Blackboard to replace WebCT

By Jonathan McFadden

mcfaddenj@thejohnsonian.com

The current “Blackboard for Students” web page allows students to take tutorials and watch videos that will help them learn how to access their grades, submit assignments and take tests. By summer 2011, all traces of Winthrop’s current online course management system, WebCT, will be gone. • Screeshot taken from the “Blackboard for Students” web page. Blackboard will replace WebCT as Winthrop’s primary online course management system next semester. 

WebCT, an online supplement for classes that was implemented at Winthrop in 1999, will slowly be phased out starting this spring, until it is completely gone by fall 2011.

The reason: the version of WebCT Winthrop now uses is 4.1, while Blackboard has been updated to version 9.1, currently its latest and greatest course management system version.

Once Blackboard is in use during the spring, students will be able to use its interactive journal tool and virtual classroom option, which allows classroom meetings online in real time.

“Everyone will be online at the same time and can collaborate that way,” said Kimarie Whetstone, online learning coordinator at Winthrop.

Students can also post blogs and videos that relate to their classes.

Erika Patterson, a graduate assistant working in the Instructional Technology Center in Withers, said some of her professors have used Ning, a course management site offered through the search engine Bing.

Patterson’s professor for her writing 501 class assigned her students to post videos, websites and writing assignments online using Ning, which made the class more interactive. 

“I got to hear not only what my professor was saying, but everything my classmates were saying,” Patterson said. “The interaction with my classmates was great without having to wait for the classroom time.” 

Patterson, who helped provide many resources for students on the site, is confident Blackboard will be more helpful than both WebCT and Ning.

If professors used both WebCT and Ning, students would have to post their assignments on Ning but view their grades on WebCT—using two different systems for one class.

Blackboard eliminates the hassle by combining everything into one site.

“Having everything in one place is going to be very effective,” Patterson said.

Students needing accessibility can also incorporate JAWS (Job Access With Speech) into Blackboard.

Blackboard also allows students to submit papers online. Similar to Turnitin.com, Blackboard has the plagiarism protection feature.  

But this doesn’t necessarily mean Turnitin will go out of style; Blackboard just provides another option.

“It’s something that’s available if the instructor wants to take advantage of it,” Whetstone said.

Work on WebCT’s conversion to Blackboard began back in February, Whetstone said. A big chunk of that work has gone into training professors for its use next semester.

“Some teachers have started preparing now for their courses for the spring,” she said.

WebCT will be officially offline for Winthrop after summer 2011. 

Whetstone advises students to check with their instructors next semester to see which course management system will be in use. 

A “Blackboard for Students” page is now available on the WebCT tutorial page. The page provides videos and podcasts instructing students on how to take tests on Blackboard, navigate the site, check their grades and submit assignments.