WebAccess
Related Links
August 19 ANGEL update
Update: this update was applied to ANGEL on August 19.
We're planning an update to ANGEL that will make three noticeable changes. Details are available by clicking the Read More link. If you have any questions or concerns about how this will affect you, please contact ANGEL Support.
This update is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday, August 19. It will be the last scheduled update planned for ANGEL until late September, so no new changes will be introduced before the start of the fall semester.
- An error message is displayed when you attempt to attach a file to a discussion forum post that is a reply to another post. The update will correct this issue and files will be able to be attached successfully.
- The default mail format will be changed to HTML mail. A recent update from ANGEL Learning introduced an issue with the "plain text" format in ANGEL mail. When you have "plain text" selected in mail preferences as the format you use to send mail, the message will not have line breaks and will be in a small font. We have found that most people did not intend to send their messages using this format; it was simply the default in ANGEL. To work around the problem sending messages in plain text format we will make HTML formatted email the default. Once this change is made the HTML editor will be shown when composing messages. If you prefer the "plain text" format you will still have the option to switch back to it in mail preferences.
- Uploading files to drop boxes using browsers other than Firefox or Internet Explorer will be blocked. Please note that Firefox and Internet Explorer are the only browsers that ANGEL Learning, the company that makes ANGEL, certifies and supports for use with ANGEL. We discovered a serious issue that causes files uploaded to drop boxes using other browsers (e.g. Safari, Chrome, Konqueror) to not be associated with the submission. This causes the instructor to see the message "no files submitted" when viewing the student's submission. Due to the severe nature of this bug we will be making a change to drop boxes that will warn people who attempt to upload files and disable the attachment button if they are using a browser other than Firefox or Internet Explorer. This is intended to be a temporary measure to prevent student work from being lost as a fix for this issue has not been provided by ANGEL Learning. If this issue is resolved in the future the warning message will be removed.
- Jennifer Mullen's blog
- Login or register to post comments
Recent blog posts
- ANGEL Import Wizard and Export Wizard tools to be turned off during finals week
- Problem with timed quizzes being submitted after a quiz has automatically closed
- Assignments and Category
- ANGEL update 10/7/2009
- Proposals sought for 2010 Symposium for Teaching and Learning with Technology
- CSS not displaying in ANGEL Folders
- WhoDunIt Send Report
- limit in remarks field for drop box?
- Mark your calendar for the 2010 TLT Symposium
- Want links to open outside of ANGEL
Recent comments
- Re: embedding audio clips
4 weeks 3 days ago - Gradebook explanation
7 weeks 10 hours ago - Calculation Type
8 weeks 4 days ago - Should be the same process
9 weeks 1 day ago - How to embed audio clips into an ANGEL quiz
10 weeks 1 day ago - Please send to ANGEL Support
10 weeks 4 days ago - Workaround
10 weeks 6 days ago - Send mail button in whodunit
10 weeks 6 days ago - Thanks Matt!
11 weeks 5 days ago - thanks
11 weeks 5 days ago
Subscriptions
- Podcasts available through iTunes U.
- ANGEL Shorts available at angelshorts.
- Town Hall recordings available at ANGEL Town Hall Recordings.
Comments
Why adopt new version with less compatibility?
With the "upgrade" to a new version of Angel, we now are restricted to two browsers, whereas more worked with the old version, in particular Safari. One of them, Firefox 3.5.2, crashes upon launching on my Mac (a G4 model). So I can't use the required browser, and my usual browser is actually blocked from critical functions in Angel.
How can it be a good idea to change to a new version with known incompatibilities with widely browsers, such as Safari?
And why are we expected to spend hours installing and troubleshooting new browsers? Is this PSU's idea of a good way to spend our time?
- Ross Hardison
Re: Why adopt new version with less compatibility?
Safari has never been a supported browser for ANGEL, and there have always been features that did not work correctly in it. Some things that were broken in Safari in ANGEL 7.1 now work in 7.3, and vice versa. Unfortunately, it's not possible to remain on the same version of any piece of software indefinitely. ANGEL Learning no longer supports ANGEL 7.1.
