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Starting points
The webCafé home page can help you find any course
currently using webCafé Classic. Start
by clicking) the link for an academic department or special program on our
home page. The academic department pages list courses by section number,
but links are provided above the table of section numbers allowing you to "jump" to
your academic program
(MBA,
undergraduate,
etc.). Some courses for special programs (such as Pre-Freshman Program) are
not listed by department but can be found under Special Programs on
our home page.
In order to use a webCafé Classic room
for a course, you will need to have been registered for at least one
day in an enrollment section
belonging to that course (up to 2 days if you added the course over a
weekend via PennInTouch). The teaching team may also arrange
access for certain students who will not be registering. Over 80% of
all Wharton courses use webCafé
Classic, but not all of the School's courses do. Unfortunately, it is
not possible to visit the webCafé rooms
for Wharton courses you are not taking.
Clicking any section-specific link to a webCafé room,
or clicking on a My eRooms link
on one of our pages, will bring you to a screen where webCafé needs
to check your membership; this is known as logging in to webCafé.
For
students taking Wharton courses, there isn't a webCafé-specific
login account; rather, webCafé is
one of several services at the school accessed through your Wharton
computing account. (Unfortunately, PennKey cannot be used for logging in to webCafé.)
- We have a separate tutorial page showing detailed steps and requirements
for logging in to webCafé.
- Any non-Wharton student currently
registered for a Wharton class may apply for a Wharton computing account
online at http://accounts.wharton.upenn.edu (you'll
need a PennID; most Wharton students will already have
this account and need not apply there.) Please allow up to
6 hours after obtaining a new account for your webCafé access
to begin working.
- If you encounter difficulties, use troubleshooting resources available
at these Wharton sites:
Once you have logged on successfully, you won't be prompted to
login again unless:
- you close your web browser;
- you click "logout"; or
- your session has "timed out" after a long period of inactivity.
Regardless of where you logged
on -- either via a specific link or at My eRooms --
during your usage session you may visit any webCafé room
in which you currently have membership.
Choosing between
software options
Before logging in for the first
time on a particular computer, you may be prompted to choose
a software option. Just
the Web browser works with any compatible browser and is the
right choice when you are working in a public computing lab,
group study room or classroom. The eRoom
plug-in software, available
for computers running Windows XP or Windows Vista, provides multi-file/folder
drag-and-drop as well as rich formatting for discussions and
comments. Other than
those functions, both options
look and work the same way. To learn more about these options,
visit our plug-in tutorial.
Navigating through the
room
A webCafé site for a course is also
known as that course's electronic room, or "eRoom." webCafé rooms
are organized in folders, similar to the way files are organized on
your personal computer.
When visiting a webCafé room by using
a link on our home page or on a student portal, you'll first see the
room's top-level folder.
If you clicked a link in
an e-mail alert or notification sent via webCafé,
you might arrive at a folder underneath the top level. (To find out
more about
notifications, visit our Help
& Support/FAQs area.)
The navigation map on the left side helps you see where you
are and to move easily among all folders in the room.
Locating course-related
files
When visiting a course webCafé room
for the first time, one of the first
files you might look for is the syllabus of a course. In
most cases, the syllabus
can be found inside the Course Materials folder.
To
open the syllabus for viewing, just click once on the file's icon or name.
This folder will also contain other files uploaded by your instructor,
such as slides or readings. Some instructors build folders within
Course Materials, or elsewhere in the room, to keep course files
organized. Depending on how your computer is set up, files you open
will appear either in your
browser or
in the application
normally used to display the file
(e.g. Acrobat Reader, Word, etc.). If the file appeared in your
browser, you
can use the
browser's "back" button to get back to webCafé.
For help with viewing and saving course content, visit the Help
& Support/FAQs and Tutorials areas
of this site for many articles offering help and "how-tos" on
downloading files.
Course Calendar
Many course webCafé rooms use the Course
Calendar to highlight special
events and key dates during the course.
The Course Calendar can be viewed a month
at a time, a week at a time or as a list of events. Click on each
individual event to see any description provided; if
a file is associated with the event, the event will be shown with
a "paper
clip" icon.
