A Comprehensive WebCT Integration System Rob Phillips –Teaching and Learning Centre, Murdoch University James Strong –NetSpot Onno Benschop –ITmaze Mark Hallam –WebCiTe

History 1998: Adoption of WebCT at Murdoch : Murdoch Online Mainstreaming Project –to establish WebCT as a mission-critical application –to integrate WebCT with other University systems

Murdoch Online Mainstreaming Project Objectives 9,600 (of ~12,000) students now use WebCT ~255 units in WebCT WebCT is integrated with other corporate systems –Callista student records system –Concept 1 human resources system –Murdoch’s own MAIS authentication and identification system

WebCTMan Integration achieved through WebCTMan Middleware WebCT management application –mySQL database –suite of operator tools and data transfer scripts Collates student and staff information from multiple sources Enables the flow of students in and out of WebCT

Overview Conceptual issues around Murdoch’s implementation of WebCT Design and Functionality of the system Demonstration

Conceptual Issues Course categories Parent IDs Unit offerings Course Naming

Categories Murdoch has four teaching ‘divisions’ One WebCT Category for each division When a course is in use, it’s available through: –the Course Listing screen –MyWebCT When a course is in not in use: –in hidden category (Under Development) –not visible to students

Parent IDs Each category has an associated globalID, known as a “parent ID” The parent ID is owned by the WebCT team –assigned as the primary designer –allows access to all courses –enables quality assurance Teaching staff are shared access designers

Unit Offerings Units are offered flexibly at Murdoch –at different campuses/ locations –externally, internally and/or online –in different teaching periods (semester, trimester…) Callista uses the concept of a Unit Offering

Administrative Issues Managing cohorts is an issue –whole cohort in one WebCT course? –different cohorts in different courses? Managing semester breaks –when to remove students?

Course Naming Policy A WebCT course exists for each offering of a unit in a distinct teaching period Naming convention –A123s1: Unit A123 offered in semester 1 –A123t3: Unit A123 offered in trimester 3

Overview Conceptual issues around Murdoch’s implementation of WebCT Design and Functionality of the system Demonstration

Overview of WebCTMan

Callista Integration

Course Mapping –demo

Course Mapping Summary Students can be allocated to WebCT courses in any way desired Non-Callista students can be added manually –e.g. first-year students at Murdoch’s partner institution in Malaysia Student details from multiple sources combined in one place

WebCT Integration

Course Status which WebCT courses should be populated with students? –e.g. students enrol early but the unit lecturer isn’t ready for them to use WebCT Concept of course status –active –static –inactive

Active Courses WebCT Man Callista Callista Upload WebCT global DB WebCT course DB Populate Courses being used by students Data updated daily

Callista Upload Perl script loads data into WebCTMan daily Get all active unit offerings Get all students in Callista who are enrolled in these unit offerings For each student: –Add or update student details –Get student’s unit offerings from Callista and update these in WebCTMan

Populate into WebCT Perl script loads data into WebCT daily Get all students in WebCTMan For each student: –Look up courses for this student –For each active or static course: Make up WebCT API call to add or update global database Check for orphans and reconnect Update personal details in each course database

Static Courses Stop getting Callista data for this course Enrolment data not updated If student in any active course then personal data updated WebCT Man Callista WebCT global DB WebCT course DB Populate

Inactive Courses Students’ enrolments records are deleted for that course in WebCTMan The API call to WebCT for that student will not contain that course The student will be orphaned The course data remains, but students cannot access it WebCT Man Callista WebCT global DB WebCT course DB

Course Status Interface demo

Integration with Other Systems

WebCTMan Admin. Interface With the addition of staff data, WebCTMan had the potential to fully manage WebCT –circumventing the Administrator Interface –adding more functionality to manage staff and courses –demo

Wrap Up Conceptual issues around Murdoch’s implementation of WebCT Design and Functionality of the system Demonstration

Summary WebCTMan –Comprehensively integrates WebCT with other systems –Provides extra administrative functionality allows for management of students, courses and staff roles –Authoritative source of data which controls how WebCT behaves

Major Features Parent IDs - primary designers of categories –facilitates the management of multiple client groups on the one server. Unit Offerings - many-to-many mapping between unit offerings and WebCT courses Course Status - active, static and inactive courses

Wider Application Applicable to other WebCT installations? Multiple WebCT installations hosted on a single server Enables migration away from WebCT –if the feature/cost nexus indicates that another system is preferable

Questions?? Rob Phillips –Murdoch James Strong –NetSpot Onno Benschop –ITmaze Mark Hallam –WebCiTe Software design Automation scripting Admin. Interface WebCT internals