Knowledge Environment For

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Knowledge Environment for

Web-based Learning

(KEWL)

A manual for students

Prepared by

Derek Keats, Faghrie Mitchell, Anna Scott

Last updated: Friday, 02 September 2011

Based on KEWL version 0.4 Beta

The University of the Western Cape

A place of quality, a place to grow

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Preface

This manual will help you to follow courses within our online learning system, KEWL.

The acronym stands for Knowledge Environment for Web-based Learning. This softwareis home grown at UWC, and developed by IOI Online Services as a product of four years

of research into online educational practice by Prof Derek Keats and a team of staff and

students. This tutorial manual will introduce you to some principles of online learning,

and teach you how to navigate your way around a course using the features of KEWL.Here the focus is mainly on our own built-in courseware tools. We hope that you enjoy it

and find it useful. Please feel free to send us your comments, suggestions, complaints,

whatever.

This document was prepared around KEWL version 0.4Beta. Therefore, some of the

screen captures may not look exactly as shown, although the principles illustrated stillapply to later versions.

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Contents

1. Getting access to KEWL

2. Navigation within courses using the toolbar

3. Asynchronous Discussions

4. Synchronous Tools

5. Worksheets

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Chapter 1. Getting access to KEWL

When you go to the KEWL website at http://kewl.uwc.ac.za, you will see the login screen

shown below. If you already have a username and password, enter your username in theUsername space (where it says yourUsername below), and your password in the

Password space (where it says yourPassword below). Then click the login button.

If you do not already have an account on the KEWL system, click the link marked

Register yourself as shown in the red circle below.

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Once you click the link to Register yourself, you will see the screen shown below.

It is crucial that all information be filled in completely, and that you do not accidentally

answerNo to the question Is this account active? If select No here, you will not be

able to login. If you are at UWC and you know your staff number or student number,please enter them. Students will not be able to access marks, or receive email if they

do not use the correct student number. If you are a guest from outside UWC, please

use the link to generate your own user ID. Please do not enter numbers that you have

made up yourself as you could cause your account not to work.

It is also absolutely crucial that you fill in your email address correctly. Therefore,

please check it and check it again. The system will email you a password, and if

your do not supply the correct email address you will not receive the password

and therefore you will not be able to access the system.

Once you have received your password by email, go to the login screen athttp://kewl.uwc.ac.za and login using the procedure described above. Once you

have logged in, you will be able to change your generated password to one that will

be easier to remember. This will be covered in a later section of this tutorial.

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The post-login screen

Once you login to KEWL, you will see the post login screen. This screen changes

frequently, sometimes 3-4 times a day. Therefore, it may not look exactly as in theversion shown here. However, there are some features that will be always available,

even if they move around on the actual page. Only some of the key features that you

will need to access KEWL will be illustrated here in case this tutorial file goes out ofdate.

Each feature is numbered in the diagram above. To access a course, choose the course

from the dropdown list (1) and click the go button. Within KEWL you can store webpagelinks within the KEWL favourites (2). These favourites are personalized, only you can

see your own links, and they will always be available from KEWL no matter where you

login. KEWL has a personal messaging facility (3), and if the envelope is red, then youhave no messages, but if it is green, you can click it to check your new messages. KEWL

has a root suggestion box (4), where you should leave suggestions about KEWL itself,

report bugs, and suggest features that you would like to see in future versions of KEWL.

The suggestion box is not for any other purpose, so please dont put suggestionsunrelated to KEWL into it. Once you choose a course, and click Go, you can use the next

section to learn how to find your way around within the course.

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Chapter 2. Navigation within courses using the toolbar

Everything that happens in KEWL is based around the idea that you are in a particular

course. Therefore, it is essential that you realise what course you are in when you carryout a particular action. Failure to realise this by learners who are registered in more than

one KEWL course may result in an assignment being submitted to the wrong course.

Once you are in a course, all navigation through the content and tools is done from a

toolbar that normally appears at the bottom of every page. If you do not see it on your

screen, you will probably need to scroll down.

On the first page of the course, the leftmost button will sayAt 1, indicating that you are at

the first page of the course.

You can navigate to the next page in the sequence by clicking theNextbutton at the right.

Once you have moved beyond the first page of the course, the left button will change toPrev and you can then use it to navigate to the previous page.

There are two other buttons that play key roles in navigation as indicated below. These

buttons allow you to move around in the course in a non-linear manner. For example,move to another chapter, move to a particular page by page number or title, or display all

the pages in a chapter at once.

