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New Mexico State University

Resetting Your Course

At the end of the semester, you will want to perform the following activities:

Note: Scroll down to the end of this page to view the WebCT Course Deletion Policy.

Downloading and printing grades

Before you reset your course, it's important to have a paper copy of the grades. The gradebook can be downloaded to Microsoft Excel and printed from Excel.

The following exercise takes you through the process of downloading a text file to your desktop and then importing it into a spreadsheet - in this case Excel.

A. Download the files

  1. In your WebCT course, Click the Control Panel button.
  2. Click the Manage Course button.
  3. At the Manage Course screen, click the Manage Students link.
  4. At the Manage Students screen, click the Download button from the Options: Record list. Then click Go.
  5. At the Download Student Records screen, keep the comma default and click the Download button.
  6. Click the Save button to save the file to your computer.
  7. At the Save As window, rename the file so that you know the course name and the date of this save.
  8. Choose the directory on your computer where you want the file stored. Then click the Save button.
  9. At the download complete message, click the Close button.

B. Upload the files into an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet

  1. Start the Microsoft Excel program.
  2. Click File > Open.
  3. Choose the directory where the gradebook file was downloaded.
  4. Double click the file name.
    The text import wizard comes up.
    a) Step 1 - for file type click the delimited button. Next.
    b) Step 2 - for delimiter type, click the comma button and then Next.
    c) Step 3 - for column type, use the general default. Click Finish.
  5. Print the spreadsheet.
  6. Exit Excel.

Backing Up and Archiving the Course

The following steps take you through the process of backing up a WebCT course and transferring backups to your computer for subsequent archiving. During the semester, you can keep three backups within a course at any given time. 

Note: It is strongly recommended that you make your backups and restores when you are using a high speed Internet service, such as the Internet service on campus.

Caution : Cancelling or aborting a backup or restore activity can cause corruption of your WebCT course.

A. Back up the course

  1. In WebCT, click the Control Panel button.
  2. Click the Manage Course button.
  3. Click the Backup Course button.
  4. At the Backup Courses screen, enter a short description of the file (optional). Then click the Create button.

    The backup file will be created. A Success message appears giving the file name. Click the Continue button. The Backup Course screen appears and shows the file that was created.

    Note: You cannot open this backup like a regular file. It is a proprietary WebCT zip file that can only be viewed when you restore the course into a WebCT course

B. Download the backup file to your computer

If you want to archive a copy of the backup to your computer, follow these steps:

  1. Still at the Backup Courses screen, click the radio button next to the backup that you want to download.
  2. Click the Download button.
  3. Click the Save button to download the file to your computer.
  4. Rename the backup with the name of your course and a date stamp (e.g., CEP215-Sect1-Dec 2004).
  5. In the Save As screen, locate the directory where you want to store your backup. Then click the Save button.
    A Download Complete screen displays when the backup is saved to the computer directory you specified.
  6. Click the Close button.
    Note: You cannot open a WebCT propietary backup. It can only be opened by restoring it to a WebCT course.

Resetting Your Course

Resetting your course at the end of a semester involves a number of steps, depending on the complexity of your course. Resetting involves taking out all the records relating to student performance or contributions to the course, so it involves such areas as the grade book, student tracking, e-mail, discussions, student presentations, student home pages, etc.

A. Doublecheck ...

Before you reset the course, BE SURE you have completed the earlier steps in these materials and have

  • Downloaded a copy of the grade book
  • Backed up the course
  • Archived the backup to your computer

B. Reset the course

  1. In WebCT, click the Control Panel button.
  2. Click the Manage Course button.
  3. At the Manage Course screen, scroll down to find the Reset Course link.
  4. Click Reset Course.
  5. At the Course Reset screen, select the areas you want to reset.
    You can mark all areas if desired, or you can select only the specific areas you want to reset.
  6. Click Reset.
  7. At the Success screen, click the Continue button.
    Once your course has been reset, your former student data will be removed. However, your curriculum will remain.

Re-Designating your Course for a New Semester

You can re-designate a WebCT course for a new semester by using the following link to request the new designation: http://www.nmsu.edu/~training/webct_courserequest.htm

Don't forget to indicate your NMSU username and the specific title of your course requiring the re-designation.

Note: Students can view their previous semester's WebCT courses for up to 30 days into the new semester (at the instructor's discretion). After approximately 30 days into the new semester, students will only view the current semester.

WebCT Course Deletion Policy

To maximize server (Salsa) performance and reduce the number of inactive courses displayed in the students’ myWebCT pages, an archive plan is in place.

This archive plan involves automatically deleting courses from the WebCT server (Salsa) based on the semester. You can maintain two future semesters on the WebCT server (Salsa). Courses older than the current semester will automatically be deleted from the server.

Example:

Fall 07 courses will be removed from student and faculty view in Spring 08 on February 23, 2008.

Follow the above-mentioned backup and archive procedure to retain your WebCT courses.

Note: You can also make manual requests to delete specific WebCT courses from the server by filling out the following form: http://www.nmsu.edu/~training/webct_courserequest.htm