Tech Information for
Online Classes
About WebCT Campus Edition
Introduction
WebCT (recently purchased by Blackboard) is the Internet-based course management software
(CMS) program Oakton has chosen for delivering most of its in-house
developed Online credit classes. While instructors develop
their course content, a CMS is used to organize the lessons
and other information, create and grade tests, and provide
for homework assignment submission, student activity tracking,
student-instructor interaction.
More from the WebCT-Blackboard web site:
"WebCT provides publishers, instructors,
students and administrators with a more flexible and powerful
learning tool that enhances the learning experience by harnessing
the power of the Internet. WebCT combines state-of-the-art
Web application technology with educational content supplied
by major publishers or instructors themselves. The result
is a fully integrated, easy-to-use, Web-based, network learning
environment, which offers instructors and students the ability
to easily access and create content and interactive Web-based
learning experiences."
WebCT CE 4.1 runs on Oakton's web servers, notably but not necessarily
always limited to, http://elearn.oakton.edu. It is essentially
a site on the world wide web that students surf to, login
to, and take their classes. Note, however, that when you
are taking an online class, you may frequently link
to other sites your instructor wishes you to go to for anything
from general reference to specific supplemental instruction.
It is important then to make this distinction: While instructors
may use WebCT Campus Edition to organize and deliver their materials, the
content and activities of any course may go beyond the confines
of WebCT running on our elearn.oakton (or other Oakton)
server, linking out to content on non-oakton servers all
around the world. Problems, usually temporary, may occur when you try to access material on non-Oakton servers. Alert your instructor to any linking problems immediately.
Using and Navigating a WebCT Class
Adopting a single course management program such as WebCT
for the bulk of the Oakton Online courses has one clear
advantage to the student: Skills you learn using WebCT in
one course will translate to other courses. Navigation methods
will be similar from Chemistry 101 to English 101, though
you will find that menuing will vary by virtue of the fact
no one instructor uses all the tools WebCT offers. Even
making the transition from one WebCT version to newer versions
should be quite simple.
Note: As of fall, 2007, Oakton will run version
WebCT Campus Edition 4.1 on the server at http://elearn.oakton.edu:8900. Oakton updates versions of
WebCT regularly and may sometimes run multiple versions.
Oakton has developed a general student guide to taking
a WebCT-based class.
More information:
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