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When you click these buttons, a navigation window will drop down. This window allowsyou to choose the navigation options. In the example below, the right non-linear

navigator was clicked.

Course end takes you to the last page in the course (if you clicked the left non-linearnavigator you would see Course start). Chapterx endtakes you to the last page in the

current chapter (if you clicked the left non-linear navigator you would see Chapter xstart).

Clicking Chapter titles lists all chapter titles by number and title. If you click the number,

you will navigate to the first page in the chapter. If you clickListyou will get a list of allpages in the chapter.

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Once you have a listing of the pages in a chapter, you can click the page number tonavigate to a particular page.

Clicking Page titles on the dropdown will list all pages in the current chapter, and you

can then navigate to a particular page as noted above. Clicking chapter contents willcompile all the contents pages for the current chapter show them as a single page. This

can be useful if you want to save or print out the current chapters contents.

Please note: we are currently working on the non-linear navigator, so the version that you

see may not look exactly as shown above.

The next button on the toolbar will display the learning outcomes for the current course,

if any have been defined by the educator for the current course.

The button with the % symbol on it will enable you to check your marks if any marks

have been entered. As a learner in a KEWL course, you will click this button quite a bit!

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The button with the yellow note will enable you to read the noticeboard for the currentcourse.

KEWL has a crude built-in email or personal messaging facility. Clicking the button withthe envelope on it will enable you to send or read private messages. Note that this is

different from the instant messaging features that are still presently under developmentusing Jabber technology.

The educator for your course may have defined some frequently asked questions (FAQ).

If you are planning to ask a basic question, you should look at the FAQ first, just in casethere is already an answer available. To do this, click the FAQ button, and if there is a

FAQ for the current course, you will be able to scroll through the list of questions and

answers.

Typically, when an educator prepares a content page she defines a study question thatwill help guide you towards the important learning points on the page. This studyquestion can popup in the page when you click the study question button.

The image below shows an example of a popup study question. When you are finished

reading the question, you can click the OK button to go back to the content page.

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Most courses within KEWL will make use of the KEWL events calendar to keep track of

key items such as weekly topics, test dates, assignment due dates, etc. Click the buttonwith the calendar icon to view the events calendar for the current course. The events

calendar will open in a new window that can be closed to return to the course content

page from which you called the calendar.

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The image below shows an example of an events calendar, containing topics for each dayin the course.

Most courses will make use of the online worksheet facilities of KEWL. Onlineworksheets are assignments that can be completed and submitted via the KEWL system.

The educator or a teaching assistant then marks them, and you can examine your mark as

well as their comments on your work. To access an online worksheet, click the worksheetbutton on the toolbar as shown below.

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In some courses, the lecturer has uploaded some files for you to examine using a programother than a web browser. For example, she may have uploaded a word processor file, a

spreadsheet, a PowerPoint presentation or any other type of file. To access these

documents, click the course documents button on the toolbar.

If your course has essays to be completed, you will be able to access the list of topics and

book an essay topic by clicking the button that has an old fashioned typewriter on it. InKEWL, typically, essays are booked on a first come first served basis. Once you choose a

topic, it is locked and cannot be chosen by anyone else. You can change your mind if you

wish, and choose another topic if one is available. All of this is done through the essay

button.

Within KEWL, you have some space that you can use to store files for the courses in

which you are registered. We refer to this area as your inBasket. The button with theyellow tray on it accesses your inBasket. You can use it to upload files so that you can

access them from another computer, or you can use it to upload assignments for a course.

Your lecturer can collect your assignments from here, mark them, and put them backagain with comments. This is a very important area of KEWL to get to know.

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The image below shows the screen that appears when you click the inBasket button.Click the Browse button to locate a file on your computer for uploading, and click the

Save to inBasket for username button to upload the selected file. ClickBrowse files to see

what files you have in your inBasket at present. Warning! If you upload a file with thesame name as a file already in your inBasket, the original file will be over-written and

lost. This is a feature of all Beta versions of KEWL, but will be changed in the first non-

Beta version.

If you click the link to Browse files, then you will get to the screen shown below.

Clicking the filename will cause it to load in the browser if you computer understands thefile extension. If you want to download the file, you need to right click the link and

choose Save as from the popup menu.

KEWL has a built-in threaded discussion forum, which is a very important feature inmost KEWL courses. Click the button shown below to access the discussion forum. The

use of the discussion forum is covered elsewhere in this tutorial.

