UBC Arts ISIT Blog

In WebCT CE 4, most of the tools had a selective release feature present on the page the tools existed in 'designer' view. The designer or instructor simply had to select the tool on the page and click on selective release to set time release, for example.

In WebCT Vista 4, selective release is not as transparent. To set the release criteria (i.e. time release) for folders, pages, weblinks, etc, the designer or instructor would have to be in 'build' tab and would have to click on the 'selective release' tool which is at the bottom of the page under 'designer tools'.

Learning Modules, in Vista, have the selective release visible in the tool itself so setting it does not involve going to another tool.

UBC is currently piloting WebCT Vista 4. I had a discussion with a professor who began using Vista in Jan 2007 for one of her courses. She has been using WebCT for a number of years now and well versed in technology and course management systems.

Overall, she has had a very positive view of WeBCT Vista although she has run into a few problems as well. It took her 2 weeks to become familiar navigating through Vista as a course builder. She compared the experience to shopping in an unfamiliar grocery store. She knew what she was looking for was somewhere there but it wasn't in the usual place so she had to dig around a couple times until she became accustomed to it.

She found the separate 'teach' and 'build' tabs frustrating as she had to switch back and forth at first. But, she loved the 'student' tab as it provided a great view of what students actually saw (different from the 'view' mode in WebCT CE 4.1).

Knowing that Vista 4 is at a pilot phase at UBC right now she did not try the more complicated tools like assignments, quizzes, or grade book. But, she did use the discussion tool and learning module tool. She thought the discussion tool was similar to the one in WebCT CE 4.1 and didn't have a hard time using it. Although, she said that some students said that they weren't able to upload attachments or weren't always sure their message was posted. She was sure what browser or computer such students were using.

She thought the learning module tool had improved and liked the ability to add weblinks or folders. She ran into problems when she was trying to upload a bunch of files (most pdf) at once as her browser would freeze. Uploading single files, however, didn't cause a problem for her.

She loved the 'who's online' and the 'tracking' functions as they were greatly improved since WebCT CE 4.1. She could track which pages particular students had visited and how many times. This tracking functionality provides enormous feedback to instructors as it shows which pages/tools students find useful.

And, what really shows the measure of whether the instructor likes Vista or not - she wants to move all her courses on to Vista in the fall and will start to use the other tools as well.

I have been looking at the discussion tools for both WebCT Vista and Sakai (specifically the Message Centre in Sakai). They both show how many and which messages are new or unread (a vast improvement from Sakai's original Discussion tool that did not show this) and they both allow message titles and discussion category titles to be edited and changed after they are created. However, one major difference between Vista and Sakai is Vista's feature of allowing users to reorder discussion topics and categories. In Vista, users can easily copy and/or move discussion topics to different places on the discussion board. This can not be done in Sakai yet. In Sakai, discussion topics are ordered alphabetically and discussion categories (or forums) are order chronologically. Currently the ordering can not be changed by the instructor. Hopefully, this will be fixed in the near future.

Due for a January launch, early adopters will be testing out the new WebCT Vista. Vista is a powerful tool which expands upon Campus Edition 4.0 particularly in the department of user-friendliness. For example, instructors who are developing their course shells, are given direct link access to most of the functions which are supplemented with pictures for quick-find. I also found that the Vista experience reduced navigation confusion which was inherent in the 4.0 edition from things like the "control panel". Additionally, the integrated user-interface allows for easy navigation which should provide more efficiency for professors seeking to build their shells to share with students.

I was looking at the Calendar tool in both WebCT CE 4.1 and Vista 4. I liked how Vista 4 gives the builder/designer the ability to have calendar entries repeat on certain days so that reoccuring office hours, for example, did not have to be entered in every day. However, one instructor I was speaking with mentioned how he would like to have his calendar entries repeat in other WebCT courses he is teaching. For example, currently, he has to manually enter identical events in 4 different WebCT courses. Having the ability for automatic repeat across courses would save him the time and effort of tedious manual entry.