Jeff Swain's blog

ANGEL Archive Scheduled For September 19th

ANGEL archive scheduled for September 19th

On Wednesday, September 19, 2007 at 5:00 a.m. Eastern Time, Information Technology Services will archive:

* All ANGEL courses from Summer 2006 or prior.
* All ANGEL groups that have remained inactive for six months or longer.

For details, please reference the at ANGEL Archiving Policy

The ANGEL Community Hub Celebrates Its One Year Anniversary

The ANGEL Community Hub is celebrating its first anniversary this month. We introduced the Hub last June with the hope of fostering an ongoing discussion around all things ANGEL at Penn State. We purposely made the Hub an open medium, that is to say, anyone can come to the Hub an access the information. Additionally, anyone can become a contributing member (post original works and comments about ANGEL) with with a Penn State UserID and password. The openness of the Hub serves two main purposes: First, it allows for a well-rounded conversation. Having faculty, staff, and students discuss an issue from their each unique perspective allows all of us to see the impact and ramifications of how we use ANGEL. And second, by sharing this discussion with the greater ANGEL community we help other institutions in their adoption and use of ANGEL with the hope that they will return the favor and share their experiences with us, helping us to grow.

ANGEL Handouts Available from ITS Training

Note: The handouts and class files for the "Start Using ANGEL in Your Course Right Away" seminar are now available online at the ANGEL: Penn State's Course Management System page on the ITS Training Services site to access these materials.

The following materials are now available through Training Services:
Overview of the New Features in 7.1
-Handout
-Recording of the class on Adobe Connect

Start Using ANGEL In Your Course Right Away
-Handout
-Class files

Using the ANGEL Course Gradebook
-Handout

Go to the ANGEL: Penn State's Course Management System page on the ITS Training Services site to access these materials.

ANGEL Northeast Regional User Group

I became a charter member of the ANGEL Northeast Regional User Group team at the ANGEL Learning conference in May. These regional groups are ANGEL Learning's attempt at building communities of practice amongst their clientèle. The Community Hub was an example of a community that was referenced as something to model. Go here to read more and provide your input as to what you'd like this regional group to become: ANGEL Northeast Regional User Group

Converting Old Message Boards into Discussion Forums: Remember to Check the Default Settings

The Default settings (everyone can Read a post, make a new post, and reply to a post) are automatically populated when you create a new discussion forum. They are also remained populated in existing discussion forums when we migrated to 7.1. However, these fields do not automatically populate when message boards are converted to discussion forums. If this is the case the instructor will need to go in and select the default settings option.

For example, I import content from a course I taught last fall ('06) when I used message boards into a course I am preparing to teach this fall ('07). After I upload the content into my course I will need to go into the discussion forum settings and select the settings I want the students to have. Note: It is important the all three default settings be selected (read, post, reply) if that is what you instructor want.

ITS Video: New Features in 7.1

ITS Training Services has released a video presentation titled New Features in ANGEL 7.1. Heather Huntsinger, Information Technology Trainer, is the host and does a really nice job walking you through the new user interface. The tutorial is under 40 minutes long and is recommended for those who need to familiarize themselves with ANGEL version 7.1.

Presentation: Trainer's Forum Summer Camp

Yesterday I had the good fortune to do a presentation on ANGEL 7.1 for the trainers across Penn State. The event took place using Adobe Connect and was recorded for future use. The title of my presentation was "Moving Forward: The Transition from ANGEL 6.3 to Version 7.1". Since many of the attendees were already very familiar with v7.1 (having participated in our early access pilot), I took this as an opportunity to fill in a lot of the back story regarding the upgrade as well as to talk a little bit about lessons learned from the upgrade and future plans. Topics included:

    -The numbers
    -The feature set
    -5 things a faculty member should know
    -The new help and information guide
    -How to use the support resources available
    -What to expect next
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