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Folder 2, Topic 1: How enrolled students end up in their WebCT units

Page history last edited by Vyt Karazija 15 years, 11 months ago

Question

How do enrolled students actually end up in their WebCT/Blackboard units?

Answer

The automatic system

After newly-enrolled students complete all required enrollment procedures and pay their fees, they are entered in the VU database (VUSIS). It can take 12 - 48 hours or more for their details to appear because this is essentially a manual data entry scenario.

The system then searches the VUSIS for new students and copies them into the WebCT/Blackboard database. Only then can they can be swept into the specific units for which they are enrolled. This is usually done automatically at 6am each day.

Only when all steps are completed will a student appear in your WebCT/Blackboard unit.

The manual check and override: The Check User tool

Sometimes you will want to add students manually to your unit. (see Topic 8 in this folder). You can't do anything until they are in VUSIS - and in peak load times (such as start of semester) it can take up to 48 hours to process stragglers and add them to VUSIS.

However, once they are in VUSIS, if you can't wait till 6am the next morning for the automated process to load students into your WebCT/Blackboard unit, you can give system a nudge with the Check User tool.

Enter the ID e.g. "s1234567" for a student (or "firstname.lastname" for staff) in the field provided, and, provided they exist in VUSIS, the Check User tool will not only tell you if they are on the WebCT/Blackboard database, but will add them for you without waiting for the next 6am automatic update cycle. You can not accelerate or bypass the process if they are not yet on VUSIS, so everything depends on the existence of the student record on VUSIS.

CAUTION: The Check User tool just adds the person to the WebCT/Blackboard database, not to the unit itself. If you don't want to wait for the automated system to do this, you will still have to add them to the unit by using the "Enrol Members" button in the Gradebook as described in Topic 8.

The whole process is summarised below: