Disclaimer

Thank you to all who have contacted me regarding the past several posting on my experience in migrating from the the BoatAnchor BlackBoard to the ANGEL Learning Management System.  It is important for all to remember that, out of necessity, we had but two weeks in which to migrate 535 technology-enabled courses from the old system to the new.  It is safe to say that the vast majority of schools who are considering such a move will have more than two weeks in which to do so.  Such a migration in such a short period of time is most likely unprecedented.

Migrating Quizzes and Tests

ANGEL does an excellent job importing a BlackBoard IMS Export; almost too good a job some might say.  During the import process all quizz questions are imported into one large pool; called the Question Bank Manager.  In BlackBoard one would load questions into individual pools and then create a quiz that drew a set number of questions, usually randomly, from each individual pool.  Pools were identified by whatever name the creator of the pool selected.  For example; Chapter1QuestionPool, Chapter2QuestionPool, etc.  ANGEL, on the other hand, imports all questions from all BlackBoard Pools into one pool in the Question Bank Manager.  While this may seem strange or confusing to some, it actually makes one heck of a lot of sense.  I’ll explain…

In ANGEL one can assign Keywords to each individual quiz question; a capability not available in BoatAnchor BlackBoard.  With this capability, one can assign a Learning Outcome number to each individual question.  What then results is the capability to build a quiz based on X-number of questions for Learning Outcome 1, X-number from Learning Outcome 2, etc.  One can also identify individual questions by degree of difficulty; Easy, Moderate, Difficult, etc.  With this feature an instructor can build a pretty comprehensive assessment with the ability to really gain insight into student understanding relative to specific Learning Outcomes.

Back to the quiz import issue…

“Rebuilding” quizzes and exams cause a great deal of confusion on the part of faculty primarily because they were faced with using a new Learning Management System and compounded by the fact they had but two weeks to get everything up and running again.  Those instructors who had not built complex, randomized quizzes had little problem recreating their assessments.  Those who had somewhat complex quizzes that drew questions randomly from across multiple pools had to dedicate a bit more time in sorting through the Question Bank Manager to locate and rebuild their quizzes.  However, those that had listened to the advice provided to them during the previous year found themselves sitting in the proverbial “cat bird seat.”  The advice was never to create a quiz directly in the Learning Management System (BoatAnchor BlackBoard in this case) but to use a third-party tool to create, then upload the quiz.  The tool in this case was Respondus.

Those who used Respondus simply deleted all quizzes imported by ANGEL, then deleted all questions in the Question Bank Manager.  Using Respondus, they uploaded an individual quiz to ANGEL, then created a new folder in the Question Bank Manager.  Using the Import Question feature of the Question Bank Manager they then imported the questions from the uploaded quiz into the appropriate folder.  The process really was quite efficient and those who both listen to the previous years advice and used this method during the migration found themselves “gloating” over their achievement while others were pulling their hair out and predicting the end of democracy as we know it.  So what’s the moral of the story…

The moral of the story is actually quite simple.  You will find it very easy and efficient if all your quizzes and tests are maintained “locally” using a third-party tool such as Respondus or ExamView.  The benefit of Respondus is that you can “pull down” a quiz that has been developed in BoatAnchor BlackBoard on to the local computer.  So consider pulling down all your quizzes and pools to your local computer using Respondus, before migrating your course to ANGEL

I realize that this description of methods to simplify the quiz and exam migration process may sound a bit confusing.  If you’d like more information or a more thorough, step-by-step, description, simply drop me a line.

Web Browsers

While it may be a “Windows-centric” world, no school can afford to neglect those who choose to use a different operating system.  Internet Explorer is the dominant browser for the Windows operating system.  Safari is the dominant browser for the Macintosh operating system.  Internet Explorer uses the Trident rendering engine to provide web page display while Safari uses the WebKit rendering engine.  The solution to handling this disparity is, in truth, a much better alternative - FireFox!  (FireFox uses the Gecko rendering engine)

Nearly all the problems reported by students when using ANGEL can be directly attributed to Internet Explorer.  Because Internet Explorer is such an integral part of the Windows Operating System itself, it is extremely susceptible to any form of malware, spyware, trojans, and nefarious “browser helper objects.”  A corrupted or out-dated dynalink library within the Windows Operating System has been known to cause problems for students.  Likewise those students on the Macintosh Operating System will find that their web browser, Safari with the same rendering engines originating with the now extinct NetScape Navigator, is not fully supported.  Once again, the solution is FireFox.

FireFox, because it runs independent of the operating system, has proven to be far faster, secure, and stable than either Internet Explorer or Safari.  Student who report not being able to access a particular content item using Internet Explorer or Safari immediately discover that all their problems disappear the minute they switch to FireFox.  For those school IT Departments who believe anything not produced by Microsoft to be the “AntiChrist,” will be doing their students, faculty and school a great disservice by not providing Firefox in their computer labs or work stations.  Sadly, I belong to one of those schools but the solution to such blind devotion to Microsoft was really quite simple; FireFox Portable!

If your school’s IT Department will not entertain the idea of anything not made in Redmond, Washington, PortableApps.com provides a version of FireFox, as well as other great applications, that will run directly from a USB drive without installation on a computer.  With USB drives nearing the cost of a prize in a box of breakfast cereal, they are probably not far from being considered disposable.  Armed with a USB drive and a portable version of Firefox, any student, regardless of operating system or IT department, can now expect dependable connection with their ANGEL courses.

Support

Perhaps the most common reason heard from those investigating switching from BoatAnchor BlackBoard to ANGEL is the abysmal and virtually nonexistent customer service and support provided these days by the later.  One need do little more than “Google” the word “BlackBoard” to discover that the problems they are having are ubiquitous among its customers.  Similarly, ask anyone using the ANGEL Learning Management System and the first thing you will hear are stories about the extraordinary level of customer service and technical support provided. ANGEL takes support of their customers seriously and have demonstrated time and time again that they see customer service as important to their business model as the application itself.  I would even go so far as to suggest ANGEL “spin off” a separate division to teach today’s big businesses and organizations exactly how to take care of their customers.

ANGEL assigns a team to take care of its “accounts.”  A school is not thrown into one giant, impersonal system of Trouble Tickets, or Support Forums.  A school is provided with real, live human beings with which they can communicate.  If the situation is urgent, and you are going to love this, one can pick up the phone and actually talk to a human!  Not a “techie” who will fill your head full of confusing acronyms and “geek speak” but someone who will listen, ensure they understand, then provide a solution almost immediately.  If their is any single factor that that has given ANGEL a near cult-like following, it is the way they take care of their customers.

The school that migrates to ANGEL can expect to become fast friends with both their ANGEL sales and support representatives.  It is not uncommon to receive an email from ANGEL simply asking “how things are going,” or “Is there anything I can do for you.”  As the relationship grows they will keep you up-to-date on all the latest developments with ANGEL and some of the new things they always seem to be coming up with.  These people never seem to rest.

Two very active LISTSERVs are available for ANGEL users to share ideas, post questions and generally support the community.  It is interesting to note that rarely does one see a member of the ANGEL team in any of the LISTSERV postings; though I’m certain they watch it very carefully.

Conclusion

I am not now, nor have I ever been on the ANGEL payroll; though my past three postings may give a different impression.  It is entirely possible however, that I’ve become another member of the ANGEL “cult.”

While the migration from BoatAnchor BlackBoard to ANGEL has not been without its challenges, the rewards have been far greater and well worth any inconvenience.  With ANGEL we can now provide students with a richer and far more engaging online learning experience.  The tools todays’ students understand and use to communicate are now available to them, built into the Learning Management System and not as a link to an external web site.