DL Delivery

--all the news that online profs can take in print form           December 2005

This Month in the DLCC (Distance Learning Coordinating Council)

WebCT 6.0 Transition & Training

The transition from WebCT 4.1 to 6.0 is fully underway--despite the glitches and bugs. If you've not yet signed up for one of the many transition training sessions, contact the Ed Tech Center ASAP. Jonathan has additional training sessions scheduled through to the end of the semester. The Ed Tech Center will offer training sessions during Spring Professional Development Days as well. Check your email for dates and times when you return in 2006.

Although WebCT 6.0 is quite different in its user interface, many of the basic tools are the same--a few simply renamed. It is however much more powerful than 4.1 and has many new features. Nevertheless you should expect to spend some time tweaking your 4.1 material and getting used to the new interface. But once you become familiar with the new product you should (hopefully) find the benefits of 6.0 outweighs the hassle quotient of learning to navigate through it.

For those of you who have gone through 4.1 to 6.0 transition training and need refreshers, remember that all the training materials and Captivate videos are available online at TechNotes on the WebCT Resources page (Ed Tech Center). You can use the search engine to find information about a specific tool, or click on the WebCeTera link under Channels to display an alphabetical list of all WebCT training documents and videos.

  WebCT 6.0 Bugs

As with any new product upgrade there are likely to be bugs. And 6.0 is no exception. Yes, there are indeed many. But they have all been reported to WebCT and they are working on a number of fixes. One major upgrade is scheduled sometime around Dec. 15. WebCT hasn't released exactly what issues the new fix will address, but we're hoping that the major issues will be taken care of.

Online Course Information Guide

As most f you are aware, the WebCT Welcome Page is no longer available. Instead, the Online Course Information Guide is the one-stop document for all your online course information needs--whether student or counselor. It is VERY important that the Guide be kept up to date. So PLEASE (I'm beggin' ya) send me your online course information if you've not done so already.

Spring Semester Student Access

Students will have access to their WebCT course shells January 11. It is good practice to send students an email prior to that date (via Pipeline stumail) with basic information of how to login to the course and other pre-semester instructions. You might also inform your students about the new WebCT 6.0 interface, and where they can get help if they are unable to logon to 6.0. The DL postcard will also inform them about the upgrade to 6.0.

 

Important Dates

January 11, 2006: Student access to WebCT 6.0 course shells.

ITP now open at itp.jccc.net.

Online Tips

If you prefer to use Outlook to send global email to students (rather than Pipeline--especially after you've changed the default over to WebCT), download your .txt file of student information using EASI and open it with Excel. In the conversion process choose the delimited by comma options. You'll then have an Excel file with student information arranged in columns. Highlight the column with all the stumail accounts, copy and paste them into your Outlook To: box. Type your message and send!