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What is a "WebCT" anyway?

WebCT is a computer program designed to assist teachers and students in teaching and learning course material. It can be used to provide extra information or assistance to regular classroom students or provide a whole course to students who are taking a distance course. WebCT acts like a very sophisticated course organizer. It can be used to deliver basic information, provide links to information available on the World Wide Web (Internet), give and mark practice tests and real exams, create communications networks for the class (bulletin boards and e-mail), links to audio and video files, and more. Basically it is a system that organizes instructional material and allows for new ways of delivering information.

What is the origin of WebCT?

WebCT was designed by Murray Goldberg and his students in the Department of Computer Science of the University of British Columbia. It has since grown into its own company but is still headed by Murray and is linked to UBC. I think one of its virtues is that it was designed in a cooperative effort of teachers and students so it seems to incorporate most features the educators would want in a course delivery tool. It started as a project that would allow Murray to teach one computing science course; it is currently being used by about 1,700 high schools, colleges, and universities world wide.

How technically skilled does an instructor need to be to use WebCT?

Instructors need a bit more skill to use WebCT than students because they need to do some development work. It also depends on how much support they have in their institution. Installing and maintaining WebCT requires some advanced system skills and knowledge of the operating system (UNIX, Linus or Windows NT, etc.) that the institution chooses. Each function of WebCT is very easy to use and help is readily available. But, because the overall system contains so many features and design options it is very easy to get lost or confused within WebCT until you have some experience with it. It is very useful to have access to someone who has used it more than once and has made most of the little mistakes that are possible. An instructor who is at home with file structures, word processing, file transfers and the like will pick it up very rapidly. Most files used within WebCT will be ".html" files, or files designed for the Internet. There are a number of programs, such as Netscape Communicator and MS FrontPage and Word 97 that easily convert files to html files, but they are not perfect. A bit of practice is needed in the conversion to and creation of HTML files.

Does WebCT change the way I teach my classes?

For faculty there are pedagogical issues to consider when you start to use WebCT or the Internet to supplement or replace classroom teaching. Suddenly there is a vast storehouse of information available to you and your students, but it is very chaotic in structure. Students can go into this chaos and learn things that are relevant to your course, but that you haven't anticipated. They can also get lost and frustrated or distracted by irrelevant and often invalid information. You have to think about how you structure their access to this information and to what extent do you adopt a more "constructivist" philosophy of education and allow them to redesign part or all of your course to their needs. At some point I realized that by providing audio files of me having a conversation with another instructor about the course content, pointer to a variety of tutorials about the same topic, study guides and practice quizzes that to give a lecture over the same material was really quite redundant. In some courses I have moved away from traditional lectures to discussions with students based on the material they have started on using WebCT as a base.

I hear and see the terms "distance" and "distributed" education. What is the difference?

Distance education generally refers to methods of teaching students that never come to the institution. There is a long history of distance education that involves the use of radio, print material via the mail, the telephone, television and more recently the Internet perhaps combined with various combinations of all techniques. We use the term "distributed" education to refer to methods of delivery educational material that can be used either to enhance in-class teaching or deliver distance education. WebCT can be used to provide course outlines, study guides, pointers to Internet sites of educational value, audio and video clips, images, and more. I often teach a course that consists of both in-class and distance students and provide them all with access to the exact same material, and use the same tests and assignments. The only difference between the two being that I actually meet with some of them each week and with others never.

Is there any research about the effectiveness of this type of teaching?

At the WebCT site (http://www.webct.com) you will find references to several research studies comparing these methods. As WebCT was starting its originator, Dr. Murray Goldberg, did some outcome research and basically found that in terms of grades, students who have access to both face to face interactions with instructors and distributed learning support do a bit better than groups that do the same course with just in-class instruction or just WebCT based instruction. This is so logical that I imagine this will always be the case.

This seems like a very different way of teaching and learning. Won't some of my students hate this way of learning or find it very difficult to learn in this way?

Yes, some students will find this method of teaching, even if it is just a supplement to a regular course, unpleasant and disorienting. If WebCT is being used as a distance course delivery system hopefully, students are choosing to take it, and have a very good reason to take it this way. We have found that sometimes students register for distance courses because it was the last open section for that term. Often these students have a great deal of difficulty with this style of learning and start getting behind very early in the term. It is a good idea to provide students with information about what they are getting themselves into, and, if possible, have some method of screening students. If I don't have too many students I make a brief discussion with me a prerequisite for registration. On the other hand, we now have students signing up for distance courses because they have taken one before and prefer it. They like being able to listen to lectures and do labs at 2am or in their own best time.