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KEWL also has a built-in webchat facility, which can be used to have realtime textualconversations within a web browser. This is not the same as the Jabber instant messaging

facility that will be described elsewhere. Each course has its own chatroom, but you can

also create one of your own for a private chat. Access the chatroom by clicking the linkindicated below.

KEWL has lounges for learners and there is a button on the toolbar to open it.. If you are

logged in as a learner, you will automatically be taken to the learners lounge. Within thelounge you will find interesting links to fun and educational materials that are both inside

and outside of KEWL. The items in the lounge are dynamic, and change often.

Once in the learners Lounge you will see a link saying My Personal Space. If you click

on that it will take you to a page where you have the options of creating or editing your

own home page. Before you fill it in, your page will look something like this:

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KEWL includes the ability for anyone viewing a page within course content to take notes(annotations) for a particular page. Click the annotate button to bring up the page

annotator.

The image below shows the KEWL annotation window, the orange background indicates

that this is a new annotation. Once there is an annotation for the current page, then thewindow background changes colour, and the title changes from Add annotation to Edit

your annotation.

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To view your annotation for the current page, and have the option to delete it as well, youcan click the button with the eye on it.

Clicking the annotation view button brings up the window shown below. If there are noannotations for the current page, the lower window will appear. If an annotation exists,

you will be able to view it as in the upper blue window. Note the edit and delete links onthe view window.

In a future version of KEWL, we plan to have a user preferences feature, and then you

will have the option to have your annotations appear at the bottom of the screen withinthe page that you are viewing.

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In addition to the toolbar, there are two other links on every page within a KEWL course.

These appear at the top of the content window. The Home link takes you back to theKEWL index, but leaves you within the current course. The Logout link logs you out of

the KEWL system.

Changing your password and other user details

To change your user details and password, look on the post-login screen for the link thatsaysEdit your accountas shown in the image below.

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Clicking this link will take you to a screen that is straightforward. You can change yourpassword by entering a new password in thePasswordbox and clicking save. Note that if

your email address changes, you should update it here as well.

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Chapter 2: Asynchronous Discussions

Asynchronous Discussions or Computer Mediated

Conferencing (CMC) enables a group of users to

communicate with one another independently of space

and time. This enables people in different parts of theworld to engage in a time-lagged conversation. Because

the information is stored the user can access it anytime,

unlike with synchronous communication tools, wherethe communicated text is lost unless it is logged by the

individual user. Asynchronous tools used on the Internet

include web-based discussion forums, news forums such as Usenet, and email. Personalmessaging can also be considered an asynchronous tool, but it is closer in nature to

synchronous communication since the users mostly try to communicate in near real time.

Streaming media can also be considered an asynchronous tool, although it also could be

considered more along the lines of content than a communications tool per se. However,

it can be used to record and broadcast speech and video, so streaming media can serve anasynchronous communications function.

Asynchronous Tools

Email

Email is a form of one-on-one consultation between learner and educator. Group email or

list servers can be considered the electronic equivalent of the traditional tutorial, enabling

students to exchange ideas with each other and their facilitator. All messages are received

by all the students registered with a particular list server and registered in the relevantcourse.

Email discussions can serve their purpose but they are not the best method to use forasynchronous communication. The main reason for this is that they do not lend

themselves well to threading. Threaded discussion is much better for following topic

based discussions and following the thread of the conversation.

Usenet Newsgroups

Usenet News, also known as News or Netnews, is a huge collection of messages which

are made available to users worldwide by means of the UUCP and NNTP protocols (Unix

to Unix Copy Program and Network News Transfer Protocol, respectively). Individual

computing sites appoint somebody to oversee the huge quantity of incoming messages,and to decide how long messages can be kept before they must be removed to make room

for new ones. Typically, messages are stored for less than a week, and are made available

via a News server (News host). Most Internet service providers and academic institutionsmaintain a News server.

Users access local newsgroups with a newsreader program. Some WWW browsers come

with an inbuilt newsreader or you may use a dedicated newsreader program. The

newsreader accesses the local (or remote) News host using the News Protocol, enabling

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you to pull down as many newsgroups and their contents as you desire. If you don't haveaccess locally to News, there is also a changeable list of publicly accessible Usenet hosts.

One of the big problems with News servers is that they get thousands of advertisements,

everything from pornography to plans for satellite decoders. Also, spambots are software

programmes that scan Newsgroups for email addresses. If you post in a Newsgroupwithout disguising your email address, your email box will quickly fill up with spam as a

result of these spambots. Still, Newsgroups can be useful and a good place to search for

help on anything under the sun (and some things best kept on the other side of the sun).

