Email
 

The email system within WebCT is a closed system. It does not connect to any outside email clients, and can not be forwarded to your regular email account. You need to be in WebCT to read WebCT email.

While initially this may sound like a disadvantage, it really isn't. Because it is all kept within WebCT, there is no chance that you will accidentally delete it from your regular email because you did not immediately recognize the sender's name, etc. We strongly encourage you to use the email with WebCT rather than using your outside email account.
The WebCT email system works very much the same as any web based system. Under Communication Tools, you will find an icon for mail. As the icon on the left shows, there are green lines coming out of the mailbox. This is an indicator that you do have new mail. If the green bars are missing, you do not have any new mail.
When you click on the mail icon, you will see the menu above. It will show the status of the messages. All messages, both those you receive and those you send, are kept for the duration of the course. You will not need to delete messages. Having this record of receive and send can be very helpful in tracing a student's progress in the course.
Clicking on the Inbox will bring up a list of all the messages. Right now it is shown in the "Show all" mode. To see only those you have not read, click on the underlined "Show unread" link. Clicking on the underlined title of the email will open the email. From within the message you are reading, you will have the option to reply.

Once you have clicked on a message Subject to open it, you may want to respond to the message. Scroll to the bottom of the message. You will see the following information:

From within the message you are reading, you will have the option to forward, reply, quote, or download. Let's take a look at each of these options.

  • Reply will bring up an email form already addressed to the sender. Nothing will be in the message area.
  • Forward will allow you to send this message on to someone else in your course.
  • Quote will also bring up an email form addressed to the sender. The original message will be in the message area. You can place your cursor in the message or at the top of the message to type in your reply. This is the preferred way of responding, since it keeps the flow of the topic together in one message.
  • Download will allow you to save the message on your hard drive as a text file.
  • Close will simply close the current message.

If you click on , the following form will appear:

 
Other than the Send To blank, all other functions are the same as any web based email system. For the Send To, click on the Browse button. This will bring up a list of the students in your class. Highlight the one you want to send the message to and click Done. If you want to send the message to the entire class, click the first name on the list, hold down the shift key, and click the last name on the list. This will select everyone. If you want to select several names, but not everyone, click the first name you want, hold down the control key, and click on the other names, and then click on Done. In any of these scenarios described, clicking Done will put the names in the Send To line. When you are done writing the message, click Send to post to the student or students.
The majority of your work for an online classes will be submitted to your instructor in the form of a Word document. To do this, you will attach the Word document to an email within WebCT.
Within the email format, you will see the area shown above. To attach a document, you click on the Browse button. This will access your hard drive. Navigate to where the document is located on your hard drive and highlight it. You should see something similar to what is shown below. In this case, the document called Chronology of Events is the document to be attached. Now click OPEN at the bottom of that screen. On this example you will see a red box around the button. You will not actually be opening the document, but rather selecting it to be sent.

Now you will see that the path to this document has been inserted into the blank in front of the word Browse. Now click on Attach file to actually attach it to the email. If it is just in the box in front of browse, and you don't click Attach file, it will not be sent with the email.

To check that it is really attached, you will see it listed under attachments as shown below.

If you wanted to remove it, click the box in front of the name of the document and then click on Remove attachments.

If there is an attachment to an email, you can recognize it by the paperclip in front of the message. Open the message as usual by clicking on the subject of the message.

Now you will see that the message box has a little different look with the paperclip present and the words, "See Attached" next to it. Click on this paperclip to bring up the next menu.

Click the radio button so the dot appears in the circle, as seen in the illustration to the left. Then click Download. You will be given the option to Open or Save the document. Depending on your ISP, you may or may not be able to open the document directly. Some message types are not supported by all providers. If there is more than one attachment, you will need to download each one individually.

The best option is to click Save so that the document is saved to your hard drive. Select a name and location for the document and save it. You can then open it from your hard drive using the same program in which it was created.

One feature often missed is the ability to Compile messages. Near the bottom of the mail page you will see the following information:

In front of each message is a check box. If you check several of these boxes, and then click on the Compile command, it will place these messages into one document. You may wish to put all the answers from one student into a document to view their progress. You may wish to put all the messages on a particular topic together. This compiled list can be easily printed for future reference. The Compile feature also works in the Discussion Board.