Introduction to ANGEL

ABSTRACT Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC is designed to give instructors a high-level tour of the ANGEL Learning Management System as it is used here at FMCC. Users get fundamental training on the technical aspects of using a learning management system to support their courses.

INTRODUCTION TO ANGEL FOR FMCC Basic Training for Use of the ANGEL Learning Management System

Denise L. Passero Systems/Application Technology Coordinator

Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC

Table of Contents Getting Started – Workshop Objectives ....................................................................................................... 3 Workshop A: Fundamentals of Online Teaching ......................................................................................... 4 Tour ANGEL ............................................................................................................................................... 4 Log into ANGEL...................................................................................................................................... 4 Navigating the Power Strip ................................................................................................................... 6 Nuggets ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Courses Nugget ..................................................................................................................................... 7 Student View - Sunglasses .................................................................................................................... 9 The Guide ............................................................................................................................................ 10 Additional Navigation Tools .................................................................................................................... 12 Communication in ANGEL ....................................................................................................................... 13 Course Email ....................................................................................................................................... 13 Announcements .................................................................................................................................. 15 Discussion Forums .............................................................................................................................. 18 ACTIVITY: Create an Announcement ..................................................................................................... 18 ACTIVITY: Send Course Mail ................................................................................................................... 19 ACTIVITY: Post to Discussion Forum ...................................................................................................... 19 Where to Find Help ................................................................................................................................. 19 Workshop B – Managing Your Course and Creating Content ..................................................................... 21 The ANGEL Gradebook............................................................................................................................ 21 Adding Content ........................................................................................................................................... 28 Folder ...................................................................................................................................................... 29 Page......................................................................................................................................................... 32 HTML Editor ............................................................................................................................................ 34 File ........................................................................................................................................................... 36 Link .......................................................................................................................................................... 37 Workshop C – Interactivity Content ........................................................................................................... 39 Drop Box ................................................................................................................................................. 39 Discussion Forum .................................................................................................................................... 43 Assessment ............................................................................................................................................. 44 Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................... 49

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Introduction to the ANGEL LMS Getting Started – Workshop Objectives Welcome to Introduction to the ANGEL Learning Management System (LMS). This document will readers gain a fundamental understanding of the technical aspects of online teaching. There are many aspects to online teaching; technical competency and pedagogy. The intended readership consists individuals who have never used ANGEL and are interested in learning how to use a learning management system. It will also serve as a guide to experienced users who need a refresher on the use of the various basic features of the LMS. Reviewing this document does not certify an instructor to teach a class in an online or blended format nor is it designed to teach participants how to develop a course for either of these formats. It is not intended to supplant more formal training provided to ensure that instructors are ready to develop and deliver a course in a fully online or blended format. Formal training provided by the SUNY Learning Network is comprehensive and interactive and cannot be replaced by this reference document. The document convenient reference and supplement to more rigorous training. Upon completion of this workshop, students will be in a better position to participate in more formal training designed to certify them to teach an online or blended course for Fulton-Montgomery Community College.

In addition, this workshop does not replace the ANGEL user manuals. It is designed to help users adapt to the use of ANGEL here at FMCC. The user manuals available through ANGEL are excellent resources and have more detailed instructions that are highly beneficial to instructors and students. However, each instance campus instance of ANGEL may be customized for use by instructors at that particular campus. This workshop will focus on how ANGEL is used here at FMCC and provide a reference to participants to help them remember how to use the various features of the LMS. For more information, readers can contact Denise L. Passero in person, by phone, or email.

Office Location: C023A (basement of the classroom building) Phone: (518) 736-3622 Email: denise.passero@fmcc.edu

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Workshop A: Fundamentals of Online Teaching Tour ANGEL This section will provide instruction on logging into ANGEL and give a brief tour of the ANGEL Learning Management System user interface.

Log into ANGEL Logging into requires everyone – students and instructors – to have appropriate credentials. Here at FMCC, the username and password are the same as those used for most of the campus resources. It is the same username and password used for your Windows login, email, and other resources. To log into ANGEL, open your browser and navigate to https://fmcc.sln.suny.edu. ANGEL is compatible with most current versions of Safari, Chrome, and Firefox. It is compatible with Internet Explorer up to version 10.

Currently it is not compatible with Internet Explorer version 11. Users on Windows 8.1 must have access to one of the other compatible browsers to use ANGEL. ANGEL is not compatible with the iPad iOS version of Safari.

Once you reach the ANGEL home screen, you will notice a nugget or block on the screen entitled, “SLN Test Your System.” There are three browser checks done by ANGEL to ensure that users are using the correct version of a compatible browser. If the system test is passed, all three checks will have a green check mark next to them as shown in the example below.

Enter your regular Windows username and password.

Announcements contain important information. Read each time you log in.

Verify all three settings have green check marks.

