James A. Rhodes State College

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WebCT Communication Tools

The WebCT Communication Tools are designed to facilitated Web-based student and instructor interaction. The e-mail and discussion tools enable asynchronous communication while the chat tool enables synchronous communication. In addition to this handout, remember that you can always access WebCT Help from the WebCT menu bar at the top of the display screen.

WebCT E-mail

The WebCT e-mail tool works only inside the WebCT course and is the private communication area of the course. In order for someone to send a message through this tool, he\she must first login to WebCT and enter the course site. Most often the e-mail tool is located behind the communication tools icon shown at the top of this handout. The graphic at the left shows the default icon for WebCT e-mail.  Instructors may, however, customize the course icons however they choose. Enter the e-mail tool area by clicking its icon.

The Main E-mail Screen

The main e-mail screen, shown above, is the first screen that appears when you enter the email tool area. The left side of the screen displays folder names for working with your messages. New mail messages go to the Inbox area. As shown above, this WebCT user has one unread e-mail messages and three read messages in his\her inbox. Click the Inbox text link to enter that area of the course and see the list of messages.

The Inbox with Messages

The graphic below shows an example of a WebCT Inbox. Messages are arranged in columns marked Status, Subject, Author, and Date.

Display Options

All or Unread. The area marked Display determines how your e-mail messages appear. The screen above shows all of the user's Inbox messages. You can tell this because the All button in the top left of the screen is depressed. You can alternately display only the new, or Unread, messages by clicking its button. These are toggle buttons, clicking one turns the other option off and vice versa.

Threaded or Unthreaded. Threaded messages display the flow of a topic's conversation. You can tell when messages are threaded because there is a green triangle in the far left Status column. When the triangle points to the right (as shown in the email forwarding message), the message thread is collapsed; and you cannot see the related messages. When the triangle points downward, the thread is expanded, and you can see the original message link and any responses. Clicking your mouse on top of the triangle expands and collapses the threads. You may want to collapse old message threads, so there is more room on your screen for new messages.

Actions. The bottom area of the Inbox screen provides options for working with your mail messages. To Compile messages, you select a group of messages and click the compile button. WebCT then puts all of the selected messages in one screen that is easy to print. This area also gives you options for deleting, marking all messages as read, and marking all messages as unread. If you have a lot of messages on your screen, click the Message Options link at the top of the screen to move quickly to the bottom of the screen to use these actions.

New Messages

Read New Messages. A new message is flagged by the yellow, closed envelope icon with a bold subject line (as shown in the Subject column). Once a message has been read, its icon changes to a gray, open envelope and the subject line is no longer bold. To open a new message, click its subject line. The message should open in a screen of its own. Below is a graphic of the options for working with a new message.

To send an answer to the original sender, click the Reply button in the lower left of the screen. You can send this message to other members of the class by clicking Forward button. You can forward and reply to messages inside the course only, for example, you cannot forward a message to your Rhodes State e-mail account or a personal e-mail account. Click the Close button to close the current message screen.

Write New Messages

Send a new mail message by clicking the Compose button in the top left of the screen.

Fill in the To information by clicking the Browse button on the top right of the screen to display a list of class members and choose who to send the message to. Your instructor's name should be the first name in the list. Click a user's name to select that user. You can select multiple recipients by holding down the Ctrl key while you click. Click the Select button to finish choosing recipients and return to the message screen.

You will need to type a subject line and type at least a short message in the message box.

HTML Editor. WebCT v.4 has an option that was not available in previous versions. Click the HTML Editor button below the message textbox to open the editor screen. This screen provides options for adding links, formatting text, adding graphics, and a spelling checker.

After the message is complete, you are ready to click the Send button at the bottom of the screen. After a message is sent, a copy of the message goes to the Outbox area of the main e-mail screen.

Attachments

Sending Attachments. Attachment options are available at the bottom of the new message screen. Complete the following steps to add an attachment file to a message.

Click the Browse button to go find the file you want to attach.

At the next screen that appears, choose the appropriate drive where the file is saved and click the file name. Click the Open button to finish choosing the file.

You should return to the e-mail message screen with the file name in the attachments box. Click the Attach File button to finish attaching the file to the message.

If you can see the file name as if it were a link with a check box in front of it (as shown in the graphic below), then you have successfully attached your file. You can now send your message with the attachment.

Receiving Attachments. During the quarter you may need to receive files from the instructor or other class members. The following directions will guide you through downloading and viewing that file. Begin by opening the message with the attachment (appears as a message with a paperclip next to it in your e-mail). Somewhere to the left of the message body is a paperclip icon like the graphic to the right. Click the text link to access the attached file dialog box.

The next screen should be similar to the graphic at the right. If you click the hyperlinked file name, you will probably see an error message because WebCT knows how to display Web-viewable files only. You should click the radio button in front of the file name and click the download button. Another screen will prompt you to Open or Save the file. Click the Save button to save the file to a disk.

The easiest procedure for viewing this file is to open the program used to create the file and then use the File and Open command to open the file from the saved disk.