WebCT CALENDAR

Best Practices Tips and Tricks | Student Tutorial

Calendar allows instructors to display information about class events. There is only one Calendar within a course. Depending on the calendar settings chosen, both instructors and students can post public calendar entries (visible to everyone in the course) or private ones (visible only to the author). Entries can be written in simple text or HTML. Calendar entries may include links to course content or to external Web sites, reminders of assignment due dates, changes to instructor office hours, or any other scheduling information you wish to record.

With the Calendar tool, you can:

Note: The Calendar Wizard will take you, step-by-step, through selecting a month or day to view and through adding a calendar entry.

Adding, Editing, and Deleting Calendar Entries

From the Calendar screen, click on [Add entry] or click on the hyperlinked date to which you wish to add an entry.

If you click on the hyperlinked date, the View Day screen appears. Click the [Add entry] button. The Add a Calendar Entry screen appears.

Complete the selection drop-boxes and text fields for your calendar entry:

  • Date: the hyperlinked date is automatically selected; you may change the date if you wish
  • Summary: provide a brief description of the entry, which will be displayed in the calendar
  • URL: allows you to include a hyperlink to a Web site in your entry. The Summary then becomes the underlined title of the hyperlink.
  • Internal Link: allows you to link to a content document, a document in a content module, by selecting the content page from the Internal link drop-down list.
  • Detail: provide the details that are not included in the Summary. The Detail is viewed only by clicking on the hyperlinked date in the weekly or monthly calendar.
  • Start Time and End Time: allows you to associate start and end times with your entry
  • Access Level: specify the access level by selecting Public, which will allow all course members to view the entry, or by selecting Private, which will display the entry only on your calendar, select Private. Note that Private entries will appear in italicized text.

Click [Add]. The View Day screen appears displaying the summary and details of your new entry.

From the View Day page you can:

  • view the previous day or the next day
  • view the calender by week (click on [View week]) or by month (click on [View month])
  • [Edit settings], [Import entries], [Clear public entries], [Delete all from course] - these selections are covered in detail below
  • add a new entry (click on [Add entry]) - note that more than one entry can be added to a date
  • select an existing entry and edit it (click on the round button to the left of the entry and click on [Edit])
  • select an existing entry and delete it (click on the round button to the left of the entry and click on [Delete])
  • delete all the entries from the day (click on [Delete all from day])

Importing Calendar Entries

This option allows you to import multiple entries to the calendar. Importing entries is a three-step process. First, you create a comma-delimited text file containing the calendar entries you want to import (see the WebCT Help pages for information on creating comma-delimited text files). Second, you upload it to the WebCT server. Finally, you import the file. The most frequent use of this function is importing calendar entries from another WebCT course and that is the example covered in this tutorial.

Begin by downloading the calendar entries from another WebCT course (explanation of download process) and uploading into the targeted WebCT course, the course in which you're importing the entries.

From the Month or Week or Day View of the Calendar, click on [Import entries].

Click on [Browse] which brings up the My-Files for the course. Select the appropriate calendar file, which was uploaded from another WebCT course and click on [Add selected]. This action will return you to the Import from File page and will insert the selected file into the Filename box. Click on [Import]. The Import Confirmation page will list the imported calendar entries. If the information is correct, click on [Continue] and the Month View of the Calendar will appear. All the imported calendar entries should appear.

Compiling and Downloading Calendar Entries

You may wish to compile calendar entries for printing or downloading.

From the Calendar screen, click [Compile entries]. The [Compile entries] button also appears on the View Week page. The Compile Calendar Entries screen appears.

From the Month, Day, and Year drop-down lists, select the date range for the entries you wish to compile.

If you want to apply additional parameters to your search (eg. A word that appears in the Summary of a particular calendar entry), select the calendar entry field you wish to search from the Criteria drop-down list. From the Comparison drop-down list, select the comparison term to apply to your search. In the Value text box, enter the value you wish to search.

You can choose to search Public entries only, Private entries only, or Both.

Click [Compile]. The Compiled Calendar Entries screen appears displaying your search results. If you wish, you may print your compiled calendar entries by using your browser's Print command.

Click on [Download] to download the compiled entries to your local computer. Your browser's file download screen will appear with the Unhandled File Type window. Click on the [Save File As] option.

Click on [Done] to return to the monthly view of the calendar.

Editing the Calendar Settings

Click on [Edit settings] from the Month or Week or Day View of the Calendar.

The default setting for Student entries allows students to make private entries. If you students to be able to make public entries, select this option as well. Some instructors allow students to make public entries for a specified period of time and after this period of time they de-select this option. For example, you might want to temporarily use this option for some sort of student sign-up.

The default setting for Default instructor access determines that the default access level for a new calendar entry is private. If you want the new entry access level to be public by default, select the first option.

Click on [Update] when you have finished editing the settings.

Clearing the Calendar

Clearing the calendar of all public entries or of all entries can be done by clicking on [Clear public entries] or [Clear all from course]. These buttons are found on the Month, Week or Day View pages. When you click on one of these buttons, you will be given two warnings. If you give an [OK] response to both of these warnings, the calendar entries will be cleared and cannot be recovered.