Illinois Compass (WebCT) Tips and How-tos

How to Post to a Discussion Forum

2011-05-20T11:13:00.002-05:00

How to Take a Quiz and Check Your Score

2011-05-20T10:59:00.002-05:00

How to Submit an Assignment

2011-05-20T10:52:00.009-05:00

New tutorial on creating learning modules

2010-10-28T09:55:00.005-05:00

Learning modules let you present all of the resources for a specific topic (e.g., one week of class) as a cohesive unit, rather than requiring that students visit several different areas of your Compass course.
This video tutorial covers the basics of creating a learning module.

To Hide or Move Courses in Your Course List

2010-08-31T10:18:00.006-05:00

1. Log in to Compass, and from your Course List page (the first page you get to, before entering any course site), and click the Edit Course List button:

2. You will see a list of all of the course sites you have access to in Compass. From this page you can click the Hide Link button to hide any courses you no longer need to access. After you hide a course, the Hide Link button will change to a Show Link button, so at any time you can go back and show a course again.

3. You can also reorder the courses in your course list by using the Move buttons on the same page. First, check the checkbox to select the course you would like to move, and then click the Move button next to the course in the list where you would like to move the selected course, and then choose to either Move Selected Above, or Move Selected Below:

Downloading Student Assignments in Batch

2010-02-11T10:55:00.010-06:00

To download all student submissions for a particular assignment:

After you unzip the file you save, you will have a folder for each student who submitted the assignment, in that folder will be an html file that contains the student's name, and the file the student submitted for grade.

Create an Outlook Distribution List

2009-08-26T11:50:00.003-05:00

Click on image to open instructions

Retrieve email addresses from class roster in Banner

2009-08-20T13:13:00.004-05:00

Click on the image to open the instructions

If the image doesn't show above this message, please CLICK HERE to download the instructions in pdf format.

Go to the next tutorial if you are interested in creating an outlook distribution list

How to release grades in Compass

2009-03-11T17:09:00.005-05:00

Click on the image to open the instructions

Re-submit an assignment

2008-12-28T13:20:00.002-06:00

If you have submitted an assignment but realize that you need to make changes to it, you can check if the instructor has enabled the system to allow you to resubmit before the deadline. You will find out either by asking to the instructor, or it will be indicated by an icon in the top right corner of your assignment screen.

This is how you take back the assignment to resubmit:

1. Open the link of the submitted assignment by clicking on its name

2. Click on the top right icon and edit the assignment

For more details watch the step by step instructions following the link "Read the complete post..."
This movie show step by step instructions on how to resubmit an assignment:

Print the text of this Tutorial

Samples of Course Site Organization

2008-12-21T12:23:00.002-06:00

When you start a new course site in IL Compass you will see a link in the front page that links to help files and to samples of course site organization. Watch this movie to see that link displayed.

Print the text of this Tutorial

Create Assignments

2008-12-19T16:25:00.002-06:00

The Assignment Toolallows the submission of assignments by the students or groups in different formats. Follow the video tutorial next to create assignments. You can also go to the CITES tutorial to view and print the instructions.

handout with instructions

Calendar settings in IL Compass(preferences, views, data entry)

2008-12-19T12:21:00.004-06:00

The calendar tool is a robust application that allows users to see in one view all the calendars from the different courses that he is participating in, or that allows them to customize the calendar and even add personal information
This video show to set up the Calendar tool in IL Compass(WebCT)

Click on the image to open the instructions

Side Navigation in Illinois Compass

2008-12-18T14:56:00.000-06:00

How to use the side navigation in Compass

Problems opening a document (IE Browser issues)

2008-12-18T14:49:00.000-06:00

If you are having problems opening a file (.doc, .xls, etc) in Illinois Compass, it may be related to your browser settings. Follow these steps in the video below to solve the problem, also if you prefer to print the instructions, click here: Problem to open or download a document embeded in IL Compass (WebCT)

Step 1: Solve the problem as it occurs

Step 2: Configure your browser so that you don't have the problem again

Java Updates to run IL Compass

2008-12-18T14:36:00.004-06:00

If you cannot open the Chat in IL Compass, it maybe that you need to update Java. First click on the CHECK BROWSER link on the top right corner of Compass.
If your browser is not playing the Java applets correctly and/or is asking you to update your Java Software, it maybe that the version of Java that is installed on your browser is causing the problem. The latest version of Java may be causing some conflict in Compass, so if you have that, you will need to uninstall and re install another version of Java Run Time Environment (RTE) from the Java website.

