How to Use the Student Presentation Tool

Student Presentations

Student Presentations enables you, or a group of students, to create a presentation and upload it to your WebCT course. You and your group members, and the instructor, can then see your work. A student presentation is prepared in two steps: first, you create the presentation as a set of linked HTML files; then, you upload it.

Creating a Student Presentation

First, you will need to create your presentation as a set of linked HTML files. You typically do this outside of WebCT using programs such as Netscape Composer, Dreamweaver, or Front Page. Microsoft Word also allows you to save files in HTML format if you are unfamiliar with these other programs.

Important: The filename of the first page of your presentation must be "index.html". 

After creating your web-based presentation, you will then need to upload these files into your presentation folder in the Student Presentations area of your WebCT course. You must upload your files using WebCT's built-in file transfer protocol.
Click on the link to Student Presentations on your course menu. A list of "groups" should appear. Groups may consist of a single individual or any number of students. 

If a project is available for viewing, the title will be listed under the Description column and will be hyper linked. Clicking on the title will bring you to the first page of the student presentation. The four groups shown below have no hyper linked title in the Description column, which means they have not yet uploaded their projects.

 Student Presentations

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Uploading your file into the Student Presentation

Student Presentation
To upload a file, click on the Edit Files link next to your group name. When you do this, you will come to your Manage Files area.

Under Options: Files, click the Upload button.

Uploading Student PresentationUploading a Student Presentation Action Menu

The Upload File screen appears. To locate your files, click Browse. A browse window appears. Locate the file you want to upload, select it by clicking on it, and then click Open. Your file name should appear in the box next to Browse:

The Upload File screen appears. To locate your files, click Browse. A browse window appears. Locate the file you want to upload, select it by clicking on it, and then click Open. Your file name should appear in the box next to Browse:

Click on Upload to finish. You will have to upload your presentation one file at a time. If you have graphics or images on your web page, don't forget to upload these files as well. If you want to upload multiple files at once, zip them first using WinZip (PC), or another file compression application and then upload the .zip file. How do I zip files? How do I unzip files?

  • If you want to view the contents of a folder, click the folder name (e.g. ZZulu).
  • If you want to view the file, click the file name (e.g. index.html).

Student Presentation
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How do I edit my files?

You may edit your files (click the box next to your file and choose Edit from the Actions menu box), but you will have to be familiar with HTML codes to do this. If you are not comfortable editing HTML files and you need to edit a file, download the file, edit it using an HTML editor and then re-upload the file.

Student Presentation

If you return to the Student Presentations page, the title of your project should now be hyper linked (If you named the first file of your project "index.html").
Student Presentations

If not, you will need to go back to the File Manage area (by clicking on the [Edit Files] link) and "Rename" your first file.

If you need to, you may download a file from your presentation folder to your personal computer.

From the Student Presentations screen, click the Edit Files link. The Manage Files screen appears. Files are listed under the folder that shares a title with your group name. Select the checkbox next to the file you want to download. Under the Options: Files list on the Action menu, click the Download button. The Download File screen appears. 

Student Presentation Download Files

To download the file, click Download. A dialog box appears. Follow the instructions in the dialog box to save the file on your computer. To open the downloaded file, close or minimize the WebCT Browser, if necessary, and open the file on your computer.
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Zipping Files 

You can zip (compress) several files into one file. Use this feature if you want to download more than one file at a time.

  1. From the Student Presentations screen, locate the group that contains the files to zip and in the Files column, click Edit Files. The Folders and Files screen appears.
  2. Locate and select each file you want to zip.
  3. Under Options: Files, click Zip. The Zip Files screen appears, displaying all files to be zipped.
  4. From the Zip the selected files to drop-down list, select a destination folder.
  5. In the Filename text box, enter a name for the zip file.
    Filenames can contain any of the following: a–z, A–Z, 0–9, comma, space, _, &, ( ), , ., and ~
    The following cannot be used as the first character in the filename: dash (-), tilde (~), and space. The following cannot be used as the last character in the filename: period (.) and space.
  6. Click Zip. The Folders and Files screen appears and the files are zipped.

After you download the zip file to your computer, you can unzip the file with WinZip (PC), ZipIt (Mac), or another file compression application.

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Unzipping Files

You can unzip the contents of a zipped (compressed) file. A zipped file can be identified by the zip extension.

  1. From the Student Presentations screen, locate the group that contains the zip file to unzip and in the Files column, click Edit Files. The Folders and Files screen appears.
  2. Locate and select the file you want to unzip.
  3. Under Options: Files, click Unzip. The Unzip File screen appears, displaying the file to be unzipped.
  4. From the Unzip to drop-down list, select a destination folder.
  5. Click Unzip. The Folders and Files screen appears and the files are unzipped.

Note: Don't forget when you are logged into your course online WebCT HELP is available from the menu bar at the top of the screen.

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