Announcing WorldClassRoom Web Enhancement

We are pleased to announce that beginning Spring 2008, all classes that meet face to face will have a course home page in WorldClassRoom (aka WorldClassRoom web enhancement).

WorldClassRoom is an online courseware program that can help enhance learning in traditional classes. This is called web enhancement. WorldClassRoom allows every course to have a home page where students can utilize tools of the teacher's choosing. For example, teachers may include online discussions to encourage contributions from students that don't share often in class, or a collection of articles that need to be read prior to class, or a quiz that will provide immediate feedback and grading.

WorldClassRoom tools have been specially organized to extend the physical classroom experience, allowing teachers to focus their attention on those teaching tasks that are fully realized in the classroom setting. We encourage you to fully use the WorldClassRoom to enhance the learning environment of your course, but please be advised that it may not be used to replace any normal contact hours of the class.

Connections Course Tools, the collection of collaborative tools available to all courses via the Connections Portal, will be replaced with course home pages in WorldClassRoom, the same full featured courseware used by online classes. The home pages have been specially configured to extend and enhance the classroom experience by giving faculty new options like accepting assignments, delivering quizzes, and tracking grades online. We encourage you to fully use the WorldClassRoom to enhance the learning environment of your course, but please be advised that it may not be used to replace any normal contact hours of the class.

These new course home pages will be available to students and faculty the same way Connections Course Tools were available - by selecting the My Courses channel inside the Connections Portal. This change does not affect other areas of the Connections Portal such as Email, Calendar, and Groups; these tools still exist and are accessed as normal.

On Dec. 21, students and faculty will no longer have access to Fall 2007 Connections Course Tools course home pages via the My Courses channel. However, these course home pages will be available through a special channel if needed.

On Dec. 22, faculty will have access to their Spring 2008 course home pages in WorldClassRoom via the My Courses channel to prepare course content. Students will gain access to these pages on January 4th for graduate courses and January 11th for undergraduate and M.A.T. courses.

Announcing WorldClassRoom Web Enhancement Faculty Support Center

In conjunction with the change to WorldClassRoom for web enhancement, we are pleased to announce a new Web Enhancement Faculty Support Center. This comprehensive training and support site has answers to common questions, listings of training opportunities, advice for web enhancement, and most importantly, full training videos available by specific topics.

The WorldClassRoom Web Enhancement Faculty Support Center is available from the Faculty tab in the Connections Portal. Click here for help.