WAOL Angel - Recently Updated Pages

Angel Instructor Issues (Q & A)

ebachmann — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 14:45:32 CDT

This page will become an index of issues; a faculty Q & A of sorts. At this overview page, we'll create headings and categories so we can group by Angel feature or tool areas. Please add to the broad heading categories as necessary and the specific issues bullet list to build the index.

Procedurally,

1. Identify the issue with a brief title/name.
2. Create a new page where you can define it very precisely.

Be sure to create the new page in the Angel Issues section (have that page highlighted in the left menu then select "Add a page" at the bottom of the menu frame)!
There is a template you can select from the third prompt when makeing the new page or make a blank one and use copy/paste from the Issue Template page for a consistent layout.

3. Others can contribute to the resolution of the issue, or make comments in a thread related to that issue's page.
4. Finally, return to this page and add the title/name of the page to a fitting category's bullet list, link the title/name added to the new page to build the navigation system!

Bb to Angel Migration Oddities

Discussion Forum

Exams

Editing and printing questions

Gradebook

Student Views and Support

Features I'd like to see (or tricks that provide the same functionality)

Automatic Daily Attendance PIN Announcement
Automatic recording of attendance record to gradebook
Add gadget in Home page nugget

WAOL Angel Home

Mfairbanks3721 — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 12:48:04 CDT

Training Support Resources

FAQ for Faculty and other Users of Angel

FAQ for System Administrators

ANGEL Video Tutorials by Scott Dennis (LCC)

Student Control of Dropbox Files

ebachmann — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 12:35:06 CDT

Reported by Sharon Russell from Pierce College

Description:
Can a student delete a Dropbox file?

Responses:
Earl Sallade and Edward Bachmann from Pierce College:
The Digital Dropbox does not work like a Web-based storage sytem or a computer hard drive. Each Assignment that uses the Dropbox has its own Dropbox link. When the student uses the link, they are presented with the directions and a dialog box for submitting their work. After reading the instructions,they identify/title their submission and then use either the Copy/Paste or File Attachment (it setup in the Settings' "Submission" tab) methods of inputing their work using the dialog box.
When attaching a file, in addition to uploading the file, they must also do a second step of clicking Submit to finish the submission process. We hear frequently of missing files that the student says they have submitted. Most likely, they clicked out of the screen using another navigation aid in Angel and therefore didn't completly submit the file. They could also click Submit and fail to do the initial upload of an attachment, resulting in an empty submission.

A successful submission is reported back to the student by the addition of a table below the submit button. It is all that is displayed if they leave the Dropbox screen and return later to check on their grade. That infomation shows a link allowing only review the submission (if allowed by the instructor via Settings using the "Reveiw" tab). They have no capability to delete the file and can only resubmit additional work if allowed in the Dropbox's Settings via the "Submission" tab.

Here is a link to a video tutorial from GRCC showing students how to use the Digital Dropbox.

Issue Template

ebachmann — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 11:45:54 CDT

To "add" a page that will link to the Angel Issues (Q & A), first can highlight the text below and press CTRL-C to copy it. Then click the Angel Issues page link in teh site menu on the left. Now when you use Add Page it will appear in the section of the wiki for faculty issues/Q&A, not at the bottom of the entire wiki page list!. When the Add Page screen opens, you will specify the page's brief descriptive phrase, which will become the top header/title/Site Pages link, and use the EasyEdit button and CTRL-P to add the template page elements to the new page. Just edit the (parenthetical info), Save the page and then create the link to the Angel Issues "index" page by using the EasyEdit button on that page!! Save that edit, test the link and you're done!!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ copy template below for site pages ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reported by (replace with your name) from (and your college) College

Description:
(replace with a brief description)

Responses:
(replace with your name) from (and your college) College:
(replace with a brief description)

Resources

SimsJ — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 10:53:39 CDT

Washington Online Support Center (Knowledge Base)

Washington Online Angel Support

Social Network Ning Site for Angel Teachers - Lansing Community College

Angel Learning Community (ALC) via Elluminate - BTC and PC

Check out an ANGEL classroom in our Week Zero Course (with tutorials for students) by following these directions:

Go to: http://angel.waol.org

Then enter…

Username: weekzero
Password: guest

Once logged in look for the ‘Courses’ box then click on “Week Zero – Getting Started with ANGEL”

Add gadget in Home page nugget

Anonymous — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 11:39:21 CDT

Reported by Naomi Krant from Pierce College

Description:
Is it possible to get an empty nugget for the Home page? Instead of the Wikipedia nugget on the Home page, I'd like to add the gadget that will allow my students to search the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English. I can get the code for the gadget, but is there a way to get an empty nugget ?

