Threaded Discussions on the WebBoard

The university now has a portal called the "WebBoard" for threaded discussions. It's not hard to use, but first you must register. Here's how:

1. Go to the main page of the WebBoard site by clicking on http://webboard.wt.luc.edu/~PHIL120-01F(Wren).
2. Look for the button marked "New User," and click on it to bring up the form you must fill out.
3. The first line of the form asks for your "Login Name." Type in your university ID. If it has already been taken taken by someone else then use some nickname that won't be too hard for me to remember is yours.
4. The next lines are pretty obvious, assuming you know your own name. Enter whatever e-mail address you normally use; it doesn't have to be the Loyola system.
5. If you have a home page you'd like to share with us, type in the web address as indicated.
6. Leave the answer to "Use Frames" as "Yes" unless you have reason to think your computer can't handle frames, which are now pretty standard on web pages.
7. Then click on the "Create" button to register and create your "profile."
8. A Welcome message will pop up stating that a temporary password is being sent to the e-mail address you've specified. This usually takes just a few seconds. It will probably be there by the time you open GroupWise or whatever email software you use.

Now that you have registered, you can check out the WebBoard. Go back to http://webboard.wt.luc.edu/~PHIL120-01F(Wren) and log in, using the login name you just specified in your profile. The password you received will look like something off an eye exam chart, but don't worry — you can change it later. If you are at your personal computer you can click the "Save password" box. Obviously you don't want to do this if you are at public machine, but when you are at home this little trick will enable you to by-pass the login procedure. Try it, you'll like it...

Once you're logged in, you'll find yourself in the main page for our course. The left half of the screen (blue lettering on a grey background, entitled "Conferences") contains a list of the six threaded discussions or conferences that we'll have over the course of the semester. (Note: The omission of a discussion of chapter 3 is intentional, since I didn't want to crowd you at mid-term exam time).

You'll see a little plus sign in front of the first conference title. That means there is more stuff that you can view by clicking on the plus sign. Do it, and you'll see that it changes to a minus sign and a new line appears, which says "Examining life." That's the title of the first discussion topic, which I posted a few days ago and which you should read (click on the line itself) and then comment on. For this first conference, be very brief: one or two sentences will do. You can be more verbose later.

To comment on the discussion topic, click on the word "reply" found on the right side of the screen (white background with black lettering). Don't click on "post" because that means you want to start a new thread, which as of now is not part of the game. Once we have a bunch of replies on the board you can expand the list to read all of them at once and, most importantly, reply to other people's replies.

Have I left anything out? Surely I have. Let me know how I can improve this instruction page. If you get stuck, send me an S.O.S. at twren@orion.it.luc.edu. But don't wait until you understand everything perfectly. Just log on and enjoy the WebBoard as best you can!