Please keep checking back. We're using this site to share work-arounds and solutions to problem areas encountered in the implementation of WebCT 6. We'll be adding FAQs as additional issues are discovered.
Q: When using WebCT 4.1, I used to have two windows open with two occurrences of WebCT. With version 6, I get an error message. Can I still work in two windows with two different views of my WebCT course?
A: Yes, when you see the following message, simply click OK and you'll still be able to run two windows with WebCT in both.
Q: When I export an assessment in WebCT to use in another course, I get an unexpected system exception error. I cannot save it to the My Files area so I can load the assessment into another course shell. What should I do?
A: Try the following work-around:
Q: How can I delete columns in the Grade Book?
A: If the column was created automatically by an assessment or assignment, you cannot delete it. Manually created columns can be deleted in this manner:
Q: I cannot get MPEG4 (video) files to play from within WebCT. What do I do?
A: Make sure you have Quicktime 7 installed. If not, download it from http://www.apple.com/quicktime/win.html. Then complete these steps:
Q: I've heard there are problems with multiple versions of Java installed on my computer. What's the scoop?
A:
Here’s what we know about Sun Microsystems Java and WebCT 6:Q: I cannot get my Student View tab to work. What should I do?
A: It seems that if a section contains a background image on the Course Content Home page, when this section is copied to a new section (i.e. using the Copy content from another section radio button on the Quick Start page) the Student View tab of the new section will produce an Exception error. To resolve this, the section designer of the newly created section will have to manually remove the background image and then re-add it. This problem has been submitted to WebCT Support as a high priority issue. It should be addressed in the next major release.
Q: How can I turn off the HTML Creator if I don't want to use it?
A: The following procedure must be completed for each course shell in WebCT 6.
Open the course and select the Build or Teach tab;
Select the Manage Course icon in the Designer Tools or Instructor Tools area;
Select the Settings icon or link;
Select the HTML Creator link in the Tools column;
Select the false radio button in the row labeled Start the HTML Creator by default; and
Select the Save Values button.
Just be aware that with the HTML Creator turned off by default, both the student and the instructor will need to turn it back on (if they wish to use the HTML Creator) each time they compose a mail message or a discussion posting or a response/comment in the Assignment Drop Box or any other place where the HTML Creator is available in WebCT.
Q: I set-up auto-forwarding in the WebCT Mail tool but it's not working. Is this a known bug?
A:
If you want copies of all WebCT Mail messages automatically forwarded to your Outlook mail box, you need to be aware of the following:When the export from Banner was used to create course shells in WebCT, by default, your email address was entered into the Mail Tool’s Mail Forwarding setting. Typically, the address ends with @jccc.edu, e.g.
jbacon@jccc.edu.If you click the Mail Forwarding icon (upper right corner of the Mail tool screen—it looks like a small envelop), you’ll see the email address extracted from Banner is listed. However, the feature does not work until you select the Mail Forwarding icon, and then select the Save button. You don’t need to change the actual email address, just display the setting and click the Save button. Even though the address is listed, mail forwarding does not work until you display the setting and Save it.
You should also be aware of the following:
Q: I cannot send email in the Mail tool or select recipients for the mail messages. What should I do?
A: We’ve found at least an occasional case where faculty members and students cannot send e-mail using the WebCT Mail tool. Sometimes the problem appears when you try to select recipients and save them and at other times it occurs when you go to click the Send button.
If you have the correct version of Java installed and only one version (see http://students.jccc.edu for uninstall and install instructions), then you should check to see if your pop-up blocker allows pop-ups from the college’s domains (*.jccc.edu and *.jccc.net) and that JCCC is listed as a trusted site in Internet Explorer. Instructions to handle both of these settings (pop-ups and trusted sites) are available at
http://web.jccc.net/edtech/notes/get.asp?DocumentID=126. The PDF is a print out of the screen captures and steps while the Flash link plays a tutorial movie.Q: I've got one install of Java, I've set my pop-up blocker to accept pop-ups from jccc.edu and jccc.net and I've listed JCCC as a trusted site...and I still cannot send e-mail in the Mail tool. What now?
