Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning (KEWL) A manual for students

Prepared by Derek Keats, Faghrie Mitchell, Anna Scott Last updated: Friday, 02 September 2011 Based on KEWL version 0.4 Beta The University of the Western Cape A place of quality, a place to grow

Preface This manual will help you to follow courses within our online learning system, KEWL. The acronym stands for Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning. This software is home grown at UWC, and developed by IOI Online Services as a product of four years of research into online educational practice by Prof Derek Keats and a team of staff and students. This tutorial manual will introduce you to some principles of online learning, and teach you how to navigate your way around a course using the features of KEWL. Here the focus is mainly on our own built-in courseware tools. We hope that you enjoy it and find it useful. Please feel free to send us your comments, suggestions, complaints, whatever. This document was prepared around KEWL version 0.4Beta. Therefore, some of the screen captures may not look exactly as shown, although the principles illustrated still apply to later versions.

Contents 1. Getting access to KEWL 2. Navigation within courses using the toolbar 3. Asynchronous Discussions 4. Synchronous Tools 5. Worksheets

Chapter 1. Getting access to KEWL

When you go to the KEWL website at [Link] you will see the login screen shown below. If you already have a username and password, enter your username in the Username space (where it says yourUsername below), and your password in the Password space (where it says yourPassword below). Then click the login button. If you do not already have an account on the KEWL system, click the link marked Register yourself as shown in the red circle below.

Once you click the link to Register yourself, you will see the screen shown below.

It is crucial that all information be filled in completely, and that you do not accidentally answer No to the question Is this account active? If select No here, you will not be able to login. If you are at UWC and you know your staff number or student number, please enter them. Students will not be able to access marks, or receive email if they do not use the correct student number. If you are a guest from outside UWC, please use the link to generate your own user ID. Please do not enter numbers that you have made up yourself as you could cause your account not to work. It is also absolutely crucial that you fill in your email address correctly. Therefore, please check it and check it again. The system will email you a password, and if your do not supply the correct email address you will not receive the password and therefore you will not be able to access the system. Once you have received your password by email, go to the login screen at [Link] and login using the procedure described above. Once you have logged in, you will be able to change your generated password to one that will be easier to remember. This will be covered in a later section of this tutorial.

The post-login screen Once you login to KEWL, you will see the post login screen. This screen changes frequently, sometimes 3-4 times a day. Therefore, it may not look exactly as in the version shown here. However, there are some features that will be always available, even if they move around on the actual page. Only some of the key features that you will need to access KEWL will be illustrated here in case this tutorial file goes out of date.

Each feature is numbered in the diagram above. To access a course, choose the course from the dropdown list (1) and click the go button. Within KEWL you can store webpage links within the KEWL favourites (2). These favourites are personalized, only you can see your own links, and they will always be available from KEWL no matter where you login. KEWL has a personal messaging facility (3), and if the envelope is red, then you have no messages, but if it is green, you can click it to check your new messages. KEWL has a root suggestion box (4), where you should leave suggestions about KEWL itself, report bugs, and suggest features that you would like to see in future versions of KEWL. The suggestion box is not for any other purpose, so please dont put suggestions unrelated to KEWL into it. Once you choose a course, and click Go, you can use the next section to learn how to find your way around within the course.

Chapter 2. Navigation within courses using the toolbar Everything that happens in KEWL is based around the idea that you are in a particular course. Therefore, it is essential that you realise what course you are in when you carry out a particular action. Failure to realise this by learners who are registered in more than one KEWL course may result in an assignment being submitted to the wrong course. Once you are in a course, all navigation through the content and tools is done from a toolbar that normally appears at the bottom of every page. If you do not see it on your screen, you will probably need to scroll down.

On the first page of the course, the leftmost button will say At 1, indicating that you are at the first page of the course.

You can navigate to the next page in the sequence by clicking the Next button at the right.

Once you have moved beyond the first page of the course, the left button will change to Prev and you can then use it to navigate to the previous page.

There are two other buttons that play key roles in navigation as indicated below. These buttons allow you to move around in the course in a non-linear manner. For example, move to another chapter, move to a particular page by page number or title, or display all the pages in a chapter at once.

When you click these buttons, a navigation window will drop down. This window allows you to choose the navigation options. In the example below, the right non-linear navigator was clicked.

