As of August 1st, 2008, the Edutech web site will no longer be updated. Edutech was funded by the Swiss Virtual Campus programme, which ended on July 31st, 2008. Some activities will be taken over by the e-Learning Services group at the SWITCH foundation.
Student AAI Enrollment
Want to let your students use their university username and password to enroll and login to Vista?
If you have a course in Vista and your institution is an 'AAI Home Organisation' (USI/SUPSI, Hochschule für Technik Rapperswil, ETH-Z, EPF-L, Uni Basel, Uni Bern, Uni Fribourg, Uni Geneva, Uni Lausanne, Uni Luzern, Uni Zurich, ZFH ZHWin) then you can allow your students to enroll and log in to Vista using the "normal" login name and password issued to them by their university or FH.
How to use AAI to enroll students in WebCT Vista
There are 3 methods to use AAI to enroll students in WebCT Vista: Direct URLs, Invitation, Subscription. Of these three, the Direct URLs method is the simplest (ie requires less work from the course organizer).
The general steps in the Direct URLs method:
(go directly to details)- Generate an enrollment URL your Vista course,
- send the URL to the students in the course, then
- the students paste the enrollment URL in their browser to enroll in the course;
- after they are successfully enrolled, they can use the AAI login on WebCT Vista - noted by AAI
- to access their myWebCT page.
And that's it.
The main advantage of the Direct URLs method is that you do not need to approve each student's enrollment in a course. Students enroll themselves by going to an enrollment URL specific to the course.
The main disadvantage is that the URL will work to enroll any person with an AAI login. This means that there is a slight risk that someone other than the intended students could find out the URL and enroll him or herself in the course.
Need more control?
If it is important to have more control over who enrolls in the course, you should choose one of 2 other AAI enrollment methods: invitation or subscription.
Details about the Direct URLs method
Test the link before sending it to your students! Important!
Send the enrollment URL to the students
Inform students that they must enroll first. The login on the Vista entry page will not work if they have not already used the enrollment URL and enrolled in at least one course.
Important points to remember when you send out the enrollment URL by email:
- Students should know that they must exit their browsers completely when they work on a public computer.
- The students should also know that the link should not be made public (eg passed along to their friends who are not in the course).
- If you send the URL by email, the email program may split it over several lines. If so, the students need to copy and paste the links directly into their browser.
- If you have the time, you can create a simple web page that displays the URL as a simple hypertext link. This would prevent the problem of the URL getting broken by email programs; on the other hand, the enrollment link becomes more "public" since they appear on a web page.
Students first enroll themselves in the course
First they enroll with the enrollment URL, then...
Students login to their myWebCT page
on your institution's entry page to Vista.
Try out a demo URL yourself:
If you have an AAI account, this link will enroll you in this demo course at the University of Fribourg: Student Introduction to Vista
After you are enrolled, you can login with the AAI login link for Uni Fribourg in Vista.
Invitation Method
Subscription Method
If you need to be absolutely sure that only certain students enroll in the course, either the invitation or the subscription method will work for you.
With the invitation method, you send students an enrollment URL that can only be used once to enroll in a course (a so-called one time ticket).
With the subscription method, the students must go to a separate web site, the AAI portal to Vista, and enroll themselves in the course.
Both of these methods require that the course organizer approve each student enrollment. They also require working with another web site to manage the enrollment (the AAI portal).
Advantage: more control. Disadvantage: more work for the course organizer.
If you would like to use either the invitation or the subscription method to enroll your students in a WebCT Vista course, please send us an email and we'll prepare it with you.
Questions?
Don't hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.
Error messages?
We've listed a few common error messages that your students might see in connection with AAI and Vista login/registration.