News servers can also be used to run educational discussions. However, in KEWL wemake use of web discussion forums, so we will not deal further with News services here.

Discussion Forums

Web-based discussion forums go by many names including discussion boards, bulletin

boards, threaded discussions, Web conferences and others.

It's important to remember the differences between this approach and live chat.Discussion forums are not real-time and do not require that participants be online

simultaneously. Discussions let people contribute at their convenience and read through

everyone's postings all at once. The postings tend to be longer and more thoughtful thanthose in live chats. Also, it's relatively easier to jump into the middle of a discussion and

"pick up the thread" than it is with a live chat. In a live chat, if you aren't there at the

beginning, joining one can feel like walking into somebody's private party.

Discussion boards are different. Often, they use an organizing principle called threads,which is a conversation on a single topic--the original message plus the related replies.

Threads make it easier to follow the discussion. Nonthreaded discussions put all the

messages in a big pile, so that as learners you must figure out for yourselves whichreplies go with which messages. Because neither threaded nor nonthreaded discussions

are in real time, you can read and add to them at your convenience.

Discussion forums are better suited than chats for things such as multiperson debates,

where someone starts the process, and others can consider the arguments, postcounterarguments, and watch the debate evolve over time. You simply can't do that in a

fast-paced, short-term, live chat session. They are also good places for your course co-

ordiator to post and guide assignments and engage in group work, and also for you toseek help and get to know your classmates, etc.

In the screen capture of one of the discussion forums on http://chats.uwc.ac.za, we can

see the threaded features quite clearly. Note that Biodiversity and Assignments are

primary threads. The + sign next to Biodiversity indicates that it is not expanded, and thatit has subthreads. The - sign next to Assignments indicates that it is expanded, and that it

has subthreads. The subthreads that lack both + and - signs do not contain any further

subthreads. However, the thread Remote sensing practical is expanded and contains onesubthread that does not contain any further threads.

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In the forum illustrated below, there are 12 root threads, 3 of which were initiated by thelecturer, Pierre de Vos. A total of 4 of these root threads have subthreads. To open the

subthreads, you would need to click the + sign, and the thread will open as shown in the

next screen capture. To open the contents of the root thread, or any of the other threads inexpanded view, you should click on the hyperlink.

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When you click the + sign next to the thread, you open it to show the subthreads as

shown below for the thread entitledBarefoot and pregnant in the kitchen.

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To view the contents of a thread, you need to click the underlined hyperlink. Then the

contents of the thread will open as shown here. Note that the other links in the thread arevisible below the message. You may need to scroll down for longer threads in order to

see the links.

Streaming Media

Streaming Media is the simultaneous transfer and display of sound, sound and images, or

sound and video on the World Wide Web. What is so special about it is that it enables the

user to watch and listen to it while it is being sent to their browser, instead of waiting

minutes or hours for it to download and only then playing it.

Streaming media is the next 'big thing' on the Web. A multimedia Web experience can bea powerful tool for learners.

Right now, because of bandwidth limitations, streaming media is not so wonderful,

although we can link sound with static images quite well. Without adequate bandwidth,

the pictures may be fuzzy, the sound occasionally garbled, and the video jumpy and of

low resolution. On a LAN or broadband connection, however, streaming media can be ofa very high quality. Streaming tools are rapidly growing more and more powerful. The

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quality today is significantly better than the quality six months ago, and it continues toimprove at a phenomenal rate.

What is streaming media?

To understand the role of streaming media, you need to understand the functioning of the

World Wide Web. Web servers are often described as "stateless." What that basicallymeans is that the Web server takes a request for information, pushes that information out

the door as fast as it can, completes the transaction, disconnects, and goes on to other

requests by other users. On the client side, your Web browser takes the information it

receives, assembles it on the screen, and then ignores the Web server until you click on alink.

This is all very well for static media such as graphics and text, but moving images and

sound are problematic. Unlike a static graphic, video and sound have much larger filesizes. Under the stateless approach you as a user would need to download the entire

sound or video clip before it can be viewed. But with the large file size that comes with

even a short video clip, the wait is a long one. Clearly another solution is needed.

Enter streaming media. With streaming media the goal is to bypass these limitations of

the World Wide Web. With streaming media, data is sent to you the user's computer as

the media is viewed. So rather than a stateless data connection, streaming media is moreof a continuous connection. Much like TV or listening to the radio, you receive the

images or audio just before you see or hear them.

