Before you can use the bulletin board capability of WebCT, you need to have an account. Your account should initially be the following:

• Student WebCT ID = "Highlands email username" [for example, my e-mail address is wsummers@nmhu.edu, so my e-mail username is wsummers]
• Student password = "birthdate in mmddyy format"

1. Open your preferred browser and link to http://webct.nmhu.edu:8900/.

2. When the web page comes up, you should select Log on to myWebCT. Enter your WebCT ID and password.

3. A new page appears. The left column should display the courses you have been added to, followed by a button to add a new course.

4. Select "add course" to add a course, then select the semester and course you wish to add. You should now be able to access all of the WebCT resources for the course.

1. Start your browser.

2. Enter the URL of the web page set up for accessing your class’s material. Note this is not the same URL as the one used in part I above to create an account. There may be a link to this web page on your instructor’s home page or the page may already be bookmarked.

 Click on the "Discussions" option. Your unread messages appear. You can click on "Show All" to display all your messages. If you want to look at only the messages for a specific week, click on "Forum" and then choose the week you want. To read a specific message, simply click on the message itself.

1. Follow the instructions in part II to view the web page for your class and click on "Discussions". Click on "Compose", choose your week, enter your subject, and type your message. When you are finished, click on "Post". Your message will be sent to the bulletin board server.

2. To check that your message was sent and that it is correct, wait a minute and then click on "Show Unread" or "Show All". You might want to click on "Forum" and choose the week you are interested in before you click "Show All".

It is often useful to reply to a specific message. To do this, you simply need to click on the message as if you are going to read it and then click on the "Reply" option. A window very similar to the window for sending original messages appears. The key differences are that the forum name and the subject are filled in and cannot be changed. This makes sense because you are replying to someone’s message and therefore it should go to the forum used by that person and use that person’s subject heading.