Reminder for the Start of Quarter
Just a reminder to change your password the first time you login to ANGEL. Also, confirm that your email address is current that way you can use our “forgot password” feature if you need.
Add comment June 18, 2009
Spring 09 Instruction Ends Wed., June 10: Grades Due the 15th
WAOL spring grades for ALL shared courses are due next Monday, June 15th, and need to be submitted no later than midnight or they do not get recorded and sent off to the students’ enrolling colleges.
Student access to their ANGEL or BB account and spring classrooms will be turned off on Wednesday, June 10th. If there are any grade changes that need to be made after June 15th they will need to be emailed directly to our office. We will then make the change in the WAOL Spring 09 database and send them off to the appropriate college.
Click here for instructions on Web Grading and here for assigning an Incomplete Grade in a WAOL course.
Any grade changes made after 6/15/2009 must be sent to: Monique Kovalenko (mkovalenko@sbctc.edu) and Brook Bane (bbane@sbctc.edu)
Add comment June 9, 2009
Blackboard to ANGEL Course Export (Screenshots)
For those instructors that still need to export their Blackboard courses into their ANGEL accounts we’ve created this extremely easy to follow screenshot tutorial. (click link below)
Add comment June 3, 2009
Reminder: Summer Book Order submission deadline Sunday, May 24th
Now is the time to make sure you’ve got your course materials submitted for your Summer courses (this applies only to lead instructors teaching WAOL shared courses).
For those teaching system-owned courses we will post the most recent book if you don’t update it in the system. For those teaching college-owned shared courses your course materials will only show in the system if you update them.
Add comment May 19, 2009
WAOL Advisory Group Meeting: May 4 & 18th recordings
Click here for access to a list of all Advisory Group meeting recordings and slideshows
Add comment May 19, 2009
Blackboard/ANGEL Update
As you know, Blackboard (Bb) has announced it is acquiring ANGEL. Twenty-nine of our system colleges have either moved to ANGEL or have plans to do so in the coming months (see below).
I spoke with ANGEL’s CEO on Wednesday and will speak with ANGEL and Bb’s CEOs next week. If you have any questions you’d like me to ask Michael Chasen (Bb CEO), please send them to me. For example, I am going to suggest he make ANGEL the main software and supplement it with the best of Blackboard’s features… and adopt ANGEL’s customer service models.
What happens now? Nothing changes in the short-term. WashingtonOnline will turn off its Blackboard software license on June 30, 2009 and will complete its transition to ANGEL. We will proceed with existing ANGEL deployment plans, full integration with SMS, and faculty professional development activities. The WAOL technology fee remains the same low $4 / user / quarter (unlimited use).
We will closely watch (at least) six things over the next 1-2 years
- Does ANGEL technical (hosting and premium admin) support remain solid?
- When Bb bought WebCT, WebCT support waned. We will be monitoring this very closely.
- Are there continued investments in the ANGEL platform re: functionality?
- … as evidenced in multiple substantive “dot” releases
- Does Bb give our system representation on their highest advisory and product development councils?
- I have already requested a seat on Bb’s Client Advisory Council.
- Will Bb commit to keeping our contract pricing stable after our 3-year contract expires?
- I will be pushing to drive our prices lower due to our systems’ online growth and increased use.
- What does Bb signal about their short, mid and long term plans for ANGEL LMS and ePortfolio products?
- re: maintaining the product lines, end-of-life, and/or transition planning to Bb NG.
- If Bb does merge ANGEL and Bb products, what are the ANGEL-to-new tool migration tools and paths?
Blackboard’s words will mean little – we shall watch their actions and hold them accountable to the service terms in our contracts.
If Blackboard behaves well and meets our expectations, we’ll have a system conversation about renewing our contract. If they do not, there is nothing to stop us from running an RFP at the end of our contract (expires June 30, 2011). No one wants to migrate again / ever, but that is the power we have to demand excellent service and continued low pricing from Blackboard… and I shall remind them of it.
Regardless of what Blackboard does or does not do, we will be successful in brining innovative online, hybrid and web-enhanced learning spaces to our students and faculty.
Warm regards,
Cable Green, PhD
eLearning Director
SBCTC
Add comment May 19, 2009
WAOL Advisory Group Meeting: April 27 recording
Click here for access to a list of all Advisory Group meeting recordings and slideshows.
Add comment April 28, 2009
Intent to Teach forms for Summer and Fall 09
WAOL Intent to Teach forms for Summer and Fall 09 will be available in instructor MyWAOL accounts on April 16. Please forward this information to your faculty who are teaching in classrooms that use WAOL ID integration for Summer or Fall. Mark will email this reminder only to faculty who are teaching shared courses right now.
The deadline for approved Intent to Teach forms for faculty who are teaching shared courses is May 4. On that date we will assign sections based on seniority and approved ITT forms. Remember that your students cannot enroll in WAOL ID-supported courses until WAOL has an approved Intent to Teach form. If your college is creating the classrooms and accounts locally in your own college domain, instructors do not need to complete the Intent to Teach form, and you will not need to attach the WAOL ID to the course in your SMS.
Add comment April 28, 2009
WAOL Advisory Group Meeting: April 20 recording
Click here for access to a list of all Advisory Group meeting recordings and slideshows.
Add comment April 23, 2009
Spring09 WAOL 10th Day Today- April 15th
Today is the WAOL 10th day count. Please be sure WAOL has received all of your WAOL shared enrollment / drops / withdrawals for spring quarter 2009 by the end of today. Brook will send out the S09 10th day report tomorrow (April 16) to all colleges so the enrollments can be verified and any discrepancies corrected, if needed. The billing will go out at the end of this week.
We still have some students who are showing up in a course that had been canceled (#7358 – Race & Ethnic Relations-WWCC) Please, if those are your students please drop them ASAP so your college does not get invoiced for those students. Also, if you have enrolled any fictitious students be sure they are dropped today as well.
Note: The WAOL instruction fee is $50 per credit per enrollment. This fee passes directly from the college that enrolled the student to the college that hired the instructor, and it applies only to classes that have shared enrollments.
WAOL will continue to use the established WAOL count day to calculate the instruction fee that enrolling colleges must pay to teaching colleges. The spring 09 tech fees will not be billed out until the ANGEL audit period towards the end of spring quarter (May 28th – June 3rd).
Add comment April 15, 2009
