WebCT: Features/Tools

WebCT

Features/Tools and Tech Info

for WebCT

The table below describes the software features for the application. Click on the application name to visit their home page. Click on the category (i.e., web browser) for a definition of the term. The Technical Information table is at the bottom of this page.

Features/Tools..........Notes

Learner Tools

Web Browsing

Accessibility Version 3.0 is W3C Level 1 compliant with accessibility standards

Bookmarks webct keeps track, on a per-student basis, the most recently visited page of content. When the student returns to a course WebCT can place that student back at that same position and in the same context in order to allow a quick return to learning. Version 2 and up have a bookmark tool that allow users to add bookmarks.

Multimedia Any format of multimedia can be added to content pages without knowing html including pdf, flash, shoockwave, and streaming audio/video etc.

Security Access control to all WebCT courses is guarded by username and password. WebCT recognizes the category of user by their username and presents the appropriate view. Course desginers also have the ability to allow students to create their own accounts. Extensions to the Apache server that comes with WebCT allow it to interface with Kerberos and LDAP authentication systems.

Asynchronous Sharing

E-mail E-mail supports searching. E-Mail is also integrated into student tracking and grade maintenance tools enabling lists of students with particular grade or participation charactistics to be sent group e-mail.

BBS_file_exchange The conferencing tool is multi-fora, threaded, and searchable.

Newsgroups supported

Synchronous Sharing

Chat Chat Supported - Enables chat within same course, or outside course to any course on same server. Chat conversations can also be saved and read by instructor.

Voice_Chat not supported

Whiteboard White board tool supported

Application_sharing The presentation tool allows groups of students to share files and co-edit then in order to publish group projects.

Virtual space not supported

Group browsing not supported

Teleconferencing not supported

Videoconferencing not supported

Student tools

Self-assessing Self assessing Supported for quizes - automatically marked questions associated with course content.

Progress_tracking Progress tracking Supported and can optionally be released to students. Examples include student -centered (first access date, most recent accessdate, histogram showing detailed access ratios to all parts for course for this student, conferencing tool readings and contributions, etc) and content-centered (number of accesses to each page of content, average time spent on each page of content, etc)

Searching supports searching course notes as well as discussions.

Motivation_building Students can have their own home page for the course and a student homepage generation tool is for students to build their own homepages in a webct course w/o any html knowledge.

Study_skill_building Support for

on-line note taking
study-guide generation of topics selected by student
students can view their grades on-line (and performance of rest of class)
students can change their passwords on-line
students can return to their most recent learning context with "resume session" tool
private content annotation

Support Tools

WebCT

Course

Course_planning Supported also the "link" tool can be used to add a URL reference to any page within or outside the WebCT course. Progress tracking is done on the number of times that link is followed.

Course_managing Supported - examples include student account management, grades maintenance, statistical summary of grades for instructor and (optionally) students. Also supports manual or automatic division of students into groups, and the assigning of a presentation area and private conference forum to each group. Also a "calendar" tool for group/class scheduling

Course_customizing Course Revising - revisions done easily, on-line (via the web), within WebCT using a wizard to customize the look and navigation.

Course_monitoring

student -centered progress tracking (first access date, most recent accessdate, histogram showing detailed access ratios to all parts for course for this student, conferencing tool readings and contributions, etc)
content-centered progress tracking (number of accesses to each page of content, average time spent on each page of content, etc)
on-line quizes - shows who has done quiz, who is doing quiz, who has yet to begin quiz, whcih quizzes have yet to be marked, and automatically enters grades into management system.
tools for the site administrator to show resource usage such as course numbers, course sizes, xreation and modification dates, and student enrollments.

Lesson

Instructional_designing templates for the construction of various kinds of standard pages such as course outlines, assignments, reading list, etc.

Presenting_information Some limited support with common icons and shared fuctions and several forms of presenting information:

via conferencing tool
via single-pages of content
via "paths" of content (WebCT automatically provides multi-page content with navigation mechanisms, tool-bars, etc)
via URL
on-line and linkable glossary support
on-line course index support
homepage "message" support

Testing Supports both practice quizes and lab quizes

Data

Marking_on-line Supported

Managing_records WebCT authenticates all users by username and password, and presents the appropriate view of the course depending on the user class. There is also an option that allows students to create their own accounts, if desired by the course designer. WebCT also allows the creation of an external "Welcome" page with can be accessed by anyone without an account on that course. Records management allows (for example)

addition of students
change of passwords
maintenance and distribution of grades and statistics
queries to show, compare and analyse subsets of students according to any search charactistic
addition of arbitrary content categories to student records (for example but not limited to, section number, attendance, comment, etc) much like a spreadsheet.

Analyzing_and_tracking Supported with basic statistical analysis

Resource

Curriculum_Managing not supported

Building_knowledge The group presentation areas allow students in a group to author and present web-based material to the class. These presentations can become (at the discretion of the designer) a permanent or long-lived component of the course. Also students can make public annotations associated with any page of course content using the conferencing system. The designer has the option of placing a conferece button on any page of content. When the student accesses the conference there, the assumption is that the post being made is related to that content page. The post, while also appearing in a special forum of the main conference, remains associated with the page of content. Also, all follow-ups of that post also remain associated with that page. The intent is that new students will be able to quickly access all questions/comments/annotations that have previously been made about that page by clicking on the conference button at the top of the page. Also, if such a post is viewed from the main homepage, the subject is a link which displays the page itself, allowing everyone to see the context that the student was in when they made the post.

Team_Building supports manual or automatic division of students into groups, and the assigning of a presentation area and private conference forum to each group.

Building_motivation not supported

Administration

Installation Supported with optional technical support arrangement

Authorization - All courses are access controlled, as is the administration interface. The administrator has tools for authorizing courses. The course designers have tools for authorizing tutors and students.

Registering not supported

On-line_fees_handling not supported

Server_security

Course passwords must be reasonable (in terms of content and length) or will not be allowed.
WebCT server can be installed as a regular user to minimize security concerns

Resource_monitoring WebCT admin interface provides resource usage info such as disk usage per course, number of student accounts per course, etc.

Remote_access WebCT administration (not just course design) is all web-based.

Crash_recovery Supports local backup of the desktop by the instructor (also for course transfer to another server)

Help desk

Student_support - on-line help for conferencing system and e-mail. Rest of tools have small descriptions.

Instructor_support

full, on-line, context sensitive help, also available as separate manual (130 pages)
on-line tutorial document to get first-time users up and going.
webct-users mailing list

TechInfo

Server_Platform

RAM 64MB or 128MB if using Win NT

Disk_Space 10MB plus 2MB per course and 30-70k per student

WindowsNT_Server yes

Unix_Server yes

Client_Platform

Minimum_Level level2

Target_Level level3

Start-up_Cost free

On-going_Cost 50 to 0.5 cents per student per month, (unlimited licence is $3000US/year) http://homebrew.cs.ubc.ca/webct/get/pricing.html

Technical_Support available via list server

Limitations of package

Number_of_courses

Number_of_students per server

Number_of_connections

Number_of_instructors

Other_Limitations v3.0

Extra_Considerations

Options Version 3.0 has a revised navigation interface, a designer map, acourse builder, custom navigation, a syllabus tool, and breadcrumbs for havigation.

Exit_Considerations

online educational delivery applications: a web tool for comparative analysis (OLIN mirror site)
Last updated 09-17-2000 08:42:40