During-Semester Checklist

This page contains an administrative checklist to help you cover the steps you may want to take for your WebVista course site as you teach over a semester.

Demo Your Site for Students

The first day of class you may want to familiarize your students with your site. Give them sample discussions, assignments, and assessments to submit to make sure their browser is properly configured and they are comfortable using the tool.

Solve Content Problems

If students experience problems with content in your site, try the following.

• Have them review the Browser Set Up information.
• Provide links so students can download appropriate Content Plugins to view files in different formats that are included on your site.
• Verify other content problems in the Student View.
• Refer to Fixing Content Problems for how to deal with commonly reported problems. See the WebVista Materials handed out in UTTC classes for more detailed information about fixing content.

Manage Columns and Student Data in the Grade Book

Use the Grade Book to manage student grades and enrollment information. See the WebVista Materials handed out in UTTC classes for information about setting up and using the Grade Book.

Access the Grade Book

1. In your WebVista site click the Teach tab.
2. In the Course View sub tab, from the Course Management Tools toolbar, click the Grade Book button, or in the Tool View sub tab, under the Course Management Tools column, click Grade Book.

Some activities you may want perform in the Grade Book during a semester include:

• hide and reorder columns,
• manually enter student grades, and
• release grade columns to students.

Create Columns

Vista’s discussion, assignment, and assessment tools automatically create columns in the Grade Book. For other gradable class activities you can manually create columns.

1. In the Grade Book on the right above the member listing, from the Create Column drop down menu, select the type of column you want to create.

   Column types:

   • Numeric columns allow you to enter numbers only.
   • Text columns allow you to enter text only.
   • Alphanumeric columns allow you to enter numbers or text.
   • Calculated columns allow you to specify a formula (that can include other numeric columns) to come up with a numeric value.
   • Letter grade columns allow you to calculate a letter grade based on the numeric values of another column.
   • Selection list columns allow you to specify one or more text values that can then be selected.
2. Click the Go arrow.
3. Each column type has different options. See the WebVista Materials handed out in UTTC classes for step-by-step instructions.

Hide and Reorder Columns

Columns can be reordered or hidden in any of the Grade Book tabs. Reordering or hiding columns in any of the tabs except the View All tab will only affect the instructor view of the grade book. The ordering of columns in the View All tab affects the ordering of items in the student’s My Grades tool, but not the item’s visibility. To make columns hidden or visible to students, see Hide or Release Grade Columns from/to Students below.

Reordering Columns

1. In the tab you want to customize, click the Reorder Columns button above the member table on the left.
2. Select the checkbox for the columns you want to move.
3. Click the Select Items Before icon that is at the row below> the column where you want to move the selected items.
4. Click Save.

Hiding Columns

1. In the tab you want to customize, click the Reorder Columns button above the member table on the left.
2. Select the checkboxes for columns you want to hide.
3. Click the Hide button. (You can also change the Visible setting to NO for any individual row.)
4. Click Save.

Manually Enter Student Grades

Grades for discussion postings, assignments, and assessments are entered automatically in the Grade Book. Instructors and teaching assistants can manually enter grades. You can enter or change:

• data for multiple students,
• one item for a single student, and
• multiple items for a single student.

Enter or Change Data for Multiple Students

Changing data for a column is useful when you wish to enter the grades for all or many students for a particular activity.

1. Click the title at the top of a column and choose Edit values from the drop down menu.
2. Under Current Value Change To enter your first student score.
3. Use the Tab key to move to the next student(s). Enter scores for the remaining students.
4. Add Comments for any student you desire.
5. Click the Save button.

Enter or Change One Item for a Single Student

1. Locate the row for the student for whom you want to enter grades.
2. Scroll to the right and find the column for which you want to enter a grade.
3. Click in the cell in that column for that student.
4. In the Edit Value for screen enter or change the score.
5. Add Comments if you are changing the score.
6. Click the Save button.

Change Multiple Items for Single Student

You can enter or change multiple items for one student at the same time.

1. Click the last name of the student for whom you want to enter grades.
2. From the drop down menu click Edit Member.
3. From the Edit Member screen enter grades for that student using the Tab key to move to the next item.
4. Click the Save button.

Hide or Release Grade Columns from/to Students

Grades from Vista tools are not always automatically released to students. For the Assessment tool you can specify what students see when you create the assessment. For all other grade columns, you must manually release them before students can see their grades in the My Grades tool.

1. In the Grade Book, above the member table on the right, click the Column Settings button.
2. In the first column of the table look for the row called Released to Student.

   You can hide or release:

   • individual columns,
   • multiple columns, and
   • all columns.

