Computer News No. 122 July-August 2006
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Computer News No. 122 July-August 2006 |
WebCT Upgraded to Campus Edition 6
1. Introduction to WebCT Campus Edition 6
The latest version of WebCT, the Campus Edition 6 (CE6), was launched late last year. Both the user interface and the system architecture were redesigned in this version. The complete list of key features in CE6 can be viewed at the WebCT Campus Edition 6 Orientation Centre. Some of the features that should be of interest to our users are highlighted in section 2.Through the "MyWebCT" tab of the HKU Portal, both staff and students can access courses supported by the CE6 server directly. (Teachers please see section 3 on enabling the courses on CE6.)
The course materials in the old WebCT CE4.1 server have been migrated to the new CE6 server. Teachers are encouraged to use CE6 for electronic course material development. No further enhancement would be done on the CE4.1 server which will be discontinued from service in summer 2007 when its license expires.
2. New features of Campus Edition 6
- New user interface with separate "Build", "Teach" and "Student" views
Tools of WebCT have been re-grouped in CE6. Teachers can now click on the "Build" tab to edit their online course, and click on the "Teach" tab to conduct teaching activities. The "Student View" tab simulates the view of a student so that teachers can preview their courses handily (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Sample Course Homepage viewed by Teachers
- QuickStart page for course setup
Upon first access to their new WebCT course on CE6, teachers will be given a QuickStart page in which they can rapidly add the communication, organizational, and learning activity tools they need most.
- Easier upload of contents
A new "My Computer" icon is available in CE6 with which teachers can easily move files from their local computers to their WebCT courses on the server (Figure 2).
Figure 2: "My Computer" icon for opening up a dialogue box to access files on the local computer
- Enhanced communications tools
The new "Announcement" and "Who's Online" tools are introduced to improve communication between teachers and among students. The "Mail" tool can now send an additional copy of the email to teachers' and students' HKU email addresses automatically. In addition, the "Chat" and "Whiteboard" tools are combined and enhanced with screen sharing, hand-raise mode and other features.
- Assignments can be published
In CE6, teachers can selectively publish assignments for viewing by all students, thus allowing better sharing of students' work among the class.
- Teachers and co-teachers can access CE6 courses with HKU Portal UID
For CE6, teachers can simply select their WebCT courses from the "MyWebCT" tab under HKU Portal. No additional account name or password is required. In addition, teachers can assign co-teachers to their WebCT courses easily from the "MyWebCT" tab.
3. Campus Edition 6 in the HKU environment
- New WebCT Campus Edition 6 server system now available
A new set of WebCT CE6 server system has been put in service since August 21, 2006. The course materials of existing courses in CE4.1 have been ported to the CE6 system on August 19, 2006. Teachers are required to take a simple step to enable their HKU Portal UID to access their converted courses in CE6. Detailed information on the upgrade from CE4.1 to CE6 can be found at the web page "Moving from WebCT CE4.1 to CE6". We hope that all teachers will move to this new version of WebCT CE6. All new WebCT courses will only be created on the new CE6 server system.
In additional to the new online learning features provided by WebCT CE6, the Computer Centre also provides the following functions on CE6:
- Automatic account creation - teachers can submit requests to create student accounts for their WebCT courses according to the Registry's enrolment list and the students' HKU Portal UID.
- Assign co-teachers and guest accounts - teachers can assign another user with HKU Portal UID to be co-teacher in their WebCT courses; they can also create guest accounts for those students who do not have HKU Portal UID.
- Email to class - the "Mail" tool of CE6 has been enhanced to send a copy of email to the teachers' and students' HKU email addresses. The "Mail" tool is a more feature-rich tool and will replace the old "Email to class" function.
- Preparing computer for CE6
Since CE6 makes use of pop-up windows and Java applets and other special technologies, some computers may need to go through some set-up steps to enable CE6 to run smoothly. Details can be found at "How to prepare your computer for WebCT CE6".
- Hardware configuration of the new CE6 system:
The new CE6 system is supported by a Dell PE1850 Redhat Linux server (with two Xeon 3GHz CPUs, two 73GB hard disks and 4GB RAM) and a Dell PE2850 Windows 2003 server (with two Xeon 3GHz CPUs, two 73GB hard disks, four 146GB hard disks and 4GB RAM) running the latest Microsoft SQL Server 2005 as its database engine.
- Old WebCT CE 4.1 server will only run until August 31, 2007
For those teachers who are not yet ready to move to Version CE6, we shall keep the old CE4.1 server in service until its license expires on August 31, 2007. However, teachers are reminded that the CE4.1 server would not be available after August 2007.
- Accessing WebCT Courses
(a) For students, they could see their WebCT courses both in CE6.0 and CE4.1 under the "MyWebCT" tab of HKU Portal (Figure 3). They can then access the appropriate WebCT courses from there.
Figure 3: View of "MyWebCT" for Students
(b) For teachers, all courses on CE6 will be displayed under the "MyWebCT" tab of HKU Portal (Figure 4). Teachers can access their CE6 courses from "MyWebCT" without further login. They can also grant access to students, co-teachers and guests by choosing the functions located next to the courses under "MyWebCT" for CE6. However, to access CE4.1 courses, they will need to click the link "Access courses on WebCT CE 4.1" to go to the WebCT CE4.1 login page and login with the old designer accounts that they held before.
Figure 4: View of MyWebCT for Teachers
(c) For guest account users of CE6, they should login via the WebCT CE6 login page while guest account users of CE4.1 should login via the WebCT CE4.1 login page with the guest accounts created by teachers.
4. New documentation and help on CE6
In order to help teachers to get started with CE6, a new set of step-by-step instructions have been prepared to cover the most common functions of WebCT. Documentation on how to start a new CE6 course, communicating via discussions and email, posting course notes, creating accounts, resetting CE6 course, moving courses from CE4.1 to CE6, FAQ's, etc. can be found at http://www.itservices.hku.hk/faq/webct/ce6/.
Two WebCT workshops had been held on August 25 and August 28, 2006 respectively to introduce the new CE6 to teachers. More workshops would be arranged in due course.
If you have any questions on WebCT CE6, please email to webct@ecourse.hku.hk or contact the undersigned for assistance.
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