Free Video Library for Online Courses

All UWG faculty have free access to an online video library developed by Georgia Public Broadcasting. There are more than 100 titles applicable to higher education in areas related to math, chemistry, political science, teaching, environmental awareness, and social sciences. The videos are broken into short (1-5 minutes) segments so that users may view an entire video or just a portion. The videos can be shown in class or online through WebCT. Examples of videos include footage of famous speeches, biographies of artists or musicians, videos of world cultures, and science and weather phenomena. For more information, contact Janet Gubbins.

Dear WebCat: How Do I Access My Past WebCT Courses?

All faculty should create backups, then download, and save a copy of all of their WebCT courses for themselves. These backups can be restored to a blank WebCT course at any time. The DDEC maintains copies of past WebCT courses for a period of one year. To access your past courses, go to webctarchive.westga.edu. Use the same default username and password that you use on the active WebCT server. If the course that you are looking for is older than one year old, contact the DDEC. Send your questions to the wise and wonderful WebCat.

For Better or Worse: WebCT Vista

Beginning in summer 2006, UWG online courses will begin migrating to WebCT Vista, hosted on a centralized USG server. The initial migration will only include a handful of courses (not yet identified), but full migration is expected by Spring 2007. Because of concerns about reliability and support with earlier versions of Vista, UWG is among the last of USG institutions to make this change. During recent semesters, many of the earlier technical issues with Vista seem to have been significantly reduced, says Janet Gubbins, UWG WebCT administrator. In addition, the Vista product offers enhancements such consolidated toolbars, quick-start pages for course setup, and enhanced grading, presentation, and private mail functions. Faculty training for Vista will be offered by the DDEC beginning in May.