Note: Paced out over time, the file size of the clip becomes less of an issue. But that is

not to say that it is not still an issue. The reality is that raw file sizes for digital audio andvideo are absolutely huge. So to get them down to a size that works for a modem or LAN,

compression is used. The goal of streaming compression is to throw away data that you

don't need. That makes the file size much smaller. But it naturally also begins to degradethe picture and sound quality.

Chapter 3: Synchronous tools

In the traditional classroom, learners generally need 2 kinds of interaction in the learning

process: interaction with the course content and interaction with people, namely thefacilitator and others doing the course. Web-based learning (WBL) is no different from

the traditional classroom in this respect. This interaction can take place where everyone is

involved at the same time (synchronous), or can involve communication that does not

require everyone to participate at the same time (asynchronous) covered in the previouschapter.

There are many synchronous communication tools available, including instant

messaging, chat rooms, low-cost videoconferencing tools, whiteboards, voice and videoconferencing, file sharing, and other techniques for collaboration on a common task.

Instant messaging

Instant Messaging is the most basic form of synchronous communication. The software

shows each participant who else is online at that time, and messages can be addressed to

one, some or all those "present". These messages appear instantaneously on the screens of

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participants, inviting immediate responses. Some users with the right hardware andsoftware can add sound and vision, though these add complexity as everyone can't speak

at the same time. The learning environment becomes more like that of a telephone

conference call, or even a videoconferencing session. Examples of such software are: icq,

jabber/gabber and AOL instant messenger among others.

An Example of Instant Messaging: ICQ

ICQ is a user-friendly Internet tool that informs you who's on-line at any time and

enables you to contact them at will. ICQ searches for your contacts for you, alerting you

in real time when they log on. Once you make contact, you can chat, send messages,files and URL's, play games, or just hang out with your fellow 'geeks' while still surfing

the Net.

ICQ lets you choose the mode of communication you wish

to employ. Regardless of the application, be it chat, voice,

message board, data conferencing, file transfer or Internetgames, ICQ sends your messages to your contact in real

time. You can use ICQ to launch any peer- to- peer

application (such as Microsoft NetMeeting or NetscapeCoolTalk). It can also be used in a multiple-user mode, so

groups can conduct conferences or just 'hang out' on-line.

The program runs in the background, taking up minimal

memory and Net resources. While you work with otherapplications, ICQ alerts you when friends and associates log

in, allowing you to work efficiently while maintaining a

wide range of Internet functions at your fingertips. Amongthe functions available are: chat, message, e-mail, and URL

and file transfer.

All these functions are consolidated into one easy-to-use program that integrates

smoothly into desktop systems. The program runs in your system tray and is green whenyou are online, and it flash and makes a cookoo noise when someone on your list comes

online.

Internet Relay Chat (IRC)

Internet Relay Chat provides a way of communicating in real time with people from allover the world. It consists of various separate networks of IRC servers, machines that

allow users to connect to IRC. There are many popular IRC networks which are available

for general chat. The largest IRC networks are EFnet, Undernet, IRCnet, DALnet, andNewNet. Generally, the user (such as you) runs a program (called a "client") to connect to

a server on one of the IRC networks. There are several clients available, including some

Java clients that allow IRC to take place in a web browser. The server relays information

to and from other servers on the same network. Once connected to an IRC server on anIRC network, you will usually join one or more "channels" and converse with others

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there. Conversations may be public (where everyone in a channel can see what you type)or private (messages between only two people, who may or may not be on the same

channel). IRC clients also enable the participants to send files (textual, audio, graphic,

video) to one another. There is plenty of information available about IRC fromhttp://www.irchelp.org/.

Webchat

Webchat is similar to IRC in that it operates in real time with

participants all online at the same time, exchanging andresponding to textual messages. Webchat is limited in what it

can do, but it has the advantage of being able to work through

firewalls that do not permit IRC chat to pass through. Wecurrently use webchat for the KEWL chat room, mainly because

it is easy to script it to integrate with KEWL. Eventually, we

will add other chat features, and give people the option which

one to use when creating a course. For now, however, thewebchat is the main tool available in KEWL for course-based

group chat.

Voice conferencing

Voice conferencing allows you to engage in two-way to multi-way voice conferencing,rather like a telephone call or a teleconference. This is sometimes referred to as Internet

Telephony, and there are some applications that allow the connection between a

computer on the Internet and a plain old telephone service. I used to call my father inCanada this way using a free service that has since disappeared. There are lots of free

services that allow calls to the USA.

Voice conferencing is often part of another application, particularly one that allows video

and other conferencing as well. One example is Microsoft Netmeeting. Netmeetingincludes text chat, audio conferencing, videoconferencing, whiteboard, and application

sharing. We will explore Netmeeting under videoconferencing.