Discussions
Some instructors or teaching assistants, particularly in courses
with problem sets (Accounting, Finance, etc.), will answer questions
posted within topics in the Discussions area
of a course webCafé room.
This way, all students can view the instructor's answer to each a posted
question. If the teaching team for your course does not use Discussions
in this way, it can still be useful as a place to post comments or questions
for other students.
Identifying new,
changed or unread ("new to you") items
Any files or items that are new or changed since your last visit (or
new to you) will be shown
with a red triangle. Containers - folders, calendars, discussion areas,
or items that have attachment areas - will show a red triangle if they contain
items that are new or changed since your last visit. The text
of new
discussion comments, announcements or other comments shown underneath a folder
or note will be shown in red the first time you see them.
You can "step through" new files and items by using the  ("next
unread") toolbar button.
Another way to find new information is by searching.
The map has a search tab
with a "more options" link, which brings up a form allowing
you to search by date:
The top-level folder of a room also has a search button
that will take you to the same screen.
A notification -- an e-mail message including
the name eRoom
Report in
the subject line -- will be sent to your Wharton address overnight
after you have
visited a course webCafé room for
the first time. Each notification recaps new and changed items
during the previous day (or, when the room is not in daily use,
since the last notification was sent). For any Course Calendar event
in which you are listed as a participant, a reminder will appear under "Upcoming
Events" in the notification starting 2 days before the event date.
You may opt
out (unsubscribe) on a per-room basis if you like.
Project Folders
Since webCafé is used frequently in
courses with group projects, most course rooms will have a Project
Folders area. This
provides a place for you
to work on group projects and provides instructions for creating a
file-sharing folder that is private to your group. (In some courses
you'll find individual Assignment Submission folders
instead of, or in addition to, a group project folder area.)
Instructions inside the Project Folders container will explain
how to set up a folder and make it private just for your project
team. In some courses, you sign up for one of a set of teams defined
by your instructor; if the signup "roster" includes a join
or change teams button, the
private folder may be set up automatically.
Links
The Links folder is one place where links to other web sites, ones that
may be useful in doing coursework or research, are kept.
My Grades
If your instructor uses the Grade Book feature
of webCafé, you'll be able
to get a summary of any posted assignment grades by clicking on My
Grades.
When others are currently using
the room ("members present" and Intercom)
To determine whether anyone else is using the room at the same time you
are, see whether more than one members present 
icon is shown near the top right of any page showing a webCafé container
(folder, discussion topic, etc.).
If so, you can move your mouse pointer over the icons
to see names of other
currently-logged-in users. Clicking
the nearby intercom  button
will pop up a small Intercom window that allows you to chat with these
users. (Intercom chat is not the same thing as the Discussions area, which
is more like a message board.)
The Intercom button will show blinking "quotes" if
other people are
already
chatting. The Intercom applies to the webCafé room,
not to the entire webCafé service or
to an individual team or folder within a room. The room's folders
and other containers can be thought
of as "sharing" the single Intercom for the room as a whole.
Getting help and finding
other rooms
At the very top of most webCafé pages,
you'll find several links, including these:
- Use the Home Page link
to leave the current room and return to our home page to find other
rooms or information.
- Click Contact
Us to pre-address an e-mail message to our support
e-mail address.
- The searchable Help & Support section
of our web site will pop up in a new
window after you click on Help & Support/FAQs.
There, you may:
- Search for answers to frequently asked
questions (FAQs);
- Use the Self Service tab to browse our help articles and
downloads;
- Use the Troubleshooter to identify problems by category,
submitting a help request (Ticket) if needed;
- Use the Ask the webCafé Team
tab to submit a Ticket requesting help, service
or information.
- Click Tutorials to find illustrated
step-by-step procedures (like this page).
- My
eRooms (shown
underneath the webCafé logo)
brings you to a list showing all of the rooms in which you currently
have membership. This is another way to leave the current room
and find other rooms.
An additional resource for tips on using webCafé is
the online help for
the eRoom software (on which webCafé is
largely based), available wherever a  button
appears. However, that online help may describe capabilities and
features that are not part of Wharton's webCafé service.
Unlike the online help, our Help & Support/FAQs area
includes articles and troubleshooting resources
applicable specifically to the Wharton School.
We hope you enjoy using webCafé Classic!
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