Question: I cannot cut and paste into the bulletin board or the class mail tool; what do I do?

Answer: You probably use AOL or Internet Explorer... WebCT doesn't really like these web browsers (you should have found this out when you took the Pretest... but enough lecturing).  Select the text you want to paste (from your word processing document), copy it (usually there is a "Select All" and a "Copy" option in the Edit menu).  Open your WebCT course and open a composition, address it and type your subject, click in the "body" area and hold down the "Ctrl" key (PC) or the "Apple" key (Mac), and type a "v"... this is the keyboard shortcut for "Paste."

Question: What are the minimum (computer) requirements for taking an online course (that uses WebCT)?

Answer: You must have a web browser that is Java compliant and an Internet connection. 
Java compliant browsers for Windows systems are (anything newer than): Netscape 2.0, or Internet Explorer 3.01
Java compliant browsers for Macintosh systems are (anything newer than): Netscape 3.0b7, or Internet Explorer 3.01
Java compliant browsers for UNIX systems are (anything newer than): Netscape 2.0
***The newer the browser and the faster the Internet connection, the better.

Question: Who do I ask for help?

Answer: You call Extended studies (750-4020) for all "administrative" needs (i.e., add/drop, general summer school questions, etc.), Your instructor for all course related questions (i.e., assignments, due dates, pass words, etc.).

Question: I am having difficulty changing my password once I get to the course address. I tried both my own password and the one given to me from your e-mail and I kept on getting "retry".

Answer: remember to always give me as much information as possible.   Tell me which course and step by step what you do and what you see.

Let me "walk" you through changing your password...

1. Go to the URL that your instructor gave you (For Toni Hood's section of EDUC501: http//www.csusm.edu/COE/courses/EDUC501i/).
2. Click on the Change Your Password tool (For Toni Hood's section of EDUC501: Click the link to "Assignments" then Click the link to "First things first change your password")
3. You will see a pop-up window and be prompted to "Enter your username and password." Your username is and your initial password are given to you by your instructor.  They are case sensitive (if it's a lower case "g" then "G" will not work).
4. Once you enter your username and password you will see a new web page "Change Password."
5. There are two blanks on this page where you will type your new password (type it in each blank).
6. Click the "Update" button.
7. You will be told "Password change successful."
8. Click the "Continue" button.
9. You will, again, be prompted to "Enter your username and password;" see #4, above, for directions.
10. After entering your new password in the login popup window, you will be sent to the WebCT homepage for your class.

Question: I use my work computer and my home computer to read the bulletin board; some messages show at one computer but not the other--even when I use the "Show All" function. Why?

Answer: I don't know. Sorry. It's hard to troubleshoot non-campus machines (mostly, my job is to assure that our server is working right… and it is posting your responses). I know that's not the answer you wanted to hear, but it's all I have; the server was functioning properly. If you are worried that this might affect your grade, you could contact your instructor or Extended Studies to withdraw from the course. Good Luck.

Question: When I want to reply to a comment on the board, I can't simply go to reply -it takes me to a blank document on Internet Explorer. I've resorted to making a new comment and replying to the person by name in the the comment.

Answer: To reply to a posted "thread" of discussion: 1) Click on the name of the person/post you with to respond to. This will show you the post on the bottom "frame" of the bulletin board. 2) Click on "Reply" (or "Quote" if you wish to have the person's post quoted in your response). This will open a blank response page that, when filled out and posted, will be "nested" into the discussion thread. ***The reason the reply is "blank" is that this is what "Reply" does... try "Quote." 3) Type up your response. 4) Click "Post."

Question: How to use your bulletin board "Family" and "SST" groups:

Answer:
To read your Family or SST group: 1) Enter the class, log in and access the bulletin board as usual. 2) Click "Forum" in the left frame of the bulletin board. (This will display all the bulletin boards your can take part in. E.g.: Main, Family 1, SST 1, Notes) 3) Can you see the forums in the bottom frame? 4) You may select "All" from the forum list (in the bottom frame) to show posts from all of your forum bulletin boards; or, you may click on any one forum in he bottom frame (e.g. Family1) to view only posts from that forum.

To post a message to your Family or SST group: 1) Enter the class, log in and access the bulletin board as usual. 2) Click "Compose" in the left frame of the bulletin board. (This will open the composition screen). 3) You have already posted to the "Main" forum (I presume) a few times. Posting to one of your private groups is just like that with one exception… 4) When you get to the composition screen you will choose a private group (either Family or SST) for the "Forum" field. Then add you subject and message as usual. 5)This post will appear only to the members of your group.

Question: When I go to the bulletin board, it says I have 50 some >messages unread. I have about this many that are highlighted in brown on my list. No matter how many times I look at them they always stay brown. However, if I click on something that is blue more than once, it turns brown and my number of unread messages increases.

Answer: The links that you click on are marked (by your web browser)as "viewed links"... these show as a different color (the default link color is blue and the default viewed link color is purple).  So, as you read posts (clicking links) they turn "brown" and the number of read articles goes up--make sense?

Question: Tell me, if you (a student) add an entry to the computer (I notice the default is "private") is it an entry only you (the user) can later see?

Answer: Yes. Students may make notations only to their "private" calendar. The instructor may post to the "public" calendar (where entries are echoed to the calendar for the whole class). "Public" entries show on each of our calendars.