Course end takes you to the last page in the course (if you clicked the left non-linear navigator you would see Course start). Chapter x end takes you to the last page in the current chapter (if you clicked the left non-linear navigator you would see Chapter x start).

Clicking Chapter titles lists all chapter titles by number and title. If you click the number, you will navigate to the first page in the chapter. If you click List you will get a list of all pages in the chapter.

Once you have a listing of the pages in a chapter, you can click the page number to navigate to a particular page. Clicking Page titles on the dropdown will list all pages in the current chapter, and you can then navigate to a particular page as noted above. Clicking chapter contents will compile all the contents pages for the current chapter show them as a single page. This can be useful if you want to save or print out the current chapters contents. Please note: we are currently working on the non-linear navigator, so the version that you see may not look exactly as shown above. The next button on the toolbar will display the learning outcomes for the current course, if any have been defined by the educator for the current course.

The button with the % symbol on it will enable you to check your marks if any marks have been entered. As a learner in a KEWL course, you will click this button quite a bit!

The button with the yellow note will enable you to read the noticeboard for the current course.

KEWL has a crude built-in email or personal messaging facility. Clicking the button with the envelope on it will enable you to send or read private messages. Note that this is different from the instant messaging features that are still presently under development using Jabber technology.

The educator for your course may have defined some frequently asked questions (FAQ). If you are planning to ask a basic question, you should look at the FAQ first, just in case there is already an answer available. To do this, click the FAQ button, and if there is a FAQ for the current course, you will be able to scroll through the list of questions and answers.

Typically, when an educator prepares a content page she defines a study question that will help guide you towards the important learning points on the page. This study question can popup in the page when you click the study question button.

The image below shows an example of a popup study question. When you are finished reading the question, you can click the OK button to go back to the content page.

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Most courses within KEWL will make use of the KEWL events calendar to keep track of key items such as weekly topics, test dates, assignment due dates, etc. Click the button with the calendar icon to view the events calendar for the current course. The events calendar will open in a new window that can be closed to return to the course content page from which you called the calendar.

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The image below shows an example of an events calendar, containing topics for each day in the course.

Most courses will make use of the online worksheet facilities of KEWL. Online worksheets are assignments that can be completed and submitted via the KEWL system. The educator or a teaching assistant then marks them, and you can examine your mark as well as their comments on your work. To access an online worksheet, click the worksheet button on the toolbar as shown below.

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In some courses, the lecturer has uploaded some files for you to examine using a program other than a web browser. For example, she may have uploaded a word processor file, a spreadsheet, a PowerPoint presentation or any other type of file. To access these documents, click the course documents button on the toolbar.

If your course has essays to be completed, you will be able to access the list of topics and book an essay topic by clicking the button that has an old fashioned typewriter on it. In KEWL, typically, essays are booked on a first come first served basis. Once you choose a topic, it is locked and cannot be chosen by anyone else. You can change your mind if you wish, and choose another topic if one is available. All of this is done through the essay button.

Within KEWL, you have some space that you can use to store files for the courses in which you are registered. We refer to this area as your inBasket. The button with the yellow tray on it accesses your inBasket. You can use it to upload files so that you can access them from another computer, or you can use it to upload assignments for a course. Your lecturer can collect your assignments from here, mark them, and put them back again with comments. This is a very important area of KEWL to get to know.

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The image below shows the screen that appears when you click the inBasket button. Click the Browse button to locate a file on your computer for uploading, and click the Save to inBasket for username button to upload the selected file. Click Browse files to see what files you have in your inBasket at present. Warning! If you upload a file with the same name as a file already in your inBasket, the original file will be over-written and lost. This is a feature of all Beta versions of KEWL, but will be changed in the first nonBeta version.

If you click the link to Browse files, then you will get to the screen shown below. Clicking the filename will cause it to load in the browser if you computer understands the file extension. If you want to download the file, you need to right click the link and choose Save as from the popup menu.

KEWL has a built-in threaded discussion forum, which is a very important feature in most KEWL courses. Click the button shown below to access the discussion forum. The use of the discussion forum is covered elsewhere in this tutorial.

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KEWL also has a built-in webchat facility, which can be used to have realtime textual conversations within a web browser. This is not the same as the Jabber instant messaging facility that will be described elsewhere. Each course has its own chatroom, but you can also create one of your own for a private chat. Access the chatroom by clicking the link indicated below.

