During our WebCT training sessions – one 4-hour workshop every week – we cover tools that are mostly used and which will add value to our (mainly) full time courses. The workshops are presented by different staff members in our department (the Centre for Technology Assisted Learning). While this arrangement seems to be working well for attendees, it creates logistical problems for us.

The best solution that we have come across so far is to give attendees access to two WebCT courses: One to which they have designer access where they can experiment and practice activating and using tools during and after a workshop. The other course is one in which all the tools to be address during all three workshops, are added and "populated" with information. The attendees only get student access to this course and the tools to be addressed during a particular session, are release.

Advantages: All the presenters contribute to the course design and material used to demonstrate the tools, is determined by the nature of each tool and what instructors typically need to know with regard to using WebCT. We also have the opportunity to set an example of effectively using WebCT. The workshop presenters still have the freedom to use their own, individual approaches to present the sessions whilst the attendees of the workshops have access to crucial information regarding WebCT. We also use the selective release functionality when presenting workshops to instructors (and students) on any of the University's five campusses since we can contextualise content/information and examples communicated via the different tools.