Releasing Individual Columns

1. Locate the column you want to hide or release.
2. In its Released to Student row, click No. The value is updated to Yes. Any grade in the column is not visible to students in the My Grades tool.

Releasing Multiple Columns

1. In the table-heading row, for each column that you want to release, select the check box.
2. Click the Release button. Grades in all the selected columns are now released to students in the My Grades tool.

Hiding or Releasing All Columns

1. Next to Select All/None<, select the check box. All columns are selected.
2. Click the Release button. Grades in all the selected columns are now released to students in the My Grades tool.

Communicate with Students

WebVista has a number of tools you can use to communicate with your students. See the WebVista Materials handed out in UTTC classes for information on setting up and using communications tools.

Access Communications Tools

1. In your WebVista site click the Teach tab.
2. In the Course View sub tab, from the Course toolbar, click the communications tool (announcements, calendar, discussions, mail, chat or whiteboard) that you want to access.

Some communications activities you may want perform during a semester include:

• prevent students from creating public calendar entries.
• create a printable view of calendar postings.
• inform students of guidelines for discussion or chat participation.
• lock a discussion top to prevent students from making additional postings.
• grade student postings to a discussion topic.
• release discussion grades to students.
• compile and download discussion postings.

Prevent Students from Creating Public Calendar Entries

By default, students in a Vista site have the ability to create public calendar entries. Unless you want to use this option, you will want to turn it off.

1. From the Course Toolbar click on the Calendar tool.
2. From the pop-up menu select Go to Calendar tool.
3. Above the calendar on the right click on Edit Settings.
4. Under Section Settings deselect Allow Student public entries.
5. Scroll down to the very bottom of the window and click the Save button.

Create a Printable View of Calendar Entries

If you want to back up all the public and calendar entries from a course site, you can use Printable View.

1. Below the calendar click on the Create Printable View button.
2. Select a date range for your class. The Time Range by default covers 24 hours, so unless you want to limit the entries included, don't change the start and end time.
3. You can Filter results by selecting a particular type of entry.
4. Under Course Selection, select the radio button for either:
   • Show entries from all my courses, or
   • Only show entries from these courses.
5. If you selected Only show entries from these courses, deselect the course you don't want to include.
6. Under Access Level select the radio button for one of the following:
   • private entries only,
   • public entries only, or
   • both private and public entries (default).
7. Click Continue.
8. Click the Print button. (Mac users will be prompted to click Command+p.) If you want to save the entries to a file you will have to select the printable view and copy and paste it into a word processing document.
9. Click Cancel when finished.

Inform Students of Guidelines for Discussion or Chat Participation

Before asking students to participate in a discussion, you will need to inform them about expected behavior, participation guidelines, and whether or not their postings will be graded. This information can be added to the discussion topic when it is created. For long discussion postings, we recommend that people create the message in a word processing program and copy and paste into Vista.

See the Practicing Good Netiquette and Participating in the Learning Community Student Support pages on this site.

Lock a Discussion Topic to Prevent Students from Posting

1. From the Course Toolbar click on the Discussions tool.
2. From the pop-up menu select Go to Discussion tool.
3. Click on the Edit Settings link at the top of the Messages window.
4. Click the check box for Locked.
5. Click the Save button. Notice the lock icon next to the discussion topic.

Grade Student Discussion Postings

After students have posted to a discussion topic for a while, you may want to lock the topic to prevent additional postings. Locking is different from setting availability to No. Students can still see and read locked topics. You might want to do this before you grade student postings, but it is not a requirement.

1. From the Course Toolbar click on the Discussions tool.
2. From the pop-up menu select Go to Discussion tool.
3. Click the title of the discussion topic you want to grade.
4. For the topic you want to grade, under options, click Grade Discussions.
5. In the frame on the right find a student and click on the name.
6. From the pop-up menu choose View Student Posts.
7. Evaluate the posting(s) and in the left frame, under Grade Discussion, type in a grade in the text box up to the maximum number of points.
8. In the right frame click on Discussion Activity Overview.
9. In the frame on the left click Save Grades.

Release Discussion Grades to Students

Vista doesn&'t automatically release discussion grades to students. You must manually release the discussion column in the Grade Book. For step-by-step instructions, see Hide or Release Grade Columns from/to Students.

Compile and Download Discussion Postings

1. In the Discussion tool, click the title of the discussion topic for which you want to compile postings.
2. From the Messages screen, select the messages for which you want to create a printable view:
   • To create a printable view of one or more messages, next to each message for which you want to create a printable view, select the check box.
   • To create a printable view of all the messages in a thread, next to the first message in the thread, select the check box.
   • To create a printable view of all messages in the topic, in the table-heading row, select the check box.
3. Click the Create Printable View button. The Compile Messages pop-up window appears giving you the option of printing compiled postings or saving them to a file.
4. If you want to print the compiled messages:
   1. Click Print. (Mac users will have to use Command+p).
   2. In your browser's print dialog box, make your selections to print the compiled messages.

