WebCT Conferences

In WebCT, there are various levels for organizing courses.

• Server
• Institution
• Division
• Department
• Course
• Section

The learning object manager allows us to put course content at any level in this hierarchy.
CE6 also needs community manager to support hierarchy, otherwise it only allows us to share things at institution level.

• Objects put at any level in the hierarchy can then be used by any section below it in the hierarchy.
• Instructors can browse to the shared content they want, and then include it in their courses.
• Instructors have the option of "copying" the content, or "subscribing" to the content. If they subscribe, changes to the parent object are reflected in the object included in the course. If they copy, then parent changes are not sent to the copy in the course.

This allows us to put material online like "Webct orientation" or "Distance Learning Tips" that apply to all courses. Instructors can then decide to add these to their course as needed. If these need to be updated, we only have to change the master document in one place, not in dozens of courses.

One example of using this is to put course content in the "course" level in the hierarchy. It can then be used by every "section" in that course. This allows us to keep the majority of shared course content at the course level, and just add customizations specific to sections at the section level.

This also can help in course development. We can share designer access to specific content, but not the course itself. So people can update just the portions they are supposed to and not access the rest of the course.

We can control who has access to the modules for updating, etc.

It supports import and export of IMS and LRN compliant learning objects, as well as SCORM objects. However, the current implementation does not allow us to metatag the content.

Future enhancements in 2006

• Sharable learning activities (assessments, quizzes, etc.)


• New tools for search and discovery (easier to find content)


• More control when sharing content (force object to only allow "subscribe" or "copy") as well as notification if people use the object


• Improved collaboration capabilities for designers


• Metatagging is part of 2006 release. However exactly how is still to be determined

Questions:

• Can you see which courses are using a learning object? Answer is "no". It is coming in 2006 release.


• If instructors change an object at the section level, it does not propogate back to the template level.


• Course backups and restores copy the original file. When you restore, you have the option of just copying the content, or trying to re-establish the link back to the parent template.


• Repositorys always exist on WebCT server with no access outside WebCT.


• WebCT 6 / Vista 3 lists repositories in a separate "repositories" area. WebCT Vista 3 had it under the file manager.

In summary, this could be very useful for managing common content in TEL templates, department templates, etc. for WebCT courses. However, we would need to get at least one optional module (learning objects) and probably a second module (community manager). Also, this would ONLY work within WebCT, and could not be easily used as a generic campus-wide learning object repository.