I get logged out of the discussion board before I was finished typing my message.

When you are typing a long discussion or mail message, WebCT doesn't know you are there and you will get logged out after 30 minutes because WebCT thinks you are idle. To prevent loss of your typing, click Preview, then close the Preview window and keep typing. You might also prefer to type the message in a word processing document first, then copy it and paste in your message.