Turning on all the tools

Consider making many WebCT/BB tools available to your students. They appreciate having them even if you do not use them in your course.

If you don't use:

• Announcements
• Assessments
• Assignments
• Scorm
• Goals
  
• Learning Modules
  
• My Grades
  
• Web Links
• Media Library
  

then you don't need to add them as there is nothing students can do with them.

These should be available whether or not you use them in the course:

• Calendar
• Chat
• Mail
• Roster
• Search
• Who's Online
• My Files
• My Progress
• Notes
  

There are ways for students to use them even it they are not used in the class. So if the students can find useful things to do with these tools, why not make them available?

For example if Roster is available and if the student edits their entry to include an email address they can then go to Mail and have all WebCT email forwarded to this account. Some find this useful.

But they can only do it if you also change the setting for the Mail tool (go to Manage Course>>Settings>>Mail to allow this). If you decide to do this, change the attachment size while you are there so that students (and you) don't get error messages when they try to attach a file that exceeds the limit in the setting.

Some teachers don't use the grade book, but students really like the it.

Especially if the teacher takes the time to turn on statistics for each graded event and remove non graded events. It is disorientating for students to review My Grades and see many entries that are not used. Once the grade book is set up and you allow statistics for each graded event it keeps itself. As students takes tests those grades go to the correct column and the same is true for Discussion Questions and Assignments.

Statistics allow students to compare each of their grades with others in the class. When they View Statistics they can see a histrogram with the distribution of grades for this event. They can also see the Count, Average Score, Median, Maximum, Minimum and Standard Deviation.



My Files allows student to save their work to WebCT and wherever they go and log on their work is there with them. When it is ready to submit they can attach the file directly from My Files to the Assignment.

My Progress shows students detailed information about each session they have in WebCT along with information about how long the session lasted and what they did. One of my classes uses this tool to help them report how much time they spend on the course each week. But even if not used in the class, students like to review these statistics about their WebCT sessions.

So consider making WebCT tools available in your courses even if you don't use them. Many students will use them and they will be grateful.