WebCT is the web-based course management tool used by many teachers at HKU for mounting their on-line courses on the web.

We are pleased to announce that the current WebCT v1.3.1 will be upgraded to take advantage of the new features offered by the newer versions of the software.  In tandem with the upgrade, the WebCT Automatic Account System (AAS) developed by the HKU Computer Centre will also be enhanced so that  the course designers' effort for maintaining student accounts in their courses will further be reduced.
 

Upgrade Plan WebCT version 2.1 provides considerable improvements for students to gain access to the different electronic courses that they are enrolled in . WebCT version 3.0, which has just been released in July and is being tested by the Computer Centre, has introduced major changes as well as a number of new features in the overall user interface which would enable easier and more effective use of the electronic courses by students. Since WebCT version 3.0 is still being tested and training for teachers will be provided for them to familiarise with the system changes and new features in the user interface, we plan to upgrade the WebCT in two phases, as follows:  August 26 and 27, 2000 - upgrading to version 2.1  and enhancing the WebCT AAS to support the single account feature. (see below) December, 2000 - upgrading to version 3.1 to introduce the new interface and features. We shall discuss the new features of WebCT v2.1 in this article and those of version 3.0 in the next issue of the Computer News.
New features of WebCT v2.1 The main new feature introduced in version 2.1 is to provide a single set of account/password, called the global 'WebCT ID', for each WebCT user, including designers, graders and students. With the global WebCT ID, a user can login at a centralized page, the 'myWebCT' page, for gaining access to all of  his enrolled electronic courses, for checking bulletin messages and announcements, etc.  More about 'WebCT ID' will be covered in the next section.
The Login Screen with global WebCT ID for all WebCT courses at  http://ecourse.hku.hk:8900	The Centralized myWebCT Page that allows a Student to access all his WebCT courses  and check for new activities
Other new features include: assignment drop box, navigation bar, preview quiz in designer's mode, selective course reset, etc.

Enhancements of the WebCT Automatic Account System (AAS) The Enhanced WebCT AAS  will facilitate the teachers (or course designers)  in the creation and maintenance of student accounts by eliminating the requirement of going through the tedious manual steps, and at the same time will automatically generate the WebCT IDs for all students so as to save them the burden of setting up their own WebCT ID individually.  In addition, we have also enhanced the WebCT AAS with several new features to provide more convenience to course designers.  The new features include :  1. Single login location and myWebCT page for students Students can go to HKU Electronic Course homepage at http://ecourse.hku.hk:8900, login with his email account/password to gain access to his own "myWebCT" page where he can find  all his enrolled electronic courses developed with WebCT new bulletin messages, announcements, quizzes in each course system announcements by Computer Centre 2. Automatic synchronization of the Registry's enrolment data In the past, course designers had to run the WebCT AAS program a few times at the beginning of the term to update the student lists of his electronic courses. With the new version of the WebCT AAS developed by the Computer Centre, the updating process will be automated when the new academic team starts. Teachers (or course designers) only need to run WebCT AAS once at the start of a term and the student lists will be updated daily afterward. This automatic updating process will stop one month after the add/drop period of each term as student enrolment should be stabilized by then. However, teachers or course designers can always run the WebCT AAS manually to refresh the student lists at any time. 3. Queued jobs for WebCT AAS In the creation of student accounts with the previous version of WebCT AAS, teachers would have to engage in an on-line session until the entire student list is created.  As many teachers have to do this at the beginning of a new term, this activity would put a heavy loading on the electronic course server.  Very often teachers had to wait a long time before the account creation process is completed. To improve on this undesirable situation, the new version of WebCT AAS is enhanced with a queuing feature so that teachers can now go through a few simple steps and need not wait until the entire creation process is completed.  Then, they will be notified of the completion of the process by email.  4. Serving postgraduate courses We have received a number of requests from departments to extend the WebCT AAS function for supporting postgraduate courses. We are pleased to announce that we shall include the support of this group of students in our new version of WebCT AAS. .

Training on WebCT v2.1 In order to introduce our users to  the global WebCT ID and other new features in v2.1, we have updated our 'WebCT Course Designer's Workshop' to cover these topics. In addition, we shall run two identical training workshops on August 29 and September 7 for users who have already had some WebCT knowledge to provide them with hands-on training on WebCT v2.1. As some course designers may probably have questions with their WebCT course development, they can bring them up for discussion in the training sessions.

If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to contact the undersigned. Fanny Chau Tel: 2964 5737  E-mail: hcxccyh@hku.hk