McGill Matters

Frosh moments

Owen Egan

WebCT Vista now live

WebCT Vista, the successor to WebCT CE, opened for students on September 1. This is the first phase of the transition that will see all courses migrated to WebCT Vista by May 2006. In the Fall 2005 term, WebCT Vista is being used by 85 instructors in 107 courses, with a total enrolment of approximately 8,300 students. The most significant changes are behind the scenes. The backend architecture has been completely redesigned to be more robust and stable under heavy use. An extensive support structure is available for instructors, including just in time email and phone support, online tutorials and structured hands-on workshops. Professors can sign up to use Vista and obtain further details and services at www.mcgill.ca/webct.

McGill library software

McGill Library is pleased to announce that personal reference database software (or citation software as it is sometimes known) is available to all within the university community. The software suite obtained from Thomson includes (EndNote, Reference Manager and WriteNote). The software for the first two can be downloaded from the ELMS website http://www.mcgill.ca/software/ to your computer for use at home or within the university. Writenote will be available from the Thomson website but is still under testing and will not be made available until later this year.

The software allows the creation of citation lists through importing references directly from more than 350 online databases, including the McGill Library catalogue, the catalogues of other libraries, most databases accessible at McGill, including PubMed and Web of Science, thereby eliminating separate data input. The software will format bibliographies automatically and link reference to files on the web or on your own computer. Use of the software will assist students in dealing with issues of academic integrity. Faculty are asked to encourage all students to acquire and use the software.

Workshops are available to provide assistance in how to use the software. Many filters are available for each database to be used.
EndNote: www.mcgill.ca/library/using/computers/endnote/
Reference Manager: http://www.health.library.mcgill.ca/services/instruct/shops/index.cfm

For more information, contact Darlene Canning (darlene.canning@mcgill.ca) in the Schulich Library of Science and Engineering at 514-398-4765.

Staff development

French Conversation at Work — Last placement test for the fall term: September 13. Places are limited, first come — first served, so sign up today! See www.mcgill.ca/hr/staffdevelopment for information on this and other great courses.