The WebCT Homepage

The following is a transcription of the WebCT Orientation Video "The WebCT Homepage."

Segment 2 – The WebCT Homepage

When you enter the course, you are on the class Homepage.  It is from here that you will go to all other parts of the course.

Let’s begin by looking at some of the items located on the Homepage.  Remember that your class home page will look different from this one, but the basic elements will remain the same.

The first thing we will look at are the links located in the upper right-hand corner of your WebCT window. 

The first thing you need to do when you enter the course is to check your internet browser for compatibility with WebCT.  To do this, click on the Check Browser link, which takes you to a WebCT page and the Browser Tuneup link.  Then follow the process on the tuneup page to check your browser.

Another thing you need to check for is pop-up blockers.  WebCT uses pop-up windows for several of its tools, so you need to check for any that are running on your machine.  We suggest that you go to the address shown on the screen to  find out how to identify and turn these off [www.virtualhrcenter.com/popup_blockers.htm]

The last thing we are going to look at in this corner is the Help link.  WebCT has an excellent help system that will explain about using the page that you are currently on.  For example, since I am on the homepage, a click on the Help link will bring up information about the homepage.

Now let’s look at the main part of the Homepage, the window in the center.  This contains links and icons that will lead you to various other parts of the course.  Remember that the home page for your course may look very different from this one, depending on how your teacher has it set up.  But the tools and other functions will remain basically the same.

For example, let’s look here at the course syllabus.  I can just click on either the icon or the words below it to go to that part of the course.  Notice also, when I enter another area, there are clickable “breadcrumbs” that appear on the upper bar of the page.  This allows you to re-trace your steps to return to where you were previously in the course.

Another feature that allows you to navigate through the class is the Course Menu located here on the side.  It generally contains links to the same items that are included on the center part of the homepage, as well as other items that your instructor considers important to the course.  In some courses, the instructor elects to make this side menu into a dropdown box that will open when you click on the down arrow.  Either way, the Course Menu is a very handy way to navigate through your WebCT class.

In the next segment of this WebCT tutorial we will look at some of the tools that you will be using in the course.

Go to Segment 3

For questions/comments on this content, please e-mail dl@nwacc.edu.