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC If any of the system checks fails, the situation must be resolved before proceeding. Also, if you attempt to proceed, usually you will get a message with red text indicating that your browser does not meet the requirements for using ANGEL. The screen encountered when entering the URL (Uniform Resource Locator or address) is the first of the three ANGEL home pages. The next screen is the user home page. It is created based on each user login and what they have access to view. This is the screen users encounter once they enter their credentials.

Power Strip

Courses Nugget

Course Mail Nugget

Announcements Nugget

System test (again)

As with the ANGEL home page, this user home page contains various nuggets. The Courses nugget lists all courses in which a student is enrolled or courses that an instructor is teaching. The Course Mail nugget shows all course email for all of the courses listed in the Courses nugget. In addition to announcements from SLN, the Announcements nugget contains announcements created by the instructor for the courses listed in the courses nugget. As with the ANGEL home page, the user is given another SLN Test Your System nugget to verify that they are using a compatible browser to access ANGEL. There are other nuggets on this screen as well that are very useful. The Power Strip provides additional functionality and will be covered in detail in the next section.

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Navigating the Power Strip The Power Strip facilitates ANGEL navigation and gives users access to additional features. The power strip has a list of icons explained below:  The Home icon allows the user to navigate to the user home screen from anywhere in ANGEL. 

The Help icon allows users to access SLN help features.

 The Log Off icon allows users to log out of their ANGEL session. It is important to ALWAYS use this method of exiting ANGEL rather than closing the browser window. Once logged off, users can and should close the browser window.  The Settings icon is available only to system administrators. Users do not have access to this area.  The Learning Object Repository icon (LOR) gives users access to an area where they can create a library of objects they may re-use in multiple sections or courses. This area is not accessible to students so it is a good place to experiment with features of ANGEL out of site of the students.  The Preferences icon allows users to customize their personal ANGEL environment. Users can enter more information about themselves, change their theme or change their password. (NOTE TO FM USERS: DO NOT change your password in ANGEL. Password changes are handled in another campus resource.) 

The Instant Messenger icon allows users access to the chat functions in ANGEL.

The Power strip is available at all times during your ANGEL session.

Nuggets Nugget is the term used by ANGEL to identify the blocks of contextualized information displayed on the ANGEL home screens. Each nugget serves a different purpose and often contains access to different features in ANGEL. The nuggets displayed depend on the level of access each user has. The instructor home screen may look different from the student home screen. By default, ANGEL may display the following nuggets:  

   

Student Resources – Resources for learners (SLN Orientation, SLN Knowledge Base, Student FAQs, and SUNY Learning Network Help Desk).

Faculty Resources – A list of resources for the instructor (SLN101, Interactive Tutorials and Guides, SUNY Learning Network HelpDesk, SLN Knowledge Base, and Evergreen). This nugget can be removed but the contents cannot be changed or altered).

SLN Test Your System – the same browser check that appears on the ANGEL home page.

Course Mail – access to the course mail inbox.

My Announcements – announcements created by the instructor as well as SLN announcements.

Today’s Calendar – contents based on the instructor’s use of the calendar feature.

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC   

Repositiories – access to the Learning Object Repository.

Institutional Resources – resources to support distance learning provided by the institution.

Community Groups – similar to courses but more like a resources. Can contain tutorials or other resources to help faculty with their courses.

There may be other nuggets on this page depending on how it is configured. Hovering over the title bar on any nugget reveals a set of icons that gives users additional options regarding the specific nugget.

Some can be edited and others cannot. This page is customizable by the user. In the upper left portion of the screen is the Edit Page link.

Click the Edit Page link to add or remove items. Click refresh if necessary to view changes.

Courses Nugget The majority of your time in ANGEL will be spent in one of your courses. This nugget provides access to the individual course shell for all courses you are contracted to teach. The shell is where all of the interactions between you and students takes place and where all content relative to a specific course is placed. It is possible to add or remove available course shells to this nugget. In this example, the image shows the icons that appear when hovering over the turquoise title bar. 

A pencil indicates that the nugget can be edited in some way or its contents can be changed.



Use this to refresh the contents of the nugget.



Use this to minimize or collapse the nugget.



Use this icon to open the nugget in a separate window.

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If you do not see a course that you believe should be there, hover over the turquoise title bar of the Courses nugget. The pencil icon should be visible at this point. Click the pencil icon to access all of your available course shells.

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Check or uncheck the items you wish to appear in the Courses nugget.

Select Show Disabled – Yes. Save changes

Once these settings are configured and saved, you should see all courses you are scheduled to teach. If you still cannot see your courses, contact your dean. Do not attempt to add a course on your own.

Student View - Sunglasses The Sunglasses icon allow the instructor to view the course from the student point of view. It is advisable to use the student view while you are preparing the course in ANGEL to verify that students see what you want them to see. It is also useful when using teams to verify that all students do not see items that are limited to specific teams. To use Student view, you must enter a course. Click a course listed in your Courses nugget. Once inside the course, you will see the third of the three home pages used in ANGEL. This is the Course home page. This page can also be customized. Some of what you change here will also be seen by students.

