Temporary Course Student Account for WebCT Courses
October 2006
1. Introduction
1.1. Students at Anglia Ruskin University are entitled to an individual WebCT account, providing
a) they are studying an Anglia Ruskin module or course that has been previously identified to
have a WebCT component and b) the student’s registration record on the student administration
system (SITS:Vision) meets certain criteria.
1.2. The Rules, Regulations and Procedures for Students (April 2006) state that a student must be
registered for the academic year before commencing his/her course(s) of study. It follows,
therefore, that for access to IT facilities (including WebCT), the student’s record on SITS:Vision
must show that the student is currently registered for the current academic year. In addition, a
student may also need to be enrolled on a particular module in order to get access to a specific
WebCT live delivery.
1.3. It is recognised, however, that there may be occasions when the required criteria are not met at
the beginning of the teaching period, but immediate access to a WebCT live delivery is
desirable either for a student or a group of students. Some examples of such situations are given
below:
•
The student was unable to get his registration details completed during Registration Week
due to personal circumstances;
•
The student is being sponsored by a third party and there is a delay in processing his
registration details;
•
The WebCT live delivery course starts earlier than Registration Week.
1.4. It is recognised that, from the student’s perspective, if there are problems with getting access to a
WebCT course, to download materials for example, this can provide a negative experience to
the student, which could reduce the value of e-learning.
1.5. For the reasons outlined above, and from September 2006, a temporary course student account
will be assigned to each WebCT current live delivery. It will be specifically for the purpose of
facilitating access for all the students required to access the live delivery until such time as each
student is assigned his/her own individual WebCT account.
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2. Considerations on using a temporary course student account
2.1. The previous section has outlined the reasons for a temporary course student account for each
live delivery. A temporary course student account means that no individual is allocated to the
account – in other words it is anonymous. There are a number of issues to take into account.
2.2. From the student’s perspective:
2.2.1. If there is an anonymous account as part of an online student group, this may have a
negative impact on the students themselves as they may not know who this person is, or
why there is an anonymous account at all;
2.2.2. A student who uses a temporary course student account may still have to use his personal
Novell username, which may be confusing for the student.
2.3. From the lecturer’s perspective:
2.3.1. As the account is anonymous, the lecturer cannot track who is using the temporary
account and thus monitor access to his WebCT course;
2.3.2. The lecturer who is delivering the WebCT live delivery has to manage the temporary
course account such as resetting the password;
2.3.3. As the temporary course account can be used by more than one person, the password
may get changed by one person thus blocking access to the other persons.
2.4. From WebCT Systems’ perspective:
2.4.1. As the account is anonymous, no useful tracking of this account for security reasons can
be undertaken;
2.4.2. The account could be used by more than one person thus reducing security;
2.4.3. Given that all students on a particular WebCT course should have their own individual
WebCT account, a temporary account is theoretically redundant and thus becomes an
“inactive” account. Having inactive accounts on the WebCT server reduces the server’s
performance.
2.4.4. Temporary accounts require manual input, unlike individual students’ WebCT accounts
which are automatically generated;
2.4.5. All temporary active accounts (including the temporary course students accounts) are
included in the total number of student accounts for WebCT licensing purposes.
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3. Managing the temporary WebCT course student account
3.1. As outlined in 1.4, a temporary course student account will be assigned to each WebCT current
live delivery.
3.2. A live delivery is for the delivery of an online course and will have students attached to it. They
can generally be recognised by the presence of date related information in the WebCT course
code eg EC1234567_2006-7_SEM1.
3.3. A current live delivery is a WebCT live delivery that is being currently delivered. Once the
teaching period has finished, then the WebCT live delivery is not current.
3.4. Dates for teaching periods, the start and end dates of Semester 1, Trimester2, HS3 etc are
derived from SITS:Vision, which have previously been agreed at university level.
3.5. The temporary course student account will last for a defined period commencing from the start
date of the teaching period eg Semester 1, after which the account will be removed. Prior
notification will be given before the removal of the account.
3.6. The management of the temporary course student account will lie with the designated Primary
Designer of the WebCT live delivery. This will include the resetting of the password and
controlling its usage. If the temporary account becomes redundant before the date of its removal
(see 3.5), then the Primary Designer of the WebCT course can use the Deny Access facility to
prevent the temporary account being used.
4. Other Temporary Access Requirements
4.1. It is noted that temporary access has been requested for reasons other than that outlined in this
document. In the majority of cases, the requirements of such requests would not be met by a
temporary course student account as defined above. To ensure that Anglia Ruskin is complying
with its licensing obligations, and to eliminate any security risks of temporary accounts, such
requests will be dealt with separately.
5. Review of Policy
5.1. This policy will be annually reviewed. Feedback from WebCT staff users will be sought to
ensure that all university functions are able to fulfil their remit.
Carol Everett
Learning Development Manager
5 October 2006
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