Course Management - Course Functions

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Overview of Course Functions | Toolbar

Course Functions allow you to reset or make a back-up of your course and provide access to your course for other designers. You can access the Course Functions toolbar by clicking Course Functions on the Course Management toolbar to bring up the Course Functions toolbar (see Figure 1).

Figure 1   Course Functions toolbar

Click Back on this toolbar to return to the Course Management toolbar or Home to return to the Homepage. The other buttons on the Course Functions toolbar are described below.

Course Backup | Course Reset | Shared Access

Course Backup   | Toolbar | Top

The WebCT Backup Utility is an important feature of your course. With the backup utility, you can:

• Create snapshots of your course at various stages of development
• Download a backup of your course for safekeeping
• Restore a previously-made backup of your course if you have made unwanted changes or if your course has become corrupted
• Move your course to a different WebCT server by making a backup on the current server and Uploading the backup to the new server.

The Backup Utility can be accessed from the Homepage toolbar by clicking Course Management Course Functions Course Backup. The top frame then displays the listing of backups for the current course, whereas the bottom frame displays the Backups toolbar.

The backup listing contains 3 columns:

Backup Filename

The names of the individual backup files. The filename is generated according to the following format:
<Course Name>_<Month><Day>_<Hour><Min>.zip

File Size

The size of the backup file in bytes

Description

The description you entered when the backup was created

Deleting a Backup   | Toolbar | Top

Course backups can take up a significant amount of disk space on the server, especially if the course contains a large number of images or multimedia elements. Please consult your WebCT administrator to determine how large your courses should be and how many backups you are able to successfully store.

Unnecessary backups can be deleted from an individual backup menu, accessed by clicking on the backup filename in the first column of the backup listing. Figure 4 shows the result of clicking on the "shayna" backup.

The information displayed is the same as that of the backup listing, but it only includes the information for the listing you selected. The buttons below the table represent the possible actions to take for the selected backup.

To delete a backup, press Delete. A pop-up window then asks you to confirm the deletion. Press OK to proceed with deleting the currently selected backup. A success message will be displayed if the backup was deleted without encountering an error.

Press Continue to return to the listing of backups.

Downloading a Backup   | Toolbar | Top

It is good practice to keep copies of your course backups on your personal computer, instead of only on the WebCT server. This way, if a hardware problem occurs on the server and your course becomes unreadable, you still have a copy of your complete course on your computer.

To download a backup, click on the filename of the desired backup (in the first column of the table). This will display the Backup File Functions screen (see Figure 4).

Press Download. A dialog box will pop up. Type in the filename of the location (in your local computer) to which you would like to save your course. The browser will then initiate the transfer and the backup will begin to download.

Making a New Backup   | Toolbar | Top

A new backup of the course can be made by clicking on Create Backup. The top frame will display a text-entry box so that a description may be entered.

Once you enter a description, press Continue to start the backup procedure. Press Cancel to return to the list of backups without making any changes.

Note: the time required to backup a course depends both on the size of the course, as well as on the speed of the server. Large courses may take over 10 minutes to back up. Please be patient and consult with your system administrator if backups seem to take a long time to complete.

If the backup operation was successful, a confirmation message is displayed with the name of the backup file just created. Press Continue to return to the backup listing.

Restoring a Backup   | Toolbar | Top

Any existing backup in the backup listing can be restored. Restoring a backup will replace the current course with the contents of the backed-up course

Warning: Restoring a backup will overwrite the entire current course, including:

• student management information (such as grades)
• access information (student passwords)
• bulletin and e-mail messages
• the set of uploaded files
• anything else associated with your course

Please create a backup of the current state of your course before restoring a backup. You can then revert back to the current state if you don't like what has been restored.

To restore a backup, click on the filename of the desired backup (in the first column of the table). This will display the Backup File Functions screen (see Figure 4)

To restore a backup, click Restore. A confirmation dialog is shown:

To continue with the restoration process, press OK. Press Cancel to return to the previous screen without making any changes to your current course. If you choose OK, the system will proceed to restore your course to the selected backup.

Note: the time needed to restore a course depends on the size of the course and on the speed of the server. Restoring a course takes longer than creating a backup, since the restore procedure creates some backup files in case an error is encountered during the restoring process.

If the restore operation completes correctly, a message is displayed indicating a successful restore.

Uploading a Backup   | Toolbar | Top

A previously downloaded course backup can be uploaded to the server, and then restored at a later time.

The procedure to upload a backup file is identical to uploading course files in File Manager. When you click Upload Backup in the Backup toolbar the following upload menu is displayed.

Press Browse... to display a File Uploaddialog box. Select the appropriate backup file from your computer for uploading and press Continue to initiate the uploading procedure. Press Cancel to return to the Course Backup Utility screen without making any changes.

The time required to upload a course backup depends on the file size as well as on the speed of the Internet connection of both the server and your computer.

If the course backup file uploads correctly, a success message is displayed.

Course Reset   | Toolbar | Top

The Course Reset feature enables you to completely clear or delete the information in various sections of your course. This feature can be accessed by clicking Course Management Course Functions Course Reset from the Homepage toolbar. This will make the following Course Reset screen appear in your main frame.

Click on the check boxes beside the features you would like to reset. Press Mark All to check all of the listed features. To clear a check box, click it. Press Mark None to clear all of the check boxes. Once you have checked the appropriate boxes click Update to reset the chosen features. A warning message will come up asking if you would like to continue resetting the selected areas. Press OK to continue with the reset or Cancel to return to the Course Reset screen without making any changes. Press Cancel in the Course Reset screen to exit the reset feature without making any changes.

Note 1: Resetting a section of your course clears ALL of the information in that section. Be very careful before you press OK on the reset confirmation screen.

Note 2: If you choose to reset the Calendar, the reset tool will now remove both public and private calendar entries for all users in the course.

Shared Access   | Toolbar | Top

You can give access to your course to other designers who have a Global ID. These designers cannot already be members of the course, students or graders. They will have full design access except that they will not be able to grant shared access to additional designers. From the Homepage this feature can be accessed by clicking Course Management Course Functions Shared Access. The Designer Shared Access window will open in the top frame and the Shared Access Functions toolbar in the bottom frame (see Figure 9).

You can add a course designer by clicking Add on the Shared Access Functions toolbar. The Add Designer Shared Access screen will open in the top frame (see Figure 10).

Type the designer's Global ID in the text box and click Continue. The Add Designer Shared Access Results screen will display either a Success or Error message (see Figure 11 and 12). Click Continue to return to the Designer Shared Access screen.

To delete a designer select the check box beside the designer's Global ID and then click Delete. A confirmation dialog will open. To continue the process, press OK. Press Cancel to return to the previous screen without making any changes.

You can delete all of the designers from shared access by clicking Reset. A series of two warning message windows will appear asking if you would like to proceed (see Figure 13). Press OK to continue with the reset or Cancel to return to the Designer Shared Access screen without making any changes.

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