Tutorial: Email and Bulletin Board Tools in WebCT

Below are a series of screens that you will encounter as you use the email and bulletin board tools in WebCT.

I. Email

Email in WebCT is an internet email tool. You can only send and receive messages from other participants in the particular WebCT site.

Screen 1

Screen 2

Screen 3

This is the screen you will see when you are reading messages.

• Click on Return to Mail to return to screen 1.
• Click on Update Listing to show messages that might have been received since logging on.
• Click on Show all to see messages that you have already read.
• Click on Show unread to see messages that you have not read yet.
• Click on Threaded to see messages in a threaded discussion.
• Click on Unthreaded to see all messages as they have been posted in chronological order.
• Reply to a message without including the original message by clicking on Reply, or click on Quote to include the original message in the reply. The buttons look like this:

• You can read messages in email either in the Threaded or Unthreaded view. If you are in the Threaded view, your screen will look something like this:
  
  
  
  
• 

  Click here

  You will open up a thread by clicking on the blue arrow in the left hand column. See the blue arrow circled in red in the above screen shot. The message will then appear and you will read the message by clicking on the subject link itself. See the picture below.
  
  
  
  
• You can read messages in the unthreaded view as well. When you are in the unthreaded view, your screen will not have subject headings, only a list of the messages. It will look something like this:
  
  
  
  
• You will read messages by clicking on the subject heading. See the red circle around a subject heading on the picture above.

I. Bulletin Board

The bulletin board works very much the same as email. The difference is that you post messages to the bulletin board when you want all participants to read your message. The next two screens highlight a few differences between the email tool and the bulletin board tool.

Screen 4

• 

  Click here to drop down the menu

  Click on Compose Discussion Message to post a message. This is the screen you will see:
  
  
  
  

• Drop down the Topic menu to post to a specific topic, fill in the subject heading, and type in your message. Participants should post messages to specific topics to keep conversations separated.
• Click on the name of a topic to see messages posted to that topic. For example, on screen 4 two specific topics have been created, Notes and Agenda Items.
• Post your message by clicking in the Post button found at the bottom of the screen. It looks like this:

Screen 5

• Click on Discussions or Return to Discussions to return to screen 4.
• Show all/Show unread and Threaded/Unthreaded work the same as in email.
• Read and reply to messages the same as in email. Remember that if you are in the Threaded view, you must open the thread by clicking on the blue arrow in the left hand column. This will open the thread and you’ll see the messages in that thread. If you want to dispense of the blue arrows and see everything in chronological order, click on the Unthreaded option.

TIP: If you can’t find a message, click on “view all” and “unthreaded”. If these two options are toggled on, you will be able to see all messages in a given topic in the bulletin board, or all messages in a given folder in email.