NNU Switches to Angel in January
Learning Opportunities
- Resources
- Instructor Training
- Student Training
Why the Change?
- Rationale and Process
- Timing
- Training and Conversion
- Change
Learning Opportunities
Resources
Narrated 5-minute Angel Tour (requires Flash Player)
Narrated 55-minute Overview Video (viewed best by maximizing your browser window) and accompanying Overview Handout (PDF)
Summary of Angel Features (PDF)
Guide to Bringing Content from Blackboard into Angel (PDF)
Guide to Instructional Design in Angel (PDF)
Instructor Training
In addition to your department EvANGEList(s) who will be available to help you when you have questions along the way, E-Learning Services is offering various ANGEL training opportunities.
- Online - Faculty and adjuncts may log in to ANGEL and enter the Angel Training for Instructors course to go through self-paced tutorials. If you do not have an ANGEL account, please contact the TRC.
- In-Depth Workshops – These hands-on training sessions are available in hybrid format (face-to-face classes with online “homework”) and are taking place now but will be repeated in January. See below for details.
- ANGEL Crash Course – These stand-alone hands-on workshops covering the basics allow you to come for the whole 3.5 hours or just what you need. See below for details.
RSVP, Please: A reservation is appreciated for weekday sessions and required for weeknight or weekend sessions. You may sign up in one of three ways:
- Go to the E-Learning Resource Center on Blackboard > click the purple Angel button in the menu > Click View next to the desired Learning Opportunity and follow instructions to sign up.
- Or write to elearning(at)nnu.edu
- Or call (208) 467-8782.
In-Depth Training Sessions
Resources | Communication | Student Management | Assessment | Course and Content Management |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Thursday, 8:30 am - | Thursday, 8:30 am - | Thursday, 8:30 am - | Thursday, 8:30 am - | Thursday, 8:30 am - |
Friday, 11:10 am - | Friday, 11:10 am - | Friday, 11:10 am - | Friday, 11:10 am - | Friday, 11:10 am - |
Monday, 2:00 pm - | Tuesday, 2:00 pm - | Wednesday, 2:00 pm - | Thursday, 2:00 pm - | Friday, 2:00 pm - |
Angel Crash Course
Come for the whole 3.5 hours or just what you need
45 mins. Overview/Navigation
10 mins. Break
25 mins. Basic Content
35 mins. Basic Course Management
30 mins. Online Participation
10 mins. Break
30 mins. Online Assessment
25 mins. Advanced Course Management
**See below for details**
November | December | January |
|---|---|---|
Saturday, | Tuesday, | Thursday, |
Tuesday, | Saturday, | Saturday, |
Saturday, | Monday, | Tuesday, |
Tuesday, | Thursday, |
The Angel Crash Course covers the following topics:
Overview/Navigation
- The Angel Home Page
- Your Personal Home Page
- The Power Strip
- The Course Tabs
- The Course Guide
Basic Content
- Pages and Files
- The HTML Editor
- Drop Box Assignments
Basic Course Management
- Calendar
- Announcements
- Attendance
- Gradebook
Online Participation
- Teams
- Discussion Forums
- Polls
- Live Chat
Online Assessment
- Assessments & Surveys
- Rubric Manager
Advanced Course Management
- Importing/Exporting
- Date Manager
- Automating Content or Communication
Student Training
Learning Opportunities will also be available for students. Online, self-paced videos and tutorials will be ready in December, and face-to-face workshops will be held on several dates. Dates for training TAs will be available in January.
December | January |
|---|---|
Saturday, Dec 12 | Monday, Jan 4 |
Monday, Dec 14 | Thursday, Jan 7 |
Thursday, Dec 17 | Saturday, Jan 9 |
Open Labs
Quite a few sessions have been scheduled to allow instructors and support personnel a chance to work on their courses while E-Learning Services personnel are present to help answer questions.
November | December | January |
|---|---|---|
Wednesday, | Tuesdays, | Mon-Fri, |
Friday, | Wednesdays, | |
Thursdays, | ||
Saturday, |
Angel EvANGELists
We recognize that faculty tend to gravitate toward asking one or two colleagues in their own departments when they have Blackboard questions. We want to encourage this natural colleague support system to help all faculty smoothly transition to Angel through an “EvANGEList” program.
Essentially, we have provided training in advance to key faculty members willing to serve as EvANGELists, who will be designated “go-to” persons as we move from Blackboard to Angel. These EvANGELists will make brief presentations about Angel in department meetings and check in on colleagues who undergo later training.
