When Antoine Thomas was an Eastern student, he said distance learning was a big help.

Distance learning is interaction that occurs outside of the classroom environment.

In addition to working towards a degree during his time at Eastern, Thomas worked to support himself and take care of his brother.

For Thomas, time management was essential.

Thomas, the training development and specialists for the center for academic technology and support, said online interactive tools helped him keep up with coursework by allowing him to access course materials and resources at any time.

Now that Eastern is preparing for a WebCT upgrade, Thomas said he is anxious and excited.

“As a student that was once here, I think WebCT allowed me a lot more flexibility,” Thomas said. “Whenever you need something you always have access to it, whether it’s a syllabus or a handout. The new version has even more features that will help students.”

The Board of Trustees approved a WebCT upgrade in September, and Thomas said the university is in the process of upgrading its hardware and software.

The upgrade from WebCT Version 4.1 to WebCT Version 6 is a result of a company merger.

Blackboard, a company that makes course management systems similar to WebCT, bought out WebCT and announced it will discontinue its support for version 4.1.

Because Blackboard will be discontinuing its support for Eastern’s current version of WebCT, Thomas said the university had to come up with an alternative to the current system.

The new system chosen by the university is WebCT Campus Edition Learning System 6, a new version of WebCT developed by Blackboard.

Thomas said this new version of the system includes features from Blackboard, and the university will now have the support it needs from the company.

Other schools that used version 4.1 are also switching to the new WebCT.

Lake Land Community College has already made the transition.

Thomas said WebCT Version 6 includes new features to enhance usability.

Every time students log onto WebCT, their recently updated grades for each course will appear on the homepage.

A calendar with deadlines for courses will also appear on the main page. Thomas said students would be able to add personal appointments and reminders to this calendar as well.

He added he thinks the new “Who’s Online” feature will be especially helpful to both professors and students.

The feature allows students to chat with anyone from their course and section who is on WebCT at the same time. Students can chat with a group or one person.

“You can talk to your friends, you can ask them questions,” Thomas said. “But if your teacher is online you can talk with them instantly and address concerns.”

Volunteers who would like to work with the new system will have the opportunity to use WebCT Version 6 as part of a pilot test in March.

By summer, Thomas said the university hopes to be running the old and new versions of WebCT parallel. Teachers will be able to choose which version of the program they would like to use.

If everything goes as planned, only WebCT Version 6 will be running in the fall.

Thomas said WebCT would be accessible at all times during the transition.

Training sessions for those wanting to learn how to use the WebCT upgrade will be available in March, but Thomas said the new system is not a complete change from version 4.1.

“Nothing is extremely different,” Thomas said. “It’s just the use and location of certain tools that has changed. Everything is relatively the same; learning how to navigate around the new system will probably be the biggest challenge.”

WebCT is part of a growing movement towards more interactive and technology-based learning methods, Thomas said.

Eastern is already looking into software, which would allow for completely online courses. Thomas said the software, Elluminate, is already being integrated into some courses.

“In these next few years we are going to see more and more features and tools online,” he said. “Distance learning has become more popular and it is only going to grow.”

Barbara Harrington can be reached at 581-7945 or at bjharrington@eiu.edu.