A: Computing Support Services Technical Support staff have been working to resolve browser problems related to sending e-mail and posting messages to the discussion board. We have found several things that can prevent the WebCT Mail and Discussions tools from working properly. Please review & check the following items when troubleshooting:
It appears that turning off or uninstalling these products will allow the WebCT Mail and Discussions tools to work as intended. We believe the issue is primarily centered on pop-up blocking. All of the products mentioned have a feature to optionally block pop-up ads. These tools misinterpret the message creation window as a pop-up message and block it. We are not recommending that you disabling anti-virus software or any other security feature (firewall), though Windows XP has its own firewall and if it is enabled you do not need the additional firewall protection offered by some of these products.
Also note that disabling one or all of these products when you log-in enables you to send communications (e-mail, discussion board postings). However, when you return later and restart your browser or your computer, the settings may automatically reset to the default and you'll encounter errors again.
If your students contact you with technical difficulties of this sort, please recommend that they contact the Student Technical Support at 469-8500, extension 4357 (HELP), and select option 1.
A: WebDAVs is the web folder on the server where all your files reside. In 4.1 you could create a web folder in My Network Places that allowed you access to all your files. In 6.0 a WebDAV folder is automatically created in the File Manager. To the right of the File Manager icon in the main content frame is a pull-down ActionLink. Click on it. It will show a few options, one of which is Open as Web Folder. This will open the WebDAV folder for your course. You can drag and drop files into it directly from your PC.
WebDAV automatically creates a web folder in My Network Places. Thus you can open or create any format of file and save it directly to your WebCT course. If you are working on a Word file (or HTML or PDF or JPG) on your PC that you want in your course, click File/Save As. In the dialog box you'll see My Network Places. Click on it. All your network folders will display, including the WebDAV folders created by the WebCT File Manager. Click on your course folder--identified by the CRN. All the files for the course will display. Click Save. Your file will then be saved in the WebCT folder.
You can use this process for all your WebCT work. Simply create the files on your computer and when finished, publish it to WebCT using the File/Save As command and save the file to WebCT. Using this approach the files on your PC are always the most recent and up-to-date.
Q: My students cannot use the Chat tool and participate successfully. Suggestions?
A:
It appears that when students log-in through Pipeline and then enter WebCT from the My Courses tab; they are having problems using the Chat tool. If your students are experiencing this, have them log-out of Pipeline and go direct to http://webct.jccc.edu and log-in at that URL. This is a temporary work-around. Computing Support Services is working with WebCT and SCT Banner to resolve the problem (1/27/2006).Q: I cannot seem to re-order the sequence of columns in the WebCT Grade Book. I make changes but they are not reflected in the student's My Grades tool. How do I reorder the columns?
A:
You can reorder the columns in the WebCT 6 Grade Book. Just follow these steps:Here’s the “gotcha” you need to know. The Hide and Show buttons on the Reorder Columns screen only hide or show columns in the instructor’s Grade Book not the student’s My Grades tool.
To make columns unavailable (not displayed) in the student’s My Grades tool you must:
Now go to the Student View tab, select the My Grades tool and you’ll see the order reflects what you’ve just established.
By the way,
each tab in the Grade
Book has its own sort order. Here’s a description
of each tab:
The column
order of each tab is set using that tab and does not carry
over to other tabs in the Grade Book.
Q: My students are getting a timeout warning when taking a test. Why is WebCT doing this?
A:
Students have reported having problems while taking a WebCT assessment with pop-up windows that indicate they’re about to be logged off the system. In short, if the log off warning displayed below appears, tell your students to go ahead and click the Logout button and they’ll be able to continue with their assessment. The message is being generated by Pipeline not WebCT and occurs when a student logs in using Pipeline, selects the My Courses tab, and then enters a WebCT course using one of the course links. It’s okay for the student to Logout of Pipeline, if they wish, because they will still be active in WebCT. If they click the OK button, the warning message will appear again in another 3-5 minutes; which can distract the student while taking an assessment.