4. If you want to download the compiled messages:
   1. Click Save as File. (Mac users will have to use Command+s to save to a file).
   2. In your browser's save file dialog box, make your selections to save the compiled messages to the desired location on your local computer.
5. When you are finished viewing the compiled messages, click Close this window. The Messages screen appears. Note: Once you have compiled messages, they are marked as read.

Manage Assignment Submissions

See the WebVista Materials handed out in UTTC classes for information on setting up and using the Assignment tool.

Access the Assignment Tool

1. In your WebVista site click the Teach tab.
2. In the Course View sub tab, from the Course toolbar, click the Assignments button or in the Tool View sub tab, in the Other Tools column under Assignments, click Drop Box.

Some assignment activities you may want perform during a semester include:

• grade student assignment submissions,
• release the assignment grade to students, and
• publish assignment submissions.

Grade Student Assignment Submissions

1. In the Teach tab click the Tool View sub tab.
2. Under Other Tools scroll down and under Assignments click on Dropbox.
3. In the Submitted tab of the Dropbox find the View by drop-down menu on the upper right, select the assignment you want to grade and click the green arrow.
4. Click the title of a student's submission.
5. If the student's submission is an attached file, click the link under Student Attachments to download the file.
6. Enter comments in the Grader/Reviewer Comments text box. You must enter something in this box.
   1. If you wish to attach a file, click the Add Attachments button.
   2. In the File Browser window, click the Upload File button.
   3. In the Upload File window, click the Browse button next to File.
   4. Locate and select the file you want to upload.
   5. Click Save.
7. Under Save Options select the radio button for Return graded submission to Student(s) with the following grade.
8. In the text box type the number of points.
9. Click the Save button. The student's submission moves to the Graded tab.

Release the Assignment Grade to Students

Vista doesn't automatically release assignment grades to students. You must manually release the assignment column in the Grade Book. For step-by-step instructions, see Hide or Release Grade Columns from/to Students.

Publish Assignment Submissions

Instructors can publish individual and group assignment submissions so other course members can view. Published assignments do not show grades or grader comments.

To allow students to publish their submission, the option must be chosen when the assignment is created.

1. In the Graded or All tabs of the Assignment Dropbox find the assignment submission you want to publish.
2. On the right, under options, click on the Publish Controls icon.
3. In the Publish Controls pop-up window click the Publish button.
4. The assignment submission now appears in the Published tab of the dropbox and is now visible to all class members.

Manage Assessment Submissions

See the WebVista Materials handed out in UTTC classes for information on setting up and using the Assessment tool.

Some activities you may want to perform during a semester include:

• release assessment results to students, and
• view and download assessment reports.

Release Assessment Results to Students

By default, Quiz scores are set to not be released to the student in the My Grades tools.

1. From the Teach tab click the Tool View sub tab.
2. Under Assessment Manager click Assessment Settings.
3. In the Assessments Settings window locate a quiz and from under options on the right, click Edit Settings.
4. In the Edit Assessment Settings window scroll down to see the Student score release area.
5. To release assessment results and scores chose one of the Release the score options.
6. To see which assessment results are released to students by default, expand the More Options area by clicking the green arrow.
7. Select or deselect checkboxes to choose the results students will see for this assessment.
8. For more information on results settings see the Assessment Settings page.
9. Click the Save button at the bottom of the window.

Release Assessment Grades to Students

If you choose not to release scores immediately or forget to release them when creating an assessment, you can release the score in the Grade Book. For step-by-step instructions, see Hide or Release Grade Columns from/to Students.

View and Download Assessment Reports

With Assessment Reports you can compile and print information about student performance(s) on a quiz or survey including.

1. From the Teach tab click the Tool View sub tab.
2. Under Assessment Manager click Reports.
3. In the Assessment Reports window use the Assessment Title drop down menu to select the quiz or survey for which you want to view student performance. (Self-Tests do not show as an option for an assessment report.)
4. Select the radio button for the type of report you wish to run. Some report types also require you to use the drop down menu to choose to display your results arranged by All Class members or by specific User IDs.
5. Click Run Report.
6. Any report can be downloaded to your desktop as a comma delimited file by clicking the Download Records button.
7. Open the file with a spreadsheet program like Microsoft Excel.
8. When finished looking at reports, click the Assessments breadcrumb, or use the Tool View drop-down menu.

WebVista Version 4

• Instructor Support
• About Version 4

WebVista Version 3

• Site Log In
• Browser Set Up
• Instructor Support
• Student Support
• About Version 3