Designer Help Administer Reset a course

Reset a Course

The user data in a course needs to be reset ready for the next teaching period. Resetting a section of a course clears ALL user data from that section.

eg: Discussions

Before resetting you need to Backup the course. When the Calendar is reset both public and private calendar entries for all users in the course are removed.

If you want to keep an archived copy of user data before resetting the item select the appropriate link below:

• Archive and keep mail messages
• Archive and keep discussion messages
• Download and keep WebCT student records

You can then proceed with resetting your course.

From the Designer Link menu

1. Click on Manage Course
2. Click on the Reset Course link

• Select the checkbox beside the items you want to reset (you can choose multiple items) or
• Click the Select All button to select all items in the list.
• To clear a checkbox (if you decided you do not want to reset that item) click on the checkbox or
• Click the Select None button to deselect all items.

Once you have selected all items you want to reset:

• Click the Reset button

A warning message will come up asking if you would like to continue resetting the selected areas.

Click OK to continue or Cancel to return to the course reset screen without making any changes.

To exit the Course Reset Screen WITHOUT any changes being made:

• Click the Cancel button.

Archive the Mail messages

You can create an archive folder and move any remaining mail messages into it to remove them from the main listing. To do this from the Mail page:

• Select Create Folder
• Name the new folder, then click Create
• Select the folder containing messages
• Select the message/s to be archived
• Select the name of the new folder you created for your mail backups from the pull down menu
• Click Go

All Mail Messages will now be in the new archive folder. You can keep this folder in your WebCT unit as long as you need to. You could also compile and download the messages in the folder to save them on your computer as a text file.

Clear all Mail Messages

From the unit Home Page:

• Click on the Mail icon
• Click on Messages to remove messages in all folders
• Click on Delete all Course Mail to remove all messages and mail folders except inbox, outbox, draft and all.
• Click on Delete

Moving messages to an archive forum

If you want to keep some of the Discussion board postings, perhaps those containing Assignment information or an introductory message, you could create a private discussion forum to archive these messages.

From the Discussions page (with Designer Options selected):

• Select Create Topic
• Type your new topic title into the text box (eg. Archives)
• Click Create button

Your topic will be listed.

• Select the check box next to the topic title.
• Select the check box for Private, Anonymous or Locked, based on your choice.

Private topics are available only to those chosen to be on the Member's List. The designer can choose to have a private topic restricted to tutors and designers, or private topics for students working on group assignments.
 
Anonymous topics allow Discussion forum members to post to the forum without their name attached to the message. This could be useful for feedback on the unit.
 
When a topic is marked as Locked, no more messages can be added to the discussion.

• Click the Update button

The screen will refresh with a message indicating success or otherwise.
 
Saving and downloading Discussion messages

To download messages for future reference:

• compile all messages into a file (Option 1) or
• save individual messages as files (Option 2):

Option 1: Archiving the Mail messages

In the Discussions area,

• Select the topic All (All shows the messages from all public discussion forums)
• Click Display All to show all discussion messages
• Tick the box beside subject to select all messages
• Click the Compile button
• Click on Download
• Follow your browser's download instructions

The file will be downloaded and saved to your computer.

Option 2: Select individual messages and save to a file

In the Discussions area,

• Select the topic All
• Select the the discussion messages you want to keep - for example, you may want to save discussion messages posted by one user only or messages posted on one particular topic
• Click the Compile link
• Click on Download
• Follow your browser's download instructions

Deleting Discussion Messages

Option 1: Delete All Postings but retain Forum

In the Discussion Area,

• Select the topic All
• Select Display All
• Click subject to select all messages
• Click Delete

Note: Each discussion message has a number. When you delete all postings but retain the forums, the message number will be reset to zero.

Option 2: Delete all replies but retain original instructor postings

In the Discussion Area,

• Select the topic All
• Select Display: All
• Select Delete
• Click on Delete the Selected Messages,then click the Go button

Note: New posting numbers will continue from the last number used.
 
Option 3: Delete all Topics and Postings by Resetting the Discussion tool

• Click on Manage Course
• Click on the Reset Course link
• Select Discussion Tool from the areas to reset menu
• Click the Reset button

Note: This option deletes all messages. Message numbers will be reset to zero.

1: Download the student records to your computer

From the Designer Links

1. Click on Manage Course
2. Click on Manage Students
3. Download from Option: Records pull-down list. Click Go
4. Select comma as the record separator
5. Click on Download
6. Choose the directory/folder on your computer where you want the file stored
7. Click on Save

Upload the student records into an Excel spreadsheet.

1. Open Excel
2. Click on File
3. Choose Open
4. Choose the directory where the student file was downloaded (on a PC select files of type: text files)
5. Double click on the file name. The text import wizard comes up

   Step 1 - for file type click on the delimited button. Next.
   Step 2 - for delimiter type, click on the comma button Next.
   Step 3 - for column type, use the general default Finish.

6. Print the spreadsheet. Check against your WebCT student records to be sure all records are there
7. Exit Excel

2: Delete the students

From the Designer Links Menu:

1. Select Reset Course
2. Click the checkbox next to Student Database
3. Click the Reset button
4. Return to the Manage Students screen

To delete columns from the student database

From the home page:

1. Click on Manage Course
2. Click on Manage Students
3. Under Organize, select Manage Columns
4. Click in the check box at the top of each column you want to delete.
5. Select Delete Columns from Actions Menu