The default timeout period for WebCT is 3 hours of inactivity (without sending information or accessing a new tool or screen), while Pipeline’s timeout period is much shorter (3-5 minutes depending on the time of the year).
Just for reference, WebCT’s timeout warning message is displayed below:
Q: Can I turn off the Who's Online individual chat (paging) capability permanently for a course?
A: If you
want to turn off the Who’s Online-paging capability
permanently for any of your courses (WebCT 6) there
is a setting to handle this under Manage Course -->
Settings --> Who’s Online.
This
setting eliminates the need for you to set yourself as
invisible for each session (assuming if you don’t want to be
paged or interrupted). Your course will not show up on the
My WebCT page in the Who’s Online channel.
Set
Enable Who’s Online tool to
False. Be sure to
click Save Values afterwards. You will need to
establish this setting for each courses you teach.
A: Now here’s the dilemma:
I don’t know if I’ve explained this in a clear fashion, but in essence you can’t get to where you want to go with WebCT 6. In other words, one instructor (such as a career program facilitator or someone designated in a department to maintain the “master” online course content) who is not also the instructor in Banner for all the other course shells cannot copy content from the master course shell into the other course shells.
The only solution I know is for:
Q: My students using a Macintosh computer cannot get the HTML Creator to work, so they cannot send Discussion postings or Mail messages. What's the solution?
A: The HTML Creator in WebCT should now work with Macintosh's Safari browser. A fix was put in place in early March.
Q: What's the difference between "Unenrolled" and "Access Denied" students in my Grade Book?
A: If a student is labeled as "unenrolled" in the Grade Book, it is due to "drop/delete" activity that occurred when the student was eligible (based on the enrollment schedule) for a 100% refund of tuition. These are drops that occur before classes begin. If a student is labeled as "access denied" in the Grade Book, it is due to a drop after classes began. The class remains on the student schedule in Banner as a dropped course. You can hide unenrolled students, but it’s a two step process to make sure it “holds.” First, go to the Manage Course tool on the Teach tab, select the Settings link and then select Grade Book. Set the Display unenrolled members in My Grades radio button to False. Next go to the Grade Book on the Teach tab, select the Grade Book Options button and then select the Hide Unenrolled Member Data option. That should do it.
Access denied students cannot be hidden.
Clarification: The option under Manage Course disappears or is disabled when we set the “unenrolled’ students to be hidden globally by default (which we did recently at JCCC). You can still view or hide unenrolled students in the Grade Book, but by default they’re hidden and there’s no need for the option under Manage Course. I have submitted a bug report indicating that the Manage Course > Settings > Grade Book screen should explain this more clearly.
Q: I have a student who has checked Java, checked for pop-up blockers, is using the correct browser and still has sporadic problems. Suggestions?
A: Not all WebCT problems can be blamed on WebCT: Spyware has been identified as the cause of some of the irregularities experienced by students and faculty members when using WebCT. If you’ve never run a spyware check on your system, it’s time to do so. Ad-Aware Personal provides advanced protection from known data-mining, aggressive advertising, Trojans, dialers, malware, browser hijackers, and tracking components. This software is downloadable free of charge from http://www.lavasoftusa.com/software/adaware/. Further, if the WebCT Check Browser link identifies your browser as Sidebyside, you’re infected. For details visit http://www.symantec.com/avcenter/venc/data/adware.sidebyside.html.
Q: What's the difference between setting Dates Available and Release Criteria for an assessment or assignment?
A: Here's what we’ve discovered by R&D in the Ed Tech Center and by discussions with WebCT personnel about the settings for Assessments and Assignments.
Let’s look at a scenario (and we’ll show you what works rather than what doesn’t….just to keep this simple: A student misses an assessment for a justifiable reason. You decide to allow the student to take the test after the stated availability dates have expired. To do so, you follow these steps:
You need to be aware of the following:
As an aside, if the student who is getting a second chance at the quiz has a grade in the grade book from a previous attempt it should be reset.