I'm sorry you've run into problems with Firefox. You might find this article helpful. If you call the ITS help desk they can help you out as well.
Mac prejudice?
Hi.
I have been using both Safari and Firefox for most of the three years I have been using ANGEL. In all that time I have never used IE. And I have never lost any submissions in the drop boxes. In fact were it not for my Mac OS 9 Classic to continue working after 10 years when my 3 year old HP PC crashed I would have most likely dropped out of school 2 years ago. Now I am within a few credits of earning my degree.
With all due respect to the ANGEL community and Windows users I feel that this exclusion of using the Safari browser for drop box submissions is another Windows biased corporate "restriction" on using the Mac OS.
Safari is the browser of choice for most Mac users and I find it much faster than IE. I also have Firefox (which I also find much faster than IE) installed on both my Mac's and my PC's. However, I prefer the Safari browser when using my iMac, which is my fastest and most dependable computer.
I believe this prejudice not to support Mac and Safari is at the point where something positive and proactive must be acknowledged and accepted by ANGEL Learning, and PSU ONLINE administrators and course designers. I believe it is time to support the growing number of Mac and Safari users, many of whom are from the same university departments and online student population ANGEL is to support.
I find it odd how many university I-T job requirements call for multiple platform experience (Windows/Mac/Linux) and yet the lack of support for Mac users in the PSU community is remarkable, and aggravating.
We are soon to enter the second decade of the new millennium and the university still can not, or will not support Mac users. Why? I can not help but believe it is prejudice, not based on technology, or the student's needs, but probably due to corporate sponsorship that prevents moving forwards into the future.
A student may not be able to buy a Coca Cola on campus, but is the war against Mac users heading in the same direction? What better way to teach students there is no such thing as "free markets" than to permit corporate funding that also allows those corporations to dictate what a student can and can not buy and use?
I have spoken with friends and families, students, employees and tech support professionals from several universities across the country and they say support is available across the board for both Mac and PC users online and on campus. It was not always that way. It was a struggle to overcome prejudice and expensive to accomplish but it has become the way of the world to provide quality access to higher education for both Mac and PC users. Should not diversity apply to technology too?
Is it not time we at PSU and those at ANGEL Learning accept the challenge and enter the new millennium? I believe it is unfair to enforce the past inadequacies of ANGEL on the future accomplishments of students.
Thank you for your time and consideration and good luck and best regards to all.
No prejudice here!
I'm sorry you feel that way. To be honest, I was afraid this would be the reaction.
I'd like to point out that neither Safari nor Macs are being targeted here. It's any browser that isn't FX or IE, including Safari, Chrome, Shiira, Konqueror, Opera, Opera Mobile, Lynx, etc. Browsers on Windows, MacOS X, Linux, and mobile platforms are all affected. We're comprehensively cross-platform in our discrimination. :)
To be serious, the decision to do this wasn't the result of discrimination but because of a concern that a bug in ANGEL would seriously affect students' work, grades, and credibility. Disabling the attachment button wasn't Plan A—it was more like Plan C. Plan A was to report this issue to ANGEL Learning, which we did last year. A fix has not been provided. After our in-house programming team evaluated the problem it was determined that it would not be feasible for us to fix the underlying problem in-house at this time, we went to Plan C out of concern.
You mentioned PSU ONLINE—that's Blackboard and run by Penn College of Technology. I can't comment on that at all.
I can only speak for myself here, but I would like to say this: I think you would be pleasantly surprised by ITS's commitment to multiplatform support and open standards, especially when it comes to services that are developed in-house.. Granted, ANGEL is a third-party product and while we encourage the vendor to support a wider range of browsers we also need to pragmatically accept that they only support two of them at this time. But Webmail, PASS Explorer, the ITS secure server (work), Portal, etc support a wide range of browsers including Safari. In our labs we offer Windows, Mac, and Linux computers. A sizable proportion of us use Macs as our primary OS for our daily work, myself included.
Here's hoping the IT world, including my bank's bill payment web site, steps up to the plate with multibrowser support in the near future.