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Administrative Information

WebCT Accounts

Student Accounts

All students registered at McMaster University are automatically given a WebCT account at the start of each academic year. Login information can be found at: http://webct.mcmaster.ca. Having a WebCT account does not necessarily mean that a student has access to WebCT courses. A list of accessible courses will appear for students only if they are registered in a course that uses WebCT.
If a student does not appear on the Registrar's database, they cannot be added to WebCT. Students should be encouraged to sort out their registration status ASAP. If there are extenuating circumstances, please fill out an online help request form and someone will contact you to work out a solution.

Student Access to WebCT Courses

A WebCT course site is available to students during the academic year in which the course is taught. At the start of each semester, students will be added to WebCT courses as per the information in the Registrar's class list (Oracle). Daily updates will continue until 2 weeks after drop & add.
To view students registered in your WebCT course: From the Control Panel, click Manage Course, and click Manage Students.

LTRC does not remove students from WebCT courses during the academic year, even when their enrolment changes. Academic staff responsible for the course shall determine who is no longer allowed access. Faculty or staff responsible for the course can Deny Student Access if they wish to disallow access to specific students. If a student is Denied Access to a course, the course will still be listed in the student's MyWebCT area, but not accessible.

  1. From the Control Panel , click Manage Course, and then click Manage Students. The Manage Students screen appears.
  2. Under Actions, from the Options: Records drop-down list, select View all students , and click Go.
  3. Under Actions, from the Options: Advanced drop-down list, select Deny students access, and click Go. The Confirm Deny Access screen appears.
  4. Click Deny Access. The Manage Students screen appears and the student UserID s are now followed by an asterisk indicating that they have been denied access to the course.

Faculty/Staff Accounts

All faculty, staff and teaching assistants are eligible to have a WebCT account. Faculty who request a WebCT course are automatically given a WebCT designer account for that course. Course Designers can add students, staff, teaching assistants and other faculty to their courses.
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Administrative Accounts

The Administrators and Support Staff of the WebCT systems have designer access to each WebCT course in order to provide needed support. All Administrators and Support Staff that have this access have signed University Confidentiality agreements. The purpose of the administrative accounts are purely for support and technical issues.
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Computer Use Code of Conduct

McMaster University's Code of Conduct for Computer and Network Users apply to all WebCT users.

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Backups/Archives

System Archives

The WebCT server system files are backed up daily, with a retention period of 28 days. In addition, there are nightly course data archives of all active WebCT courses. These archives are stored on a 7 day rotation. At the end of each week, one archive is kept for a period of 4 weeks. If the total course size is greater then 2.0 GB, LTRC cannot ensure a reliable archive. This is due to the inherent limitations in the WebCT system software.

Backups by Course Designers

Course Designers are encouraged to periodically create and download their own course backups. This is good practice especially prior to uploading data to the gradebook or making major changes to your course. Course backups should be created when it is unlikely that quizzes are being taken as data corruption can occur if a quiz is in progress during a course backup.

End of Semester Backup

Although LTRC retains end of semester backups, instructors are encouraged to create and download a semester end back-up that contains student activity and information. The archive created from the backup process can be used in the event of an appeal or for sharing course content between courses. After courses are reset, you cannot retrieve information from the course. LTRC will retain the end of semester archives for a period of 3 years.

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Disk Space

Designers may put all the materials they need onto the WebCT server for their courses. Currently there are no limitations on the use of disk space for WebCT courses. LTRC does however, reserve the right to limit the use of the server for storing excessively large files (e.g. video). Please note, that if the total course size (materials plus student information/activity) exceeds 2.0 GB, LTRC cannot make a reliable backup. This is due to the inherent limitations in the WebCT system software.
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Use of Copyright Material

Although access to your WebCT course is restricted to authenticated users, the unauthorized use of copyright text, images, etc. is not legally acceptable. For more information, please see LTRC Copyright and Use Policy and FAQ about Copyright in the Classroom.
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System Upgrades

Upgrades to the operating systems and WebCT are done periodically throughout the year depending on the availability of product upgrades from the vendor. Resultant server downtime announcements will be posted at the WebCT login page (http://webct.mcmaster.ca).
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Service Period

The Service Period is the number of years WebCT will be centrally supported at the University. The support and use of WebCT will be subject to review periodically. A 3-year license agreement was signed to cover the period July 2002 - June 2005. Another 3-year license agreement has been signed to cover the period July 2005 - June 2008. If centralized support of WebCT is ever withdrawn, support for the process of migrating content to a new system will be provided.
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Course Management Policies

  • At the end of each semester, the designers of WebCT courses are given notification and instructions on how to wrap up their course (backup, denying student access and/or resetting course) See: End of Semester Wrap-up .
    • Courses run Sep-Dec are deleted from the server the following October 31st
      • e.g. a WeBCT course run Sep-Dec 2005 will be removed from the WebCT server October 31, 2006 .
    • Courses run Jan-Apr or Sep-Apr are deleted from the server the following February 28th
    • Courses run May-Aug are deleted from the server the following June 30th
  • The designers of a WebCT course are responsible for denying student access or resetting course if they do not want students to access their course after the end of a respective semester.
  • For all other course requests, LTRC will create new blank course shells upon request via the online course request form (see: http://www.ltrc.mcmaster.ca/webct/designer/request_webct_course_2007.shtml ).
    • Faculty/Designers that wish to copy course material from one course to another (e.g. copy CHEM 1A03 material to CHEM 2A03) can make a backup of the CHEM 1A03 WebCT course, upload and restore the backup into the CHEM 2A03 WebCT course. This is not a difficult process and is a built in function of WebCT. Note that the instructions for this are available at the LTRC web site and through WebCT's context sensitive online help. This process allows faculty to control their own content and related IP issues.
    • Faculty/Designers that wish to change the primary designer status for a given course that they wish to re-use, will need to create and restore their own backups. For example, if Mary was a primary designer for the CHEM 1A03 WebCT course in Sep 2004 and Paul wants to be primary designer for the CHEM 1A03 WebCT course in Sep 2005, Paul can request a new course and restore the contents of the Sep 2004 course into the 2005 course.
  • If a WebCT course gets removed from the server before a faculty/designer creates his/her backup, LTRC will restore their old course and provide instructions to make a backup.
  • If a course is required for a student appeal, LTRC will create a blank WebCT course shell. The respective designer(s) can then upload and restore a backup of that course into the newly created blank course shell. Instructions are available at: http://www.ltrc.mcmaster.ca/webct/designer/request_webct_course_2007.shtml .
  • LTRC will make provisions for those that need technical help with the process or for those courses that run into HTTP timeout errors due to the size of the course.
  • Both faculty and staff can request new WebCT courses and be assigned as primary designers. By default, faculty will be assigned primary designer status, unless there is a specific request otherwise. Requests can be made via LTRC's online web forms (http://www.ltrc.mcmaster.ca/webct/designer/request_webct_course_2007.shtml). Staff can be assigned primary designers at the request of the respective faculty teaching the course.
  • The WebCT Course ID nomenclature will include the Registrar's code for Subject and Course, Term the year is offered, as well as the year designation: SUBJECT_CODE_TERM_YEAR
    • e.g. COURSE_1A03_T2_06 for a course running term 2 starting January 2006.
  • Faculty, staff, or students that wish to be added to a WebCT course as a shared designer must contact the primary designer of the WebCT course. The primary designer is responsible for the addition of shared designers.

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Send feedback or ask questions about Administrative Information

If you have any questions, feedback or would simply like to discuss our Administrative Policies and Information, please email: webctfeedback@ltrc.mcmaster.ca

Last updated: August 2007