WebCT seems like an automated teaching system. Can I increase the number of students I teach with it; or, a bit more scary, can my institution ask me to increase my workload through the use of WebCT?

Well..., sometimes these methods and facilities do allow you to teach more students and sometimes they require more work on your part and thus should be smaller. It depends on the type of course, the material being covered, the level of the student, their comfort with distributed methods, etc. I would say that as a general rule, first year students require a bit more work per student and upper level and graduate students require a bit less, but even this depends. Experiment with several courses before you try increasing your student-faculty ratio. A few years ago our administration generally saw distributed education as a means of increasing the number of students who could be taught per instructor and today they are generally happy if it is about the same as regular class room teaching. Distributed education can increase student access and add new teaching dimensions but generally not increase student-faculty ratios.

Why didn't Wiley just put the whole textbook on-line also?

It is my feeling that we are just not there yet. Perhaps when many students have laptops that are light, have much better screen displays and can be taken into the bathtub, then we will be ready for electronic, digital publishing. For now WebCT and the Internet are great ways to enhance textbooks, but nothing really replaces the ease of use and versatility of printed textbooks.

I teach university level chemistry that requires hands-on labs. How in the world would I teach these on-line?

Labs are a problem. We have successfully taught lower level science courses by adapting labs to use material available in the home or including small sets of materials with our initial course package. There comes a level, however, when laboratories are necessary. We have scheduled several labs in one Saturday in a physics course for example to cut down on the amount of time a student needs to be on-campus, but for some courses some on-campus or in-lab time will always be necessary.

I understand that WebCT is being used by about 1700 institutions around the world. Is there anyway of learning from what others have done before me and communicating with others who are using WebCT?

One of the joys of working with WebCT is the spirit of cooperation and collaboration that exists among its users. On our college WebCT homepage we have a student tutorial and an instructor tutorial. Both were started by other institutions that have given many other institutions permission of use them with the proviso that any changes or additions be sent back to the institution of origin for possible inclusion. WebCT has a very active listserve, actually the most active listserve I have ever belonged to. You sign up off the WebCT home page at http://www.webct.com. Go to "Contact Us" and then "WebCT Users' Mailing list" to sign up.

	What is a "WebCT" anyway?
	WebCT is a computer program designed to assist teachers and students in teaching and learning course material. It can be used to provide extra information or assistance to regular classroom students or provide a whole course to students who are taking a distance course. WebCT acts like a very sophisticated course organizer. It can be used to deliver basic information, provide links to information available on the World Wide Web (Internet), give and mark practice tests and real exams, create communications networks for the class (bulletin boards and e-mail), links to audio and video files, and more. Basically it is a system that organizes instructional material and allows for new ways of delivering information.

	What is the origin of WebCT?
	WebCT was designed by Murray Goldberg and his students in the Department of Computer Science of the University of British Columbia. It has since grown into its own company but is still headed by Murray and is linked to UBC. I think one of its virtues is that it was designed in a cooperative effort of teachers and students so it seems to incorporate most features the educators would want in a course delivery tool. It started as a project that would allow Murray to teach one computing science course; it is currently being used by about 1,700 high schools, colleges, and universities world wide.

	How technically skilled does an instructor need to be to use WebCT?
	Instructors need a bit more skill to use WebCT than students because they need to do some development work. It also depends on how much support they have in their institution. Installing and maintaining WebCT requires some advanced system skills and knowledge of the operating system (UNIX, Linus or Windows NT, etc.) that the institution chooses. Each function of WebCT is very easy to use and help is readily available. But, because the overall system contains so many features and design options it is very easy to get lost or confused within WebCT until you have some experience with it. It is very useful to have access to someone who has used it more than once and has made most of the little mistakes that are possible. An instructor who is at home with file structures, word processing, file transfers and the like will pick it up very rapidly. Most files used within WebCT will be ".html" files, or files designed for the Internet. There are a number of programs, such as Netscape Communicator and MS FrontPage and Word 97 that easily convert files to html files, but they are not perfect. A bit of practice is needed in the conversion to and creation of HTML files.

