Spring Quarter WebCT Wrap-up

This message pertains to the quarterly transition for WebCT, and should be read carefully (printing it out may be helpful) by instructors and others using WebCT. You can see some of the changes I made to this message over the quarters because some are in blue (or a very subtle light blue/gray).

Some words about the transition to Angel.
We are moving to Angel and would like to have everyone migrated by Fall 2010.  Practically speaking, this means you should plan to migrate your Fall classes during Summer quarter.  This is especially important for classes that are going to be online.  Moving support for face-to-face (F2F) classes is less critical, however you will probably have a better experience if you start working on Angel now.  Brad is planning on at least one more F2F session, and there are online opportunities to learn Angel during Summer.   David and I are available to assist on an ad hoc basis, as well as some instructors, such as Brad Sealy, or in Health Sciences, Eric Nilson may be around to assist.  I can do a F2F training.

After December 31, 2010, we will not be licensed to use WebCT for instruction.  As long as the server does not croak, we will keep it running to retrieve course backups and to support transitioning courses to Angel.

Spring quarter finish
I am planning on backing up and resetting Spring quarter classes on Thursday 6/24, starting at about 2 a.m.   I probably won't take WebCT off-line to do this.   You may wish to print this out.  Please, at a minimum, read down to the second bullet point. 

In general, it is better to let me backup and reset your classes (feel free to backup your class, but let me reset it). 

 The backup and reset only apply to classes which have had students loaded and updated for Spring quarter, other classes are untouched.

• Given the gap between the end of the quarter and the reset, your students may try to contact you when you aren’t checking the class.  It would be a good idea to set your e-mail address in the private mail settings and turn forwarding on.  See text description below or a quick video tutorial on doing this (see below for text description). That way, you will get their messages in your regular e-mail box and they won’t be lost in space.
• If you have special needs to retain a class with the student data, or need to keep a class from being reset, please contact me.
• If you have discussion messages you need to save, you can select them, then click the compile button and save them as a text file for copying and pasting back into the class.  The discussion folder structure (and probably mail) appears to be left intact.
• The reset procedure clears all student data, discussions, e-mail, student homepages, etc.  It does not affect organizer pages, quizzes, content modules, etc.  This also includes conditional or selective release, so if you have conditional release on anything, it may restrict your next quarter students from accessing the resource.  This is something you need to check if you are using selective release for anything.
• The backups I make can be restored to a snapshot of the class as it was when the backup happened, including all postings, student data, etc.   If I do not take WebCT down to do the backups, it may result in some student (or instructor) activity between the backup and reset.  That activity will be lost.   From 3-6 a.m. there should not be significant activity. 
• Students with current logons should be able to continue to access those after the reset, but their old classes will not be available.
• If you do end up needing data from a reset course, I can restore that snapshot and it will be just as it was before it was reset.

If you need to preserve calendar entries, you can download them prior to the reset and upload them afterwards.  You can see a tutorial on this at http://faculty.columbiabasin.edu/distance/faculty/export_import_calendarV4_viewlet_swf.html . 

You may wish to check your class the night before the reset to see if students sent you any new messages prior to the reset.  Alternately you may adjust the mail settings to forward messages to your regular e-mail box. To do this, click on your Private Mail icon, then the Message Settings button.  In the Mail Forwarding section, make sure the Allow users to forward ... setting is checked (this is the default), then check the Forward my mail to: setting and put your e-mail in the text box. See video tutorial on setting forwarding.

As always, let me know if you have any questions.

P.S. Blackboard bought out WebCT several years ago and now the version we are using has a Blackboard name, however for convenience, and due to the familiarity, I have continued to call it WebCT.  The Bb name is something like Bb Learning System 4.1 CE.
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Jerry Lewis
Director of eLearning and Web Services
WebCT/Bb Senior Level Certified Trainer
Columbia Basin College
Pasco, WA 99301 -3379 jlewis@columbiabasin.edu
509-542-4465, direct
509-547-0511, ext 2465
509-546-0401 fax