And yes, we have submitted a new feature enhancement to enable the instructor to granted extended access to an assessment (or assignment) while still having it visible but unavailable to all other students.
Note From Michael Robertson, JCCC Center
for Teaching & Learning Distance Learning Mentor: I’d
like to add some information about the above the difference between
Dates Available and Release Criteria and how to
effectively use them. As for much of WebCT 6.0 (as it was for 3.8
and 4.1) there is always a learning curve on how to effectively use
the new or redesigned tools.
The design of 6.0 is to allow the designer to create a number of
tools in the Course Tools and control their appearance on the
Course Content home Page. In 4.1, there was duplication: all
the tools in the toolbar were on the Home Page as icons and
there for the entire semester, thus creating a cluttered home page.
Separating Dates Available and Release Criteria allows
the designer to control what the student sees on the calendar and
the home page if the designer doesn’t want the student
to have access to all course material throughout the semester. Thus
designers can create self-contained modules—content, assignments,
quizzes/exams that will display on the Course Content home page
when they are open and go away when they are not in use. This is
a design decision.
If you don’t wish to selectively release content, then use only the
Dates Available feature. Now you can still control what the
student sees on the Course Content home page during the
course of the semester. On the Course Content home page,
using the Add Content Link, you can put an icon on the home
page for every quiz/exam, assignment, discussion, etc. you want.
Then go to Power View in the page options. There you can
arrange those icons in any order you wish (chronologically or
thematic) and hide and show them. Thus, a few weeks into the course
you can hide the Read Me First icon, or a week or so after
Exam 1 you can hide the Exam 1 icon on the Course
Content home page. Students still have access to them in the
Course Tools or from the Calendar. Using your
Announcements tool this is an effective way of letting students
know that an assignment or quiz is due and making an icon on the
Course Content home page available as well.
Selective release allows the designer to automate much of this. But
it takes a bit of time and thought to set up all the Release
Criteria in such a way that everything works the way you want
it. So you’ll need to think about how to organize your course
modules. I have chosen to set the Release Criteria for the
first day of the semester for all the icons I’ve placed on the
Course Content home page and end one week after the Dates
Available I’ve set for that tool. Thus at the beginning of the
semester all the content icons are visible (but not
available—this is determined by Dates Available) in the
Course Tools. When students complete quiz 1, it remains visible
for a week after the availability period is over so that they can
review the quiz; then it disappears—on the Calendar, on the
Assessments page, and on the Course Content home page.
This procedure can also accommodate those who miss the quiz. I can
extend the Dates Available setting for that student and need
not worry about the Release Criteria since the tool is still
available for a week. This should give that student enough time to
take the quiz and review it before the icon disappears on the tool
and home page, and the entry disappears from the Calendar.
Hope this helps clarifies the above information and gives you some
ideas on how to effectively use the selective release feature in
WebCT 6 for your course.
Here's an Example:
I want an assignment to be available from
March 8 with the due date March 10 and the cutoff March 17.
I want my students to be able to see their papers from the
time that I return them until the end of the semester. I do
not want students to be able to insert anything into
the Assignment Drop Box after March 17. In other
words:
I want the link to the assignment will appear in the module navigation bar March 8 and stay until May 20. Solution: On the Build tab, you'd select the Assignments tool. Under Edit Properties for the activity, you would set the Due Date (March 10) and Cut Off Date (March 17). Under Set Release Criteria for the activity (when students will see the activity), you'd set the Date Criteria to March 8 to Unlimited or the last date of the semester. However, students will not see (in the Assignments tool or the Calendar) the activity until March 8th based on the Release Criteria. And even then, what the Calendar shows is an entry on March 10 (the Due Date, not the date available).
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Q: I cannot get PDF files to open in WebCT 6. They use to work in WebCT 4.1, what's happened?
