Resetting Your WebCT Course

What is resetting a course and why do you need it?

Resetting a WebCT course deletes all students, student projects, graders, TA's, messages and other vital information pertinent to the course. As an instructor, you may choose to reset an existing course when you have finished teaching a course or want to reuse this WebCT course in a future semester (Note: deleting old student records and assignments is done on an administrative level). Note: Never reset a course during a semester as all student data will be lost). When a course is reset administratively (done on an announced date), all student records are deleted so you should perform course resets only at the end of the semester and only after you have backed up you course.

Remember to back up your course before resetting it because, unless you have a backup of your course you cannot retrieve it! For more information about backing up your course, please see the 'Backing Up Your WebCT Course' page.

Resetting a course

There are different options when resetting a course. You can choose to delete students, TAs and designers, while retaining all of the content of your WebCT course or you may choose to keep some features of your course such as the mail messages while deleting the rest of the student information. All tools in WebCT can be reset manually within the Designer Options of each tool. Resetting a course in WebCT is quite easy: it takes just a few steps!

The Steps of Resetting your Course

1. We strongly recommend that the first step in resetting your course is creating a BackUp! Again, it is suggested that you verify your backup files before resetting your course.

Why is backing up your course important?

It is also suggested you make a hard copy of the course studetn management records, and perhaps create a back up copy on other storage media, such as CD-ROM or Zip Disk.

2. From your course homepage, go to Manage Course and click on Reset Course at the bottom of the page.

3. The Course Reset screen will appear.

The Course Reset feature enables you to completely clear out or delete the information in various sections of your course.

The following tools are the only areas of WebCT that you may reset using the reset function under manage course:

Student Database

This feature includes a listing of all students enrolled in your WebCT Course as well as assignment columns and the student grades which correspond to each of the respective columns. Resetting this feature will delete all student information, including personal information, as well as assignment columns and the student grades associated with each of the respective columns.

Note: This feature will only delete the information contained in all the various columns in the Student Database, but it will not delete the columns themselves. If you want to delete the columns, you have to go to the Student Database and delete the columns manually.

Teaching Assistant Database

This feature includes a listing of all TAs in your WebCT course. Resetting this feature will delete all TA information. (Note: this reset is done administratively).

Student Groups/Presentations

This feature includes a listing of student groups as well as the html and graphic files associated with each group's presentation. Resetting this feature will delete all the Student Groups/Presentations information.

Page Tracking Records

This feature includes a listing of which course pages have been accessed by students. Resetting this feature will reset the counter to zero.

Discussion Tool

Discussions allows you and your students and teaching assistants to send, read, and search for messages. Resetting this feature will delete all the discussion record.

Mail Tool

This feature includes a record of both incoming and outgoing WebCT mail, as well as any attachments that you, the instructor, receive throughout your WebCT course. Resetting this feature will empty all the mail boxes. Calendar Tool

This feature includes all private and public calendar entries, generated by both you and your students, within your WebCT course. Resetting this feature will clear all the entries from your calendar.

Chat Tool

This feature includes the names you, the instructor, assigned to each of the four group-specific chat rooms, as well as the chat room logs associated with each. Resetting this feature will clear all the chat logs.

Whiteboard Tool

This feature includes any of the whiteboard files generated and saved during your WebCT course. Resetting this will clear up all the whiteboard.

Student Homepages Tool

This feature includes all the students' homepage files, as well as any graphics (gifs and jpgs) they used on their homepages. Resetting this will delete all the student homepages. You can choose to reset as many of the above features as you want by clicking the check box beside each feature and choosing the "Reset" button.

If you would like to reset all the areas, click "Mark All" at the bottom of the page. Then click on "Reset". WebCT will ask you if you are sure you want the selected areas to be reset. Click "OK". Once you have decided to reset, WebCT will tell you that it is ready to finish the process. To do this, select "Continue". This will take you back to the Course Reset screen.You have successfully reset your course!