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| Product Name | ANGEL Learning Management Suite v. 7.3 |
|---|---|
| Developer Name | ANGEL Learning, Inc |
| URL | http://www.angellearning.com/products/lms/ |
| Review Date | July 08, 2008 |
| Forums | ANGEL Learning Management Suite v. 7.3 Discussions |
| Reviewer | Email Review Staff |
| Communication Tools | |
| Discussion Forum |
ANGEL 7.3 includes an entirely new, high performance discussion engine. New view and navigation filters allow users to quickly view and navigate between messages. Students can filter their message view and navigation by: All Posts, Unread Posts, Read Posts, My Posts, Replies to My Posts, Draft Posts, Flagged Posts, Posts with Attachments and set any view as their default view. Discussion directions are always visible and fully expanded the first time a user enters a Discussion Forum. Message controls allow users to expand or collapse and sort messages. Posts can be plain or formatted text or html and can include attachments, images or URLs. Students can categorize posts as problems, explanations, scientific explanations, comments, evaluations, or summaries. Forums can be shared across courses, departments or any institutional unit. Journal Mode provides a one-to-one environment for student-instructor exchange. The entire discussion can be saved or printed for off-line reading. Users can subscribe to a forum and receive posts via email. Discuss |
| Discussion Management |
ANGEL allows an unlimited number of Discussion Forums, provides tools that reduce the amount of time spent managing discussions and increases visibility into class behavior. Instructors can set all posts to be approved prior to display or require only certain students’ posts be approved. Search and message filters allow users to find messages, select all or specific messages and apply any of the following actions in one step: approve/reject, score, move, make sticky/unstick, lock/unlock, mark as read/unread, delete/undelete. Instructors can create posts in advance and schedule their post date. Instructors can configure discussions so students may only reply to top-level posts Discussions function in threaded or nested modes. Instructors can designate students as forum moderators. Custom icons can be assigned to different post types. Instructors can choose to have their posts appear in a different color. Instructors can determine who is able to post new topics. Instructors can force new subject lines for replies to a message with “RE:” in the subject line. An optional peer rating tool allows users to rate and instructors to track the value of peer posts. Discussion At-a-Glance summaries provide users a quick graphical view of discussion performance and trends. Instructors can grade posts directly in the interface. Clicking on any post opens a grading interface that includes a quick comment option. Instructors can create rubrics that evaluate and create a score based on a student’s participation (posts, replies, replies to posts, average peer rating) and the average instructor score. Instructors can review discussion grades and adjust as necessary before posting all to the gradebook. Discuss |
| File Exchange |
ANGEL allows an unlimited number of dropboxes. Discuss |
| Internal Email |
Course Mail (ANGEL's Internal email system) provides the functionality users are familiar with in their internet email systems such as folders, multiple attachments, blind carbon copies (BCC), HTML formatted messages with editors, custom viewing preferences, automatic spell check, etc. and augments it with features developed specifically to address educational needs. Course Mail can be shut off and provides the ability to allow mail to/from instructors, not other class members. Instructors can send mail to all students in all courses in one action. Administrators can send mail to the entire learning community. Administrators can configure Course Mail to be sent to anyone in the learning community from within any course even if the mail recipient is not in that course. Consolidated mailbox includes all mail in one box no matter what course the mail is viewed from. Instructors can personalize email signatures for each course they teach. Tools to manage unacceptable behavior, e.g., cyber bullying, with fine levels of control. Discuss |
| Online Journal/Notes |
Students can share their notes with other students. They can make notes in a journal and choose to make the notes private or to share them with their instructor or with other students. Discuss |
| Real-time Chat |
Chat is one feature of the ANGEL LIVE synchronous toolset included in ANGEL. In addition to chat, ANGEL LIVE includes virtual office hours, desktop sharing, whiteboard and instant messaging to support real-time learning. Virtual office hours provide scheduling capabilities and a queue manager to control student access. Students queue in a visual waiting room until their appointment time, with options to sound a notification alert when the instructor is ready. The instructor can review the student queue and invite multiple attendees into the office for shared discussion. Instant messenger allows sending and receiving to one person or the entire class and includes ability to block senders. Discuss |
| Whiteboard |
ANGEL's whiteboard supports image uploading and instructor moderation. Multiple users can interact on a whiteboard. The instructor controls access to the whiteboard. Objects on the whiteboard can be edited. Import content from any resources. Whileboard state is persistent and therefore not limited to one session. Desktop sharing activity indicator lights show which users are using slower connections to enable proper presentation pacing. Discuss |
| Productivity Tools | |
| Bookmarks |
Sort bookmarks by category. Set permissions to optionally allow others to use them. Discuss |
