Our colleagues in Urbana have created some easy-to-use tools for University of Illinois employees and departments. All UIS faculty and staff may take advantage of these tools. In some cases, students may not create tools but may maintain them.
Included in WebTools are a calendar tool, a survey tool, and a form tool. Also available is a discussion board, an eNewsletter, RSS Feeds, Slide Shows and more.
These tools make it easy for you to accomplish your goals via the web without needing to hire an experienced web developer.
- Here is the URL to login to the WebTools (login with your UIS NetID):
CAUTION: If someone creates a tool for your department, be sure that another full-time member of your department is assigned “privileges” to access the tools. Otherwise, if the creator leaves, no one in the department will be able to access the tool.
Technical Support for the WebTools
The first line of support for WebTools on the UIS campus is the UIS Tech Support department: 217/206-6000 – techsupport@uis.edu
They will answer any questions they can (and keep a record of the questions and answers). If they cannot answer the question, they usually refer the call or email to the UIS Office of Web Services.
The UIS Office of Web Services schedules at least one WebTools workshop on the UIS campus each semester. We list the dates on our Workshop schedule web page and in our
newsletter. We also advertise the workshops via Campus Announcements email and via the UIS Calendar.
Using WebTools is the best way to learn about them.
The tools are actually quite easy to learn. People who jump in and try something are off and running in no time. The WebTools Calendar is the easiest tool to try first.
Once you login to WebTools, you will find links to more resources, as well as links to the tools themselves. Help is available on the Web Tools home page and via Help buttons within
some of the tools.
Users from UIS are welcome to attend the free workshops at UIUC. Look for their workshop schedule on WebTools home page. And look for the link to sign up for their ListServ. Then you will see emails from the entire UIUC community of WebTools users.
Also, assistance from the UIS Office of Web Services centers on the operation of the tools themselves. Persons seeking instructional design assistance – for example, designing survey questions to elicit the info you need – may want to contact Dick Schuldt in the Survey Research Office, or another staff or faculty member who has specialized pedagogical knowledge.
Finally, we find that UIS campus web publishers and WebTools users are great about helping each other. Find another WebTools user and pick their brain!