KEWL has lounges for learners and there is a button on the toolbar to open it.. If you are logged in as a learner, you will automatically be taken to the learners lounge. Within the lounge you will find interesting links to fun and educational materials that are both inside and outside of KEWL. The items in the lounge are dynamic, and change often.

Once in the learners Lounge you will see a link saying My Personal Space. If you click on that it will take you to a page where you have the options of creating or editing your own home page. Before you fill it in, your page will look something like this:

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KEWL includes the ability for anyone viewing a page within course content to take notes (annotations) for a particular page. Click the annotate button to bring up the page annotator.

The image below shows the KEWL annotation window, the orange background indicates that this is a new annotation. Once there is an annotation for the current page, then the window background changes colour, and the title changes from Add annotation to Edit your annotation.

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To view your annotation for the current page, and have the option to delete it as well, you can click the button with the eye on it.

Clicking the annotation view button brings up the window shown below. If there are no annotations for the current page, the lower window will appear. If an annotation exists, you will be able to view it as in the upper blue window. Note the edit and delete links on the view window.

In a future version of KEWL, we plan to have a user preferences feature, and then you will have the option to have your annotations appear at the bottom of the screen within the page that you are viewing.

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In addition to the toolbar, there are two other links on every page within a KEWL course. These appear at the top of the content window. The Home link takes you back to the KEWL index, but leaves you within the current course. The Logout link logs you out of the KEWL system.

Changing your password and other user details To change your user details and password, look on the post-login screen for the link that says Edit your account as shown in the image below.

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Clicking this link will take you to a screen that is straightforward. You can change your password by entering a new password in the Password box and clicking save. Note that if your email address changes, you should update it here as well.

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Chapter 2: Asynchronous Discussions

Asynchronous Discussions or Computer Mediated Conferencing (CMC) enables a group of users to communicate with one another independently of space and time. This enables people in different parts of the world to engage in a time-lagged conversation. Because the information is stored the user can access it anytime, unlike with synchronous communication tools, where the communicated text is lost unless it is logged by the individual user. Asynchronous tools used on the Internet include web-based discussion forums, news forums such as Usenet, and email. Personal messaging can also be considered an asynchronous tool, but it is closer in nature to synchronous communication since the users mostly try to communicate in near real time. Streaming media can also be considered an asynchronous tool, although it also could be considered more along the lines of content than a communications tool per se. However, it can be used to record and broadcast speech and video, so streaming media can serve an asynchronous communications function. Asynchronous Tools Email Email is a form of one-on-one consultation between learner and educator. Group email or list servers can be considered the electronic equivalent of the traditional tutorial, enabling students to exchange ideas with each other and their facilitator. All messages are received by all the students registered with a particular list server and registered in the relevant course. Email discussions can serve their purpose but they are not the best method to use for asynchronous communication. The main reason for this is that they do not lend themselves well to threading. Threaded discussion is much better for following topic based discussions and following the thread of the conversation. Usenet Newsgroups Usenet News, also known as News or Netnews, is a huge collection of messages which are made available to users worldwide by means of the UUCP and NNTP protocols (Unix to Unix Copy Program and Network News Transfer Protocol, respectively). Individual computing sites appoint somebody to oversee the huge quantity of incoming messages, and to decide how long messages can be kept before they must be removed to make room for new ones. Typically, messages are stored for less than a week, and are made available via a News server (News host). Most Internet service providers and academic institutions maintain a News server. Users access local newsgroups with a newsreader program. Some WWW browsers come with an inbuilt newsreader or you may use a dedicated newsreader program. The newsreader accesses the local (or remote) News host using the News Protocol, enabling 20

