WebCT Bulletin Board - Listing Messages



Overview of Listing Messages

Choosing which Messages to View

When viewing the Bulletin Board, the default forum is All. This means that all unread messages in all forums are listed.


Figure 1   Default initial listing of the bulletin board

Both you and your students can choose a different forum to start out with by selecting the various options in the left frame (see Figure 2).


Figure 2   The left frame

Note: If you are in the No Frames view, WebCT displays the icons in the upper portion of the screen. Click Show Advanced to view all of the menu selections (see Figure 3).


Figure 3   The No Frames view

Clicking Forum brings up a screen that allows you to select which forum to view. This screen shows you a list of forums, as well as the number of unread messages contained in each (see Figure 3). To view a listing of the articles in one of these forums, click on the title of the forum.


Figure 4   Forum window
Show Unread/Show All:

Each message has a read or unread status. Messages that are unread will have a NEW image next to them in the listing. By default, only messages that have not been read are displayed. If you wish to list both read and unread messages, click Show All. This will also change Show All to Show Unread in the left frame (or in the upper frame in No Frames view). If you have selected Show All, whenever a new forum is selected, you will see all of the messages in that forum. If you want to display unread messages, click Show Unread. This updates the message listing, and changes Show Unread back to Show All in the left frame.

Once you have viewed a message, its status changes from unread to read. If you wish to keep a message's status as unread, you can do this in one of two ways:


Figure 5   The message window


Figure 6   No Frames view

  • If you are still viewing the message whose status you wish to change, click Mark Unread in the Message Menu. To view the options in the Message Menu, click Message Menu in the left frame. This will expand the menu so all of the options are visible. Clicking on Hide Menu will hide all of these options.
  • You can also select one or more messages from the listing to mark as unread. First, select the check box next to the message(s), then click on Mark Unread in the Message Menu. The messages you selected will now have the NEW icon next to them.

The Mark Read option on the Message Menu will mark messages as read. If you wish to mark all of the messages in the listing as read, use the Catch Up All option.

Search:

Click Search to bring up the Search screen (Figure 7). This feature enables you to use more advanced options to use information from the bulletin board.


Figure 7   Search Menu

By default, the Search feature will look at messages in all forums and at both read and unread messages. If you want to search a specific forum, specify it in the Forum drop-down menu. If you only want to search unread messages, select Unread from the Show drop-down menu.

Filter:

A Filter specifies the component of a bulletin which is considered in a search. It is used in conjunction with the other advanced options of Comparison and Value (discussed below), and takes into account the preferences selected under Forum and Show.

  • None: is the default filter option that indicates that advanced options are turned off
  • Name: refers to the full name of the message writer
  • User ID: refers to the User ID of the poster
  • Subject: refers to the thread subject
  • Message No. refers to the unique message number associated with each message
  • Date: refers to the calendar date of a posted message. The date format is <day>,<month>,<year>.
  • Message: refers to the content of a posted message

Comparison:

The comparison selector allows the student to determine how the filter is to be applied to each selection. A comparison is made between the value typed in the text box below and each article posted to the bulletin board. Value refers to the text typed in the text box below; all comparisons are made to the part of the message specified by the Filter selection above. The Comparison drop-down menu options include:

  • Contains: WebCT uses the appropriate filter preference and displays the messages that contain the entered text box value
  • Equals: Displays the messages that match the entered value exactly
  • Before:
    • Date: Searches for dates before the entered value
    • Numbers: Searches for numbers less than the entered value
    • Text: Searches the letters prior to the entered value
  • After:
    • Date: Searches for dates after the entered value
    • Numbers: Searches for numbers greater than the entered value
    • Text: Searches the letters following the entered value
  • Starts with: Matches words beginning with the entered text box value
  • Ends with: Matches words ending with the entered text box value

Value:

The Value text-entry box allows you to specify what you are searching for.

The Notes Forum: | Top

The Bulletin Board icon on the Button Bar of a page of notes brings the student to the Notes forum by default. All the other forums are still accessible.

The Notes forum is different from the other forums. A student can only start a new message to the Notes forum from a course content page. The subject heading of the posted message is the title of the notes page. Students can click the subject heading to link directly to that page.

Note: Replies to messages in the Notes forum can be made from the main bulletin board.



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