Student Accounts & myLearningSystem/WebCT Course Access

• Undergraduate Students are loaded into learningSystem course sites automatically via COLLEAGUE each morning until the add/drop date has passed, and then weekly thereafter.   Undergraduate students that have dropped sections will have their access to those learningSystem sites removed on a daily basis as well.
• UOIT students taking Trent courses will also have access to Trent's learningSystem sites.  The Trent@Durham Office sends a load file a couple of times a week to the learningSystem Team at Trent, and it is manually uploaded into the learningSystem. Here is the login info for these
  students: 
  
  website:  www.trentu.ca/webct
  username:  UOIT mycampus email ID (e.g. john.smith)
  password:  UOIT student number (cannot be changed)

• Graduate Students taking upgraded undergraduate courses or graduate courses will have to be added to the learningSystem course manually by the instructor.   (Instructions for adding graduate students to myLearningSystem/WebCT course sites)
  
• The student's login name for myLearningSystem/WebCT is identical to their TrentNet/email  login name and their initial password is their TrentNet/email  password. This info can be claimed by them, globally, at http://www.trentu.ca/claimid.
• If students need access to materials immediately (as getting info into Colleague takes time), instructors can give students early access to myLearningSystem/WebCT sites (but they are encouraged to make sure that registration does occur) by enrolling students manually.  (Instructions for adding not-quite-registered students to myLearningSystem/WebCT course sites)
• Fall term courses are generally left accessible to students in the Winter term, as many of these build on prior course materials.
• All courses will be 'reset' -- student data removed -- after the spring term is complete. Advance warning will be given by the myLearningSystem/WebCT Administrator to the designer(s) of each course.

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Technical Support, Upgrades and Unscheduled Outages

Be sure to let your students know whom to contact for student technical support and what hours technical support will be available.

At Trent, technical support is available in BL101 during the regular school year:

• Mon. - Thurs. from 8:30am to 9pm
• Friday 8:30am-7pm
  
• Reduced hours on weekends --  Saturday 12-6pm, and Sunday from 12-9pm.

The Technical Support Centre (HelpDesk) is closed on statutory holidays.

• Faculty should contact the myLearningSystem/WebCT Administrator using the link at the bottom of this page (705) 748-1011 x7653 or the I.T. Technical Support Centre at x1010 or (705) 748-1010.
  
• Students who experience technical problems with a course should call (705) 748-1010 or visit the Technical Support Centre in person on the lower level of the Bata Library. If a technical assistant is not available via telephone at that time of the communication, the student will be asked to leave a message. For questions relating to course material or grades, students should contact their instructor.

On occasion, this maintenance may involve a server reboot and advance warning may not always be given.

Please consider the impact of unscheduled outages when scheduling class activities such as tests or assignments due. Try to schedule them for regular support hours so your students will have the benefit of technical support if unexpected problems occur. Give students until noon on Monday to take a test rather than making it due at midnight on Sunday when a server problem is less likely to be quickly corrected.

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System Archives

Backups by Course Designers

End of Semester Backup

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Online Quizzes & Surveys:

It is important that online exams have time limits (and assignment submission deadlines) that expire at noon on a weekday so technical support will be available for students accessing the system at the last minute. Students invariably wait until the last minute to submit these items!

Remember that multiple choice and true/false tests can be graded by the system, but essay tests must be graded individually. Short answer quiz questions can be problematic due to typos, spacing, abbreviations, etc. Calculated questions can also present special problems. It's best to avoid these formats if possible.

Many instructors treat online quizzes as open-book exams. Students often save or print tests despite all security precautions. Consider giving randomized questions from a large test bank to minimize the opportunities for unauthorized "sharing" of test questions. Contact the myLearningSystem/WebCT Administrator (using the link at the bottom of this page) if you'd like more information on this topic.

To check whether questions have been entered properly in myLearningSystem/WebCT, create a single quiz that contains all the questions you wish to check. Select 'Student View'  and go to the quiz/assessment.  Submit it without answering any question. Review the results, checking that the appropriate answer(s) are being graded as correct. When done, you can delete the quiz.

Try using anonymous online surveys to get student feedback about the course and instruction. Surveys with multiple choice questions are easier to review than those containing essay questions.

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Communication Tools/Activities

A discussion topic works well for postings of issues and peer critique of scholarly writing; students need to be given points for bulletin board participation and guidelines for what is appropriate discussion on the bulletin board. Consider incorporating some of the suggestions from "Posting Guidelines and a Review of Netiquette".

Consider posting some reduced form of class notes online. Fill-in-the-blank study guides can be posted ahead of time for students to print and bring with them to class. PowerPoint slides can be posted before or after a lecture and are especially useful when they include tables, graphs and other data-intensive images that may be difficult for students to absorb during the lecture.

Try creating a discussion topic that allows for anonymous posting for discussion of value-laden or sensitive topics. If the anonymous setting is not the default, take extra care in explaining how the tool works. Remind students that not all personal experiences and feelings are necessarily appropriate for group discussion and that they must be respectful towards each other.

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Copyright, Permissions, Etc

Be sure that anything that you post in your myLearningSystem/WebCT course meets the guidelines for copyright. And, be sure that you have the appropriate documentation to prove it. To protect yourself and the university, it is important to maintain documentation for everything you use that is not original, even products obtained as freeware.

