Ken Steele wrote:
>Mike: How do you like WebCT? I found it to be cumbersome and
>have discovered that there are PD perl scripts that one can use
>more flexibly.
I'm quite surprised to hear the negative comments about WebCT. I have
taught intro psych totally online for five semesters now, the last three
with WebCT, and our students take to WebCT very quickly, much faster than
the combination of web/e-mail/FirstClass that we used initially. I have
steered away from the bells and whistles like Chat and Whiteboard, which I
have found to be distractions to learning; I have found that the basic
WebCT is very conducive to the cooperative learning activities and other
social interactions that I emphasize. The learning curve for WebCT course
designers is as easy as I can imagine for someone like me, who wouldn't
know a perl script from a pearly gate.
Larry Dickerson
Selkirk College
Castlegar, BC Canada