you to pull down as many newsgroups and their contents as you desire. If you don't have access locally to News, there is also a changeable list of publicly accessible Usenet hosts. One of the big problems with News servers is that they get thousands of advertisements, everything from pornography to plans for satellite decoders. Also, spambots are software programmes that scan Newsgroups for email addresses. If you post in a Newsgroup without disguising your email address, your email box will quickly fill up with spam as a result of these spambots. Still, Newsgroups can be useful and a good place to search for help on anything under the sun (and some things best kept on the other side of the sun). News servers can also be used to run educational discussions. However, in KEWL we make use of web discussion forums, so we will not deal further with News services here. Discussion Forums Web-based discussion forums go by many names including discussion boards, bulletin boards, threaded discussions, Web conferences and others. It's important to remember the differences between this approach and live chat. Discussion forums are not real-time and do not require that participants be online simultaneously. Discussions let people contribute at their convenience and read through everyone's postings all at once. The postings tend to be longer and more thoughtful than those in live chats. Also, it's relatively easier to jump into the middle of a discussion and "pick up the thread" than it is with a live chat. In a live chat, if you aren't there at the beginning, joining one can feel like walking into somebody's private party. Discussion boards are different. Often, they use an organizing principle called threads, which is a conversation on a single topic--the original message plus the related replies. Threads make it easier to follow the discussion. Nonthreaded discussions put all the messages in a big pile, so that as learners you must figure out for yourselves which replies go with which messages. Because neither threaded nor nonthreaded discussions are in real time, you can read and add to them at your convenience. Discussion forums are better suited than chats for things such as multiperson debates, where someone starts the process, and others can consider the arguments, post counterarguments, and watch the debate evolve over time. You simply can't do that in a fast-paced, short-term, live chat session. They are also good places for your course coordiator to post and guide assignments and engage in group work, and also for you to seek help and get to know your classmates, etc. In the screen capture of one of the discussion forums on [Link] we can see the threaded features quite clearly. Note that Biodiversity and Assignments are primary threads. The + sign next to Biodiversity indicates that it is not expanded, and that it has subthreads. The - sign next to Assignments indicates that it is expanded, and that it has subthreads. The subthreads that lack both + and - signs do not contain any further subthreads. However, the thread Remote sensing practical is expanded and contains one subthread that does not contain any further threads.

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In the forum illustrated below, there are 12 root threads, 3 of which were initiated by the lecturer, Pierre de Vos. A total of 4 of these root threads have subthreads. To open the subthreads, you would need to click the + sign, and the thread will open as shown in the next screen capture. To open the contents of the root thread, or any of the other threads in expanded view, you should click on the hyperlink.

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When you click the + sign next to the thread, you open it to show the subthreads as shown below for the thread entitled Barefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

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To view the contents of a thread, you need to click the underlined hyperlink. Then the contents of the thread will open as shown here. Note that the other links in the thread are visible below the message. You may need to scroll down for longer threads in order to see the links. Streaming Media Streaming Media is the simultaneous transfer and display of sound, sound and images, or sound and video on the World Wide Web. What is so special about it is that it enables the user to watch and listen to it while it is being sent to their browser, instead of waiting minutes or hours for it to download and only then playing it. Streaming media is the next 'big thing' on the Web. A multimedia Web experience can be a powerful tool for learners. Right now, because of bandwidth limitations, streaming media is not so wonderful, although we can link sound with static images quite well. Without adequate bandwidth, the pictures may be fuzzy, the sound occasionally garbled, and the video jumpy and of low resolution. On a LAN or broadband connection, however, streaming media can be of a very high quality. Streaming tools are rapidly growing more and more powerful. The 24

quality today is significantly better than the quality six months ago, and it continues to improve at a phenomenal rate. What is streaming media? To understand the role of streaming media, you need to understand the functioning of the World Wide Web. Web servers are often described as "stateless." What that basically means is that the Web server takes a request for information, pushes that information out the door as fast as it can, completes the transaction, disconnects, and goes on to other requests by other users. On the client side, your Web browser takes the information it receives, assembles it on the screen, and then ignores the Web server until you click on a link. This is all very well for static media such as graphics and text, but moving images and sound are problematic. Unlike a static graphic, video and sound have much larger file sizes. Under the stateless approach you as a user would need to download the entire sound or video clip before it can be viewed. But with the large file size that comes with even a short video clip, the wait is a long one. Clearly another solution is needed. Enter streaming media. With streaming media the goal is to bypass these limitations of the World Wide Web. With streaming media, data is sent to you the user's computer as the media is viewed. So rather than a stateless data connection, streaming media is more of a continuous connection. Much like TV or listening to the radio, you receive the images or audio just before you see or hear them. Note: Paced out over time, the file size of the clip becomes less of an issue. But that is not to say that it is not still an issue. The reality is that raw file sizes for digital audio and video are absolutely huge. So to get them down to a size that works for a modem or LAN, compression is used. The goal of streaming compression is to throw away data that you don't need. That makes the file size much smaller. But it naturally also begins to degrade the picture and sound quality.

