WebCT Campus Edition™ 4.1 Release Notes

August 5, 2003

Contents

About WebCT Campus Edition 4.1 | Top

WebCT Campus Edition is a course management system offering a complete set of easy-to-use teaching and learning tools for course development, course delivery, and course administration.

In this release, WebCT Campus Edition offers greater usability through a number of new features and system enhancements. These include:

• a set of course design wizards to help designers create and modify the basic elements in their WebCT courses.
• an HTML editor that allows users to format text using word-processor type controls.
• a feature that allows the import/export of online learning content that implements IMS specifications.
• expanded integration to include additional partners such as Datatel®.
• the WebCT Powerlinks Network to extend the Campus Edition e-learning environment
• greater flexibility of e-Pack adoption
• 15-day temporary access to e-Pack courses
• extension of the Import Content feature to allow designers to merge courses

Supported Configurations | Top

Client Operating Systems

• Microsoft Windows 98, 2nd edition/2000/XP operating systems
• Macintosh® OS 9 operating system
• Macintosh OS X v.10.1.x and v.10.2.x operating systems

Browsers

WebCT Campus Edition 4.1 supports the following browsers:

Microsoft Windows 98, 2nd edition /2000/XP operating systems software:

• Netscape® Navigator® 6.2.x and 7.0 browsers
• Microsoft® Internet Explorer 5.0, 5.5 and 6.0 browsers. Note: Internet Explorer 5.5 SP1 is not supported
• AOL® 7.0 and 8.0 browsers

Macintosh OS 9.x operating system software:

• Netscape Navigator 6.2.x, browsers
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 browsers

Macintosh OS X v.10.1.x operating system software:

• Netscape Navigator 6.2.x and 7.0 browsers
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.1 and 5.2 browsers
• AOL for Macintosh OS X browsers

Macintosh OS X v.10.2.x operating system software:

• Netscape Navigator 6.2.x and 7.0 browsers
• Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.2 browser
• AOL for Macintosh OS X browsers

Note: For the most current information on supported browsers, see www.webct.com/tuneup

To optimize your browser for WebCT, we recommend the following browser settings:

• For all browsers, enable JavaScript™.
• To use Chat, Whiteboard, the edit-on® Pro HTML editor, and the WebEQ™ Equation Editor, enable Java™.
• To use ticket-based authentication, client browsers must allow cookies.
• To use all features in Content Module, client browsers must allow cookies.
• For all browsers, enable cascading style sheets (.css).
• For all users, set cached pages to update "automatically" (Microsoft Internet Explorer, and Netscape Navigator 6.2.x), or "when the page is out of date" (Netscape Navigator 7.0).

New Features and Enhancements | Top

• WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 changes
• WebCT Campus Edition 4.1 changes

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0

Course Design Center with Wizards

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 includes a new Course Design Center. It contains course design wizards that guide faculty and course designers, step-by-step, through the completion of common course tasks including setting up their course Homepage, Syllabus, Organizer Pages, Content Modules, Discussions, Mail, Calendar and Chat.

Updated Look and Feel

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 has a new look. The style of the application has been updated throughout, and controls have been grouped and positioned to facilitate easier access and more efficient course design.

More specifically, the following enhancements have been added:

• Course tasks and activities now require fewer clicks.
• The breadcrumbs have been improved allowing for easier course navigation.
• When entering a new screen, the cursor is now placed in the first input field so the user can begin entering information immediately.
• For designers:
  • tabs have been added to clearly separate the student view and designer view, making it easier to design and preview courses.
  • the view of the course — either student or designer — is maintained until the other view is specifically chosen.
  • the References and Links screens in Content Module are easier and faster to use.
  • the Self Test screens are easier and faster to use.
  • the Customize Page Color screen, accessible from several areas in WebCT, now displays a preview of the color combinations chosen.
  • the Syllabus screen has been updated to separate and highlight the options associated with each of the two Syllabus sources, Syllabus file and Syllabus tool.

