WebCT 2001
Teaching Tips
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To increase participation in discussions, one faculty member has
students take on a "role" and begins class with a "Guess Who I Am?."
The administrator changes the username so that students do not know who
the "real person" is. This approach doubled the participation in
discussions and increased higher level thinking skills.
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Student homepages are easier than student presentations area and
a number of faculty use them for student work.
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Discussion linked to content module: Create a content module page
that consists solely of questions for discussion. All messages posted
from that page will be associated with the appropriate page in the notes
topic area.
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Consider using the survey tool at the end of content modules to understand
what the class a a whole has learned.
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Consider posting examples of the types of answer you are looking for.
(From Alternative Online Assessment Strategies, preconference session)
Testing
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No one seems particularly thrilled with the testing capability in WebCT.
Most often cited alternatives are Questionmark from Perception.com and
Respondus from www.respondus.com. In Respondus you can create quizzes in
Word, add enhanced formatting, mathematical symbols, and media without
knowing html and easily archive quizzes. Single license is is approx..
$69. Free 30 day download available. Should we evaluate?
Instructional Design using the 3 types of interaction
by Clare Billman (cbillman@mail.mcg.edu) and Carolyn Murdoch (cmurdoch@mail.mcg.edu)
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Faculty provide content
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Students know that they always must do something with the content
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Both faculty and students provide feedback
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templates available from Office of Educational Design and Development,
Medical College of Georgia for:
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WebQuests
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PBL
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evaluation rubrics
Training for on-line Teachers
by Melanie Sorenson Training for on-line teachers
3 sets of skills needed
1. Internet skills
2. platform (WebCT skills)
3. on-line teaching skills
WebCT Exemplary Courses
Criteria
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Course objectives
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Assignment encourage critical thinking
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Courses make appropriate use of WebCt technologies
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Exceptional (creative use) of WebCT
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Assignment cause students to apply learning in realistic ways
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Assignments use resources external to WebCT
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Assignments facilitate a high level of collaborative activity
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Appropriate ancillary resources are available
Examples:
See handout
1. 4 courses from University system of Georgia in American History,
English composition, Mathematical modeling, and Survey of US government
(username:webct_visitor, password:webct)
2. A team based real world project on water and nutrient management
Uses color coding for navigation (course image map and colored bars on
modules), primarily distance but used face to face for computing intro
and teaming (saved time), assignments in 3 different places, CD's as well
as web to eliminate frustration.
"Water and Nutrient Management Planning for the Nursery and Greenhouse
Industry," contact: John Lea-Cox: j1207@umail.umd.edu
Ellen Varley,
Instructional Designer
3. Listing of all courses at webCT.com http://www.webct.com/service/ViewContent?contentID=3206255&communityID=-1&categoryID=-1&sIndex=0
Support Issues
University of Alberta's WebCT usage:
1100 courses
100,000 students
contact: susan.stein@ualberta.ca
Importance of redundancy and collaboration
4 different servers
1. Production
2. Course development
3. Workshops/training
4. Database backing testing (moving ahead with their own Oracle database)
4 different types of support
1. Administrative support
2. Faculty support
3. Centralized support
4. Production/performance, mission critical issues
r. Partnerships with WebCT and Sun