This demo will start at 2:00 PM, at Phoenix College in the Encanto Room computer Lab, in the lower level of the Library.

For more information, please contact Sandra Wells (285-7670).

Tentative Agenda

• 2:00 - 2:10 Welcome (Sandra Wells, Marian Tadano, PC)
• 2:00 - 3:00 Demonstrations of webCT as used at PC and MCC
• 3:00 - 4:00 Teleconference/webCT chat session with software developers, Vancouver BC
• 4:00 - ?? more disucssion, hands on access

• webCT home
  • Try out webCT as student or a course designer
• webCT at Phoenix College
  • Course Listings
• webCT at Mesa Community College
  • Course Listings
  • CTL Distance Learning Handbook

• converted classroom presentation materials for "Legal Aspects of Health Information" (HIT106) from PowerPoint into webCT
• not as easily done as first thought!
• realized the difference between materials are presented in class (when she was there) to online (when she was not right there)
• summer project; ~120 hours development time
• "A tremendous commitment of time"

• created reference resource for students in English 102
• best resources were Online Writing Labs (OWLs)
• students new to using the net were comfortable after 3 class sessions in webCT
• available to view (by creating guest account)

• MCC began experimenting with webCT in Fall '97, developed short course for faculty to learn about webCT
• faculty spent 1 semester developing course and then run 1 semester pilot with students
• all courses are designed for distance learning delivery
• 10 course already developed, 6 more in pilot/development stage
• visit courses [set up guest account]- good example is Brooke Estabrook's Sports Psychology course
• each course has a public viewable welcome/information page (the "i" icon)
• students do not seem to have much trouble navigating course materials
• demonstrated the quiz features- timer on each quiz, draws questions from a course data bank, multiple choice, true/false, short answer are graded immediately, essay questions sent o instructor

• wished to provide ART 100 course materials with a lot of graphics to demonstrated software and art concepts
• creates screen shots for tools of graphics software (both Mac and PC versions)
• students run their graphics software in another window and use the webCT pages for the directions/instruction.
• students send art assignments as e-mail attachments
• most popular feature was a gallery of student work
• Spring 99 will be offered as a distance learning course
• ~400 hours development time
• visit class

• webCT started in 1994 as a research project at University of British Columbia, by computer science professor Murray Goldberg. Successful response led to spin-off of webCT as a company in Fall 1996.
• Company is prepping release of version 1.3- they try very hard to include feature requests from users.
• New features include more freedom in arranging window displays, adjustments and improvements in the server side programming (moving away from processor intensive perl scripts).
• used extensively at UCLA (1000+ courses), State of Florida, Georgia, Arkansas, in England, Australia, over 800 colleges are using it.
• All of UBC's offerings as well as the webCT ones are run from a single Pentium 400 server running unix.
• intense customer support for installation and operation; free telephone support for purchasers of unlimited licenses, for all customers 1 day turn around on email question, string activity in webCT users listserv
• Some issues in server logjams when large numbers of students attempt to open a quiz at the same time.
• Will run on Windows NT servers (in beta) but supports Apache and Microsoft ISS servers.
• liberal site licenses are available for large systems such as Maricopa

• see http://www.pc.maricopa.edu/departments/dental/
• did not like webCT, found its interface elements were too restrictive for her materials, did not loss of "control" over appearance
• Oral Pathology (DHE 107) students submit papers which she converts to HTML for department web page
• Prevention of Dental Disease (DHE 103) uses POLIS to deliver content- Student submit 'net sites for "Webliography" (Billie Hughes reminded us that webCT can easily connect to a POLIS created site)
• found that POLIS offered her more flexibility
• created online quizzes for practice
• Online Nutrition Unit offers students am interactive self-check on their own nutrition

• Faculty resources include Teaching with the Web; introductory materials they created for faculty who started out with webCT (see faculty resources from PC's webCT course listings)
• used a webCT tutorial created by a college in Australia (modifications for PC specific information); they are very willing to share their work
• demonstrated the detailed student tracking features of webCT, time spent on task, item scores on quizzes, page views, etc.
• PC supported faculty via summer projects