Chapter 3: Synchronous tools

In the traditional classroom, learners generally need 2 kinds of interaction in the learning process: interaction with the course content and interaction with people, namely the facilitator and others doing the course. Web-based learning (WBL) is no different from the traditional classroom in this respect. This interaction can take place where everyone is involved at the same time (synchronous), or can involve communication that does not require everyone to participate at the same time (asynchronous) covered in the previous chapter. There are many synchronous communication tools available, including instant messaging, chat rooms, low-cost videoconferencing tools, whiteboards, voice and video conferencing, file sharing, and other techniques for collaboration on a common task. Instant messaging Instant Messaging is the most basic form of synchronous communication. The software shows each participant who else is online at that time, and messages can be addressed to one, some or all those "present". These messages appear instantaneously on the screens of 25

participants, inviting immediate responses. Some users with the right hardware and software can add sound and vision, though these add complexity as everyone can't speak at the same time. The learning environment becomes more like that of a telephone conference call, or even a videoconferencing session. Examples of such software are: icq, jabber/gabber and AOL instant messenger among others. An Example of Instant Messaging: ICQ ICQ is a user-friendly Internet tool that informs you who's on-line at any time and enables you to contact them at will. ICQ searches for your contacts for you, alerting you in real time when they log on. Once you make contact, you can chat, send messages, files and URL's, play games, or just hang out with your fellow 'geeks' while still surfing the Net. ICQ lets you choose the mode of communication you wish to employ. Regardless of the application, be it chat, voice, message board, data conferencing, file transfer or Internet games, ICQ sends your messages to your contact in real time. You can use ICQ to launch any peer- to- peer application (such as Microsoft NetMeeting or Netscape CoolTalk). It can also be used in a multiple-user mode, so groups can conduct conferences or just 'hang out' on-line. The program runs in the background, taking up minimal memory and Net resources. While you work with other applications, ICQ alerts you when friends and associates log in, allowing you to work efficiently while maintaining a wide range of Internet functions at your fingertips. Among the functions available are: chat, message, e-mail, and URL and file transfer. All these functions are consolidated into one easy-to-use program that integrates smoothly into desktop systems. The program runs in your system tray and is green when you are online, and it flash and makes a cookoo noise when someone on your list comes online.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC) Internet Relay Chat provides a way of communicating in real time with people from all over the world. It consists of various separate networks of IRC servers, machines that allow users to connect to IRC. There are many popular IRC networks which are available for general chat. The largest IRC networks are EFnet, Undernet, IRCnet, DALnet, and NewNet. Generally, the user (such as you) runs a program (called a "client") to connect to a server on one of the IRC networks. There are several clients available, including some Java clients that allow IRC to take place in a web browser. The server relays information to and from other servers on the same network. Once connected to an IRC server on an IRC network, you will usually join one or more "channels" and converse with others 26

there. Conversations may be public (where everyone in a channel can see what you type) or private (messages between only two people, who may or may not be on the same channel). IRC clients also enable the participants to send files (textual, audio, graphic, video) to one another. There is plenty of information available about IRC from [Link]

Webchat Webchat is similar to IRC in that it operates in real time with participants all online at the same time, exchanging and responding to textual messages. Webchat is limited in what it can do, but it has the advantage of being able to work through firewalls that do not permit IRC chat to pass through. We currently use webchat for the KEWL chat room, mainly because it is easy to script it to integrate with KEWL. Eventually, we will add other chat features, and give people the option which one to use when creating a course. For now, however, the webchat is the main tool available in KEWL for course-based group chat. Voice conferencing Voice conferencing allows you to engage in two-way to multi-way voice conferencing, rather like a telephone call or a teleconference. This is sometimes referred to as Internet Telephony, and there are some applications that allow the connection between a computer on the Internet and a plain old telephone service. I used to call my father in Canada this way using a free service that has since disappeared. There are lots of free services that allow calls to the USA. Voice conferencing is often part of another application, particularly one that allows video and other conferencing as well. One example is Microsoft Netmeeting. Netmeeting includes text chat, audio conferencing, videoconferencing, whiteboard, and application sharing. We will explore Netmeeting under videoconferencing. Video conferencing Video conferencing enables face-to-face live audio and video communication between learners and facilitators however the present technology is restricted by the amount of bandwidth (which determines how much data of whatever kind can be exchanged at an acceptable rate of transfer) made available. Here we provide two examples of such video conferencing and how to use them. The first is NetMeeting, the second, Cuseeme. NetMeeting NetMeeting allows you to exchange information with friends and colleagues, to collaborate on projects, teach a class, and give presentations. During meetings, you can jointly create documents, spreadsheets, or other files without having the software on each 27