Responses:
Ed Bachmann from Pierce College:
Placing new Nuggets on the Home page is done by using the Edit Page link in the upper left of the display area. You are only able to add from the listed listed nuggets when you click the Add Component button in the Edit Page display. If you have a new Nugget that you'd like to be included in the optional "Components" list, I would share that interest and resource with Mark Carbon and Connie Broughton at WAOL.

All users, including students, can customize their Home page nuggets and layout. If you want to be sure the students have access to a resources, you could include it on the Course start page or Resources tab (if it is in the list of available components). The Course page is set by the instructor and not customizable by students, like the Home page is.

I expect that WAOL is working on priorities like full SMS integration, moving to version 7.4 and fully using Angel's basic resources like LORs and Community Groups. It may be awhile before the figure out how to review requests like yours. I expect eventually there will be a process for the Angel domain users to come together to propose added components. There are many things that will need to be considered as the system makes such enhancements.

I wonder if the short term solution would be to use some other generic nugget in which you can provide a link to the resource that will remain on the Home/Course page? "Did you know" and "Course Information" might be candidates.

Addendum: Given that Google gadget is really just a fancy link to their web site, I use the option to add it to a Web page/site. Once I got to your classroom, it took about a minute to place it there.

On the Google page, after selecting the Website option, I previewed the gadget and then clicked Get the Code. That opened a text area with the HTML code for the gadget that I then highlighted and copied using the ctrl-C keyboard shortcut. I then logged into and got to your classroom Course page.

a) From the Course page I clicked Edit Page

b) I clicked Add components and scanned the list for "About the Course" nugget, then checked it as one to add to the page and clicked submit

c) I dragged the now labeled "About the Section" nugget to just below the Grades nugget in the left column.

d) I saved the Edit Page changes

e) I clicked the pencil edit tool in the top bar of the new nugget

f) When the editor window opened, I selected the toolbar icon for Source (far right of the editor tools), then pasted the copied code into the text area using ctrl-v.

g) I saved that added item and it displays in the nugget on the course page!

That was simple!! When a student uses it, the gadget opens a new window that the user then can drill down to the definition. You might want to append that item by modifying the instructions I entered - what to do with the text entry field and what to do to return to the classroom (close the Gadget window when done).

(BTW, I took the Wikipedia nugget off the Course page when adding the About the Course/Section nugget....)

Make Up Exams

KathleenBeaumont — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 17:04:24 CDT

Due to some strange MAC interface issues, I have the need to open up a make-up exam to just one or two students rather than the entire group. Anyone know a way to do this? I am exploring passwording the exam and extending the access time in the exising lesson, but am trying to figure out if a can create a separate folder or content area to store the test.

Web page

ebachmann — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:40:09 CDT

BTC and Peninsula College Weekly Elluminate Sessions

Angel Topics
PC's General Faculty Development Elluminate Topics

Grading Discussion Forums

ebachmann — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 17:20:15 CDT

Reported by Krissy Kim from Pierce College

Description:
Has anyone found a "backdoor" to the discussion grader on Angel. When I click on grade forum, I can see all the posts a student has made, but I can’t go from their post back to the threaded discussion which is helpful when reading replies in context of the initial post or thread. Currently, I’m opening up an additional window with Angel in it and going back and forth between the discussion grader in one window and the actual discussion board in the other (and search the board to find the post I’m grading). It works, but it cumbersome.

Responses:
Posted by Ed Bachmann from Pierce College:
Following up on what Krissy was describing and the same procedure in the discussion thread below by Lenora from Big Bend, here is what I shared with another instructor. It still doesn't get to the heart of the matter - seeing the posts in context while in the grading mode.

If you want to award points for each posting, I would open a Discussion Forum and click the Utilities menu beneath the title:

where you find the option for Grade Forum

One can enter points for each student based on the counts seen.

If you click their name, you will see their all their posts and replies to others posts. The problem is, they are not in context of the other’s original posts…

This would let you see if she did the requisite number of replies, get a sense of their point worthiness and enter a total score.

To see the context, you have to return ot the discussion forum, as best as I can tell. The "Search view" seems like it could be one way to find a key phrase from the grading view for each post - lots of back and forth between the two views, but I couldn't get it to find the text I copied unless I took it directly from the Forum "Threaded view" and did the search.

As an alternative to using the Search View, you could use the Browser's built-in Edit => Find on this page... menu combination to find the key phrase in the expanded Nested View, and then scrolling back up to the original posting to see what was said to prompt the reply.

