Starting to use the EAS materials on WebCT

Did an introduction to EAS/WebCT with the class and thought it went OK. I realised after a few minutes that I should have spent more time trying the material out myself beforehand. That aside, it went fairly well. Most students had ID and password and had no problem logging on.

It was difficult to know how much time to allow for each bit of the Week 1 materials, as you want people to try things out, but you also want to cover as much as possible to give them a good introduction.

At the end, I felt the students had grasped the basics but needed more time/practice. It's very easy to give them some of the tasks we hadn't covered in class to do as independent work, because of the way the materials and instructions have been put together, and the design/layout in WebCT.

It all makes it easier to encourage students to work independently. I can confidently tell them: 'All the instructions are there for you to read, and the Help files too' and leave them to get on with it. Particularly useful with one very able but very 'Teacher, tell me what to do' student, who finally worked it out for himself.

After checking on WebCT this morning to see what they had done, I sent an email to remind them of the tasks they still needed to do over the weekend. It's beginning to come together, but I also thought I had better go into the class this morning to remind them to look at their emails.

One final thought - it is all there and it is all coming together, but I think we could do with a joining-the-dots session to clarify what is there, (EAS materials on WebCT and R drive/WebCT induction+computer ID sort out) and what we expect teachers and students to do with it.

David