computer. In addition, you can send files to one or all meeting participants. Meetings can be hosted from your computer or a computer called the conferencing server. When hosting a meeting, you choose a meeting name, password, security, and who can be invited to the meeting. When hosting a meeting from a conferencing server, you can access the server and then select a meeting from a list. If a meeting is not named, you can use the default name, Personal Conference, or provide a name of your own. You can also choose to have secure meetings, limit who can accept and invite people to the meeting, and define what tools, such as Whiteboard and Chat, can be used during the meeting. During your meeting you can communicate using Chat, audio, and video; illustrate using the Whiteboard; transfer files; and access remote computers using Remote Desktop Sharing. NetMeeting's audio and video let you see and hear other people. Even if you are unable to transmit video, you can still receive video calls in the NetMeeting video window. With the Chat feature, you can talk with multiple people. In addition, Chat calls can be encrypted, ensuring that your meetings are private. Using the Whiteboard, you can explain concepts by diagramming information, using a sketch, or displaying graphics. You can also copy areas of your desktop or windows and paste them to the Whiteboard. Netmeeting has a limitation that makes it all but useless as a distance learning tool; audio and video conferencing is only supported for two users. If you wish to connect to a group, and have everyone see and hear everyone else, Netmeeting cannot be used. Only the text chat and whiteboard work in multiuser mode. CUSeeme works in multiuser mode, but requires a special server, and unless you get the commercial version, the other collaboration tools are limited. It is for this reason, that we are working on our own audio, video and whiteboard tools for KEWL. However, these are projects that will take some time to mature. To Host a Meeting 1. On the Call menu, click Host Meeting. 2. In Meeting Name, type the meeting name or leave it set to Personal Conference. 3. In Password, type the meeting password, and then click OK to start the meeting.

Notify meeting participants of the time of your meeting, the meeting password, and whether this will be a secure meeting. To create a secure meeting, click the Require security for this meeting check box. Secure meetings are data-only calls. To monitor who joins the meeting, click the Only you can accept incoming calls check box. To restrict participants from inviting other people, click the Only you can place outgoing calls check box. To limit the tools used in the meeting, select one of the options under Meeting tools. If you are hosting a secure meeting, you cannot use the audio and video features. You can activate and deactivate tools at any time during the meeting.

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To join a meeting Call the meeting host or any meeting participant. (see "to place a call")

If you call a meeting participant who is not the host, the call may fail. If so, call the meeting host to join the meeting. When you call a participant, you can remain connected as long as the person you called remains connected. When that person leaves or is disconnected from the meeting, you are disconnected also.

To place a call 1. In the Address bar, type one of the following:

e-mail address computer name telephone number IP address 2. Click the Place Call button. If NetMeeting can determine how to place the call, it does so automatically. Otherwise, the Place A Call dialog box opens. Then, in Using, click the appropriate connection type. If you select security on a call-bycall basis, place your calls through the Place Call button rather than the Address bar or a SpeedDial. The Address bar and SpeedDial do not give you the Place A Call dialog box, which displays the Require security for this call check box. To display a list of people you called recently, click the arrow next to the Address bar. You can create a SpeedDial list for people you call frequently.

To end a call Click the End Call button. To remove a caller from a meeting

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Right-click the name of the meeting participant and then click Remove from Meeting. Notes You can also press SHIFT+F10 to remove a meeting participant. Only the meeting host or the person who initiated the call can remove a meeting participant.

