing the drop-box. This will not work as well for extremely large classes, but is viable for classes with less than 60 students. You will still have to browse for individual users when uploading the assessments. Use the “assigned to” column title to sort alphabetically.

Wikimedia Commons has a variety of media items available for use (including photographs, diagrams, animations, music, spoken text, video clips, and more). This list of subjects neatly indexes the icons available. A very nice resource if you want new or more appropriate icons for your WebCT course container.

I found this great blog that a director of an educational technology centre is writing. His blog is what I intend this blog to be - a source of information on changes, work-arounds, and other comments.