Burlington County College "075"

WebBoard Manual

Logging into WebBoard

Students

For the Fall 2006 semester, students in all "075" sections have access to a WebBoard where they can discuss appropriate topics with their faculty members and classmates. To access your WebBoard:

Connect to the Internet and launch your web browser
In your browser's address window, type the URL (web address) of the board you wish to access.

· http://webboard.bcc.edu/~eng075

· http://webboard.bcc.edu/~mth075

· http://webboard.bcc.edu/~rea075

In the Name: box, type your BCC username

· BCC usernames consist of your first name, followed by an "underscore" and then your last name, without apostrophes or spaces. Therefore a student named Frank O'Brien-Smith would have a BCC username of frank_obrien-smith

In the Password: box type your BCC default password

· BCC default passwords consist of the date-of-birth BCC has on file for you in MMDDYY format with no punctuation and no spaces. For example, a student born on Jan, 1, 2001 would have an initial Password of '010101' (without the quotes) and a student born on November 25, 1976 would have an initial password '112576' (without the quotes).

Click the Log In button.

Faculty

Connect to the Internet and launch your web browser
In your browser's address window, type the URL (web address) of the board you wish to access.

· http://webboard.bcc.edu/~eng075

· http://webboard.bcc.edu/~mth075

· http://webboard.bcc.edu/~rea075

In the Name: box, type your BCC e-mail username (not your e-mail address, just the username)
In the Password: box type your BCC default e-mail password. Contact your Academic Division or the Educational Technology Center for more information, if needed
Click the Log In button.

Editing Your User Profile

Every user has a profile, which contains information WebBoard uses in various ways. The most important way is that it stores your login name and password. Your profile also includes your email address, as well as information other users can view (such as your professional information, hobbies, and other interests). You do not have to include personal information if you don’t want to.

User profiles contain the following required fields, plus optional information:

Login Name (required)
This name is your unique key for entering WebBoard. You were assigned this name by the WebBoard administrator.
First Name (required)
This name is normally your real first name.
Last Name (required)
This name is normally your real last name.
Password (required)
This entry is masked (shown as *s) for security. You can change your password to protect your postings and user information. Faculty should change their passwords the first time they login to the system! When changing your password, you must enter the new password twice on the form to ensure you typed it correctly. The password is never shown to other users.
Email Address (required)
This address is included with each message you post to make it easy for other board members to respond to you directly and in the Search User list.

You can edit your user profile at any time, by following these steps:

Click More on the WebBoard menubar. The More Options menu appears.
Click Edit Your Profile from the More Options menu. The User Profile page appears.
Make any changes necessary (see the list below). Do not leave any required field blank.
Click Save to update your profile. WebBoard responds with an Edits Saved message.
Continue with your WebBoard session.

Conference Moderators (075 Faculty)

Faculty in English, Math and Reading 075 at BCC are set-up as Conference Moderators. Conference moderators have full authority to manage a conference and its messages. They can edit or delete messages posted by any user in the conference and modify conference settings.

Course Sections in English, Math and Reading 075 at BCC are set-up as private conferences. Private conferences are open only to those users designated as members by the WebBoard administrator, board manager, or conference moderator. Faculty should check conference members periodically to make sure that conference membership matches their official class roster, available from WebAdvisor. To view conference users, follow these steps:

On the More Options menu, click Moderator; (the Moderator link is only available to you, not your students) you’ll be presented with a list of conferences for sections which you teach.
In the Select column, click Users to the right of the section you wish to view. The "Add users to Conferencename" form opens. Any users in the conference appear in the Conference Members list box. If a student appears on the list but not on your roster, click the name. It is removed from the list, then click Submit. If a user appears on your roster, but not on your WebBoard list, contact the Board Manager or System Administrator.

Posting a Topic Message

When you post to a conference, you are starting a new topic. If you have something to contribute to the general theme of a conference, but it doesn’t relate to an existing topic, you can start a new topic.