To accept or reject a call When someone calls you, the Incoming Calls dialog box appears. Click Accept or Ignore

Details button also appears. Click it to see the type of security and certificate being used. To stay logged on to the directory server, but be unavailable for calls, on the Call menu, click Do Not Disturb. You also can set NetMeeting to accept calls automatically The Chat Feature Meeting participants can talk to each other simultaneously using Chat. Since only two people can have an audio or video connection, Chat is useful in a group meeting because everyone can participate. When someone sends you a Chat message, the message appears in the Chat window.

To send a message: 1. Click the Chat button to open Chat. 2. In Message, type the message you want to send, then do one of the following: o To send a message to everyone, in Send To, click Everyone In Chat. o To send a message to just one person, in Send To, click the person's name. 3. Click the Send Message button. You can also press ENTER to send a Chat message. The White Board Feature Whiteboard allows everyone in a meeting to draw and type simultaneously. You can add and delete Whiteboard pages, draw shapes, type text, and emphasize an item using the Highlighter or the Remote Pointer. 30

You can copy and paste items between the Whiteboard and other programs, and from windows and areas of your desktop to the Whiteboard. Then, you can use Whiteboard's tools to further illustrate the objects. Other meeting participants can see your work without having access to your desktop.

The Netmeeting whiteboard application. Synchronization allows everyone to automatically view the same Whiteboard page. If you want to work on a page privately, you can remove synchronization to stop the page from displaying automatically, however, other participants can still open the page by navigating to it manually. Removing synchronization does not affect other participant's view of the current page. NetMeeting 3.0 has two versions of Whiteboard: the standard Whiteboard and NetMeeting 2.x Whiteboard. The standard Whiteboard conforms to industry standards, though both versions contain the same features. If everyone in the meeting is using Netmeeting 3.0, the standard Whiteboard is used by default. Otherwise, the 2.x Whiteboard is used by default. To open a Whiteboard

For version 2.x - on the NetMeeting Tools menu, click Whiteboard (1.0-2.x). If all meeting participants are using NetMeeting 3.0, the standard version of Whiteboard is used by default.

Sharing Programs Shared programs allows meeting participants to view and work on files simultaneously. For example, you may have a Microsoft Word document that several people need to work on. You can open the document on your computer, share it, and then everyone can provide their comments directly in the document. Only the person who has opened the file is required to have the program on their computer. Other participants can work on the document without having the program. Only one person can be in control of a shared program at a time. If controllable appears in the title bar of the shared program window, the person who shared the program has control and is allowing others to work in the program. If the mouse pointer has a box with initials, then another meeting participant has control of the program. 31

All meeting participants can share programs during a meeting. The shared programs of each participant appear in separate shared program windows on the other participants' desktops. To share a program 1. Click the Share Program button. 2. In the Sharing dialog box, click the name of the program you want to share. 3. Click Share. To share your computer desktop 1. Click the Share Program button. 2. In the Sharing dialog box, click Desktop. 3. Click Share. To Allow Control of a Shared Program 1. In the Sharing dialog box, click Allow Control. 2. In the main NetMeeting window, right-click the name of a person you want to work in the program, and then click Grant Control. Exchanging Files in a meeting To send a file: 1. Click the Transfer Files button. 2. In the File Transfer dialog box, click the Add File button, and select the files you want to send. 3. Click the name of the person you want to send the file to, or click All to send it to everyone in the meeting. 4. Click the Send All button.

To cancel a file transfer before it is complete, click the Cancel Transfer button. To remove a file from the list, click the Remove File button. You can send a listed file only once. To resend it, click the Add Files button and select the file again. If a file is created while working on a shared program, only the person who shared the program can distribute the file.

If you are accessing the computer from a remote location, on the desktop of the computer being accessed, right-click the NetMeeting icon in the status area, and then click Send Files. To receive a file: Click Accept to receive the file and close the dialog box.

If the Accept button is not clicked during file transmission, it changes to Close after the file is received. Click Close to close the dialog box. 32

To reject the file, click Delete. NetMeeting places the file in the NetMeeting\Received Files folder on your hard disk.