How do I know what version of Java is running in my computer?

If you have a Windows XP, follow this link

How do I uninstall the previous version?

If you have a Windows XP follow this link

Follow the instructions to download.If prompted, you need to select the Windows Online Installation option.

For a text version of this tutorial, go HERE

How to add students, teaching assistants (TA) or designers

2008-12-18T14:13:00.001-06:00

Those with Instructor Access to a course can add other members to the class. In other ways, only those that can see the TEACH tab in the course window have access to the Instructor Tools and can add other member.

If you want to print or save this PDF, use the icons on top of the document window

Sort View in Gradebook

2008-12-18T13:44:00.000-06:00

The Gradebook default view in IL Compass (WebCT) will show all participants in alphabetical order. But the users can sort them in different ways, click on the link to read the complete post to see the step by step instructions to do it

If you want to sort them so that you only see the students first, this video shows how you can do it:

This second video shows other ways to sort the gradebook view:

Mail Tool in IL Compass (WebCT)

2008-12-18T12:41:00.003-06:00

The Mail Tool in WebCT is very useful because it allows communication between all the participants in a course, and the users can configure the settings so that they receive the messages in their e-mail mailbox whenever new messages are posted in WebCT.
This document explains how to configure the Mail TooL, (Click on the image to open instructions)

Set up Users Profile in IL Compass (WebCT)

2008-12-18T12:15:00.002-06:00

The user's profile is created once and it is displayed in all courses or sites that are using the same Compass (WebCT) server. It is important for the users to show updated information in their users profile so that other users in the system can see.

This video shows how to configure the user's profile, upload user's photo ( and add more information that will show in user's profile in the course rosters):

For a text version of this tutorial, go HERE

Configure settings, profile, mail forwarding, etc. in IL Compass (WebCT )

2008-12-18T12:03:00.000-06:00

How to set up the system so that it forwards messages to the users' mailbox, customize the calendar view, the chat, and other features.

If you prefer to read or print the instructions of the configuration, open this: Adjusting Settings in IL Compass (WebCT) and a new window with a PDF document will be opened.

How to unenroll students in Compass (WebCT)

2008-12-18T11:51:00.000-06:00

To unenroll students from a class, this is what you have to do:

How to upload grades from a spreadsheet into the gradebook

2008-12-11T16:13:00.005-06:00

1. Download the course roster by going to the Gradebook and selecting the button "Export to Spreadsheet" at the bottom of the page.

2. Save that as your "master" spreadsheet for the course roster.

Now that you have that spreadsheet, use it to enter grades to different assignments. You don't need all the columns that show in the Master spreadsheet, you only need the User ID column and the column of the assignment that you want to update.

3. If the column of the assignment is in the Master spreadsheet, leave the name as is, and enter your grades there. If you don't have the column in the Master spreadsheet, then add a column with the name of the assignment that you want to enter

4. Save the spreadsheet as a .csv (Comma Separated Value)

5. Close the spreadsheet.

6. Go to your course gradebook in Compass

7. Click on the button "Import from Spreadsheet"

8. Browse for the file, and upload.

Create Groups in IL Compass -

2008-12-11T11:06:00.002-06:00

Creating Groups in WebCT (IL Compass) is a simple process. First, make sure that the students or Teaching Assistants' rosters have been uploaded. Then you can proceed to create groups. Click on the TEACH tab and follow the steps shown in the movie below,

For a text version of this tutorial go HERE

CITES edTech's Top 10 Illinois Compass Tips & Tricks

2008-12-06T13:00:00.000-06:00

Al Weiss, CITES EdTech Consultant, has provided this useful list with top 10 Compass tips can help instructors save time and avoid frustrations, customize and personalize your course site, and add to the educational value of your online content.

Here is the PDF version of the document,

If you don't see the PDF or want to access the website click here to see the rest of it.

Check browser settings before running IL Compass

2008-11-19T10:08:00.005-06:00

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