Resources - Technology Tips

WebCT: Turn off mail access to a course
October, 2009

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WebCT has a global mail tool. Each user can access this mail tool from their "My WebCT" screen. Messages to WebCT mail can only be sent from within WebCT, but each person can decide whether to have their email forwarded to another account.

A course designer can also chose to have the mail tool visible in a course - essentially another access point to the global tool. By default, even when the tool is not included in the course, students can access it from their My WebCT screen, see the class roster, and send mail to the instructor or other members of the class. The problem is then that the student has submitted course mail but the instructor is not expecting to receive messages via this route. The situation is made worse by the fact that there is no visible mail icon within the course to alert the instructor to the waiting mail.

If an instructor wants to avoid this problem, he/she can change the settings within the course to prevent the course from being listed in the global mail tool. To do this:

1. Enter course and switch to "Build" mode.

2. Click the "Manage Course" link in the Designers Tools menu.

3. Click the "Settings" link.

4. Under the Tools heading, find and click on the "Mail" link.

5. Set the "Enable Mail tool" option to "false"

6. Click the "Save Values" button.

 

You can verify that the mail function has been disabled by going back to your "My WebCT" screen (link is in the upper right corner of the window when you are at the course level) and clicking the envelop shaped icon. This opens the global email tool and displays your course lists. Check that the class for which you have disabled mail is no longer listed.