Thursday, October 07, 2004

The Ultimate WebCT Handbook

Available as of July 2004, The Ultimate WebCT Handbook: A Practical and Pedagogical Guide for WebCT 4.x arrived in my office last week. Measuring close to 600 pages, it looks like an excellent resource at first glance (especially to staff members who are new or relatively new to WebCT). Lots of detailed descriptions on each tool available and its advantages (For example, the section on the Quiz and Survey tool is a whopping 68 pages long! WOW!). Lots of "how to" sections that contain useful and detailled step-by-step instructions. Perhaps most useful and interesting are the sections that focus on best practices for online teaching. For example, common group work activities and assessment methods are discussed.

At $70USD + $10USD shipping it's not for every instructor (especially those with lots of experience working in this modality); however, it should be in every faculty lunchroom's reference section.


2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Are you really sure... sounds a little like filing cabinet filler to me. Perhaps this might make me a little clearer:

http://incsub.org/blog/index.php?p=5

Cheers, James

Eric said...

Hey James,

Thanks for the comment. I agree that in some situations this book would be filing cabinet filler. For example, I have lots of practical experience around online course design and delivery, and undoubtedly for me this book will only be good for a quick skim. However, just yesterday an instructor came to me and asked:

"What is the 'CTweb' thing I am hearing about?"

Well, as you can imagine this instructor would be a perfect candidate for reading this book from cover to cover.

Another example is that I have colleagues who sometimes don't have enough time in their day to do their own independant research on online pedagogy and WebCT tricks etc., so for these people saving the "searching" time by simply pointing them to this reference can be a useful investment of $70.