A: First, due to a security flaw in PDF files, WebCT 6 will not open PDF files "inline" (e.g. within the WebCT page). Instead all PDF files open in a new window. If this is not occurring, check out the following link for possible solutions.
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/ie/pdf.htm
Q: I have several messages in my Draft folder within the Mail tool but have never saved a draft. Why?
A: If you start composing an email message, decide to abandon the effort and click the "X" to close the window, WebCT creates a draft copy of the message. If you use the Cancel button instead, WebCT won't create a draft copy of the aborted message.
Q: How can I publish StudyMate created games directly to WebCT 6?
A: For those who are using StudyMate, check out http://web.jccc.net/edtech/notes/get.asp?DocumentID=207 which describes how to publish your StudyMate games to WebCT 6, since a bug prevents you from publishing directly.
Q: How do students know that an assignment has been graded or needs further work when using the Assignment Drop Box?
A: When the student logs in, they will have a little green star next to the Assignments tool button. They can click the button to go to the Assignments page, and see the assignment that needs further editing. Under the assignment listing there will be a description, such as " Status: Individual In Progress (Attempt #2) (Due March 15, 2006 12:00 PM )." You should inform your students that after submitting an assignment, they should check the status daily to see if they need to edit further.
Q: Why can't I seem to edit an HTML (web) document using the HTML Creator?
We’ve observed occasions when an web (HTML) document that was originally created in FrontPage 2003, is edited using the WebCT HTML Creator and the changes don’t “hold.” The changes typically “stick” when making simple word changes but, for example, don’t "hold" when changing alignment in tables. If you find this occurring, go back to the original HTML Editor (FrontPage or Dreamweaver) to do your editing and don’t use the HTML Creator.
Q: Can I import a properly formatted text file with calendar entries into the WebCT 6 Calendar tool?
A: Yes. Simply complete these steps:
Please note the following:
Note: If you didn’t put the file in My Files, look for a folder with the name of your course and then click on the “Blank” folder below it to find your file.
This should complete your import.
Access the Calendar tool from the button on the Course Tools menu. Selecting the Calendar Import tool that you created does not show you the calendar entries.
A: On April 11, Microsoft released a critical update in response to patent litigation between Microsoft and Eolas (msdn.microsoft.com/ieupdate). The update also includes critical security fixes for Internet Explorer. Most users will receive this update automatically via Windows Update. After the update, users will be required to activate applets, ActiveX controls and other embedded objects and plug-ins before they can interact with them. Activation requires hitting the space bar, pressing the enter key, or using the mouse to click on the item. Users running the Firefox or Safari web browsers will not be affected by this update
Tools that will be effected include the HTML Creator, My Computer applet, and the Chat tool.
Also from
http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=912945 (dated 11 Apr 2006):Microsoft is releasing a software update to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 for Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) and for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 (SP1). This update changes the way in which Internet Explorer handles some Web pages that use ActiveX controls and Java applets. Examples of ActiveX controls include the following:
Adobe Reader
Apple QuickTime Player
Macromedia Flash Player
Microsoft Windows Media Player
Real Networks RealPlayer
Sun Java Virtual MachineAfter you install this update, you cannot interact with ActiveX controls from certain Web pages until these controls are enabled. To enable an ActiveX control, manually click the control.
Addendum to above answer (7/24/2006) Microsoft recently released an update to Internet Explorer that changes how Internet Explorer handles some web pages that use interactive controls. Interactive controls are ActiveX controls that provide user interfaces. When a web page uses the APPLET, EMBED, or OBJECT elements to load an ActiveX control, the control's user interface is blocked until the user activates it. This is why you now find that the first click on some things (like Java applets) is not recognized. The first click only ‘activates’ the interface. You may find that your Flash content requires the same click to get it going.
Adobe has issued “Active Content Update” so you can make flash pages (pages with Flash content) that don’t require the click to activate them. You will find the download and instructions at: http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/knowledgebase/index.cfm?id=7c29e252