Whiteboards Whiteboards are the electronic equivalent of the traditional blackboard but with the added power of enabling students from different parts of the globe to exchange and add to graphical communication in real time; they can also be linked directly to chat rooms. All participants can annotate the document using the drawing or text capabilities of the whiteboard software. Most shared whiteboard programs use different colors to indicate whose annotations are whose. It is possible to cut, copy and paste information from any Windows-based application into the Whiteboard. You can also save Whiteboard contents for future reference. Loading saved Whiteboard pages enables you to prepare information before a conference, then drag and drop it into the Whiteboard during a meeting. CUSeeMe CUSeeMe has been around since the mid 1990s. This videoconferencing system was originally developed by Cornell University (the CU in CUSeeMe). All you need to use CUSeeMe is the CUSeeMe software, a 28.8 kbps modem, and an inexpensive microphone or camera that plugs into your computer. The software allows low bandwidth video, sound and text chat conferencing at bandwidths equivalent to regular phone lines. CUSeeMe uses a reflector, a server that sends video and chat back to users similarly to what an IRC server does for text chat. In this way, group conferencing can take place. Users don't need to have used videoconferencing previously because CUseeMe Videoware adds value to existing communications in a familiar web-based interface. Netiquette Netiquette is social behaviour on the 'net. In other words, Netiquette is a set of rules for behaving properly online. When you enter any new culture -- and cyberspace has its own culture -- you're liable to commit a few social blunders. You might offend people without meaning to. Or you might misunderstand what others say and take offence when it's not 33

intended. To make matters worse, something about cyberspace makes it easy to forget that you're interacting with other real people - not just ASCII characters on a screen, but live human characters. Here are some basics you need to become familiar with in order to be successful in your online communications:

Use mixed case and proper punctuation, as though you were typing a letter or sending mail. (Never type in all caps. This is considered yelling or screaming online) When using instant messaging or in a chat room situation, don't run off the end of a line and simply let the terminal wrap; use a Carriage Return (CR) at the end of the line. Also, don't assume your screen size is the same as everyone else's. A good rule of thumb is to write out no more than 70 characters, and no more than 12 lines (since you're using a split screen). Leave some margin; don't write to the edge of the screen. Use two CRs to indicate that you are done and the other person may start typing. (blank line). Always say goodbye, or some other farewell, and wait to see a farewell from the other person before killing the session. This is especially important when you are communicating with someone a long way away. Remember that your communication relies on both bandwidth (the size of the pipe) and latency (the speed of light). "Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion. Tact is not its objective. Does Netiquette forbid flaming? Not at all. Flaming is a longstanding network tradition (and Netiquette never messes with tradition). Flames can be lots of fun, both to write and to read. And the recipients of flames sometimes deserve the heat. But Netiquette does forbid the perpetuation of flame wars - series of angry letters, most of them from two or three people directed toward each other, that can dominate the tone and destroy the camaraderie of a discussion group. It's unfair to the other members of the group. And while flame wars can initially be amusing, they get boring very quickly to people who aren't involved in them. They're an unfair monopolization of bandwidth. "Lurking": Any time you enter a new area of cyberspace, it's a good idea to "lurk," or look around, for a while before you say anything. Just log in and read what other people have written before you write anything yourself. That way you'll get an idea of the local mores before you make a fool of yourself. Lurk before you leap!! Netiquette, like etiquette, requires politeness, respect of others privacy, time & bandwith, views etc. Just be aware and adhere to the same standards of behaviour online that you follow in real life. Be ethical. Pay attention to the content of your writing. Be sure you know what you're talking about -- when you see yourself writing "it's my understanding that" or "I believe it's the case," ask yourself whether you really want to post this note before checking your facts There are lots of Email and Online Etiquette or Netiquette sites on the Web which you can refer to. Eg: [Link] .

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Online Worksheets
Worksheets are a feature of KEWL and most other online learning software, and can play an important role in assessment. A worksheet in KEWL is a relatively simple assignment that can be completed online. Currently KEWL worksheets only accept textual answers, but as they can include complex images, they can be used for almost any type of short answer question. They can contain a single question, or they can have an unlimited number of questions in the same worksheet. A module can have multiple worksheets.

Changing the activity status of a worksheet Online worksheets have four levels of status: 1. 2. 3. 4. inactive (cannot be accessed by learners) active and open for work (can be accessed and worked on by learners) closed for marking after completion (can be viewed but not changed by learners) marked for viewing (can be viewed, with comments and marks, cannot be changed by learners)

Only the course co-ordinator can change the activity status of the worksheet.

How to answer a worksheet Question Click on the online worksheet button on the navigation bar This sort of page will come up

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