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC To use Student view, go into a course and click the sunglasses next to your name in the upper right corner of the course home page screen.

Since there are a number of views available, you must choose the view you want. By default, the option labeled, “Student” will be selected. If you want to see the course as all students see it, leave this option selected and click the button labeled, “Begin Preview.”

When you click these options, you will encounter the course home page as the student sees it. To view course content you have created, click the Learning Modules tab. From here, view your course content from the student’s perspective, verifying that they see the things they should see. When you are finished, click the sunglasses again and then click the button labeled, “Cancel Preview” to return to the course.

The Guide The Guide is a useful area provided to facilitate navigation of the course. It is especially useful when teaching as you can view unread course mail, ungraded submissions, or other activities that may have taken place since the last time you logged in. To access the guide, click the vertical arrangement of four arrows next to the power strip.

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Guide Closed

Guide opened

At the bottom of the screen under the Guide, you can navigate different views of the guide.

The various views also help you to navigate the course:



- Map provides a graphical hierarchy of the file structure in the course. The links may correspond to the tabs at the top of the course home page.



- What’s new shows the student activity since the last time you logged into the course.



- Tasks show items needing the instructor’s attention. Any tasks not addressed will be listed each time the instructor logs in until the task has been handled. These could be unread email messages, ungraded assignments, or other items needing the instructor’s attention.

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 

- Search allows you to search for content within the course.

- About provides information about the ANGEL Learning Management System used on campus. It shows the current version of ANGEL as well as copyright information.

Note that there is a difference between WHAT’S NEW and TASKS. WHAT’S NEW shows student activity since the last logon and will change each time you log in. TASKS on the other hand show things that you need to address. Once these items area handled, they will disappear from tasks. They will either not be there the next time you log in or there will be new TASKS listed.

Additional Navigation Tools There are other ways to move about in ANGEL. Tabs at the top of the screen provide access to the various areas of your course. The tabs shown depend on your level of access.

Most of your time will be spent in the Learning Modules tab. This is where all of the course content is stored. The other tabs are: -

Course – your course home page.

Calendar – the course calendar.

Resources – resources provided by you or the institution.

Communicate – course email, chat, office hours, discussions, news and other items.

Report – various ways to get information about what is going on in the course.

Automate – tools to automate activities in the course.

Manage – access to the gradebook, roster, course files, as well as other tools.

Bread crumbs allow you to move back and forth from the various areas in the course. The bread crumb trail is based on where you were and how you got to where you are now. The appear beneath the tabs at the top of the screen. Consider the example below:

In this example, I entered an assignment drop box from the home screen, the course home page, the learning modules tab, then into a folder named FOLDER: Activities – Supplemental Texts, then into another folder named FOLDER: Module 3 – Windows. I can click any link along that path to get to either

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC move back one or two levels, or go all the way back to the home screen or anywhere in between. Use the bread crumbs or the tabs to navigate the course rather than using the browser back button since the back button can cause some undesirable events to occur.

Communication in ANGEL There are multiple methods to communicate with students in ANGEL. Those most commonly used are Course Email, Announcements and Discussion forums.

Course Email Course Email can be accessed from the nugget on the course home page or from the Communicate tab at the top of the screen. Course mail is for communication within a course only. Students cannot email outside of course email, nor can email be sent from an external email account into ANGEL course email.

It is used strictly inside of a course.

To enter the email client, click the link labeled, “View Inbox.� The inbox functions similarly to any email inbox. It shows messages you have been sent using the ANGEL course email.

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Unread messages will be shown with bold-faced text. On the left side of the list of messages are the familiar tools for Draft messages (composed but saved for sending later), Inbox, Sent (sent messages), and Trash (deleted messages). As you can see, this Trash folder is empty. In this course ALL EMAIL from and between students is saved. This provides a trail to document communication especially when difficulties arise. The communication is stored with the course for future semesters. To send course email, click the button labeled, “Compose.�

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Click the To: button to search for recipients.

Add subject.

Type message body. Use the HTML editor tool bar to format message or add media.

Add attachment

Forward message

Send, save, or cancel

Click the button labeled, “To:” to locate the recipient’s name. It is not possible to type an email address into the To: box. The recipient can be located by clicking a letter that appears as the initial of their first or last name. You can also email the entire class from ANGEL course mail. Mail can be forwarded to an external email address by selecting the option labeled, “Send a copy to each recipient’s Internet e-mail.”

In this case, the email will be sent to the student’s FM Gmail account. Add a subject line and compose your message. Once you are satisfied with the message click the button labeled, “Send.”

Announcements Announcements appear on the course home page. Use Announcements to communicate with the entire class to keep them up to date on course matters. It is also possible to target a specific student or team with an announcement.

