Here are 3 places to put an announcement or reminder into your course:
1. Homepage (Upper Textblock)
Most of your WebCT course homepages already have an upper textblock
directly above your icons. This is where the name of the course is
located. In designer view, click on the radio button next to the
upper textblock. Look for the heading Options: Textblocks.
Use the Edit button to go into the upper textblock, add information and
click the Update button. If you do not have an upper textblock yet,
go to the heading Options: Textblocks and click on the Add upper
textblock button to create an upper textblock. Students cannot miss
this announcement; they have to go to the course homepage.
2. Lessons (Action Menu)
Go to Manage Files. Under Options: Folders, click the
Create Folder button. Make a folder called Announcements.
Under Options: Files, click the Create File button. Type
your announcement into the file (HTML editor is available), name it
Week5_Announcement.html (or similar) and save it in the Announcements folder.
Go to your lesson for week 5. In designer options, click links and use the
Create Link Category button and Create Link Item button and link
to the Announcement file (Week5_Announcement.html). Students must
click the word Links above the lesson to see this announcement.
3. E-mail (Select All Students)
Open the email tool and click the Compose Message button. Browse
and select all of the students in the course (click the top name and drag over
the others to select all or click the top name and use Ctrl to select specific
students.) Students will see the new mail icon on their homepages.
1. Public/Private Calendar Entries - If a calendar entry appears in Italic, beware! This means that your calendar is set to "private" and your students will not see the entry. Immediately click on the calendar icon in Designer Options and click the edit settings button. Click the radio button next to "The default access level for a new calendar entry is public" and click the update button. Any entries that you have added while the calendar was set to private will have to be changed individually by clicking on the date.
2. Calendar Links to Lessons/External Sites (coming
soon)
3. Three Ways to move Calendar Postings (coming soon)
The WebCT Quizzes/Surveys Tool includes two parts:
1. Question Database - This is the place where all of your test questions
reside in the course. Categories of questions may be uploaded to or downloaded
from the Question Database as text files to be used in other online courses.
Categories - These are folders
that contain questions with specific attributes. They help you to organize
your questions. You may name your categories by chapter, test,
topic, question type, or a combination of these attributes (examples: Chapter 3
Multiple Choice; Solar System; Test I essay). You may make the
categories first, or make one category for all questions - then move your
questions into more specific categories that you make later. If you are using
questions from a publisher's test bank, the categories may be created for you.
All of your test and quiz questions reside in the question database both before
and after you create your tests.
Questions - All of your questions reside in the question database. The questions can be multiple choice (includes T/F), matching, calculated, short answer, or paragraph (essay). Each question should be given a title that reflects exactly what the question is about (content), question type, and difficulty level. If you title the questions this way, and put them into appropriate categories, you will be able to find them later when you want to modify or update a test. Question titles can be hidden from students when questions are added to a test. There are many options for questions including providing feedback, multiple correct answers, changing the order of multiple choice answers, etc.
2. Quizzes/Surveys - This is the place where you go to make quizzes, tests, and surveys. You will name a test, add questions or question sets from any of your categories to the test, assign points to the questions, and release the test to the students based on a wide variety of quiz settings options. Quizzes, tests, and surveys may not be downloaded or uploaded from one course to another.
Question Sets: You will want to use question sets if at all possible when you make your tests. Each set will include several questions of the same type, content, and difficulty. You can indicate how many questions you want WebCT to pick from your question set. The questions from each set will be randomly displayed to the students. If you do this with care, each student should have a different but equivalent test!
Special Needs Tests: You can make a quiz based on another quiz then change test attributes and/or settings. This is useful if you have a student with special needs and you need to give the student an individualized test with fewer questions or additional time.
Linking to Quizzes
1. Icon Links (NEW!) - You may now use more than one icon to link to the Quizzes/Surveys tool. Each icon has a "quiz listing" option which allows you to select which quizzes/tests you want the icon to link to. You may have an icon just for tests, another just for quizzes, and another just for surveys. You may have an icon for most of your students and another one selectively released (by conditions) to any special needs students who will be taking individualized tests.
2. Table of Contents - You may also choose to link to a the Quizzes/Surveys tool from the Table of Contents list in your Content Learning Module (Weekly Lessons). The link will appear in italic text in the list and will link directly to the specific test that you choose.
3. Action Menu - You may also choose to link to a the Quizzes/Surveys tool from the Action Menu of a lesson page within the Content Learning Module. You can add a Quiz Link to the Action Menu. This link can be set to go directly to the specific test that you choose.