navigating SFU’s learning management system
My latest suggestion to WebCT/Blackboard :
“Several users have complained of the pop-up window that informs them that their browser is not valid. Some browsers work “pretty well” with WebCT before being validated, and users prefer to use them.
I would like to see the pop-up window present a tickbox option to turn off the validation/reminders.”
When you create an anonymous discussion topic, the option is to “make authors anonymous to students.” This implies that the discussion postings would not be anonymous to designers and instructors. In fact, postings are anonymous to everyone, including designers and instructors.
This is has been reported to WebCT, and will be fixed in the next application pack (January 2007).
When sending email to group members, sometimes not all the members will show up in the mail. This has been reported to WebCT (October 2006), and they are working on this bug (as of February 2007).
In the short term, you can either use private group discussion areas, or manually add the missing group member to a mail message in WebCT.
The comments field in the grade book records comments in the audit trail log, so that TAs and instructor can track and share comments. Those comments are not visible to the student. Unfortunately you cannot make this comments box smaller - one work-around is to export the gradebook to Excel, where you will have a more efficient use of screen real estate.
If you want to give students comments, try creating a text column in the gradebook called something like “Midterm Comments” and put it next to the Midterm grade column. Then you can put the comments in and have them show up for the students.
The other option is to use a PeopleLink to send the student mail with the comment while you are grading the discussion posts.
Tutorial numbers are automatically added to the course grade book as of Spring 2008.
In a large class, it becomes important to be able to sort and search for specific students or groups of students. This thread explains how to search and sort students according to a text column (ie, a column that indicates which tutorial a student is in).
There seem to be two main approaches.
1. Using a text column:
Create a text column that contains the student tutorial information. You could input this manually, or import it from SIMS. Once you have identified all the students’ tutorials you can sort the students according to that column. (ie, by clicking on the column title). This will not sort the students alphabetically within each tutorial, however.
You can also search for students under the Grade Book Options. Choose Find members from the drop-down menu, and then you can search by column.
2 Using Groups:
Create one group for each tutorial using the sign-up sheets in group manager. Have the students select the tutorial/group that they are currently registered in (you can move them to a different tutorial later on if they make a mistake). You then have individual groups that correspond with your tutorials. You can create tutorial based discussion topics, for example, or use selective release to share content with different tutorials.
To search for the students in each tutorial/group, open the grade book, and under the drop down menu in Grade Book Option, choose Find Members. From there you can search by group members.
In the gradebook, when you edit a column to add grades, you are only given the student WebCT ID, and not their student number. Some students write a different name on their exams than appears in WebCT, making it challenging to add the correct grade for the correct individual.
One solution is to export the gradebook (which does have the student numbers) to Excel. You can then enter all grades using the student number as a primary ID, and upload the completed file back into WebCT. This method is generally faster for entering grades, yet still provides students with secure access to their grades.
If you are in the discussions tool, for example, and you wish to switch between teach to build tab, WebCT will return to the main page instead of remembering that you were in the discussions tab. This has been reported to WebCT support. (Reported to WebCT January 2006)
There is no longer an option to reply with quote in the discussions area of CE 6.
If a university wide announcement is made, instructors and designers will receive it multiple times (depending on how many courses you have). Reported to WebCT. (added February 2006)
In the File Manager, there is an option to open the file manager as a web folder, which enables “drag and drop” loading of files.
On a PC, this option does NOT appear in Firefox, only in Internet Explorer. This has been reported to WebCT.
Answer: If you are on a PC, you can use Internet Explorer, or you can set up a Network Place. [more instructions here]