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To create an announcement, go to the course home page. Hover over the title bar of the Announcements nugget to get the pencil to appear. Click the pencil to enter the announcement editor.

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All of your announcements will appear. Click the link labeled, “Add Announcement.”

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Create and format announcement. Use HTML editor to format and add other content.

Set dates for the message to start and end if necessary.

Set sequence, target viewer then save or cancel.

Inside of the announcement editor screen, or HTML editor screen, create your announcement in the text box. The tool bar allows you to add images, format text, create bulleted or numbered lists, align paragraphs, and add other style elements to the text. We will go further into depth about using the HTML editor later on. Choose a Start Date and an End Date for your announcement if you care to. This will allow you to establish when you want the announcement to appear and when it should expire.

Sequence is beneficial when you have several announcements and you want to establish where in the list you want the current announcement to appear. User allows you to target a student or the entire class. If you are trying to reach an individual student, course email is best. This ensures that the communication remains between you and that student. Once all your changes have been set, click the button labeled “Save.” Then you can see your announcement in the list of other announcements you have created. If you are satisfied, click the button labeled, “Exit Announcement Editor.”

Discussion Forums Discussion forums are a way to have group discussions. Think of Discussion forums as though you are standing in front of the class having a face-to-face conversation. Students raise their hands in class, and their remarks are heard by everyone in the room. Email on the other hand, is usually private between the student and the instructor. We will be creating a discussion forum later on in this workshop tutorial.

You will also have a chance to participate in a discussion as a homework assignment for this workshop so that you can see what it is like for students.

ACTIVITY: Create an Announcement For homework, log into ANGEL and navigate to your course shell. Use the Announcement Editor to create an announcement for your students.

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ACTIVITY: Send Course Mail For homework, log into ANGEL and access the course shell for this workshop. Use the Course Email to send a message to the instructor of this workshop.

ACTIVITY: Post to Discussion Forum For homework, log into ANGEL and access the course shell for this workshop. There will be a discussion forum waiting in the Learning modules folder. This is a post first discussion. Read the problem posed in the forum and post your response to the answer. Then you can respond to other students in the course.

Where to Find Help ANGEL is supported by the SUNY Learning Network staff. If things go wrong, they are an excellent resource. There are also comprehensive manuals available in ANGEL for your use as well as a knowledge base. Click the question mark on the Power Strip.

You can search the knowledge base or download ANGEL Guides. Also, from the home page (any home page) you can submit a help desk request directly to SLN. This should be done if you are encountering technical difficulties – error messages, crashes, or other things that cannot be resolved by FM staff. A link to the help desk can be seen on the SLN Test Your System nugget:

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Click this link to enter the SLN Help Desk (now called Open SUNY).

Access the Open SUNY support resources.

From here you can access technical support, submit a help request, or use live chat if someone is available.

Next, we will talk about adding content to your course.

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Workshop B – Managing Your Course and Creating Content In this section, we will actually begin preparing the environment we need to teach an online course.

Before we begin creating content, it is a good idea to prepare the grade book if you intend to use it. For a fully online course or a blended course, it is highly recommended that you use the ANGEL gradebook for grading activities. If you simply intend to support a face-to-face course with ANGEL (web-enhanced), the ANGEL Gradebook allows you to provide more immediate feedback to students regarding their standing in the class. While at FM it is possible to keep a gradebook in PowerCAMPUS Self Service, this tool does not allow students to see their grades on individual activities. They can only see their overall grade in PowerCAMPUS Self Service if all items with due dates are graded. So the ANGEL gradebook allows you to improve communication with students regarding their standing in the course at any given point as well as allow them to see the individual grades that comprise their overall grade.

The ANGEL Gradebook The ANGEL gradebook can be accessed by clicking the Manage tab at the top of the screen in your course shell. The Management Console is the area where instructors can manipulate settings for the course. We will not be covering all of the items in the Management Console in this section. We will go over the basic concepts you need to know to manage your course at a fundamental level. This illustration gives you a view of the Management Console.

Click the Manage Tab

Course Management nugget is the feature most used here.

In the Management Console, click the Gradebook link on the Course Management nugget. We will use this area to configure a gradebook for this course. When you open the Gradebook on a new course shell, by default the gradebook configuration wizard starts. We typically skip the wizard and set the gradebook up by hand. Therefore, when the gradebook configuration wizard starts, click the button labeled, “Skip Wizard.”

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Click the Skip Wizard button.

Now that we are past the wizard, we can begin manual setup of the gradebook. The next screen in the gradebook management area gives you all of the options you will need to set up this gradebook. If you have taught the same section multiple times, you can import your gradebook from a previous course shell. Since this workshop is for brand new ANGEL users, it can be assumed that there is no gradebook available from a previous course.

