Your first step as an author should be in locating an education environment software that is accessible to you. In the following I will assume that the popular WebCT software is available to you for authoring the course, and all the terminology used will be specific to WebCT version 3.1.3 available at this time.

When you open up the WebCT course as an author, you will find in the navigation panel on the left side of your Home Page, an item designated as View Designer Map. Click this, and get familiar with the different entries in the table. Below are brief explanations about each column heading.

1. Content Assistant
Useful for pulling down to your course, the vast amount of resources available on the Internet.

2. Update Student View
You will have to click this, every time you modify your course, so that the changes will be transmitted to your students.

3. Add Page or Tool
Useful for controlling the logical structure of the pages in your course.

4. Manage Files
A reasonable course will involve managing files within the course and transferring files between your computer and the course.

5. Manage Course
The entire course is managed by this utility. It performs important functions like backing up your course.

6. Change Settings
You must have a Welcome Page for your course, which can be accessed by anybody from the Internet. This utility allows you write the page and put in a login facility also.

7. Modify
Click this to modify the pages in your course.

You cannot feel confident about these tools and utilities, until you physically see what they can accomplish. For a concrete example of a web based course, see my Welcome Page
https://webct.rutgers.edu/public/CompTechConcepts_kannan/.
Go through the course with the critical eye of an author. For your first attempt, use this course as a template and become comfortable with the basic tools provided by WebCT. Once everything becomes familiar to you, you are on your own.

So, where do you start? Just write to your WebCT administrator that you want to author a course, giving him or her the title. A few incantations that are required will be explained to you by the administrator.