To post a new topic, follow these steps:

Select a conference by clicking the conference name or expansion box (+ to the left of the conference name).
Choose from one of these two ways to display the Post form:
From the WebBoard menubar, click Post.
From an open message, click Post on the message menu.
Enter the new topic name in the Topic field. Keep the topic name short.
Choose any of the following options by checking the appropriate boxes in the menu at the top of the message posting form:

Convert line breaks to HTML breaks to automatically turn line breaks into carriage returns or blank lines. If you deselect this option, all lines in your message are run together. (This option is selected by default!)
Preview/Spell check to review and spell check your message: this is a default setting. For details, see Spell Checking Your Message, below. (This option is selected by default!)
Attach File to attach a file to your message. For details, see Attaching Files and Pictures to Your Message, below.

Type in your message. Note that:

· You can include HTML tags for formatting. (Because browsers interpret HTML tags, you must use the normal escape characters for angle brackets if you want HTML tags to appear as text—or substitute square brackets for angle brackets as a shortcut.)

· You can include links to other web pages and images. Note that any links you include must have the full URL, such as http://www.myserver.com/linked.html.

When you complete your message, click Post. Depending on which options you have selected, WebBoard either posts your message immediately or allows you to preview and spell check it. Previewing and spell checking is discussed in the following sections.

Spell Checking Your Message

You can spell check any message you post on WebBoard by using WebBoard’s built-in dictionary. To spell check your message, follow these steps:

Check Preview/Spell check on the Post message form. (This option is selected by default!)
Enter your message and click Post. The Message Preview window opens. Your message is spell checked, with occurrences of misspelled words flagged as hypertext links.
Click each flagged misspelled word to see WebBoard’s suggestions for corrections. You can either select a word from the list or enter a new one in the textbox.
Click Done to return to the message preview. The corrected word is shown in the message. Repeat these steps if necessary.
If you are dissatisfied with your message after correcting the spelling errors and want to change it, click Back on your browser to redisplay the original Message form.
Once you are satisfied with your message, click Post. Your message is posted to the conference.

Attaching Files and Pictures to Your Message

Attaching files to your WebBoard messages is a handy way to give users ready access to information that doesn’t fit well in a text message. You can also attach digital pictures, which display in the message. Your browser must support file attachments (Netscape Navigator 2.0 or higher; Microsoft Internet Explorer 3.0 with plug-in, or Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher) for uploading files. Almost any browser can download file attachments. Additionally, those who want to open the files must have the same or similar applications to open them.

Note:

The WebBoard administrator has configured the 075 conferences to allow only one attachment per message.

To attach a file to your message, follow these steps:

Check Attach file on the Post message form.
Type in your message and click Post. If you selected Preview/Spell check or Preview, complete the preview and click Post. The Attach a File form opens.
Click the appropriate Category radio button for the file you want to attach. The category you select causes WebBoard to display the corresponding icon next to the file-attachment link in your posting, which gives other users a quick idea of the file type. The categories are as follows:

Application if this is an application.
Audio if this is a sound file.
Document if this is a text file.
Image if this is a graphics file.
Multimedia if this is a multimedia file.
Inline Image if this is a digital image file (such as JPEG or GIF).
Unknown if you do not know what type of file you are uploading.

Enter the name and path to the file in the File to upload field;
– OR –
Click Browse to select the attachment you want to upload from your computer. A File Upload dialog opens. Navigate through your folders to select the attachment. Click Open to continue or click Cancel to return to the file attachment form. If there is no Browse button, your browser doesn’t support file attachments.
Enter the description of the file attachment in the File description field.
Click Upload Now to attach the file to your message. Depending on the size of the file and speed of your connection, this process may take a few minutes. Your message is immediately posted to the conference. The attachment appears as a hyperlink at the end of the message. If the attachment is an image, it should display in the message body (although the administrator can configure a board so that images also appear as links). An icon indicating the file type and the size of the file in kilobytes follows the filename.

Posting a Reply

You can post a reply to any message within a topic. For example, if a topic has 10 messages, you can reply to the first message or to the tenth message. Whenever you reply to a message, your new message is indented under that message in the Conferences list to show other readers the thread of the conversation. Replies are displayed chronologically within each topic.

