WebCT at SFU

Add your Teaching Assistants to WebCT
Your TA can use WebCT to administer and deliver grades, review completed quizzes or surveys, or host an online discussions. You will need your Teaching Assistants’ computing IDs (the login they use to login to WebCT, MyInfo or SIMS, for example) to add your TAs or colleagues to the WebCT course container. You can add TAs using either the Gradebook or Course Tools. For detailed information, go to: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/addMembers

Student access to WebCT
By default, your students will be able to access your requested WebCT course container the first day of the semester at 12:01 AM. To change access dates, use the Course Tools: https://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Start_here#Change_access_dates_and_add_instructors.

Upload and organize content
Content doesn’t mean just your PowerPoint slides – you can choose to shelve the slides, and instead add lecture notes or outlines, links to journal articles in the library databases, images and graphs to illustrate key concepts, content from external websites using links or RSS feeds, and encourage students to upload their own diagrams, research or questions. For more information on the tools available, browse some of the resources here: https://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Load_and_display_content

Deliver quizzes or surveys
You can create short quizzes to test student comprehension, encourage critical thinking, or self-assessment. Some of the benefits that quizzes can offer are automatic grades and mark release, ungraded self-tests, selective release of materials, and repeat quizzing for mastery learning (is that your final answer?). For more information on creating, viewing and marking assessments, browse the resources available here: https://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Quizzes%2C_self-tests_and_surveys

Request new WebCT course container
Use the course request form found at: http://webct.sfu.ca The course request form has options to add your Teaching Assistants, copy the course content from a previous WebCT course, and modify the dates that students will be able to access WebCT (by default, students have access from the first day of the semester to the last). It will take one to two working days for your course container to appear in WebCT.

Online and individual resources for instructors, TAs and students

* Troubleshooting: http://toolkit.sfu.ca/webct/browser/
* Send students to: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/index.php/Student_FAQ
* Online tutorials, pdf downloads and quick answers for faculty, instructors and TAs: http://wiki.sfu.ca/webct/
* Information sessions for faculty, instructors and TAs : https://webserver.lidc.sfu.ca/tep/summer-10/calendar.php
* If you have any questions, or would like to schedule some one on one help, please email instructional_support@sfu.ca

We often get lots of questions at the beginning of a semester, and sometimes it requires a few emails before we can diagnose and advise. We sometimes use different vocabulary, and this can result in some confusion!

When emailing us, please give us plenty of detail: tell us what kind of error message you got, which tool you were using or trying to use when you ran into a road block. Tell us what you did to try an get around the issue, and what happened. Sometimes, it’s as simple as trying a different browser (check here for browser-related suggestions).

And finally, we love getting screenshots! It’s truly worth a thousand words. A screenshot of what WebCT looked like when you ran into a roadblock can help us narrow down our suggestions.

If you are interested in seeing if others have run into similar questions, you can always browse the Ask Dr.C discussion forum, hosted by WebCT, and with participants from many different universities (we use the Vista version).