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VIew Manage

Enter/Edit

Tutorial

Gradebook Setup

Under the View section, you can view and or print student grades. Under the Enter/Edit section, you can enter grades by student or by assignment. Under the Gradebook Management section, you can create the various objects you need that determine the overall grade as well as individual assignment grades. Under the Gradebook Tutorial is the ANGEL-supplied tutorial. Consult this tutorial for a more comprehensive lesson on using the gradebook. Last but not least is the Gradebook setup section. We will begin our lesson in this section. Click the link labeled, “Preferences� under the Gradebook Setup section.

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The decisions made here will depend on what you indicated in your Course Syllabus. Think of the syllabus as a contract between you and the student. By now, your syllabus should be set up and your course calendar should be created. This will make it easier to determine what the gradebook will look like in ANGEL. Under the section labeled, “General” you need to determine how students will view their grades. Your options are:      

Percent (Letter Grade) – 95% (A) Score (Percent) – 600 (95%) Score (Letter Grade) – 600(A) Score - 600 Percent – 95% Letter Grade – A

Students seem to appreciate the first option that shows their percentage with the letter grade in parenthesis. It is a more meaningful way to display the grade.

Next are Options. Usually I personally only select the option to exclude the instructor’s grade from averages. If you select the option to treat ungraded items as zero, it will fill grades for all items with zero’s until you grade the assignments. This will result in the student having a grade of F until enough of the items are graded to give them a better grade. It makes your life easier but can be disconcerting to IntroANGEL_V2.docx

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC students and will make their mid-term grade abnormally low. The one important decision that must be made here is the gradebook mode. All graded items are graded with a point value. Under gradebook mode, you have the option of using Percentage mode or Points mode. Points mode will calculate a total number of available points for the entire course and the student earns points as they complete assignments. Using Points mode, their overall grade becomes the number of points earned / the total number of points available for the course. All items are assigned to a single category. If you choose Percentage, allows for the grouping of assignments into categories and each category can be weighted.

So as an example, you can set Homework as 30% of the overall grade, Tests as 40% of the overall grade, and Research Papers as 30% of the overall grade. You will determine the categories to be used and their weight toward the overall grade. What you do here will depend on what you defined in your course syllabus.

Under the Average section, you will make a decision regarding whether or not the overall grade will be displayed or not and how it will be displayed.

Next, you need to set up the Grading Scale. Click the link labeled, “Grading Scale” on the right side of the screen in the Gradebook Management section. Use the grading scale to set the lowest grade needed to achieve a specific letter grade. FMCC uses the plus/minus grading system. In the example below, we see the standard grading scale in use by the institution.

Under the Label you enter the letter grade which is simply a label. Under the Minimum Percent, you enter the lowest grade needed to achieve that letter grade. Enter the scale beginning with A and working your way to F. Each time you finish entering the settings for a letter grade, click the link labeled, “Add New” to add a new row to the table to enter the next values. Repeat this process until all of the values are entered. When you are finished, click the link labeled, “<< Back To Main Menu.”

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC Next click the option labeled, Categories under the main menu. When you enter this screen, you will find a single category named Default. If you have chosen Points mode for your gradebook, all assignments will fall into this single category. You can rename the category if you care to, otherwise there is nothing else to do here.

If you have chosen Percentages for the gradebook mode, you can create your categories here. You can rename the Default category to one you intend to use for your weighted averages.

To rename the Default category put a check mark in the box next to the name of the category then click the button labeled, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Edit Selected.â&#x20AC;?

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Name the category.

Use all grades in the category or drop grades.

Uncheck Auto-calculate. Enter the weight, check extra credit if required.

The main settings needed are indicated in the graphic. The other settings are beyond the scope of this training. When you have entered the settings you want, click Save. Click the button labeled, “Add New” to add your next category. Continue until you have all the categories you need. If you are using the percentages, the Percent Overall cannot exceed 100%. If you have indicated that a category counts as extra credit, ANGEL will handle that math for you. When you have finished, click Back to Main Menu.

At this point, you are ready to begin adding content. It is not necessary to add the assignments here if you are going to have students submit their homework to a drop box in ANGEL. You can add the drop box assignment to the gradebook when you create it. If you are not using ANGEL to collect and grade assignments, you can add them here. To add an assignment, click the link labeled, “Assignments” on the main menu. There will be no assignments available so you will click the button labeled, “Add New.”

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Give the assignment a name.

Assign it to a category if you are using them.

How much is the assignment worth?

Calculation type.

Fill in the options as shown in the illustration above. The calculation type is set to manual by default.

This setting means that you are going to manually enter the grade into the gradebook. If you are not collecting assignments and grading them in ANGEL, use this option. Otherwise your choices are:    

Average score – the average grade of multiple graded submissions to a drop box or quiz.

Maximum score – the highest score of multiple graded submissions.

First submission – take the grade of the first of multiple submissions only.

Last submission – take the grade of the last of multiple submissions.

