Posts tagged ‘Angel’
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
Public Announcement Nugget in WAOL ANGEL is off for repairs
This is only for colleges who are using the Public Announcement nugget in their own domain on WAOL ANGEL.
We have removed that nugget temporarily from WAOL ANGEL because we have discovered that colleges still have the ability to edit each other’s announcements. We’ll fix it and turn it back on as soon as we can.
Support Escalation Path
Below is the Technical Support Escalation Path (link to a word doc is also included at the end of the post). Please take a look at these procedures and use them when requesting support when Angel is not working properly. Please also pass this along to others on your campus.
Washington Online is revamping its relationship with Presidium Learning. As of 2-18-09 we have new personnel and a larger management team that are working with us to create a new Angel support portal. The new portal will be 100% Angel focused and will provide the waol office direct access to everything Presidium technicians are doing. We still have a lot of work ahead of us on this project but it will provide all of us a better level of support than we have seen in the past.
Escalation Path (For when Angel is not working properly)
1. Call Presidium Tech Support 1-866-425-8412 (Toll free)
a. Additional information coming soon on the new Angel Support Portal we are creating
2. Required information you need on hand to provide technical support personnel:
a. Waol ID number
b. Course name
c. Username
d. The path taken to where the error is occurring
e. A copy of the error message
f. Name of browser and version
g. MAC or PC and version
3. If Presidium is not able to assist you then please escalate (email) to Jesse Sims or Mark Carbon
a. Include the ticket number assigned to your case when you called Presidium
b. Include all of the information in number 2 (above)
c. jsims@lowercolumbia.edu
d. mcarbon@sbctc.edu
4. All of this information is required before a ticket is opened in the Angel Support Center. The technician needs to be able to replicate the problem so they can turn around and fix it.
5. For information on how to use Angel: https://www.waol.org/faculty_and_staff/angelSupport.aspx
ANGEL Time-Out Issues
Last week many users of WAOL ANGEL frequently timed out and received an error message: “There was an error processing your request.”
ANGEL found that the error was caused by an asp.net page timeout of 5 minutes that is related to ANGEL discussion forums. WAOL has adjusted the ANGELSESSION_TIMEOUT as a temporary fix. ANGEL is working on a permanent fix, and they will apply it when it is ready.
Please let us know if any of your users continue to see this problem.
If you do hear of this problem—or any problem with WAOL ANGEL– please send the user to WAOL or Presidium with specific information. The more information we have, the faster we can get to a solution.
If you are reporting a problem, please include the user, the classroom, the time of day, the area of the classroom where it occurred, the browser used, and anything else that might be useful.
ELC info for Spring Intent to Teach Management
· We did get some feedback and made some changes this afternoon to de-emphasize the option of Blackboard for Spring. If you want all faculty at your college on ANGEL for Spring, please let them know, so they will make the right choice.
· We will send you a report in a few weeks to let you know which of your instructors chose Blackboard, if any. If you don’t want your instructors on Blackboard, we’ll have time to fix it before Spring begins.
· Most important–Please check carefully as you approve the Intent to Teach forms to make sure the correct dates are there. WAOL automates every process based on those dates, and the power is now yours to make them what you want at your college. (Note: That is for private classrooms only; shared courses continue to use WAOL start-stop dates.)
Information for Spring 09 WAOL Instructors
- We’re transitioning to the ANGEL Learning Management System
- You’ll need to import your course content from Blackboard into ANGEL
- Resources for obtaining an ANGEL account & migrating content are available at our Faculty ANGEL Support page. Your ELC will also have the most current information on the move.
- Please read carefully about changes in the Intent to Teach process listed below.
