WebCT

File Management and the File Manager

Overview of this workshop

• Is there anything you see that has been neglected or omitted from this lecture?

What this workshop is not:

• A workshop where you will create a full fledged course.
• A workshop that will teach you to author HTML pages or web images.
• It presumes previous experience with WebCT.

Having said that: This course *is* an introduction on how to incorporate HTML documents into your WebCT structure that were created/edited with an HTML editor (e.g.: FrontPage, Netscape Composer, PageMill, etc.); at the end of this session you will have seen some examples of how WebCT allows you to make documents available to students.

Where files come from and where they go:

WebCT is not an HTML editor; it does not create WYSIWYG web pages.  Though, you may edit your web site, within WebCT, if you know HTML.

I recommend you author your web pages and images on your desktop computer, using your favorite editors (for HTML and images); then, upload the files (HTML and images) to your WebCT course.

Anytime you make changes to your web files (on your desktop computer) using your favorite editor(s), you need to upload those changes to the server so they are available to your students.  To keep things organized, be sure you are always editing on your desktop computer and moving the newly updated files to the server (this way there is never a question which files are most recently updated).

Important: DO NOT create files that have spaces or special characters (only numbers and letters, dashes and periods are acceptable characters) in the file name.

The File Manager (in WebCT) is where your files go:

Uploading files to the File Manager:

1. Using Netscape
2. Open your WebCT course (you need to have had one created by Computing Services (contact Garrett Collins for a WebCT course)).
3. Click the "File Manager" button from the designer tools (at the bottom of your WebCT homepage).
   • The browser window will be divided into three frames.
   • The bottom frame contains the File Manager button bar which allows you to access the various tools. The left frame contains the directory listing of your course and the right frame contains the files in currently selected directory (the current directory is shown in bold-italicized text in the directory listing).
   • When your course is created, you only have one directory initially, called the Course Files directory. This directory is the starting point for your course. You may place your HTML files into this directory or create subdirectories for more complicated courses.
4. Click the "Upload" button from the File Manager tools (at the bottom of the File Manager page) then the "Browse" button.
   • You will be presented with an upload dialog box that allows you to pick a file on your desktop computer for uploading.
   • *** You might have zipped (a popular archive format) several web pages and images into a single archived file for ease in uploading.***
5. When you have selected the file for uploading, click the "continue" button.
   • You will see an Upload Report that tells you "successful" if all went well.
6. Now your file lives on the WebCT server.

Also cover:

• Copy, Delete, Rename, Move, Edit, Create, Zip, Unzip, Upper, Lower, Upload, Download, Make Dir, Remove Dir, Rename Dir.

Making files in the File Manager visible to your students:

Now that your file(s) live(s) on the WebCT server you need to make them available to your students.

Using the "Course Content" tool (from your WebCT course homepage):

Often the web files you upload are a part of a lecture progression or series of assignments; you will want to weave these strands into your WebCT structure alongside their fellow files.  You may accomplish this with the Course Content tool.

1. Using Netscape
2. Open your WebCT course (you need to have had one created by Computing Services (contact Garrett Collins for a WebCT course)).
3. Click the "Course Content" tool in the top frame.
   • You will see the "Path Editor."
   • Most likely, you will want to remove the "demo" files that exist in the Path Editor (as part of the generic/instructional template WebCT created for your course).
4. To add a link to the file you just uploaded, click the "Add Existing File" button in the bottom frame of the Path Editor.
   • In the right frame you will be presented with a list of all your WebCT files that have not yet been added to a Course Content Path.
5. Select the "insertion point" in the existing path (by clicking the radio button to the left of a file in the left frame); your new file will be added below the selected file.
6. Now select the file you want to add by single clicking on it (in the right frame); then, click the "Add Selected" button (also in that frame).
7. Once you have added the files to the "Path" that you want, you are ready to "Reorganize Nodes."
8. Click this button (in the bottom frame) and select the aesthetic action (in the right frame) you desire to use on the selected file (selected in the left frame).

Also cover:

• Create New File and Configure

Note: After you have added to and organized your Course Content Path, you must use the "Update Student View" button (back out in the WebCT course homepage, in the bottom frame) to make new pages in the Course Content section viewable to your students.

Alternatively, you may opt to "Add..." a link to your newly uploaded page:

Sometimes you don't want to weave a newly uploaded file into a Course Content Path; sometimes you want to add a link to it directly off your course homepage.  You may forge this link with the "Add..." button (in the bottom frame of your course homepage).

1. Using Netscape
2. Open your WebCT course (you need to have had one created by Computing Services (contact Garrett Collins for a WebCT course)).
3. Click the "Add..." button in the bottom frame.
4. Then click the "Single Page" button in the updated bottom frame.
   1. Give the link to your newly uploaded page a title.
   2. "Browse..." for an "Icon" for this new link (WebCT has a bunch of good "BUILT-IN FILES" for you to "Pick").
   3. "Browse..." for the "Filename" of your newly uploaded file and "Pick" it from your file list.
   4. Click "Add"
5. See the new icon and title from your homepage and click them to jump to your newly uploaded page.

Note: Always test your new links as a student; remember how I recommended you create a student account for a "guest" user, so you could test your course as a student would see it.

Check out WebCT's comprehensive directions for the "File Manager" tool.

http://homebrew.cs.ubc.ca/webct/tutorial/online/FileManager/filemana.htm

Remember the full tutorial for WebCT is here.

Q&A:

Maintained by Garrett Collins (garrett@mailhost1.csusm.edu), last updated 05/22/04

as of 5/3/99.