Once you have defined the basic settings for the assignment save your settings. You can continue adding assignments until all of your assignments are in.

Adding Content There are a number of learning objects available in ANGEL to use in your courses to deliver content. For the purposes of this workshop, we will cover only a few.   

Folders Pages Files

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC 

Links

Folder A folder is a way to organize your course and make it easy for students to locate content. It is a good idea to keep the content well organized to minimize frustration resulting from students not being able to find objects in the course. Log into ANGEL if you are not already there and navigate to the course shell in which you want to work. Click the Learning Modules tab at the top of the screen. Recall that all content will be stored here. At the top of the screen in each object, is a series of links that allows you to manage the content in your course. The links that appear depend on where you are in the course. The Learning Objects item is actually a special folder for containing all the objects you plan to use to teach your course. This folder should NEVER be deleted.

This row of links includes:      

Add Content – add learning objects to the current location.

Rearrange – reorder the objects in the current location.

Reports – statistics on the use of the object.

Utilities – options here depend on where you are.

Submissions – options to view items uploaded to the folder if allowed.

Preferences – options to manage how the object will be used.1

Since we want to organize the contents in the course, we will use folders to help guide students on finding the learning objects. Click the link labeled, “Add Content.”

It should also be noted that it is most certainly possible to copy or import items from another course or from the Learning Object Repository. This saves time and prevents recreating items you already have used previously and wish to use again. For the purposes of this workshop, we will be creating new content since it is assumed that you have not used ANGEL before and have no content available to import or copy. Once you have a course set up, if you teach that section in a future semester, you can import or “pour” the entire course into the Learning Modules folder and then just edit the course making changes for the new semester and updating content rather than having to reinvent the wheel every semester.

1

Be very careful with the preferences in the Learning Objects folder. DO NOT change a setting unless you understand the impact it will have on the folder. Changing a wrong setting can result in cutting off access to this folder and will require intervention by the SLN Help Desk to resolve/restore.

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In the Add Content screen, you will see a number of items that can be added to a course. You might consider adding a folder to your course and marking it with the title, “For Instructor Use Only.” Remove access by students from this folder It is a convenient way to test the various objects you can use for the without anyone seeing them. The main items used in the course are:      

Folder – holds other folders and objects.

Page – a web page used to present content.

Link – link to an external site.

File – upload a file to the course.

Drop Box – collect content from students.

Discussion Forum – student-to-student and student-to-instructor interaction.

We will click the option to add a folder to the Learning Modules folder.

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Select Advanced.

Tabs for more settings

Brief, descriptive title Brief, descriptive title HTML editor tool bar.

Brief, descriptive comment if necessary.

At first, the new folder has the default title of New Folder. Under the Page Settings group, you have an opportunity to change the title. Choose a brief but meaningful and descriptive title for the folder. It should be a title that will tell students what they should expect to find in the folder. The subtitle text box can provide more descriptive information or brief instructions. The page text for a folder can be used for more BRIEF information about the folder contents or some BRIEF instruction on the use of the folder.

At the top of the folder is a section labeled, “Settings.” Select the Advanced option to provide access to all of the options available for configuring this folder. Anytime you are configuring a learning object, you should turn on the Advanced options.

The tabs across the top allow you to create more settings for the folder. The options here change according to the item you are viewing and configuring. A brief description of each tab is shown below:     

Access – set permissions for viewing the object.

Standards – map the object to program standards.

Objectives – map the object to student learning outcomes.

Automate – create actions that happen based on student interaction with the object.

Assignment – map the item to the gradebook.

For now, just give the folder a descriptive name and subtitle. When you finish, scroll to the bottom of this screen and click the save button to save your settings.

Once you save the folder settings, you will end up INSIDE of that folder. You will see the folder title at the top of the screen along with the subtitle and other text you created when setting up the folder. You

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Introduction to ANGEL for FMCC will see this by looking at the bread crumb trail above the folder name and icon. Notice that the trail shows you entered the folder from the Learning Modules folder.

Bread crumbs show you where you are and where you came from.

Look at the items you set for this folder: Title, subtitle, and folder text

If you discover you need to change something about the folder, you can click the Settings link below the title and subtitle so that you can return to the editing area to make changes â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for instance to correct a typing error or make some other change.

Also notice the links under the title and subtitle now allow you to either work with the folder or add content to the folder. You can add another folder or other content to this folder. While nesting folders inside of other folders is quite alright, be cautious about nesting items too deep. A good rule of thumb is this: if you find yourself nesting items more than three folders deep, you should revisit your organization techniques. Nesting things too deep forces the user to have to perform multiple clicks to access the content you want them to see and frustrates the user unnecessarily. Try not to nest items more than three folders deep.

