1 / 33

A Comprehensive WebCT Integration System

A Comprehensive WebCT Integration System. Rob Phillips Teaching and Learning Centre, Murdoch University James Strong NetSpot Onno Benschop ITmaze Mark Hallam WebCiTe. History. 1998: Adoption of WebCT at Murdoch 1999-00: Murdoch Online Mainstreaming Project

gore
Download Presentation

A Comprehensive WebCT Integration System

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. A Comprehensive WebCT Integration System • Rob Phillips • Teaching and Learning Centre, Murdoch University • James Strong • NetSpot • Onno Benschop • ITmaze • Mark Hallam • WebCiTe

  2. History • 1998: Adoption of WebCT at Murdoch • 1999-00: Murdoch Online Mainstreaming Project • to establish WebCT as a mission-critical application • to integrate WebCT with other University systems

  3. Murdoch Online Mainstreaming Project Objectives • 9,600 (of ~12,000) students now use WebCT • ~255 units in WebCT • WebCT is integrated with other corporate systems • Callista student records system • Concept 1 human resources system • Murdoch’s own MAIS authentication and identification system

  4. WebCTMan • Integration achieved through WebCTMan • Middleware WebCT management application • mySQL database • suite of operator tools and data transfer scripts • Collates student and staff information from multiple sources • Enables the flow of students in and out of WebCT

  5. Overview • Conceptual issues around Murdoch’s implementation of WebCT • Design and Functionality of the system • Demonstration

  6. ConceptualIssues • Course categories • Parent IDs • Unit offerings • Course Naming

  7. Categories • Murdoch has four teaching ‘divisions’ • One WebCT Category for each division • When a course is in use, it’s available through: • the Course Listing screen • MyWebCT • When a course is in not in use: • in hidden category (Under Development) • not visible to students

  8. ParentIDs • Each category has an associated globalID, known as a “parent ID” • The parent ID is owned by the WebCT team • assigned as the primary designer • allows access to all courses • enables quality assurance • Teaching staff are shared access designers

  9. Unit Offerings • Units are offered flexibly at Murdoch • at different campuses/ locations • externally, internally and/or online • in different teaching periods (semester, trimester…) • Callista uses the concept of a Unit Offering

  10. Administrative Issues • Managing cohorts is an issue • whole cohort in one WebCT course? • different cohorts in different courses? • Managing semester breaks • when to remove students?

  11. Course Naming Policy • A WebCT course exists for each offering of a unit in a distinct teaching period • Naming convention • A123s1: Unit A123 offered in semester 1 • A123t3: Unit A123 offered in trimester 3

  12. Overview • Conceptual issues around Murdoch’s implementation of WebCT • Design and Functionality of the system • Demonstration

  13. Overviewof WebCTMan

  14. CallistaIntegration

  15. Course Mapping • demo

  16. Course Mapping Summary • Students can be allocated to WebCT courses in any way desired • Non-Callista students can be added manually • e.g. first-year students at Murdoch’s partner institution in Malaysia • Student details from multiple sources combined in one place

  17. WebCT Integration

  18. Course Status • which WebCT courses should be populated with students? • e.g. students enrol early but the unit lecturer isn’t ready for them to use WebCT • Concept of course status • active • static • inactive

  19. Active Courses Callista Callista Upload WebCT Man Populate WebCT global DB WebCT course DB • Courses being used by students • Data updated daily

  20. CallistaUpload • Perl script loads data into WebCTMan daily • Get all active unit offerings • Get all students in Callista who are enrolled in these unit offerings • For each student: • Add or update student details • Get student’s unit offerings from Callista and update these in WebCTMan

  21. Populate into WebCT • Perl script loads data into WebCT daily • Get all students in WebCTMan • For each student: • Look up courses for this student • For each active or static course: • Make up WebCT API call to add or update global database • Check for orphans and reconnect • Update personal details in each course database

  22. Static Courses WebCT Man Populate WebCT global DB WebCT course DB Callista • Stop getting Callista data for this course • Enrolment data not updated • If student in any active course then personal data updated

  23. InactiveCourses WebCT Man WebCT course DB Callista • Students’ enrolments records are deleted for that course in WebCTMan • The API call to WebCT for that student will not contain that course • The student will be orphaned • The course data remains, but students cannot access it WebCT global DB

  24. Course Status Interface • demo

  25. Integration with Other Systems

  26. WebCTMan Admin. Interface • With the addition of staff data, WebCTMan had the potential to fully manage WebCT • circumventing the Administrator Interface • adding more functionality to manage staff and courses • demo

  27. Wrap Up • Conceptual issues around Murdoch’s implementation of WebCT • Design and Functionality of the system • Demonstration

  28. Summary • WebCTMan • Comprehensively integrates WebCT with other systems • Provides extra administrative functionality • allows for management of students, courses and staff roles • Authoritative source of data which controls how WebCT behaves

  29. Major Features • Parent IDs - primary designers of categories • facilitates the management of multiple client groups on the one server. • Unit Offerings - many-to-many mapping between unit offerings and WebCT courses • Course Status - active, static and inactive courses

  30. Wider Application • Applicable to other WebCT installations? • Multiple WebCT installations hosted on a single server • Enables migration away from WebCT • if the feature/cost nexus indicates that another system is preferable

  31. Questions?? Rob Phillips Murdoch James Strong NetSpot Onno Benschop ITmaze Mark Hallam WebCiTe Software design Automation scripting Admin. Interface WebCT internals

More Related