You can alert specific users to your message by addressing it to their attention. You can also reply to a posting privately, by sending an email message to the original message poster.

Replying Publicly

To reply publicly to the message you are currently reading, use one of the following options:

Select Reply from the menu at the top of the message you want to respond to.
Select Reply/Quote from the menu to include text from the original message.

WebBoard displays a message-creation form for you to complete. The form is the same as the one for posting a new topic except the topic from the current message is displayed. You can use this topic or change it. Otherwise the form works the same as described in “Posting a Topic Message” above. Please refer to that section for details.

Replying Privately

Rather than post a reply to the whole conference, you may prefer to send a reply only to the individual who posted the message. WebBoard lets you reply privately to the message author by email. If the author has checked Hide my email address on his or her user profile, you can’t send a private response. To reply privately to the author of the message you are currently reading, use one of the following options:

Select Email Reply from the menu at the top of the message you want to reply to.
Click the poster’s email address link in the From field of the message.

WebBoard starts the email program associated with your browser with the recipient’s email address included (but not the topic or any text from the message posting). You must enter a subject and your response. You may also want to cut and paste the WebBoard posting to provide context for the recipient.

Note

Sending email replies uses your web browser’s email capability. Your browser must be set up to send email; WebBoard itself does not provide this capability.

Editing a Message

All users can edit messages they have posted. Moderators can edit messages any user has posted. For example, if you want to add or remove information from a message--including removing file attachments--you do so by editing it. Or, if you want to change the topic for a message, editing it is the way to do it.

To edit your message, follow these steps:

From the Conferences list, locate the message you want to edit. Click its name to display it in the Message menu. Click Edit from the message menu. An Edit Message form opens.
Make the desired changes to the topic or text.
Choose any of the options by checking the appropriate box(es) in the menu at the top of the message-posting form.
Make edits to the message body.
To remove a file attachment, check the box next to the attachment.

When you complete your edits, click Post. Depending on which options you have selected, WebBoard either posts your message immediately or allows you to preview it (with or without spell checking) and/or attach a file. Previewing and spell checking are discussed earlier in this chapter. If this conference is moderated, the message is not posted until the moderator verifies it.

Deleting a Message

All users can delete messages they have posted. Moderators can delete messages any user has posted. Moderators (Faculty) are responsible to enforcing WebBoard rules and BCC policy!

To delete a message, follow these steps:

From the Conferences list, locate the message you want to delete and click its name.
Click Delete from the message menu. WebBoard displays a message asking if you are sure you want to delete the message. Once deleted, a message cannot be retrieved.

Click Yes if you want to delete this message. Your message is immediately deleted from the conference.
Click No if you want to keep this message in the conference.

Logging Off WebBoard

When you are finished with your WebBoard session, you can simply point your browser at another site on the Web, or you can officially log off WebBoard. The Logoff button in the menubar takes you to another page designated by the WebBoard administrator. Often this page provides more useful information about the site or other related sites. If this board uses basic authentication, a page displays telling you to close your browser to achieve a truly secure logoff.

Note

If you click the Back button in your browser afer logging off, you are returned to WebBoard without having to log in again. If security is an issue, you should close your browser or clear your browser’s cache. You should also not have WebBoard remember your password.

Going to Another Board on the Same Site

Many WebBoard sites have more than one board, each with its own set of conferences and messages. For instance, if you are a student taking English and Math 075, or a Faculty member teaching English and Reading 075, you can easily switch boards without having to log off and back on. When you click the List Boards link, WebBoard displays a list of all the boards on this site that you have visited. To go to another board on the same site, follow these steps:

From the WebBoard menubar, select More. The More Options menu opens.
From the More Options menu, click List Boards. A list of boards appears.
Click a board name to go to that board.

Need More Help?

The WebBoard system has a robust help menu. Log onto your WebBoard and click "Help" on the menubar, and then select a help topic from the list presented.