In distance education, an instructor has to overcome potential barriers caused by technology, time, and place, and create an optimal environment for achieving educational goals. Preparing your students for an online course is a vital part of ensuring success in these courses.

To help prepare your students for a successful online learning experience, you can use the Syllabus module of your WebCT course to provide them with important pointers that will help make them more comfortable with the system and the software. As a first step though, it would be a good idea to compose individual emails to all your students with the course URL, course login and password information as well as instructions on how to access WebCT. The following handout provides you with an outline checklist of all the items that you may include in your initial email as well as in the Syllabus module, followed by an example template for each.

Email Checklist

• Course Code and Title
• Course URL
• Course Login / Password
• WebCT access information
• Technical Support Contact Information

Syllabus Outline Checklist

• Note from your Instructor
  This can be an introductory message from you (the instructor) to welcome all your students to the course and provide them with important information on how to access the course and get started.

• Instructor Contact Information
  You can provide your students with relevant information such as your contact phone number, email and office hours and location.

• Course Outline and Objectives
  It would be a good idea to provide your students with the objectives of the course and an outline of the topics and subjects that will be covered in your course.

• Course Schedule
  You can also provide your students with a rough time-line for the course and provide the important dates for mid-term exams, finals or project deadlines. This is especially important for online learners.

• Course Format & Tools
  You can talk about how online technologies will be incorporated into your class, i.e. what proportion of the class will be online, what online tools will be used, and how students will be graded based on their use of these online courseware.
  

• Grading
  Students need to know how they will be evaluated. You may want to provide them with the criteria of evaluation for your course.

• Technical Tips
  It is recommended that you provide a Technical Tips section to alert your students on possible technical problems that they may encounter, provide tips on how to trouble-shoot these problems and the contact information for Support Resources that can offer technical assistance.
  

Example Email

Hi <coursename> students,
Thank you for registering for "<course name>" for <Fall, Spring, Summer I/II> semester, <dates of semester> at Texas A&M University. This course will be offered online (or this course will be web-assisted with weekly face-to-face meetings).

The course web page address is: http://webct.tamu.edu. To access this web page, you will be required to open up an Internet browser such as Netscape or Internet Explorer and type in http://webct.tamu.edu in the "address" or "location" field of your browser window.

Once you connect to the TAMU WebCT home page, click on "myWebCT logon" and enter your Neo account login and password and select "Okay." You will be taken to your myWebCT page. Click on the name of the course to enter. Contact technical support at any time if you have problems getting in.

Contact Information: Help Desk Central: 845-8300 or helpdesk@tamu.edu

Best Regards,

Your Course Instructor
<Please provide your contact information here>

Syllabus Example

• Course Instructor Contact Information

  Instructor Name:
  Office phone:
  Email:
  Website:
  Office Hours:
  Office Location:

• Teaching Assistant (TA) Contact Information: (if applicable)

  TA Name:
  TA Email/Phone:
  TA Office Hours/Location:

• Course Objectives

  The objectives of the course are:
  <Please list objectives here>

  The requirements/assignments of the course are:
  <Please list here>

• Course Schedule

• Course Format

  This course is a web-based course. You will be required to access some of your course materials as well as communicate with your classmates over the Internet. To eliminate any frustrations and technical problems, you should take time before the course begins to:

  • be sure you have acquired the text for the course
  • connect to our website
  • visit each link and review the information there
  • test the real audio for your machine

 

• Course Tools

  The primary communication tools are WebCT's Mail, Threaded Discussion, and Chat tools. Online resources concerning WebCT tools are available at <http://lot.tamu.edu>

  In order to access some course materials, you will need the following plug-ins. To view video presentations, you need to ensure that an appropriate media player application like Real Player is installed on your computer. You can download RealPlayer Basic version 8 for free from the following website: <http://www.real.com/products/player>

  
  To hear the audio presentation, you need to be sure that your computer has a functional sound card and speakers. The RealPlayer Basic software will allow you to hear the audio portion of the course.

Technical Support

If you have any questions or comments regarding the technical aspects of this course, please call contact the CIS Central Helpdesk at (979) 845-8300 or e-mail them at cis@tamu.edu. They can assist you with the configuration, installation or troubleshooting of the software and the Internet connection.

Please check with your internet service provider to insure that no firewalls exist that may inhibit access to the course.