Page A page is merely a web page used to convey information to the reader. In ANGEL, Web pages work pretty much like any web page on the World Wide Web except it is in the contained space of the ANGEL Learning Management System. Pages in ANGEL can be used for lecture notes and also to embed multimedia content from other sites like YouTube. To add a page to your folder (assume we are in the Course Documents Folder from the earlier example), enter the folder and click the Add Content link.

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Select the option labeled Page. Once you have selected the page option, you will be in the HTML editor screen. Be sure to select the Advance option just below the title of the page. Every object includes the HTML editor tool bar.

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Be sure to select Advanced.

Add a title and subtitle.

HTML Editor tool bar

Content added here will appear on the page.

HTML Editor The HTML tool bar has many familiar options to enhance the appearance and usage of the web page and allow you to incorporate features into the page to make it more engaging. 

- Click this icon to expand the editing window to a larger view. Especially useful for pages with a lot of content.



- Insert/Edit macro. A macro is a little program you can create to automate some action.

This is for advanced users only.



- Paste. The drop down arrow next to the paste icon give you access to more options like the cut, copy, paste, paste from Word, paste as plain text, as well as the undo and redo buttons.



- Use either of these icons to format text as bold, italics, underline or all or any combination of the three. The drop down arrow also gives you access to the strike through, super script and sub script options.

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

- Links. Add an external link, or a link to an object or other content in your course.

The drop down arrow gives the options to remove a link or add an anchor to link to content within the page itself.



- The media links allow you to add an image that you will upload to the course, add an image from Google images or other media site, or to record and add a YouTube video to this page if you have a camera. The drop down arrow also has a media option.



- The Insert Equation option allows some math functionality. The drop down arrow allows you to have access to the Template, special character, line, or page break options.



- The table icon and the drop down arrow allow you to insert and edit a table.



- The form icon allows you to create a form. The drop down arrow allows you access to the various objects that can be used in the form like a radio button, check box, text field, text area field (longer note), selection box, or a button.



- The lists icons allow you to add numbered or bulleted lists to your page. Use the drop down arrow to increase or decrease the indentation on a list.



- The paragraph alignment icons allow you to adjust the alignment of text. You can right justify, center, left justify, or block justify text by choosing the drop down arrow.



- The Text color and Fill color icons allow you to change the color of the characters in the text or to backfill the text with color. The drop down arrow on either of these icons gives you access to the color palatte.



- The style icon allows you to have access to the various ways to change the kind of text you use in a web page. The drop down arrow includes the choices for description text, heading text, highlighted text, page title, page subtitle, shaded area, title bar, and tool bar.



- The format icon allows you to change the various headings and sizes of the headings.

The drop down arrow lists the headings in order of size.



- The size icon allows you to change the size of the font for the standard paragraph text.

 

- This spell checking icon allows you to check for spelling errors in your text.

- The source icon allows you to switch between the HTML sources view or the graphical user interface view. Use this view if you are comfortable with HTML code. The drop down box gives you access to the spell checker, show blocks, document properties, preview and save buttons.

As you work along in your course, you should save your changes often on any object you are editing.

This is helpful in the event you connection to ANGEL is lost. Then you can get back to the last known good version of your document.

Some of the icons we talked about are familiar to you and others provide more advanced editing options. Use a folder hidden from your students view to test these features. It is always possible to delete a page or any object and start over if things go awry.

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File The file option allows you to upload different types of files to your course. You can upload a Word document, a PDF file, a PowerPoint presentation, or other kinds of web content to your course. Using this option allows the student to download the file for their use as opposed to opening and viewing the file as part of the course. To add a file to your course, go to the folder where you want to add a file, in our case it will be the Course Information folder created earlier. Click the Add Content link and choose File as the object you want to add to the course.

Use the browse button to find the file you wish to upload.

Give the file a title.

Choose the file type. Auto Detect is fine.

Click Upload File.

When you are uploading web content or multimedia content to ANGEL, it usually has to be zipped and then extracted once it is uploaded. The extracted page will show directly in ANGEL. In some cases, you may receive a file from a text book publisher called a common cartridge. This is an advanced topic and is beyond the scope of this lesson. However, if that happens you can email denise.passero@fmcc.edu and you will receive assistance on incorporating this content into your course. Below is an example of a file uploaded to an ANGEL course.

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Students can click the file name and download the file and save it to their computers or flash drives.

Link It is also possible to add a link to an external site in your course. Returning to our Course Information folder as an example, click the Add Content link. From the available options, choose Link. You will provide a name and subtitle as with the other objects. This time, you will also add the URL or web site address to the site to which you are linking.

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Add the title and subtitle.

Go to the address you plan to use, and copy the URL. Paste the URL into the Link URL text box below.

Choose New Window for Link Target

In the link settings, having the link open in a new window makes it easier for students to return to this course in ANGEL rather than having it open in the same page they are on in the course. Also you can select the option for no banner to remove the ANGEL screen from the new link window.

