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RE: Use of WebCT

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From: Jeff La Marca
Date: Jul 23, 2005 12:53AM

Hi Annie:

The problems you mentioned were also present in Capella's implementation of
WebCT Vista. In order to use WebCT, it was necessary to disable pop-up
blockers otherwise, WebCT simply would not function properly.

In Capella's case, they were using an expired certificate which meant that
we had to get past that warning just to log in. From that point, it would
take a minimum of nine clicks just to drill down through endless (and
confusing) navigation windows to find a single piece of content. From that
point, things only became worse. Finding content was a navigational
nightmare.

Your mention of icons was also present at Capella - not only were many of
these icons (and other navigation buttons) extremely small and confusing but
such things as breadcrumbs were meaningless (if they were present at all)
because WebCT abbreviated them into alphabet soup.

There were also numerous problems with the template used - not to mention
that it was impossible to enlarge many/most windows, the back button was
often disabled or nonfunctional, fonts could not be changed or enlarged,
etc.

WebCT also appears to be marketed at instructors - not students and, as a
result, the needs of the most important end users are ignored. That,
however, doesn't mean that instructors didn't have problems too - in fact,
every single one of my instructors (except for the one who bought her
"graduate degrees," literally, from a diploma mill - that one is in the
lawsuit) were highly critical of the problems they faced (some couldn't even
log on). One of my instructors was forced to create a private web site
simply because we couldn't find content (i.e., the syllabus, course
requirements, etc.)

Many times it was, quite literally, impossible to upload our assignments
using WebCT and, even when we could, these assignments would then be lost.
Then there was the problem with .pdf files - while .pdf files were commonly
posted (and were supposed to be downloaded as part of the class), it was
impossible to open these. Someone finally figured out that some (not all)
.pdf files could only be viewed by using "save as" to download to the
desktop at which point they could then be viewed locally. Of course, this
was impossible to do if one went to the library because of the security
precautions on those computers. That also brings up the point that WebCT is
a Java application which also cannot be used on many computers for the same
reason.

The extreme slowness of WebCT was also a nightmare - using a VIC-20 would be
faster!

While alt text is important, it isn't the only thing needed to make
something accessible.

Hope that provides a bit more information.

Jeff



-----Original Message-----
From: <EMAIL REMOVED>
[mailto: <EMAIL REMOVED> ] On Behalf Of Annie Belanger
Sent: Saturday, July 09, 2005 7:48 AM
To: <EMAIL REMOVED>
Subject: [WebAIM] RE: RE: Use of WebCT

As a student, I have had to use WebCT and it is in that perspective that I
can outline some of the issues of WebCT only.

It requires the use of pop-ups. They are used extensively from the login
section to verify the security certificate through to opening subsections.

Though you can tab through only a small outline is created on the link
(especially problematic when small icons are meant to be links).

The color template is set up by the university, which may not be tested for
accessibility. For example, the WebCT site I had to use was dark purple and
light purple, with some white and black.

Not sure if styles can be turned off.

On the good side:
Alt text is added to graphical content.

At the end of the day, it is a tool for content posting which is meant to be
used by professors who might not otherwise go live with class notes. It is a
working tool which is very popular. It has its advantages, but some large
shortcomings.

If anyone else has a more professional knowledge of it, I would like to
learn more also.

Annie Belanger
(Canada)


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