This looks like it could be a new feature in Angel 7.x to have a button in that grading view that takes you right to the beginning of each displayed post in context in the Nested View!:-)

Extra Credit

SimsJ — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:22:23 CDT

Description:
Grades for Extra Credit assignments are not showing in the gradebook.

Responses:
Jesse Sims from Lower Columbia College:
To make sure that assignments designated as extra credit appear in the gradebook properly, two actions must take place.

1. You must first create an Extra Credit category. Click the Manage tab, Gradebook, then Categories, click the Add New button and create a new Extra Credit category. Make sure that you check the box marked Extra Credit. *Now whenever you place an assignment in this category, it will be designated extra credit.

2. To designate a particular assignment as extra credit, click the Manage tab, Gradebook, then Assignments, place a checkmark next to the assignment and then click the Edit Selected button. In the Category drop-down menu, select the Extra Credit category, and Save.

*Note: This is an "either-or" proposition. You cannot designate a single ASSIGNMENT as an extra credit within an extra credit CATEGORY. All assignments within an extra credit category are automatically calculated as extra credit.

"Eyeglasses" Student View & Guest Account Use

ebachmann — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 11:17:22 CDT

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ copy template below for site pages ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Reported by Earl Sallade from Pierce College

Description:
Is there some way to allow Instructors to access the ‘student view’ so that they can verify their own course structures prior to the date classrooms open to students for Week Zero activities?

Responses:
Connie Broughton from WAOL: We’ve got an FAQ on that: I need to be able to view my course as a student when I’m building my course but I’m unable to use the “student view” when I’m in my classroom.
The student view will be available only when students have access to your classroom. If you want to see your classroom from the student view before it is turned on for students, you have several options:

1. Click on the eyeglass icon in the upper right of your ANGEL classroom, but choose Team Lead rights. Team Lead will show you the student view even if students do not yet have access to your classroom.

2. Use your Guest account. This account works just as it did in Blackboard. The Guest account for your classroom is the word guest followed by your WAOL ID number followed by the section number. The default password is the WAOL ID number. For example: guest9999sec1. Password is 9999. These guest accounts are available right now and have Team Lead rights. As instructor, you control the password, so you can control who can enter your classroom using the Guest account. 3. Work in a Master classroom and use the Eyeglasses Student preview as normal, then copy your course to the new shell for the upcoming section just prior to it being avilable to students. Once you've gone "live", you'd revert to option 1 or 2.

Student Gradebook

Anonymous — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 15:51:19 CDT

Posted by David Lippman from Pierce College

Description:
I noticed that Angel didn't have an obvious student gradebook.

Response by David Lippman - Pierce College
I stumbled across this on Presidium's site which explains three ways that you can provide students access to their grades. Follow this path to review their explanation:

Browse to http://waol.org
Click the Helpdesk tab
Select the Knowledgebase system link in the lower right box on the main part of the screen
Choose Angel 7.3 in the left had navigation links
Expand the Instructors option
Select the Gradebook option
Review the three ways students view grades in the main display screen.

Response by Jesse Sims - Lower Columbia College
The best way for students to view their current grades in a course is to run a Grade Report:

Direct your students to click the Report Tab in your course.
They will need to select Grades in the Category dropdown menu.
Then click the Run button to get a current view of grades.
They can also choose to save this report by clicking the Save button.

Adding Additional Faculty

SimsJ — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:50:52 CDT

Reported by Ed Bachmann from Pierce College:

Description:
We have many courses and non-credit online workshops that require a group of faculty so they can coordinate content and collaboratively develop the classrooms. How can Domain system administrators add faculty to an existing classroom?

Responses:
Jesse Sims from Lower Columbia College.

One method would be for the domain administrator to enter the course via the Administrator Console:
Once inside the course, the Admin would then click the Manage Tab, and select Roster.
Select the Add a User link at the top of the page.
Here the Admin can run an Account Search for the faculty member by name, assuming that the faculty member has an active ANGEL account on the domain.
When the faculty member has been found, click the Select button adjacent to their name.
Lastly, designate their Rights as a Course Assistant or Course Editor, and also choose their Title within the course.

Rearranging assignments in the Gradebook.

SimsJ — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 11:33:09 CDT

Description:
If your assignments and categories appear disorganized and out of order in your gradebook, there is a solution...

Responses:
Jesse Sims from Lower Columbia College:

Click the Manage Tab, choose Gradebook, then select Categories.
Assuming that you have at least one category listed here, select the category in which you would like to organize assignments by placing a checkmark in the box adjacent to the category.
Once you have done this, then you'll notice that the grayed out Show Tasks, Edit Selected, and Delete Selected buttons are now active.
Click the Show Tasks button and scroll down to the list of links in the lower portion of the screen, click the Reorder Assignments link, and now you can rearrange the way these assignments will appear in your Gradebook. *NOTE: You can also use the Move Up and Move Down links to reorder the categories themselves .
Do this with each category until you have your Gradebook organized.

