Archive News

Update of Learning Management System

Why an upgrade?
New Tools
Enhancements
Upgrade Process

Why an upgrade?

Murdoch University is upgrading its Learning Management System (currently WebCT 4.1) to the new version CE 6 for semester 2 2007. The upgrade is required as vendor support for the current version is being downgraded following the release of CE 6. The new version provides improved usability:

• Easy content upload – multiple files can be uploaded at one time
• Separate Designer and Instructor roles
• Distinct identity for each instructor and designer so discussion posts are in their own name
• Student View updated automatically

The upgrade will be a phased process with all units on the new version by mid 2008. All units with a Teaching period starting on or after 6 August 2007 will use CE 6. Students will be given access to semester 2 units on 6 August. Any unit which has a teaching period starting before 6 august will use the current version – WebCT 4.1 and students will be given access on the activation date.

All unit offerings which commenced before 6 August 2007 including year long units and 2007 community sites will remain on WebCT 4.1.

New Tools in CE 6

Announcements – use to create and send text announcements to members enrolled in a course

Date Rollover – enables date (s) to be set forward for all content and learning activities (assignments, discussion topics and assessments) for a new teaching period

Goals – use to present the unit's learning goals

Grading form – can be used with Assignments, Discussions or Gradebook columns

Group Manager is used to set up groups of students:

• Custom group – instructor adds members to the group
• Multiple groups – members can be added randomly or manually
• Groups with sign-up sheets – students select the group to join

Links can be setup to Live Classroom, Lectopia recordings and Turnitin

Media Library – use to build a database of text, image, video, and audio entries in your unit

PeopleLinks – allow the following tasks to be performed directly from tools where user names and group names appear

• click person's name and send email
• view performance reports for a student
• view the profile of a student or instructor if using the Profile tool

Profile – displays personal profiles of the Instructors, Students and Groups in a unit

Student Contributions – option to allow students to contribute to Web Links and the Media Library

Web Links

• can be organized into categories
• all WebLinks added to the WebLinks page regardless of where they have been added into the unit
• option to allow students to add links

Enhancements

Assessments

• includes quizzes, surveys and self tests
• four new questions types – combination multiple choice, true-false, jumbled-sentence, fill-in-the-blank
• custom quiz instructions can be added
• self test now includes multiple choice, true/false, calculated, matching and short answer questions

Assignments
Grading options:

• Grade-by-question – displays every student's response to a question
• Anonymous grading – evaluate responses anonymously

Calendar
tabs for different views – day, week, month
links to learning modules can be created from the calendar

Chat and Whiteboard combined in one tool

Discussions

• two additional topics:
• Class Blogs
• Journals – either private or share with class
• gradeable topics
• Peer Review available in both discussions and Class Blogs

Grade Book

• Name columns frozen
• Grades can be overridden and an audit history is retained of changes made to a student's mark. Comments can be included

Learning Modules

• replace Content Modules (in CE 4.1) to reflect increased functionality
• can include specific activities – assessments, assignments, chat, discussions, Media Library, SCORM, Web Links in a learning module

Selective Release of content or activities to individuals or groups of students. The status of items can be viewed in the Selective Release Map. Items can be released by date, member, group or grade book criteria

Student Activity Tracking includes new information which can be viewed for an individual student or by students within a date range – number of mail messages, calendar entries, Media Library collection entries, files, pages in folders viewed, number of assessments, assignments started and completed and total time spent on assignments and assessments

Upgrade Process

Requests for all online units should be submitted through the link to the Unit Request System at http://online.murdoch.edu.au from Monday 28 May onwards.

New sites will be established on CE 6 for all units with a teaching period start date of 6 August or later. Each unit will be based on the appropriate template. New versions of templates have been created to reflect the new look of CE 6. This will provide staff with the opportunity to start afresh with no old lecture notes and documents and student data which is no longer used.

If you have content (eg quiz, self test, additional materials) which you need moved from CE 4.1 to CE 6 the LMS Support Team will assist with moving the content to your new unit.

The LMS Support Team will also ensure that unit guides are available on all sites.

Any queries about CE 6 and the upgrade process can be sent to lms@murdoch.edu.au