Whiteboard

• What can we do with the Whiteboard?

• Launching the Whiteboard

• Interface overview

• Current users

• How to use the tools

• Importing images

• Saving and reloading workspaces

The Whiteboard tool provides a shared drawing board where you can draw objects, insert graphics, and type text. Each group member can see the same workspace shared by all group members. When one person makes a change in the workspace, everyone else in the group will see it. The Whiteboard tool is therefore especially useful for drawing and viewing diagrams in real-time.
 

Launching the Whiteboard

If your instructor has added the whiteboard tool to the course, you can usually find it in the Course Menu and/or in the Communication Tools page. The Whiteboard in WebCT 4 is a Java applet. When you launch the whiteboard for the first time, a security warning may appear, like the one you had with the chat tool and HTML editor.

Click "Yes" and you should be able to start the whiteboard

Here's the screenshot of the whiteboard. On the left is the took box of the Whiteboard. You can find out the use of each tool by resting your cursor on each tool icon and see the tip in the Information box.

1. If your connection to the Whiteboard server is successful, your name and User ID appear in the Current Users box.
2. If your connection to the Whiteboard server is unsuccessful, Not Connected appears in the Current Users box.
3. When other users connect to the Whiteboard server, their names and User IDs also appear in the Current Users box.
4. Your WebCT administrator can set a maximum number of users for Whiteboard. If you attempt to start Whiteboard after this number is reached, the following message appears under Current Users:
   <Not connected>
   <Maximum users exceeded>
   <Try again later>

Here a list of the tools and their specific functions.

icon	function	icon	function
	clear the drawing area		enter
	draw a freehand line		draw a straight line
	draw an empty oval		draw a filled oval
	draw an empty rectangle		draw a filled rectangle
	unfill a filled oval or rectangle		fill a empty oval or rectangle with the current color
	reshape an element		modify an element with the current setting
	move an element		delete an element
	paste image

To Fill and Unfill Shapes

When you select the Fill too, only empty elements will become selected (with little square boxes). You pick a foreground color first, and then click one of the small square boxes to fill the element with the color.
When you select the Unfill tool, small square boxes will appear around all filled elements. Click any small square box to remove the fill of the element.
 

To Move or Reshape an Element

When you select the Move or Reshape tool, the cursor will become a 4-way arrow . Place the cursor on one of the square boxes (controllers) surrounding the element, then drag it to the desired location or a new shape.

To Modify or Delete an Element

To modify an element (change its color or line thickness), select the Modify tool , pick a foreground color or a line thickness, then click one of the square handlers of the element to change.

To delete an element, select the Delete tool , then click one of the square handlers of the element.
 

You can import images from your desktop into the Whiteboard in WebCT. The usually Windows copy/paste won't work here. To import images, click the Import Images button and the image import panel will pop up.

1. You need to click one of the six slots in the panel first, and click either Import or Upload.
2. Import will let pick an image that has already been uploaded to the Whiteboard storage
3. Upload will ask you to browse and find an image from your desktop and load it into Whiteboard.

Once your image has been uploaded into one of the six slots of the image panel, you can select the Paste Image tool and click anywhere in the workspace of the Whiteboard to paste the image into the workspace.

You can use the Move tool to adjust the placement of the pasted image. You can also use the Clear Drawing Area tool to clean up the workspace, and re-paste.  

The Whiteboard in WebCT does not allow you to have multiple workspaces in view at the same time, but you can save multiple workspace and load any one of them at a time.

To save the content of a workspace, click the Save command under the File menu.

The Whiteboard File list will pop up. Enter a name for the file and click OK to save it.

You can later click the Load command to open the Whiteboard File list again.

Double click the file and click the OK button to load the workspace back.

WebCT will pop up a confirmation message warning you that the current workspace will be redrawn using the file you're loading back. Click OK to proceed.

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If you have problems or need help using DSU WebCT, please email DSU-WebCT@dsu.edu