Editing and printing exam questions

ebachmann — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 15:43:18 CDT

Reported by Ed Bachmann from Pierce College based on question from Kathleen Beaumont

Description: Does anyone know a way to print out exams/quizzes in Blackboard in one big group rather than each one? My exams tanked in Angel and I’ll need to proofread for missing questions.

Responses:
Ed Bachmann from Pierce College:
I didn't pay attention to the fact the question was for viewing the entire exam in Bb...but did discover this approach for viewing exams within Angel! I think in Bb you set the exam to display all at once, then login as your guest/student account and take the exam, right-clicking the screen and choosing to print from the pop-up menu.

To do this in Angel, you go to the Lessons tab and to the link for the quiz, then click Utilities in the menu that appears below when hovering your mouse over the link,

you see a list of options.

If you choose the Email quiz and send it to yourself,

you get the e-mail with an html document attached that give you a nice page you can print or put into a PDF….

I suppose you could even edit it an HTML editor!

Then the question would be how to import it back in! It looks like the only way is to use the Manage Tab’s Question Bank Manager and use the function for:

That would get them back into the pool….now you need to edit the original exam by clicking the Exam link and editing the individual item where you made changes:

So, it seems one would have to Delete the erroneous item, then Add Question, where you get this menu:

Use the Pool item to find it if you already pasted in a new one. Of course, you could have come here directly and use Import Questions to make the needed changes via cut and paste (instead of going to the Manage Tab).

Mark All Read

SuzanneChandler — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 14:15:37 CST

Reported by Suzanne Chandler from Whatcom Community College

Description:
Some of you may look at this and think "What is her problem? In "Search View", just click the tick-box in the header that 'selects all' and then mark all as 'read'. Easy."

Yes, well, if you have a tick box, it is. I heard rumors of other people's tick boxes, but I didn't have one. Tick-box envy set in.

Whilst trying to fix an other problem, we found the solution to this one. Remove ALL Java programs - every last shred of them. Be sure to use the "Control Panel" remove programs options, don't just delete icons. Then, reinstall JAVA.

The 'select all' tick-box was getting lost in multiple versions of JAVA and its updates. Get a clean fresh Java and the box will appear. You can mark-all-read just like the other kids now.

Video

SimsJ — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 17:09:51 CST

A colleague of mine here at Lower Columbia College, Scott Dennis, has developed a plethora of ANGEL video tutorials and made them available on YouTube. I think that many could benefit from these so here is the link, enjoy:

http://www.youtube.com/user/LCC98632

Jesse Sims
WAOL/ANGEL
Lower Columbia College

Delay In Discussion Postings Appearing

ebachmann — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 13:49:35 CST

Reported by David Lippman from Pierce College

Description:
I noticed when testing out the Discussion forums that new forum posts don't show up immediately. this could cause students to repost because they didn't think it properly submitted!

Responses:
Scott Dennis from Lower Columbia College:
That is weird about the DF postings not showing up. There has definitely been an increase in forum weirdness since we went to version 7.3. I guess, when in doubt, hit refresh and hope for the best.

David Lippman from Pierce College
This does not appear to be happening anymore... weird; it was 4 days ago. Will try again from home to see if that makes a difference :)

To-Do Report for students

SuzanneChandler — Thu, 15 Jan 2009 01:38:54 CST

Post this announcement for your students to help them stay on top of their workload.

"Reports" tab. See that reports tab up there? Go explore. You can view your progress, grades earned, attendance recorded etc. Set it to "Milestones" and "Milestones" and you will get a handy easy-to-print report of what is due now (red), due soon (yellow), and due later (green).

Administrator Q & A

ebachmann — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 13:49:19 CST

This page will become an index of issues, of sorts, that system administraor encounter in our new "domain" structured Angel system. Please add to the broad categories as necessary and the lists of specific issues. Identify the issue with a brief title/name. Create a new page where you can define it very precisely and others can contribute to the resolution of the issue, or make comments in a thread related to that issue's page. Finally, return to this page and link the title/name to the new page to build the navigation!

Instructor Accounts

Adding additional faculty to a classroom

Student Accounts

New WAOL 'Tech Fee' structure

CourseID's and WAOL ID's

add topic here and link to the page on this topic

Support via Elluminate

Entry and Advising Good Practices