Student input should produce better ANGEL
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Any MSU student or faculty member who has ever felt any frustration when dealing with ANGEL — presumably, the majority of students and faculty — can take a sigh of relief. Thankfully, the course management system slowly is being replaced.
MSU Libraries, Computing and Technology, or LCT, is exploring two alternative learning systems to replace ANGEL, Blackboard and Desire2Learn. LCT will be including students and staff in the decision-making process by inviting both to participate in public demonstrations for the two systems, starting Thursday.
With all the problems associated with ANGEL — browser incompatibility and freezing being the dominant ones — it’s great to see the university finally making a change, and it’s even better that the LCT is including students and faculty in the decision-making process.
Last summer, MSU attempted a six-course trial run with Moodle, a software program similar to ANGEL, but many users had trouble with the system’s features.
University administrators’ choice to abandon Moodle after the negative feedback it received shows MSU is willing to work to find the best possible fit for students and faculty. The public demonstrations are another great example of that.
By seeking public feedback, MSU is looking at the potential systems’ usabilities. The university will be able to take student and faculty opinions and needs into consideration to find the best possible fit for MSU. If one of the systems proves to be inadequate, LCT immediately has another option available — the university won’t be stuck with a software that doesn’t provide students and faculty most of what they are looking for.
By submitting themselves to feedback, hopefully MSU will be able to avoid having another course management system with as many problems as ANGEL.
MSU currently is under contract with ANGEL until 2014. David Gift, vice provost for LCT, said he hopes a system will be implemented in the fall and run simultaneously with ANGEL, starting a two-year transition period to the complete switch.
It will be interesting to see how the university will make the transition.
Students have adjusted to ANGEL as best they can, so introducing a new software slowly would give time for everybody to get used to it. Whether MSU incorporates the new management system on a college-by-college or volunteer basis, at least students won’t have to learn how to use a new system in all of their courses at once. Students won’t have an entirely new system thrown at them — they’ll have time to adjust to the changes.
ANGEL is software that, for better or worse, directly affects every student and most faculty members at MSU. Making the switch to a more user-friendly, reliable system will benefit everyone in the long run, which can do nothing but help further the education of students and the teaching ability of professors.
Taking feedback under advisement will aid the university in finding the best fit for both parties, but only if a significant number of students and faculty participate. That’s what makes these public demonstrations such an excellent idea. Hopefully these demonstrations will bring out those who utilize the system the most and provide MSU with the software it’s looking for.
