ANGEL Community Hub

Faculty who want to start using Penn State’s Course Management System, ANGEL, but are not sure where to start can attend a free workshop entitled “ANGEL: Start Using ANGEL in Your Course Right Away." This will be offered:

• Wednesday, Sept. 3, 8:30-10:30 a.m., 116 Wagner Building, University Park
• Wednesday, Sept. 3, 1:45-4:00 p.m., via an online Adobe Connect videoconference

An “ANGEL: Course Gradebook” workshop will also be offered, as follows:

• Thursday, Sept. 4, 1:00-3:00 p.m., 116 Wagner Building, University Park
• Friday, Sept. 5, 1:45-4:00 p.m., via Adobe Connect

For more information and to register beginning Aug. 25 at 9:00 a.m., visit http://its.psu.edu/training/.

As mentioned in the previous post, updates have been made to the Course Submission & Consultation System component. As a result, I have posted a revised User's Manual, accessed by opening the CSCS component, then selecting the User's Manual link in the toolbar. It is available in both HTML and PDF format.

A minor update was applied to ANGEL this morning during the maintenance window. The top banner now includes an “Accessible View” link to switch to text-only display. The new link is easy to locate for persons who use a screen reader. The accessible and mobile views can also be accessed using the 508 and PDA links in the lower left corner. In addition, the former "LIAS" link has been renamed "Library."

Changes were also made to CSCS. Please click the Read More link below for a list of these changes. If you have any questions or concerns about this morning's update, please contact ANGEL Support.

IST has developed a tool, called LitterBox, that removes the extra files created when downloading an entire drop box folder from ANGEL to your desktop. This tool is extremely helpful for instructors who use this means to then upload the drop box submissions into Turnitin. To read more about it, and download Litterbox, check out the Turnitin Community Hub.

An update was applied to ANGEL during the maintenance window this morning.

• There was a problem that caused My Files to be the directory in which files were stored when uploaded by the HTML editor in a course or group. This has been fixed and the files will now be stored in the course.
• If an editor attempts to link one item on the lessons tab to multiple gradebook assignments a warning message will now be displayed.

Questions? Contact ANGEL Support.

During the weekend of July 19, Information Technology Services plans to upgrade Penn State's Course Management System, ANGEL, from version 7.1 to 7.2. The new version will feature enhancements to several existing tools, and several new tools will help course editors perform administrative tasks. For the most part, however, the interface and functionality will remain familiar to users. To learn more about the upgrade, visit http://tlt.its.psu.edu/news/index.html#angel72features. For any questions, contact ANGEL support at angelsupport@psu.edu.

A faculty member who attended the Hendricks conference on Monday is excited about a session she attended in which she heard that at Penn College of Tech, they are using 'Wimba Live' teleconferencing capability within ANGEL. She does a lot of distance learning within her courses and used Skye with Adobe Connect and ANGEL last year. From what she saw at the conference, she thinks Wimba provides space within Angel to do web conferencing and she wants to know how she can gain access for her courses this summer. Does anyone know more about this?