WebCT Vista Service Pack 5 and 6 Release Notes

Upgraded Java Version Required

Older versions of Java runtime environment (i.e., anything below J2SE v 1.4.2_06) are not supported with service pack 5.  The current version linked from the WebCT site is Java 1.4.2_09. Directions for obtaining this version locally can be found here: /facstaffresources/ltc/news/upgrade.asp

New Features and enhancements from WebCT

Browser checker:

• When errors are found in a user’s browser configuration, a message now appears at the top of the Browser check results pop-up window to prompt users to scroll through the results to see which areas need to be reconfigured.
• A JRE version check has been added to the Browser Checker workflow.

Tools

Assessments:

  • When creating calculated questions, Designers can now specify to calculate variables and answer sets up to 100 decimal places. Numbers less than 0.00001 will appear in scientific notation.

Assignments:

  • The display of student names for assignments has been changed; student names will now display as Student first and last name, then student username. This also applies when assignment submissions are compiled and downloaded.
  • When an existing assignment is changed from gradable to non-gradable, the corresponding grade book column remains. Section Instructors and Teaching Assistants are able to edit or delete the grade book column.
  • When you choose to sort Assignment submissions by name, they are now sorted by Last Name instead of First Name.

Grade Book:

  • Grade book column titles that are too long to display are abbreviated in the column display. The abbreviated column titles will now display the full title when you hover your mouse pointer over the title.
  • When sorting grade book columns, members are sorted by the selected column and then ordered by Last Name and First Name.

HTML Creator:

  • Up to 4,000 characters can now be entered into the HTML creator editing area.

Mail:

  • The user names of students now always display to Section Instructors and Teaching Assistants. When the Mail setting "Display user names in Mail tool and messages" is set to false, user names can now be hidden from students.

Reports and tracking:

  • The Student tracking report now shows all students enrolled in the course, instead of only the students who have had some activity in the course.
  • Information in the Student Tracking report can now be sorted by the First Access or Last Access column.

Issues resolved in Service Packs 5 and 6

Assessments and Question Database:

  • Fill in the blank questions with alternate answers are now being graded correctly.
  • Numeric answers in short answer and fill-in-the-blank questions are now evaluated as text rather than as numbers, ensuring correct comparison of numbers with decimal points.
  • Answers to matching questions in an assessment can no longer be reordered once a submission has been made. Previously, reordering answers to matching questions caused errors in grading.
  • In Assessments, when the "All or nothing" grading scheme is selected for a multiple choice question, to get the answer correct, a student must choose all (and only) the responses that have positive percentages associated with them. Previously, the score on the question was incorrectly calculated by summing the selected responses. Now, it will only be possible to get 100% or 0% on each question, as expected.

Assignments:

  • Assignment properties (including assignment instructions) can now be edited and saved after the due date.

Chat:

  • When using Windows® XP, within a chat session you can now copy and paste text from Windows programs into the Chat text box. For example, you can copy text from Microsoft Word into the Chat text box.

Discussions:

  • The HTML tags display has been fixed. When viewing and previewing discussion messages, HTML tags should no longer display.
  • Question marks can now be used in Discussion category, topic, and message titles.
  • When grading topics, the Total Messages Read, New Messages Posted and Replies Posted columns now display the correct number of messages in each student’s message count.
  • When replying to a message, if the HTML creator was turned on the original message was cleared.
  • Files attached to Discussion messages will remain viewable from the discussion message even if the files are moved or deleted via the File Manager.
  • The order of topics in the Topics, Move to and Copy to drop-down list is now consistent with the order in which the topics appear on the Discussions screen.

Grade Book:

  • Section Instructors were unable to save the content in an alphanumeric grade column if the content exceeded the maximum number of characters allowed. A warning message now appears if users exceed 255 English characters (approximately 85 International characters) in an alphanumeric grade column.
  • When rounding numbers in the Grade Book, if the significant digit is 5 or higher, then the number will always be rounded up.

Group Manager:

  • Auditors can now use sign up sheets to join groups.

HTML Editor:

  • WebCT now uses version 4.2.106.1 of RealObjects edit-on® Pro WYSIWYG Java-based HTML editor, making it easy for non-technical users to create and edit content. For more information about the RealObjects edit-on Pro editor, see http://www.realobjects.com/.

My WebCT:

  • My WebCT now allows all users to show or hide individual courses that are displayed in the Course List Channel.
  • The error message that appears when a section does not yet have a template assigned for students is “There is no content associated with this course.”

WebDav:

  • Corrected an issue seen by some Windows XP clients using WebDAV to access folders with spaces in the name.