Your Angel EvANGELists are as follows (*E-Learning Committee members marked with an asterisk):
Arts, Humanities | Donna Allen |
Business | Brenda Johnson* |
Education, Social Work | Karen Blacklock |
Extended University | Dennis Waller* |
Nursing & Health Sciences | Kim Forseth |
Science & Mathematics | Jennifer Chase* |
Theology & | Mark Maddix |
Timeline
Important Dates
Week of September 21 through week of November 2: Training for Angel Evangelists (7 sequential hybrid classes with Instructional Technologist)
Week of October 5 through week of November 16: Training for program administrators and early adopters (7 sequential hybrid classes with Instructional Technologist, plus additional week for admins)
October 19: Self-paced online training becomes available for all instructors and support personnel
Week of October 19 through week of December 7: Hybrid training becomes available for all instructors and support personnel (6 sequential hybrid classes with Instructional Technologist); available for 1 continuing education credit
November 14: ANGEL Crash Course workshops (stand-alone, hands-on training sessions on the Basics) begin and continue through mid-January
December: Face-to-face and online training becomes available for students
December 23: The URL http://online.nnu.edu stops pointing to Blackboard and begins pointing to ANGEL at 5 p.m. MST.
January and ongoing: Face-to-face and online training continues to be available for instructors, support personnel and students
Questions?
Write to elearning(at)nnu.edu or call (208) 467-8240.
Why the Change?
Dr. Eric Kellerer, executive director of Information Technology, sent the following message to NNU faculty and staff on June 30:
We have purchased Angel Learning System as a replacement for Blackboard Learning System. Beginning in the Spring Semester, 2010, all courses delivered through course management software will use Angel Learning software.
The word "Spring" is meant to reflect all of the various programs offered by NNU. We are aware that they have start dates that range from January 1-January 15th. We are also aware of a few courses that are taught across the semester change. All of that is being taken into consideration.
This summer, online resources will be made available to you so that you might begin to familiarize yourself with the new program. Beginning in the Fall, many different courses will be available to help you in a hands-on environment. Most of the conversion process will be handled behind the scenes by the E-Learning Services team and many opportunities for help will be given to you before that Spring roll-out.
The Rationale and Process
In the Fall of last year (08/09), the E-Learning Committee was asked to evaluate our use of Blackboard on campus and to compare it to other course management systems that were available. Throughout that year, faculty and students participated in surveys and user group studies. The E-Learning Committee did an excellent job in evaluating the current use of Blackboard's strengths and weaknesses. They used that information to compare our use and needs with the abilities of other software systems.
The results of those many months of work were to recommend to the Cabinet that we transition from Blackboard to Angel
- to improve the teaching / learning experience of our students,
- to support smaller international institutions with NNU's stated mission, and
- to reduce our overall cost.
Timing
As soon as most people read the first paragraph, you thought we were completely out of our minds to try to make this transition in the middle of the year. Some of us might be out of our minds, but as a whole, the rationale for this timing is sound. Here are several bullet points that help explain our thought process, in no particular order.
1. We do not have the physical server capacity to run both Blackboard and Angel for an extended period of time. Once we go live with Angel, the speed of Blackboard will reduce significantly and Angel will not be at full capacity until the Blackboard server is turned off. The two systems will have to share resources during the overlap.
2. If the time frame is extended later in the Spring of 2010, we will have to pay full license fees for both Angel and Blackboard.
3. Many people who teach fully online courses are anxious to make the change quickly. After seeing the capabilities and improvements that will be realized from Angel, they want to be able to use those features as quickly as possible.
4. Our experience is that summer is a very difficult time to ask Faculty to come in for training. Fall Semester and Winter breaks have had much more success in the past. We have had a very difficult time getting people to participate in Spring training events. And, it is also our experience that faculty (in general) will not think about a transition until the last month before it really takes place. Therefore, waiting until Summer 2010 did not seem beneficial.
5. There are a number of new graduate programs that are starting soon. We were hoping that we would be able to start most of those on Angel so that they would not have to begin their programs and then immediately transition to a new software platform.
Training and Conversion
Training resources are going to be extensive. There will be a plethora of online resources and hands-on training available. You are urged to take full advantage of the resources that are available to you. By participating fully in these training events, you will reduce your stress and anxiety at having to poke around and learn on your own. During the training sessions, you will learn about the many features in Angel, but we will begin by helping people check their courses that have been imported into Angel for them, helping them to prepare for Spring 2010.
All courses that are currently in Blackboard will need to be exported and imported into Angel. The E-Learning Services team will begin that process immediately. You will not have to do this import process, but you will have to check the final import and do the final adjustments for yourselves. Courses that have already been archived in Blackboard will be restored in Blackboard and then exported for Angel during this summer. The first courses that will be imported into Angel will be those that are planned for Spring 2010.
Change
1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing." Let me encourage you to take these words to heart. If your colleagues are struggling through this process, we are here to help, but let's also help each other and encourage one another. If we work together, this can be a positive and exciting new adventure.
- Eric Kellerer
Executive Director, IT
