Our WebCT Templates

WebCT comes with four templates that you can use to start the development of your course. However, for many people a blank site or a site based on our own Course Management Template might prove more practical than deleting unwanted items from one of the more detailed templates.

Remember, that templates are only a starting point and you may adapt them in whatever ways suit you and the needs of your students. YOu do not have to be constrained by the look and feel of the template. To see what some other lecturers have done view the Course Examples web page.

Click on each of the thumbnail images below to see a full sized sample page.

1. Course Management Template

The Course Management template includes the most common WebCT elements and arrangement of information used by lecturers at UNSW @ ADFA. This is the best template for you if your WebCT site is primarily intended to:

provide course content files or links to electronic resources
manage assessment submission and access to grades

2. Simple Template

This is a simple site because it contains no additional sections usually represented by multiple organiser pages and/or content modules) but instead contains everything on the Home page. The Introduction is designed to be edited html page in WebCT which starts off the course. The Calendar would need course specific dates added to it. The Homepages give students the opportunity to share a little bit about themselves with the rest of the class. The three discussion tools are grouped along the bottom to enable different kinds of class interaction:

The Discussions provide an ongoing record of messages which people can add to or reply to as they need, at times that suit them.
The Mail works like any other email but can store the messages inside WebCT rather than clogging your private email, and its easy to pick who to send things to without needing to know real email addresses
The Chat requires people to be online at the same time. The Chat tool is little used at UNSW @ ADFA and seems to have some issues when used from a Macintosh.

3. Basic Template

The items included imply that the WebCT course will provide administrative information (using the Syllabus tool), dates specific to the course in the Calendar tool, and communication tools for students and/or staff to interact. The Study Tools page only contains the personal Homepages tool to allow students to share their personal information, aspirations, etc.

4. Intermediate Template

In addition to the tools above this intermediate template includes:

The Glossary and Search tools (which are little used at ADFA)
A Presentations area for students to upload work for others to see and the My Progress area for them to see how they are progressing through the course content
A new section of evaluation tools. The My Grades area is one of the most common tools here, Assignments (dropbox) are quite commonly used, but the Self Test is very rare.

5. Advanced Template

In addition to the items in the earlier templates this one contains a content module ( used to link different content pages into a pathway) and a compile tool ( which is only useful if the content is being placed into WebCT html pages). The Communications organiser page includes a Whiteboard which few people use here ( I understand that like the Chat tool, it poses some problems for Mac users). The Evaluations organizer page has had a Quiz added but this would need to be populated/generated.

Flexible Learning