WebCT Tool and Page Enhancements

The following enhancements have been added:

• To complement Add Page or Tool, an Edit Page or Tool function has been added. This function allows the designer to access and edit all tools and content that have been added to the course.
• There are now two Control Panels available. The Basic Control Panel provides access to the main areas of WebCT and the Expanded Control Panel is similar to the Designer Map from previous versions of WebCT. The designer can choose which to use as the default. Also, the designer is able to set the course to open to the Control Panel rather than the Homepage.
• For designers, My Grades and My Progress now offer sample student views to demonstrate how this information is presented to students.
• In Calendar, the Add entry function is now available from the monthly and weekly views, as well as the daily view. The Compile function is now available from the weekly view as well as the monthly view.
• For designers, the Glossary listing screen now shows the definitions as well as the keywords.
• The Notes topic can now be accessed and posted to directly from Discussions as well as from pages in a content module.
• Designers can now create files in Content Module as well as Manage Files.
• In Mail, when a user redirects messages to an external email address using Mail Forwarding, message attachments are now also sent.
• In Quizzes/Surveys:
  • the quiz index page has been replaced by a quiz listing page with a link to the Question Database.
  • a Question Browser has been added. It is similar to the WebCT File Browser and makes it easier for designers to select questions to add to a quiz.
  • the Quizzes/Surveys screen has been improved. Summary data and search criteria have been added near the top of the screen to help users locate items in the listing more quickly. The format of the items in the listings has been changed so that longer titles can be used, and the status and pertinent information is easier to read.

Content Import

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 makes it possible to create content modules offline using applications such as Microsoft® FrontPage®, and Microsoft® PowerPoint®, and to directly import these objects into WebCT, with all of their structure and linking intact. Learning objects, including both content modules and the assessment suite, can also be tagged and exported for storage or reuse.

Note: All WebCT CE 4.0 Import and Export features require installation of CMU 2.0 before they can become operational.

Integrated HTML Editor with Spell-Check

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 includes an HTML editor with spell-check, providing course designers with "What You See is What You Get" (WYSIWYG) content creation and editing capabilities, making it easier to create and maintain content within the WebCT course environment.

Browser Checker

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 includes a new Check Browser feature that can automatically detect if the user's browser is compatible with WebCT. If the browser is not compatible, users can access WebCT's Browser Tune-Up Page from the Check Browser screen to download a compatible browser. Note: Check Browser can only check the compatibility of browser versions; service packs are not checked.

Internationalization

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 has added support for right-to-left languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. For these languages, any left-to-right language words or phrases, which are embedded in the text, display correctly (i.e. left-to-right).

SSL

WebCT Campus Edition 4.0 has allowed UMass to enable SSL. This change has allowed UMass to configure the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) protocol to redirect all WebCT requests from a non-secure server to a secure server.

4.1 Designer and Student Enhancements

With Campus Edition 4.1, the following enhancements have been added and apply to both designers and students:

• The performance of the WebCT Entry Page has been improved.
• Several minor issues related to accessibility have been resolved.
• In Quizzes/Surveys, pop-up blocking software will no longer prevent pop-up windows from opening.
• XML files that are attached to Discussions and Mail messages can now be viewed successfully.

The following enhancements apply to designers only:

• Courses can now be reset using Course Functions on the myWebCT screen.
• In Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.0, buttons located in the Actions frame in Designer Options now display properly.
• It is now possible to download Self Test questions to their computer.
• Multiple choice Quiz questions that have been downloaded to a computer can be imported into Self Test. All other question types will now be ignored.
• In Manage Files and the File Browser, selected files and folders remain selected when folders are expanded or collapsed.
• The following character sets have been added to the Convert Character Set feature: Hebrew Visual (ISO-8859-8), Korean (EUC-KR), and Korean (UHC/Windows-949).
• In Manage Students, the Letter Grade Editor screen in Manage Columns now displays the grade ranges from highest to lowest.
• References and Audio tools, which appear on the Action Menu of a content module, can now be edited by either clicking the item or selecting the item and then clicking Edit.
• A progress bar has been added when importing and exporting content.
• If a question does not contain enough information for its type to be determined, it will be imported as a Short Answer question.