The Spring 09 Intent to Teach form is now open. The new ITT form defaults to ANGEL since we plan to have most users on ANGEL for Spring 09. It also allows flexible dates for any private course. Shared courses, of course, must continue to use the WAOL start-stop dates. These changes reflect the new tech fee structure, the cutover to ANGEL and the general simplification of WAOL procedures that these changes enable. The first change is that the College Private and Hybrid course types will effectively be merged into the old Flexible course type. This new, merged course type will keep the College Private name, but will have the flexibility of the old WAOL Flexible course type. The new College Private course type will be:
- Private to your school (which is no change from the existing College Private, Hybrid and Flexible types),
- Enrollment always open on the WAOL side, (and so controlled only by the college in SMS),
- Flexible dates. The ITT form defaults to the dates set by your college, but the ELC may edit them prior to approving the form.
The second change is the emphasis on ANGEL over Blackboard. The ITT form for Spring 09 will:
- Default to ANGEL, but offer Blackboard as a less emphasized option. Please check with your ELC before choosing Blackboard. On many campuses all instructors will be moving to ANGEL.
- The Course ID to Copy is not collected for ANGEL courses. Instructors on ANGEL all receive empty course shells, and so copy their course content themselves from their masters or prior sections or Blackboard. (Originally, WAOL planned to migrate content from Blackboard for instructors. During the Fall pilot we got feedback from instructors that it is much easier if the instructor imports the content. Don’t worry—it’s easy.)
These are relatively small adjustments, and the overall process is unchanged. Instructors continue to fill out an online form by going to their MyWAOL account. E-Learning Coordinators receive email notice as the forms are submitted, and may then approve or reject the forms on WAOL.org. WAOL staff can see these forms as they move through the system, and this form information is the basis for the online classrooms that are provisioned in WAOL’s SMS and in ANGEL and Blackboard. So, as always, we need the approved ITT form before your classroom can be created.
ANGEL System Maintenance, Friday, January 9th
On Friday morning, January 9th, between 2AM and 5AM EDT, the AHS team hold a maintenance window for the purpose of infrastructure updates and maintenance.
During this time your ANGEL instance may be unavailable, so please plan accordingly for this scheduled maintenance window.
Additional topics offered in ANGEL drop-in sessions
Next week , beginning Monday, December 15th, Jesse Sims will be covering new topics in his ANGEL sessions in Elluminate.
Here’s a quick overview:
- Monday: Adding Lesson Content
- Tuesday: Graphics, Formatting & Rich Media
- Wednesday: Automation- using actions and agents
- Thursday: Gradebook Part II
- Friday: Discussion Forums
For more information about these and other sessions check out our Faculty ANGEL Support Page.
ANGEL drop-in sessions in Elluminate with Jesse Sims
If you find, after you’ve used our online resources and have been playing around in your ANGEL classroom, that you’ve got questions you need answered please pop in to one of our ANGEL drop-in sessions. Jesse Sims, who has been supporting faculty with ANGEL for three years at Lower Columbia College, will be available to help.
Monday 9:00 am – 10:00 am
Tuesday 4:00 pm- 5:00 pm
Wednesday 10:00 am – 11:00 am
Thursday 3:00 pm – 4:00 pm
Friday 11:00 am – 12:00 pm
You will at least need desktop speakers for the session and can ask questions via the “chat” feature. If you have a headset with microphone, even better, you can use the audio to participate. It is wise to login a few minutes before the session begins, here is the link: https://sas.elluminate.com/m.jnlp?
Jesse Sims can also be contacted for one-on-one support at jsims@lowercolumbia.edu and 360-442-2522. His office hours are Monday – Thursday, 9-11am and 3-5pm; Friday 9am – 12pm.
ANGEL Elluminate session Recordings
If you missed the Elluminate session with Jesse Sims on moving your course content from Blackboard to ANGEL and would like to view the recording click here.
You can also view Monday’s session about organizing your couse documents, assignments etc. by clicking here.
Tomorrow’s session will be covering Assessments, quizzes, exams and games. You can join the session by clicking on this link. It’s helpful to have a headset with microphone when you attend but works fine to attend if you only have desktop speakers. You will still be able to participate in chat. The session is scheduled to begin at 10:00 am.
