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Current Uses of WebCT

At a recent meeting of faculty who use WebCT, a suggestion was made to provide examples of how WebCT can meet specific course goals. The list that follows was developed based on examples of use given by the faculty present at this meeting.

Ideas on how to use WebCT to meet course objectives...

The faculty listed for each example are willing to elaborate on their methods and share their experiences using WebCT. Please feel free to contact them or an intructional technologist to learn more about WebCT.

Focus class activities on content students have not mastered...

Quizzes to assess knowledge

Description: A quiz is developed based on assigned readings for the up coming week. Students are required to take the quiz prior to the first class of the week. Based on what the students demonstrate they know and do not know lectures and in-class activities are modified to clarify topics that students have not mastered.

Faculty Using Method:

Get students to read assignments...

Give online quizzes outside of class

Description: There are many variations of this idea being used across the disciplines. The quizzes are developed based on the content of the reading assignment and students are given a window of time to take the current quiz. Most professors are using a multiple choice format as WebCT is able grade the quiz automatically.

Variations of this method include:

  • allowing students to retake a quiz a set number of times and taking the best score
  • allowing students to retake a quiz a set number of times and averaging all the scores
  • the use of question sets to vary the quiz questions from one attempt to another
  • imposing time limits to minimize students referencing the readings
  • prohibiting students from using the reading assignments to answer questions
  • encouraging students to use the reading assignments to answer questions
  • taking questions from each quiz and including them on major exams in the multiple choice section.

Faculty Using Method:

Use the Discussion Board

Description: Students will post messages to the message board in reply to a question about a given reading assignment.

Variations of this method include:

  • Grouping students together and having each group post a response to the question to help limit number of posting and encourage interactions among students
  • Bring select postings in from the students to spur conversation about the reading assignments.

Faculty Using Method:

Prepare students for in-class discussions...

Use Discussion Boards

Description: Students are required to log on to WebCT prior to class and enter the discussion board where the professor has posted a question or scenerio that relates to an upcoming discussion. Students

Faculty Using Method:

Variations of this method include:

  • Grouping students together and having each group post a response to the question to help limit number of posting and encourage interactions among students
  • Bring select postings in from the students to spur conversation about the reading assignments.
  • Allowing students to post comments annonymously when dealing with a sensitive issue.

Chat Rooms

Description: On days when a discussion is planned the meeting time is postponed 20 minutes and students are required to log on to WebCT and enter one of the chat rooms. They can do this anywhere they choose. Once in the chat room students are given the topic and time is given to begin the conversation. At the end of the allotted time students leave the chat room and reconvene to continue the discussion.

This method works well with classes that are longer than 60 minutes.

Faculty Using Method:

Facilitate peer review of assignments...

Using Discussion Boards

Description: Students post their essays to the discussion board instead of turning in a copy to the professor. Classmates are required to read postings and provide critiques of the essays.

Variations of this method include:

  • Grouping students together and having each group post a combined response to the essay. This helps limit number of posting and encourage interactions among students within the smaller groups.
  • Bring select postings in from the students to spur conversation about the essays.

Faculty Using Method:

Using Student Presentation Tools

Description: Students share their assignments with others by uploading files to the Student Presentation Tool.

Faculty Using Method:

Connect students with meaningful resources...

Use organizer pages to provide links to electronic resources

Description: Some courses lend themselves to having many supplemental resources that only portions of the class might use. The supplemental resources might take on many forms including Word Documents, PDF's, Web Links, and scanned articles. By using organizer pages, links and single pages you can create a resource center for your students that they can use for a starting point for their research.

Variations of this Method:

  • Create a link to the library's eRes tool in this section to take advantage of eletronic resources available in the library.
  • For those who maintain a list of such resources on a personal web site include a link to the appropriate your section of your site instead of duplicating the work.

Faculty Using Method:

Provide students opportunities to interact with experts...

Use Discussion Boards

Description: An off-campus author and colleague joins students in discussions of the author's text. Students read the text and the author responds to questions and comments posted by students. The asynchronous nature of the discussion board allows students, professors, and the author the flexibility to conveniently post comments and provide responses. Students hav responded that it is valuable to be able to discuss directly with the authore the ideas and reviews presented in his book.

Faculty Using this Method:

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