Getting Started with Your Online Course
Thanks to Andrew Pfeifer for many of the ideas for this page.

This guide will be given to you in our first face to face session and is also found on your course's WebCT site.

To access your course's WebCT site follow these instructions:

  1. Start at the ISD page: www.remc11.k12.mi.us/bcisd
  2. Choose Classroom Resources.
  3. Choose this course from the blue column.
  4. Enter your User Name
  5. Enter your Password
  6. You're in! Use this "Getting Started" guide to help you use the site.


On this site's homepage there are several icons.

  1. Course Content (This is where the instruction can be found!)
  2. Online Office Hours (Send me email to make an appt.)
  3. Private WebCT Mail (Email your fellow students or the teacher)
  4. Feedback and Quizzes (Find the feedback forms and quizzes here.)
  5. Bulletin Boards (A place for class discussion and posting your reading assignment responses.)


Course Content

  1. When you are reading the content, note that you have navigation at the top and left. If you wish, you can resize the frames to make one part easier to read. Move your mouse over the frame. When it looks like this: then you can click and drag to resize the frames to your preference.
  2. If you find things too crowded on your screen in content, you may want to change the resolution of your screen from 640x480 to 800x600.
    1. You can do this by using the following Windows instructions to change your monitor's resolution
    2. Minimize all open windows. Click the minimize button in the upper right hand corner of each window.
    3. Right click on the desktop. The desktop is the open area where there are no icons.
    4. From the shortcut menu that appears, choose Properties.
    5. In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab at the top.
    6. If available, move the Screen area slider to the left so that "800 by 600" is displayed.
    7. Click Apply. Windows will tell you that this procedure may take a few moments. Click OK.
    8. Once the changes have taken place, Windows will ask if you want to keep the changed settings. Click Yes or No.
    9. Click OK to exit the Display Properties dialog box.
  3. If you want to print a page from a frame, click first on the page to print, then press the Print button on your browser.
  4. When you are reading the course content, you will see the following navigation bar at the top. Always use WebCT's navigation for getting around in the course (as opposed to your browser's back button).

From here you can read the information, and you can also jump to the bulletin board or private WebCT mail.
When you go the the bulletin board or mail, remember to press to return to the page you were reading.

  1. My notes lets you create notes to yourself that can be printed later. This can be used as a journal. Only you have access to these pages.
  2. At the end of each week you will find a page with that week's reading assignments. Notice that when you click on a page it opens a new window. You may find it easiest to print the articles you're interested in, and then go to the appropriate grade level bulletin board and write a response to what you read.

Bulletin Board

The bulletin board software in WebCT is organized into forums. This allows discusses to be grouped by particular subjects. In our class, we have four discussions or forums:

  1. To gain access, click on the appropriate Bulletin Board icon
  2. There are two types of comments you may post here. They are self-generated and reply comments. The following are instructions for how to post each:

To post a REPLY comment to what someone else has said (Use this for your reading responses and other assigned topics. Respond to my question for the week's reading.)
Click on the person's name
Click on the blue "Reply" button
Click within the large box and type in your comments
Click on "Post."

To post your own SELF-GENERATED comment (Use this for starting a new discussion thread.)
Click on Compose in the far left column.
Click in the box to type in a descriptive subject heading
Click within the large white box and type your comments
Click on "Post."

NOTE: In order to read all the comments posted, click on the "Show All" button in the upper left corner. Another button that is very helpful is "Update Listing," this one will allow you to see if your comments posted correctly.

When finished in the Bulletin Board click on Home on the top left column.

FYI: Emoticons

 :)  Happy person
 :(  Sad person
  :-)  Happy person with a nose
 :-(  Sad person with a nose
 :-D Person laughing 

 Private WebCT Mail

This WebCT tool allows you to "pass notes" to the other people in the class. It is private and only accessible within WebCT.

  1. To gain access, click on the "webCT Mail" icon
  2. You have three options here: compose and send a message, read a message, and reply to a message.

To COMPOSE a message:
Click on "Compose"
Next to where it says "Send to" there is a "Browse" button, click on it
Select the person you want to send your message to by clicking on their name and the "OK" button.
     (To send mail to more than one person, hold down the Ctrl or Shift key while selecting names.)
Type your subject heading in the "Subject" box
Type your message inside the big white box
Click "Send"
When finished, click the Home button in the far left column.

To READ a message:
Click on the message and read
Click on this webpage's "Home"

To read and REPLY to a message:
Click on the message
Click on the blue "Reply" button
Click in the large white box
Type in your comments
Click on "Send"
When finished, click this webpage's "Home"

NOTE: In order to read all your messages, click on the "Show All" button in the upper left corner.

Online Office Hours

  1. To gain access, click on the Chat icon
  2. To gain access to your assigned room, click on the appropriate "Room"
  3. You will see a large white box, a thin white box underneath, and a tall slender white box to the left. The large white box is where you will read all the discussion comments, the thin box underneath is where you type in your comments (you send then by hitting the "Enter/Return" key on your keyboard), and the tall slender box shows you who is in the chat room with you.

When you are finished click on Quit, then Home.

 Feedback Forms and Quizzes

The course includes a few quizzes as a self-test of your knowledge. Think of them as learning quizzes. It is one of the ways I use to check your participation in the course.

Also, since I do not have non-verbal signals to see how you're doing in the class, please fill out the feedback form each week. This way I can see how to make adjustments to your needs.

© 2000 Berrien County Intermediate School District