| Calendar/Progress Review |
Calendars can include personal, course or group or institution-wide events. Customize calendar view as either list or grid to suit individual preferences. Instructors can also post announcements on the course homepage. Instructors and students stay organized with What’s New and Tasks presented at login. ANGEL’s Activity at a Glance and Grades are also presented at login on the course homepage. A click on any graph takes the user to more detail. Students can compare their individual performance to class performance. Discuss |
| Searching Within Course |
Discuss |
| Work Offline/Synchronize |
ANGEL’s PDA Mode makes ANGEL accessible offline. Podcasting (course syndication) enables instructors to broadcast audio or video files, links or content items by placing an item in a course syndication folder, enabling students to work offline. Students easily download music and video files to iPods or other MP3 players. Files can also be played in a standard browser – no MP3 player required. Text items are syndicated to RSS-enabled browsers or readers. Discuss |
| Orientation/Help |
ANGEL 7.3 adds “How-To” mini tutorials on the most frequent uses of ANGEL to user documentation. Field level help includes comprehensive assistance as well as a feedback loop to solicit input from users for future modifications. Discuss |
| Student Involvement Tools | |
| Groupwork |
All functionality available in an ANGEL course is available in an ANGEL group. Instructors can associate groups with any course content and create separate discussion environments for small groups. Groups can be open to all or only a select set of students. Instructors can create groups manually or ANGEL's random team generator can guide instructors through the team creation process and can create teams based on instructor-defined criteria. Discuss |
| Community Networking |
If allowed, students can create online clubs, interest or study groups with access to email, calendar, announcements, discussions, etc. Discuss |
| Student Portfolios |
Students have a private personal folder and a public course/team folder for displaying their work. Private personal home pages can include a list of all discussion posts they have submitted, their photo, personal information, links to websites, artwork or pictures. Private folders can be made to be accessible system wide to display student work. Students can use their public personal home page in a course to display their work in that course when assigned by the instructor. Students can export their portfolio to an external email address. Discuss |
| Administration Tools | |
| Authentication |
Discuss |
| Course Authorization |
Discuss |
| Registration Integration |
ANGEL’s Extended Enterprise Integration (XEI) Framework simplifies the complexity of integration by allowing easier configuration of data sources, direct mapping of fields between systems and the use of standards and specifications. Discuss |
| Hosted Services |
ANGEL Learning offers hosting services with 24x7x365 comprehensive web environment monitoring that ensures peak performance, fully redundant systems and daily backup with offsite storage. A historically stable 99.8% uptime standard is offered, with additional options available to meet individual institution needs. Provider personnel perform all maintenance and upgrades, but institution retains complete control of teaching and learning functionality and set up. Discuss |
| Course Delivery Tools | |
| Test Types |
Discuss |
| Automated Testing Management |
Question Sets allow instructors to group questions and apply different delivery rules to each group. Mastery Mode presents questions in a self-study mode that allows students to drill against a set of questions until they achieve the proficiency level set by the instructor. Ability to fine-tune how students receive review commentary. Reviews can be presented any number of days after a user submission, after the assessment is disabled or after a specific date. Secure Browser enables secure testing without a dedicated lab. The browser blocks all other programs and locks the student in the testing environment. The secure browser can easily be provided to a remote proctor allowing distance students to travel to a local setting for secure testing. An additional medium security quiz option restricts mouse and keyboard functionality by not allowing right clicking, printing, etc. Discuss |
| Automated Testing Support |
Item Analysis reports reliability, discrimination, difficulty, frequency and distribution and mean for each assessment item to evaluate the assessment’s ability to discriminate between students who understand the material and those who don’t. Assessment-at-a-Glance assessment summary displays assessments completed, in process or not yet attempted; shows high, low, median and mean scores for all submitted assessments; details distribution of question types and points assigned to each question type; and, provides a view of all assessment settings in one place. True algorithmic questions provide instructors the ability to create formula-based questions that automatically generate replacement values for variables and calculate correct answers for each student who takes an assessment. • WebEQ/HTML Editor Variable Replacement • Dependent Variables • Automated Performance Rubric allows multiple conditions that support varying degrees of precision. • Support for a wide array of functions, constants and operators. • One-page process for setting up an algorithmic question. Keyword Manager ensures the consistent use of keywords in assessments for tagging all assessment items. Questions Banks in ANGEL Learning Object Repositories manage assessment item storage, organization and retrieval. Assessment item inventory can be searched by term, keyword, standard, objective and question difficulty or question type. Search results can be previewed and individual questions selected for inclusion. Questions are stored in the database only once to preserve disk space. Updates to source question can flow automatically to all instances of that question if those subscribing to the question choose. Question Pool items are selected using powerful search tools so they can be configured with exactly the questions instructors want individual pools to contain. Question Pools search results can be fine tuned with any of all of these parameters: question type, question bank location, difficulty level, keywords, associated standards, associated objectives. Selection boxes allow removal of specific results from the results set. Discuss |
