Guidelines For Using the
VISTA WebCT Discussion Folders
PRIVACY AND COURTESY: The Discussion Folders (Topics) for this course is password protected: Please do not give your password
to others. Also, please know that the instructor and all of the students
enrolled in this course do have access to what you post (and it is associated with your name) in all
but your private folder. Please remember to be courteous and constructive. If you would not say it out loud in a live class, don't post it here. Remember we each are entitled
to our own viewpoint: You can reply with constructive criticism about the content in a message without criticizing the person who posted the message. Also, please do not post any information that would
disclose the identity of K-12 students, and do not attach photos of students
under any circumstances.
SELECT YOUR DISCUSSION FOLDER (TOPIC): In order for the instructor and your classmates to read your posting, it is critical that you do your posting in the correct Discuss Folder, subsequently referred to as Topic. Click on the "Discussions" tool in the upper portion of the Home page. Select the appropriate Topic from the screen that appears, which shows the list of all Topics (e.g., "Pedometers"). Once you are inside of a Topic and want to go to a different topic, click again on the "Discussions" tool at the top and this will send you back to a list of all Topics.
HERE IS WHAT A FOLDER WITH POSTINGS LOOKS LIKE: The screen that appears below has been copied from a discussion folder entitled "Practice Posting." It shows an example of a "threaded discussion." Only a portion of the screen appears so it will fit this page. Note that there is a "-" beside the first posting: This means that you can view all of the replies to the first post. If a "+" symbol appears, you will have to click the "+" in order to view the replies to this message.
POSTING A MESSAGE/STARTING A THREADED DISCUSSION: To start your own (a new) threaded discussion
within a selected topic, (e.g., "Pedometers") hit "CreateMessage." In
the screen that will follow, type in the "Subject" of your message and the text
of your message (or you can paste in text that you have written and copied from
another document (e.g., a Microsoft Word or NotePad file). To avoid losing your work when you are creating rather long messages, it is recommended that you first compose the message in a word processing program and then copy and paste it into a create window (do not "attach" your message: paste it into the create window ).
URLs. You can type in the URLs to Internet pages that you want the reader to visit or to use as a reference for your post. However, if you want the URL to directly hotlink to the Internet sites, you will need to first turn "on" the HTML editor and then choose the "addlink" (chain) feature near the top of the window to put in your URL. You will not be able to "test" if the link
works until you preview (see below) your message.
Go ahead and create your own message in the Practice Posting folder and continue practicing what follows below.
ATTACHING FILES TO YOUR MESSAGE: Sometimes you will want to attach a
file(s) to your post. Below the message that you have composed, you will have
the opportunity to "Browse" to the location of that file (e.g., a file on your
Smart Drive or in a folder on your hard drive) and then "attach" the file. Don't
"post" the message yet: Continue reading!
PREVIEWING YOUR MESSAGE: Below the message that you have composed you
are also given the opportunity to preview that message. Please always preview
BEFORE posting to insure you are satisfied with what you said, including your
use of grammar etc. Also, make sure to try out any URL hotlinks so you are
confident that they "work," and, if you attached something, make sure it is
really attached. If you are dissatisfied with anything in
your message, hit "Edit," make your revisions, and preview your message
again.
POSTING YOUR MESSAGE: Once you are satisfied with your message, hit
"Post."
MAKING SURE YOUR POST GOT THERE: View the discussion folder after you post to insure your message got posted. Note that to see your message, you may have to click the "+" symbol next to a message if your message was a reply. If it
does not appear, then it did not get posted.
EDITING YOUR POSTING AT A LATER TIME: Your instructor may (or may not) set the features of a discussion folder to allow you to go in and edit your own messages at any time. If this feature is enabled, you will see an "edit" option while viewing your messages. Then, if you want to add or edit something within a message that you posted, you can go in and choose the "edit" feature while viewing your message and edit/repost as desired.
Another option: If your instructor does not want this "edit later" feature enabled, you can add to or clarify content within your message by "replying" to your own message.
READING YOUR COLLEAGUES' MESSAGES/POSTINGS: Simply click on the
subject (title) of the message and the message will appear. See notes
below:
- If there is "+" to the left of the title of any message, that means
there are replies to that message below that message. If you want to see the
titles of those replies, or read or reply to any of those replies, you must
click the "+" so the titles of those replies will appear.
While you are looking at any given
message, you can go immediately to the previous or next message in that threaded
discussion by clicking on the command "previous" or "next" message. You can also view all of the messages within a thread at any time by clicking on "Display Complete Thread" while viewing any message.
REPLYING TO MESSAGES: While you are viewing the message of a
colleague, you can reply to that message by clicking on "reply". Note you can read your colleague's message in the lower portion of the screen while you are replying. When you are done
with typing your message, please change the words in the Subject Box to reflect
the nature of your reply (The subject box will say "Re: Topic"--change those
words to reflect the essence of your reply). See notes below:
- The main purpose of utilizing these Discussion Folders for class is so we
all have access to what each each others' thoughts and ideas on the topic.
However, occasionally you may want to reply privately to the person who wrote
any given message. To do so, hit "reply privately," in which case your reply
will be sent as a mail message (private mail within WEBCT) only to the
person who posted the message: No one else will be able to read it.
- Please don't forget to put the full URL into your reply if you are sending
readers to an Internet site, and don't forget to preview your message before
posting. If you want the URL to hotlink directly, you will have to turn on the "HTML Editor" while replying and choose the "link" (chain) symbol.
- In replying to others, be courteous and constructive. Do not "attack" the
colleague to whom you are replying: We are entitled to our own viewpoints. You
can "take the other stance" by critically analyzing the issue, not the
colleague who posted the issue.
MORE HELP: You can get more help on using these Discussion
Folders by clicking on "Help" at the top of your Home Page.
Last updated by Rye on May 4