Nine years ago, Ross Emmett was a regular ANGEL user. But now, the professor in James Madison College has all but sworn off MSU’s current online learning management system, or LMS, after many frustrating incidents where ANGEL muddled his grade books, prevented students from sending him assignments or just didn’t function as well as it could have, he said.
Emmett has opted to use Facebook to manage his classes, as it helps students connect with him more quickly. He also said he prefers his students to email him papers, rather than submitting assignments through file sharing on ANGEL, because many students used to have difficulties using the site because it was not compatible with Google Chrome or Apple’s Safari web browsers.
But some of the frustration related to ANGEL functions might be reduced, according to Brendan Guenther, director of teaching and learning support teams in MSU Information Technology, because ANGEL 7.4 was just updated to 8.0 — an update meant to make ANGEL compatible with Google Chrome and Apple Safari web browsers, while also making small changes to the grade book, assessment navigation and discussion forum features. It’s the final update scheduled to take place to ANGEL and also has qualified MSU to continue to receive assistance from Blackboard, which provides support for the ANGEL help line.
“(Lack of browser compatibility) was the number one area, particularly from students, that we received complaints about,” Guenther said.
“People who were dead set (on) using Safari found this annoying and would let us know about it all the time — now it should work.”
Although there still might be some technical issues when students try to use the website from iPhones and iPads, Guenther said the update is a major improvement.
Studio art senior Jonathan Biggs said although he has a Mac computer, he did not find the web browser issues to be inconvenient when using ANGEL.
“It wasn’t a big deal,” Biggs said. “I would just open Firefox and access ANGEL from that.”
Although ANGEL has been updated, some professors, such as Emmett, still won’t switch back to being dependent on ANGEL and are looking forward to MSU switching to a new LMS in the future.
Emmett primarily uses Facebook groups to communicate with his classes, but plans to experiment with other forum sites in the summer, he said.
However, he is teaching an online course in the future, and might need to fall back on ANGEL because it is most accessible to everyone, Emmett said.
“I’d love to have alternatives that are actually useful,” he said. “ANGEL does lots of stuff. The problem is they focused on giving you lots of possibilities and didn’t focus on making it user-friendly.”
Guenther said MSU still is looking at two alternatives to ANGEL, Blackboard and Desire2Learn, although he previously told The State News that MSU would have a replacement chosen by the end of the 2012 spring semester.
Both sites would be strong assets to the educational process, he said, and he expects one of the new systems to be chosen in early fall, with the programs set up by mid-fall.
“We will have a two-year transition from ANGEL,” he said. “That gives faculty time to switch. As a student you want faculty to understand
the system.”
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