	Does WebCT change the way I teach my classes?
	For faculty there are pedagogical issues to consider when you start to use WebCT or the Internet to supplement or replace classroom teaching. Suddenly there is a vast storehouse of information available to you and your students, but it is very chaotic in structure. Students can go into this chaos and learn things that are relevant to your course, but that you haven't anticipated. They can also get lost and frustrated or distracted by irrelevant and often invalid information. You have to think about how you structure their access to this information and to what extent do you adopt a more "constructivist" philosophy of education and allow them to redesign part or all of your course to their needs. At some point I realized that by providing audio files of me having a conversation with another instructor about the course content, pointer to a variety of tutorials about the same topic, study guides and practice quizzes that to give a lecture over the same material was really quite redundant. In some courses I have moved away from traditional lectures to discussions with students based on the material they have started on using WebCT as a base.

	I hear and see the terms "distance" and "distributed" education. What is the difference?
	Distance education generally refers to methods of teaching students that never come to the institution. There is a long history of distance education that involves the use of radio, print material via the mail, the telephone, television and more recently the Internet perhaps combined with various combinations of all techniques. We use the term "distributed" education to refer to methods of delivery educational material that can be used either to enhance in-class teaching or deliver distance education. WebCT can be used to provide course outlines, study guides, pointers to Internet sites of educational value, audio and video clips, images, and more. I often teach a course that consists of both in-class and distance students and provide them all with access to the exact same material, and use the same tests and assignments. The only difference between the two being that I actually meet with some of them each week and with others never.

	Is there any research about the effectiveness of this type of teaching?
	At the WebCT site (http://www.webct.com) you will find references to several research studies comparing these methods. As WebCT was starting its originator, Dr. Murray Goldberg, did some outcome research and basically found that in terms of grades, students who have access to both face to face interactions with instructors and distributed learning support do a bit better than groups that do the same course with just in-class instruction or just WebCT based instruction. This is so logical that I imagine this will always be the case.

	This seems like a very different way of teaching and learning. Won't some of my students hate this way of learning or find it very difficult to learn in this way?
	Yes, some students will find this method of teaching, even if it is just a supplement to a regular course, unpleasant and disorienting. If WebCT is being used as a distance course delivery system hopefully, students are choosing to take it, and have a very good reason to take it this way. We have found that sometimes students register for distance courses because it was the last open section for that term. Often these students have a great deal of difficulty with this style of learning and start getting behind very early in the term. It is a good idea to provide students with information about what they are getting themselves into, and, if possible, have some method of screening students. If I don't have too many students I make a brief discussion with me a prerequisite for registration. On the other hand, we now have students signing up for distance courses because they have taken one before and prefer it. They like being able to listen to lectures and do labs at 2am or in their own best time.

	WebCT seems like an automated teaching system. Can I increase the number of students I teach with it; or, a bit more scary, can my institution ask me to increase my workload through the use of WebCT?
	Well..., sometimes these methods and facilities do allow you to teach more students and sometimes they require more work on your part and thus should be smaller. It depends on the type of course, the material being covered, the level of the student, their comfort with distributed methods, etc. I would say that as a general rule, first year students require a bit more work per student and upper level and graduate students require a bit less, but even this depends. Experiment with several courses before you try increasing your student-faculty ratio. A few years ago our administration generally saw distributed education as a means of increasing the number of students who could be taught per instructor and today they are generally happy if it is about the same as regular class room teaching. Distributed education can increase student access and add new teaching dimensions but generally not increase student-faculty ratios.

	Why didn't Wiley just put the whole textbook on-line also?
	It is my feeling that we are just not there yet. Perhaps when many students have laptops that are light, have much better screen displays and can be taken into the bathtub, then we will be ready for electronic, digital publishing. For now WebCT and the Internet are great ways to enhance textbooks, but nothing really replaces the ease of use and versatility of printed textbooks.

	I teach university level chemistry that requires hands-on labs. How in the world would I teach these on-line?
	Labs are a problem. We have successfully taught lower level science courses by adapting labs to use material available in the home or including small sets of materials with our initial course package. There comes a level, however, when laboratories are necessary. We have scheduled several labs in one Saturday in a physics course for example to cut down on the amount of time a student needs to be on-campus, but for some courses some on-campus or in-lab time will always be necessary.

	I understand that WebCT is being used by about 1700 institutions around the world. Is there anyway of learning from what others have done before me and communicating with others who are using WebCT?
	One of the joys of working with WebCT is the spirit of cooperation and collaboration that exists among its users. On our college WebCT homepage we have a student tutorial and an instructor tutorial. Both were started by other institutions that have given many other institutions permission of use them with the proviso that any changes or additions be sent back to the institution of origin for possible inclusion. WebCT has a very active listserve, actually the most active listserve I have ever belonged to. You sign up off the WebCT home page at http://www.webct.com. Go to "Contact Us" and then "WebCT Users' Mailing list" to sign up.