| Online Marking Tools |
Discuss |
| Online Gradebook |
Gradebook Setup Wizard configures the gradebook. Batch grade allows the grader to enter the same grade for multiple students with just a click. Link a single grading column to several content items, e.g., give different teams different quizzes; every quiz is in the same gradebook column. Categories for assignments, e.g., quizzes, homework, dissection, with unlimited category configurations. Edit multiple categories or assignments at once. Auto-calculate category weights. The gradebook sums the number of possible points for each assignment. That number becomes the category weight. Make a change and weights dynamically recalculate. Weights are supported independent of actual points for a category. Override any grade for any user on any assignment. Lock grades by assignment to manage exceptions. Flag a category as extra credit. When viewing grades, users are paginated and “frozen” while the pane to the right of the students is scrollable. Easily switch to viewing a particular category or just averages. Switch between viewing percentages, scores or chosen default for all items on the screen. Grade with points or percentages. Enter whichever you prefer. ANGEL calculates the other. Printer friendly format. Discuss |
| Course Management |
ANGEL Agent Technology enables faculty to predefine acceptable student performance levels and monitors student performance and course activity and executes faculty-defined actions on a scheduled or event-driven basis. Actions that occur in response to student behavior include sending a personalized email, releasing content based on performance, notifying advisors or mentors. Feature granularity allows the instructor to monitor a class, a group within a class or individual students. Learning Outcomes Management tools enable instructors to map any course content or assessment item to state, accrediting body or professional certification standards or institution, department or instructor objectives. Institutions administer standards for all faculty to use. Instructors map content and assessments using powerful browse and searching tools. Mapping progress reports show which content items and assessments are mapped to each standard and identify gaps in coverage. Scheduled or ad hoc reports show student progress against standards/objectives. Date Manager helps instructors prepare to teach their courses in a new semester. The manager displays every lesson item in a course and all dates associated with that item in a single tabular view. A calendar pop-up shows an active lesson item and two months of dates with dates the class meets highlighted. Instructors select a date and select the appropriate scheduling buttons: visible or hidden, assigned or due; enabled or disabled. Discuss |
| Student Tracking |
Activity-at-a-Glance statistics presented at login report student logons, mail messages, discussion posts, grades and so on. Instructors click on any graph for more detail. Unified reporting engine distills and delivers extensive course information in one central console. Configure, customize, display and share course reports via a single, easy-to-learn console. Monitor performance and patterns of activity in real-time. Easily pinpoint at-risk behavior. Intervene proactively. Securely share learner performance reports with parents, mentors and other stakeholders. Discuss |
| Content Development Tools | |
| Accessibility Compliance |
Learners can create or upload personalized accessibility profiles. Accessibility Wizard enables each user to create a customized accessibility profile that addresses personal needs either before or after login. All profiles are easily edited and previewed. When the user is satisfied with profile settings, Accessibility Wizard completes the profile template for the user. Screen reader optimization settings include selecting preferred speech rate, voice pitch, volume and more. Supports ACCLIP. Students or faculty who have defined accessibility needs in other systems can import them directly into their ANGEL profile. ANGEL administrators can create default public accessibility profiles for screen readers and for visually impaired and color deficient users to provide accessible experiences in accordance with institutional policies. Discuss |
| Content Sharing/Reuse |
Unlimited, fully integrated, standards-based Learning Object Repositories that enable storage, tagging, searching, sharing, linking, reuse and management of learning objects are embedded in the ANGEL LMS. Share and reuse learning objects across courses, sections, departments, schools, campuses, institutions. Ability to link to content in a learning object repository. Content updated in the repository is updated wherever it occurs. Browse and search and create and edit capabilities. Flexible permissions for easy access control. Search the MERLOT (Multimedia Education Resource for Learning and Online Teaching) learning objects database and link to appropriate objects without leaving the ANGEL environment. Assessment content sharing through Question Banks and Question Pools. See Automated Testing Support. Discuss |