Video conferencing

Video conferencing enables face-to-face live audio and video communication between

learners and facilitators however the present technology is restricted by the amount ofbandwidth (which determines how much data of whatever kind can be exchanged at an

acceptable rate of transfer) made available.

Here we provide two examples of such video conferencing and how to use them. The firstis NetMeeting, the second, Cuseeme.

NetMeeting

NetMeeting allows you to exchange information with friends and colleagues, to

collaborate on projects, teach a class, and give presentations. During meetings, you can

jointly create documents, spreadsheets, or other files without having the software on each

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computer. In addition, you can send files to one or all meeting participants.

Meetings can be hosted from your computer or a computer called the conferencingserver. When hosting a meeting, you choose a meeting name, password, security, andwho can be invited to the meeting. When hosting a meeting from a conferencing server,

you can access the server and then select a meeting from a list. If a meeting is not named,

you can use the default name, Personal Conference, or provide a name of your own.

You can also choose to have secure meetings, limit who can accept and invite people to

the meeting, and define what tools, such as Whiteboard and Chat, can be used during

the meeting.

During your meeting you can communicate using Chat, audio, and video; illustrate using

the Whiteboard; transfer files; and access remote computers using Remote DesktopSharing.

NetMeeting's audio and video let you see and hear other people. Even if you are unable totransmit video, you can still receive video calls in the NetMeeting video window. With

the Chat feature, you can talk with multiple people. In addition, Chat calls can be

encrypted, ensuring that your meetings are private. Using the Whiteboard, you can

explain concepts by diagramming information, using a sketch, or displaying graphics.You can also copy areas of your desktop or windows and paste them to the Whiteboard.

Netmeeting has a limitation that makes it all but useless as a distance learning tool; audio

and video conferencing is only supported for two users. If you wish to connect to a group,and have everyone see and hear everyone else, Netmeeting cannot be used. Only the text

chat and whiteboard work in multiuser mode. CUSeeme works in multiuser mode, but

requires a special server, and unless you get the commercial version, the othercollaboration tools are limited. It is for this reason, that we are working on our own

audio, video and whiteboard tools for KEWL. However, these are projects that will take

some time to mature.

To Host a Meeting

1. On the Call menu, click Host Meeting.2. In Meeting Name, type the meeting name or leave it set to Personal Conference.

3. In Password, type the meeting password, and then click OK to start the meeting.

Notify meeting participants of the time of your meeting, the meeting password,and whether this will be a secure meeting.

To create a secure meeting, click the Require security for this meeting check box.

Secure meetings are data-only calls.

To monitor who joins the meeting, click the Only you can accept incoming calls

check box. To restrict participants from inviting other people, click the Only you can place

outgoing calls check box.

To limit the tools used in the meeting, select one of the options under Meeting

tools. If you are hosting a secure meeting, you cannot use the audio and video

features.

You can activate and deactivate tools at any time during the meeting.

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To join a meeting

Call the meeting host or any meeting participant. (see "to place a call")

If you call a meeting participant who is not the host, the call may fail. If so, call

the meeting host to join the meeting. When you call a participant, you can remain connected as long as the person you

called remains connected.

When that person leaves or is disconnected from the meeting, you aredisconnected also.

To place a call

1. In the Address bar, type one of the following:

e-mail address

computer name

telephone number IP address

2. Click the Place Call button.

If NetMeeting can determine how to

place the call, it does soautomatically. Otherwise, the Place

A Call dialog box opens. Then, in

Using, click the appropriateconnection type.

If you select security on a call-by-

call basis, place your calls through

the Place Call button rather than theAddress bar or a SpeedDial. The

Address bar and SpeedDial do not

give you the Place A Call dialogbox, which displays the Require

security for this call check box.

To display a list of people you calledrecently, click the arrow next to the

Address bar.

You can create a SpeedDial list for

people you call frequently.

To end a call

Click the End Call button.

To remove a caller from a meeting

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Right-click the name of the meeting participant and then click Remove fromMeeting.

Notes

You can also press SHIFT+F10 to remove a meeting participant.

Only the meeting host or the person who initiated the call can remove a meeting

participant.

To accept or reject a call

When someone calls you, the Incoming Calls dialog box appears. ClickAccept or

Ignore

Detailsbutton also appears. Click it to see the type of security and certificate

being used.

To stay logged on to the directoryserver, but be unavailable for calls, on

the Call menu, clickDo Not Disturb.

