Why
WebCT allows you to create groups of any size which is very useful for face-to-face, hybrid and fully online courses. In a face-to-face course, you may already have group projects. Instead of passing around a sign-up sheet and then creating groups online for collaboration and file sharing, you can now enable the sign-up sheet option in WebCT and students can sign up directly online for groups of their choice. Naturally this feature could also be used in online courses.
Why use groups online? If you have over 100 students in your course, the answer is obvious, but what if you have 30 students? If you post a discussion topic for all 30 students to respond to, the thread will rapidly become unwieldy. Plus, what will the 29 th student have left to say? It will also be difficult for students to respond and interact with so many participants. However, if you divide your 30 students into three groups of 10 and post the same topic, students will have more opportunity to interact with each other. Seven to 10 members is ideal for an online discussion because even if one or two students fail to participate, there are still enough students for a conversation.
Groups are often used for projects. It can be helpful in fully online courses if each group member has a defined role: researcher, compiler, author, editor, etc. A timeline defining when elements of the project will be shared online is useful. This online collaboration also provides a clear record of who did what. Project-based groups may be quite small—three to five participants.
WebCT 6 also allows you the option to release different assignment and different discussion topics to groups.
How:
To create a custom group(s) click here. (Video Tutorial)
To create multiple groups click here. (Video Tutorial)
To create sign up sheets for your student groups click here. (Video Tutorial)
To apply your groups and assign to Discussion topics click here. (Video Tutorial)
To edit group settings and add/remove members to a group click here. (Video Tutorial)
To add a group member video click here.
To delete a group member video click here.
To send an email to an entire group click here