| Course Templates |
Create and publish content templates complete with directions and the ability to personalize course content. Ability to design content wizards – embedding consistent pedagogy into the wizard steps. Discuss |
| Customized Look and Feel |
The user can customize the look and feel of the ANGEL interface to suit individual preferences. • Drag-and-Drop components of portal pages. • Theme editor enables easy selecting/editing of an array of predefined themes included in ANGEL, or the user can easily create a new theme. • Extensive toolset to assist the user in customizing their homepage to include items of interest (e.g., courses, groups, email, etc.). Even within an item, for example, courses, the user can identify which courses they wish to display and always have the ability to unhide those courses that were not selected. Discuss |
| Instructional Design Tools |
ANGEL's flexibility provides the instructional designer or instructor unlimited options for presenting and organizing course content, including: folders, web pages, uploaded files, threaded discussions, hyperlinks, quizzes, surveys, and drop boxes. Master Courses ensure consistent pedagogy, instructional integrity and course look and feel across all sections of large enrollment courses. Individual course sections refer to the content in the ANGEL Master Course. A designated lead instructor has permission to edit Master Course content. Changes made to Master Course content apply to all course sections. Flexible permissions give alternate instructors such as course section teaching assistants rights to supplement Master Course content with unique files, assessments and other learning objects to enable individualized instruction. Discuss |
| Instructional Standards Compliance |
As an IMS GLC contributing member, ANGEL Learning actively participates in standards creation and management. In addition to the standards marked on the checklist, ANGEL supports these additional IMS standards and is SCORM® 2004 certified. • the IMS Common Cartridge format • IMS QTI 2.1 • IMS TI – Tools Interoperability • IMS ACCLIP – Accessibility for Learning Information Packages Discuss |
| Hardware/Software | |
| Client Browser Required |
Reviewer Comments While ANGEL products generally function well in many browsers, the following are supported and tested: • With PCs running Windows OS: Internet Explorer and Firefox • With Macs running OS X: Firefox Discuss |
| Database Requirements |
Discuss |
| UNIX Server |
Discuss |
| Windows Server |
Discuss |
| Company Details/Licensing | |
| Company Profile |
Reviewer Comments Founded in 2000, ANGEL Learning emerged from research and teaching experience at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Today ANGEL Learning has grown from a campus-based organization of university researchers and teachers to a profitable firm with global reach. Having emerged from the academy ourselves, our core values reflect those of our customers well. In independent research conducted by the IMS Global Learning Consortium, educators who use technology ranked ANGEL Learning number one in customer satisfaction. ANGEL world headquarters are in Indianapolis, Indiana. ANGEL Learning’s flagship products are the ANGEL Learning Management Suite (LMS) and the ANGEL ePortfolio system. Our products have been honed by use – with millions of students and instructors served from K to corporate. We enjoy a reputation for creating products with exceptional ease of use, excellent vision into learner progress and for keeping our commitments. Simple. ANGEL works the way educators works. The ANGEL LMS intuitive interface puts technology in the background and brings the educational experience to the foreground. Powerful. ANGEL’s comprehensive, rich feature set does work for the instructor, assembling learner information and bringing it forward to the instructor to provide instant perspective into learner progress and behavior. Open. ANGEL’s open architecture, API’s and published data base schema enable institutions to adapt the ANGEL LMS to institution-specific needs. The ANGEL LMS won the Software & Information Industry Association CODiE award for Best Postsecondary Course Management Solution in both 2006 and 2007 and is the only product to win the award two years in a row. Discuss |
| Costs / Licensing |
Reviewer Comments The standard ANGEL license is based on the number of user accounts required by an institution. A user account is a unique username that is marked as active in the database. A single user may be enrolled in more than one course or group and still counts as one user. The annual license fee includes the right to use, the upgrades during the term, and support for the ANGEL administrator(s). It permits use of the system in production and on staging or development servers. When comparing pricing models, it is important to understand that ANGEL’s pricing includes essential capabilities. Specifically, the APIs, published database schema, integration tools, content management module, learning object repository, the portal environment and Learning Outcomes Management functionality are all included in the ANGEL LMS. Discuss |
| Open Source |
Discuss |
| Optional Extras |
Reviewer Comments Additional ANGEL Products: ANGEL ePortfolio. ANGEL ePortfolio provides both students and institutions a digital destination to collect evidence of educational growth and assessment. Students can build electronic portfolios of their educational achievement and personal growth. Institutions can manage evidence of program achievement.ANGEL offers a full range of customer and professional services to support ANGEL adoptions: Application Hosting Services, Education & Training, Professional and Technical Consulting and Advisory Services. Discuss |