You also can set NetMeeting to acceptcalls automatically

The Chat Feature

Meeting participants can talk to each othersimultaneously using Chat. Since only two

people can have an audio or video connection,

Chat is useful in a group meeting becauseeveryone can participate.

When someone sends you a Chat message,

the message appears in the Chat window.

To send a message:

1. Click the Chat button to open Chat.

2. In Message, type the message you want to send, then do one of the following:

o To send a message to everyone, in Send To, click Everyone In Chat.o To send a message to just one person, in Send To, click the person's name.

3. Click the Send Message button.

You can also press ENTER to send a Chat message.

The White Board Feature

Whiteboard allows everyone in a meeting to draw and type simultaneously. You can addand delete Whiteboard pages, draw shapes, type text, and emphasize an item using the

Highlighter or the Remote Pointer.

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You can copy and paste items between the Whiteboard and other programs, and fromwindows and areas of your desktop to the Whiteboard. Then, you can use Whiteboard's

tools to further illustrate the objects. Other meeting participants can see your work

without having access to your desktop.

The Netmeeting whiteboard application.

Synchronization allows everyone to automatically view the same Whiteboard page. If

you want to work on a page privately, you can remove synchronization to stop the pagefrom displaying automatically, however, other participants can still open the page by

navigating to it manually. Removing synchronization does not affect other participant's

view of the current page.

NetMeeting 3.0 has two versions of Whiteboard: the standard Whiteboard and

NetMeeting 2.x Whiteboard. The standard Whiteboard conforms to industry standards,though both versions contain the same features. If everyone in the meeting is using

Netmeeting 3.0, the standard Whiteboard is used by default. Otherwise, the 2.x

Whiteboard is used by default.

To open a Whiteboard

For version 2.x - on the NetMeeting Tools menu, click Whiteboard (1.0-2.x).

If all meeting participants are using NetMeeting 3.0, the standard version ofWhiteboard is used by default.

Sharing Programs

Shared programs allows meeting participants to view and work on files simultaneously.

For example, you may have a Microsoft Word document that several people need to workon. You can open the document on your computer, share it, and then everyone canprovide their comments directly in the document. Only the person who has opened the

file is required to have the program on their computer. Other participants can work on the

document without having the program. Only one person can be in control of a sharedprogram at a time. If controllable appears in the title bar of the shared program window,

the person who shared the program has control and is allowing others to work in the

program. If the mouse pointer has a box with initials, then another meeting participanthas control of the program.

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All meeting participants can share programs during a meeting. The shared programs of

each participant appear in separate shared program windows on the other participants'

desktops.

To share a program

1. Click the Share Program button.

2. In the Sharing dialog box, click the name of the program you want to share.

3. Click Share.

To share your computer desktop

1. Click the Share Program button.

2. In the Sharing dialog box, click Desktop.

3. Click Share.

To Allow Control of a Shared Program

1. In the Sharing dialog box, click Allow Control.

2. In the main NetMeeting window, right-click the name of a person you want to work in

the program, and then click Grant Control.

Exchanging Files in a meeting

To send a file:

1. Click the Transfer Files button.

2. In the File Transfer dialog box, click the Add File button, and select the files you want

to send.

3. Click the name of the person you want to send the file to, or click All to send it to

everyone in the meeting.

4. Click the Send All button.

To cancel a file transfer before it is complete, click the Cancel Transfer button.

To remove a file from the list, click the Remove File button.

You can send a listed file only once. To resend it, click the Add Files button and

select the file again.

If a file is created while working on a shared program, only the person who

shared the program can distribute the file.

If you are accessing the computer from a remote location, on the desktop of the

computer being accessed, right-click the NetMeeting icon in the status area, and thenclick Send Files.

To receive a file:

Click Accept to receive the file and close the dialog box.

If the Accept button is not clicked during file transmission, it changes to Close

after the file is received. Click Close to close the dialog box.

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To reject the file, click Delete.

NetMeeting places the file in the NetMeeting\Received Files folder on your hard

disk.

Whiteboards

Whiteboardsare the electronic equivalent of the traditional blackboard but with the addedpower of enabling students from different parts of the globe to exchange and add to

graphical communication in real time; they can also be linked directly to chat rooms. All

participants can annotate the document using the drawing or text capabilities of thewhiteboard software. Most shared whiteboard programs use different colors to indicate

whose annotations are whose. It is possible to cut, copy and paste information from any

Windows-based application into the Whiteboard. You can also save Whiteboard contentsfor future reference. Loading saved Whiteboard pages enables you to prepare information

before a conference, then drag and drop it into the Whiteboard during a meeting.