In some browsers, the security settings may disallow the opening of an external site inside of ANGEL. If that happens, look for a shield or other security icon in the upper left corner next to the web site address. Click the shield and click the option to unblock the site.

In FireFox, click this shield.

Once you unblock page, things should work normally. The next workshop section will cover more of the interactive content as well as backing up your course.

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Workshop C â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Interactivity Content One of the strong points in favor of using the ANGEL Learning Management System is the ability to interact with students and have them interact with each other. In this section, we will discuss three of the common tools used for learner interaction and engagement; drop boxes, discussion forums, and assessments.

Drop Box The drop box allows students to upload files to the instructor. It can also be attached to the grade book so that when the instructor views the item, he or she can attach a grade to the submission and the grade will be attached to the grade book. In a previous lesion we discussed the grade book so it is assumed that you have configured the grade book with everything except assignments. Using the drop box is one way to add assignments to the grade book.

In this example, we will create a new folder for our assignments called lesson 1. Go to your course shell and create this folder at the root of the Learning Modules folder. When you finish, you should enter the Lesson 1 folder.

Enter the Lesson 1 folder if you have not done so already. Use the Add Content link to access all available learning objects. Choose the Drop Box option.

As with our previous learning objects, give the drop box a title, subtitle, and enter some instructions to students in the message box.

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Give the drop box a title, subtitle, and basic instructions. Use the HTML editing tools to format content or add media.

When creating the drop box, include basic instructions for its use. If you do not want students to copy and paste their work into the message box, you can either disable the box or make sure you indicate this in the instructions. There is a canned statement that cannot be removed stating that students may attach the assignment as a file or copy and paste it into the message box.

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Statement cannot be deleted.

Title is required.

Students may enter assignment or leave a message. Optional.

Students may attach a file and then submit. They have to click submit in the file attachment box and then again at this level for the submission to be successful.

The homework drop box can be tied to the gradebook from the assignment tab. Click the Settings link on the drop box and then click the Assignment tab. Below, you can see an example of a completed assignment drop box that is tied to the gradebook.

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Click the Assignment tab.

Task type is item completion. Allows students to track completed items.

Set date item was assigned. Set Due date. Optional settings.

Name of assignment in gradebook. See below for more detail.

This example has a rubric tied to it. Rubrics are covered in an advanced topic.

You set the title for the assignment. Keep it short. Pick the category. Enter value of assignment (points). Calculation type based on the grade that goes into the gradebook.

When you first create the drop box, you have to set the gradebook settings yourself. In new drop box, under the section labeled, â&#x20AC;&#x153;Gradebook settingsâ&#x20AC;? click the drop down box and choose New Assignment.

Fill out the resulting form with appropriate values for this assignment.

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When you have set all the items, click save. NOTE: keep the title short so that it is easier to see in the gradebook.

Discussion Forum Discussion forums provide opportunities for student interaction and engagement. Generally speaking, the instructor poses a question or problem that students will discuss. They may be assigned to watch a video and answer questions posed by the instructor. Guidelines for participation and grading must be established. To create a discussion forum enter the folder where the forum is to occur. Click Add Content and choose discussion forum.

Fill out the forum with all of the appropriate information as shown below:

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When you are done, click the assignment tab to set the gradebook settings. Save when you are done.

Assessment The assessment object is used for exams, quizzes, or tests. You can create your questions by hand or create the exam in a tool like TestGen and import the exam into ANGEL. To create an assessment, go to the folder where the assessment should appear and click Add Content. Choose assessment from the list of available objects.

Initially the screen resembles all other items. You need to put the title, subtitle, message, and assignment gradebook settings. Once you click save, you can create the questions for the assessment.

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Once the assessment is saved, you can create your questions. Click the link labeled, Add Question.

You need to decide the kind of question you want to use for this assessment.

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You can see the kinds of questions you can use for this assessment along with a description of the question type. For this example, we can click Multiple Choice.

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Enter the number of points the question is worth.

The question text goes here.

Create answer choices. Be sure to indicate the correct choice. The percentage is the grade if the correct answer is chosen.

Additional answer choices can be added if necessary.

You can and should provide feedback based on whether or not the student chose the correct answer or not.

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Enter the text for feedback based on whether or not the student chooses the correct answer.

The rest of these options are not required. Click save to save the question, or click save and create new to save the current question then create the next question.

Select the option to add the question to the question bank if you wish to store it for future use.

Continue with this process until the entire exam is done.

Additional options include showing the HTML editor so that you can include an image in the question.

The students can examine the image and answer questions about the picture.

When you are finished, your screen will show all of the questions you created. You can click the link labeled, “Preview” to see what your test will look like to a student or use the glasses view to preview the exam from the student’s point of view.

Below is a preview of this question.

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Conclusion This brings us to the close of these first three workshops. Future workshops for more advanced topics will be announced as they are developed. If you have any questions, contact Denise L. Passero.

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