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Student Management

It is helpful to schedule assignments and activities so students will be required to visit the course at least once a week to discourage procrastination. Such structure is very important in an online/hybrid course.
 
It is important to plan for problems, such as students who cannot access their email, students getting locked up halfway through a timed on-line quiz, etc. Be flexible and have a backup. If you are suspicious of the reported problem, most courseware programs include student-tracking routines that can be used to investigate and verify some types of problems. Also train your students on how to deal with common problems and establish reporting protocols and procedures.

If materials (lessons, homework, readings) are posted online, it is much easier for students who must travel, who are sick, or otherwise unable to get to regular lecture periods, to get the learning materials that they would otherwise miss. This reduces student panic and the number of calls to the instructor.

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Online Lessons

Graphics are useful to convey an idea. One or two carefully selected, clear images are generally sufficient.
It is important to be very clear about what the student is responsible for learning, if you are providing links to external sites, indicate whether they are "supplemental" or contain "core information." Consider posting questions to be answered/considered with any external reference. (Such directed searches for information are called "quests" and there are excellent examples of online quests at sites run by NASA, Discovery Channel, etc.)

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Other Course Tools

Students usually will not take advantage of myLearningSystem/WebCT or other tools that are not required as a portion of their grade. For example, if you want them to use the discussion forums, make that a requirement for some of their group work and monitor their progress.
When using myLearningSystem/WebCT, The grade book can be very popular. Students will begin to expect to see grades posted to myLearningSystem/WebCT before assignments are handed back in class.

The calendar tool is an excellent way to keep students up-to-date without requiring revisions or addendums to the syllabus to be copied for everyone in the class.

Students enjoy the interactivity - links to other sites, graphics, animations, movies, and simulations. Their biggest complaints have been about multimedia related to download time. You might suggest that they download multiple audios and videos while they are doing something else and then they are on the desktop when they are ready to go.

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General Web Design/Structure

Design for legibility. Avoid busy background colors. Keep the contrast between text and background colors high. Dark letters on a light background are generally best for both reading and printing. Do not use white letters on a dark background if you expect that the student may want to print the material.
 
Don't use moving text, endlessly repeating audio clips, or animated GIFs that keep on going. These are often distracting. If you must include such an element, design it to stop moving or playing after a few seconds. Avoid blinking text.

Don't overload your page with large data elements (huge tables, large images, sound and movie files) that must be completely downloaded prior to the display of the page. These greatly increase download time. Make these elements optional (through links) or use delivery options such as "streaming."

Don’t over-design. Whenever possible, use default text size and font face. This lets users set their own preferences in their browser settings.

Scrolling up and down is generally accepted while scrolling left to right is considered problematic for the student. Remember that user’s screens do not all have the same resolution. Keep image widths under approximately 550 to 600 pixels to accommodate all standard monitor resolutions.

Remember that a web table does not start to display on the browser until all the information for the table is transferred to your machine. Long tables can cause delays. Replace long tables with a series of short tables when practical.

Use standard link colors whenever practical: blue for unvisited links, gray or purple for visited links.

Unless your course is about cutting edge technology, you should probably avoid it!   Expecting students to download a bunch of plug-ins, or requiring that they have the most modern, up-to-date, powerful computers can lead to problems.

Create a legend of icons, colors, or font faces/sizes that have specific meaning in your course and use these consistently to cue students. Make sure that you explain your system up front and that it is as intuitive as possible. Images do not need to be big - small clipart/line art can be very effective.

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Special Software

It is also helpful to have a special page of your course dedicated to software you require for the course, where the students can obtain it and learn the price range. Introduce this to the students as early on as possible. Possibly include downloads of required software on course web site or in a companion CDROM. Consider listing required software on your myLearningSystem/WebCT homepage page.

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References & Resources

Iowa State University, CFCS Collection of Tips, http://www.fcs.iastate.edu/computer/tips.html

University of Missouri Reference Guides for Instructional Web Pages:
http://web.missouri.edu/~edtech/quickguides/guides.htm

University of Washington: http://depts.washington.edu/catalyst/home.html

Teaching and Learning on the Web: http://www.cudenver.edu/~mryder/itc_data/net_teach.html

Cyrs, Thomas and Eugenia Conway. 1997. Teaching at a Distance with the Merging Technologies – An instructional systems approach. Center for Educational Development, New Mexico State University

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Contributors:

Sara Aase, Editor, University College Distance Education/UMR, University of Minnesota
Rhonda Steedman, University of Houston-Downtown
Yvette M. Dulohery
Steve Freeman, Assistant Professor, Industrial Education & Manufacturing Technology, Iowa State University,
Sophia W. Hinga, University of Houston-Downtown
Ruth Litchfield, Dietetic Internship Coordinator, FCS ISU, Iowa State University
James Sangster, University of Houston-Downtown
Chip Thatcher, Assistant Professor, Human Development and Family Studies, Iowa State University
Lynda Williams

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Credits:

This page was derived largely from a similar page at the University of Houston Downtown. Gratefully used with permission.

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Contact Information

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