CUSeeMe

CUSeeMe has been around

since the mid 1990s. This

videoconferencing system

was originally developed byCornell University (the CU in

CUSeeMe). All you need to

use CUSeeMe is theCUSeeMe software, a 28.8

kbps modem, and an

inexpensive microphone orcamera that plugs into your

computer. The software

allows low bandwidth video,sound and text chat

conferencing at bandwidths

equivalent to regular phone

lines.

CUSeeMe uses a reflector, a server that sends video and chat back to users similarly to

what an IRC server does for text chat. In this way, group conferencing can take place.

Users don't need to have used videoconferencing previously because CUseeMe

Videoware adds value to existing communications in a familiar web-based interface.

Netiquette

Netiquette is social behaviour on the 'net. In other words, Netiquette is a set of rules for

behaving properly online. When you enter any new culture -- and cyberspace has its own

culture -- you're liable to commit a few social blunders. You might offend people withoutmeaning to. Or you might misunderstand what others say and take offence when it's not

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intended. To make matters worse, something about cyberspace makes it easy to forgetthat you're interacting with other real people - not just ASCII characters on a screen, but

live human characters.

Here are some basics you need to become familiar with in order to be successful in your

online communications:

Use mixed case and proper punctuation, as though you were typing a letter or

sending mail. (Never type in all caps. This is considered yelling or screamingonline)

When using instant messaging or in a chat room situation, don't run off the end of

a line and simply let the terminal wrap; use a Carriage Return (CR) at the end ofthe line. Also, don't assume your screen size is the same as everyone else's. A

good rule of thumb is to write out no more than 70 characters, and no more than

12 lines (since you're using a split screen).

Leave some margin; don't write to the edge of the screen. Use two CRs to indicate that you are done and the other person may start typing.

(blank line).

Always say goodbye, or some other farewell, and wait to see a farewell from theother person before killing the session. This is especially important when you are

communicating with someone a long way away. Remember that your

communication relies on both bandwidth (the size of the pipe) and latency (thespeed of light).

"Flaming" is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without

holding back any emotion. Tact is not its objective. Does Netiquette forbidflaming? Not at all. Flaming is a longstanding network tradition (and Netiquette

never messes with tradition). Flames can be lots of fun, both to write and to read.

And the recipients of flames sometimes deserve the heat. But Netiquette does

forbid the perpetuation of flame wars - series of angry letters, most of them fromtwo or three people directed toward each other, that can dominate the tone and

destroy the camaraderie of a discussion group. It's unfair to the other members of

the group. And while flame wars can initially be amusing, they get boring veryquickly to people who aren't involved in them. They're an unfair monopolization

of bandwidth.

"Lurking": Any time you enter a new area of cyberspace, it's a good idea to"lurk," or look around, for a while before you say anything. Just log in and read

what other people have written before you write anything yourself. That way

you'll get an idea of the local mores before you make a fool of yourself. Lurk

before you leap!! Netiquette, like etiquette, requires politeness, respect of others privacy, time &

bandwith, views etc. Just be aware and adhere to the same standards of behaviour

online that you follow in real life. Be ethical. Pay attention to the content of your

writing. Be sure you know what you're talking about -- when you see yourselfwriting "it's my understanding that" or "I believe it's the case," ask yourself

whether you really want to post this note before checking your facts

There are lots of Email and Online Etiquette or Netiquette sites on theWeb which you can refer to. Eg: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/ .

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Online Worksheets

Worksheets are a feature of KEWL and most other online

learning software, and can play an important role

in assessment. A worksheet in KEWL is arelatively simple assignment that can be

completed online. Currently KEWL worksheetsonly accept textual answers, but as they caninclude complex images, they can be used for

almost any type of short answer question. They

can contain a single question, or they can have an

unlimited number of questions in the same worksheet. A module can havemultiple worksheets.

Changing the activity status of a worksheet

Online worksheets have four levels of status:

1. inactive (cannot be accessed by learners)2. active and open for work (can be accessed and worked on by learners)

3. closed for marking after completion (can be viewed but not changed by learners)

4. marked for viewing (can be viewed, with comments and marks, cannot bechanged by learners)

Only the course co-ordinator can change the activity status of the worksheet.

How to answer a worksheet Question

Click on the online worksheet button on the navigation bar

This sort of page will come up

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http://kewl.uwc.ac.za/courses/MKC/worksheets.asp?assno=olwork1


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Documents

Knowledge Environment For