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Introduction
Video (9 minutes)
Our district supports WebCT and Blackboard. As
you have seen, these are online tools that allow students to view course
content, communicate online (via e-mail, chat, and online discussion),
post grades, submit assignments, take quizzes & surveys, and more.
In choosing a Course Management System (CMS), consider:
- what your peers
use - if they allow it, you can save a lot of time by copying their
course (note some BlackBoard features may not copy properly)
- what your textbook publisher supports - they may offer a "course
pack" that includes content and/or quiz questions
Blackboard just bought WebCT, so it's likely, thought uncertain, that
WebCT will eventually fade away. So if you don't have a compelling
reason to use WebCT, it is probably safer to choose Blackboard.
Blackboard
vs. WebCT
The following table lists some main differences between WebCT & Blackboard. I
also found an online
article with more detail (optional). Here's another online
comparison as well (optional).
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Blackboard 6 |
WebCT 4 |
| Email |
Blackboard uses the student's external email address. You
can send to a student or group of students from Blackboard, but the
email goes to the email address specified by the student. |
All WebCT email is within WebCT. Students have to log on
to get email. I used to think this was a disadvantage, but now find
it more reliable and easier to manage. |
| Discussion |
The teacher can change
settings to allow the students to edit or delete messages they posted.
Discussion is harder to follow. |
WebCT lets the teacher and student hide or show messages that
have been read, but the student cannot delete or edit posted messages.
Teacher can move postings to a different topic. |
| Class Announcements |
Announcements show up on the main course page in Blackboard and
are archived so students can review old announcements. |
You can create announcements within the discussion area of WebCT,
but it takes a few clicks to get there so is not as useful. You
can also use the upper or lower text box are of the home page to
add announcements, but they are not archived. |
| Quizzes |
Quizzes go in Assignments section of course by default. |
Quizzes go in Quizzes section of course by default .
WebCT lets you use formulas in a science or math question so each
student sees a unique problem. You specify the range for a
variable in the equation. |
Assignments & Grading
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Assignments treated differently depending on how you create them. Can be separate from gradebook with student submission via dropbox.
Students can write in comments box and/or turn in a document or documents. Submission is slightly easier. S
Teacher sees ungraded asignments as "!" in gradebook.
Bunches of clicks to finalize, but entering grades is easy if comments
are not needed. |
Tied to gradebook. Teacher views submissions by assignment & enters comments and score for each student.
Students MUST turn in a document.
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| Grading |
Uses weighting (by category or by assignment). |
Can enter formulas for total and final letter grade. |
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