7.2, Template with navigation and Mentoring

What did I find the most useful/helpful from the ANGEL user conference....hmmm. Like both Cindi and Carrie, I found some sessions more tailored to my needs and my expertise level and other sessions less interesting. I found myself in at least one session that was way too techie for me and at least one session that was more basic than I needed. The most helpful info I gleaned at the conference was about the changes coming in 7.2, the templates Carrie referred to in the Penn State presentation, and the West Texas A&M Mentoring model.

The updates coming in version 7.2 look to be a great addition to our CMS. I especially am anxious to learn more about the wikis, blogs, and podcast area. I really like the idea of having the option to allow students unlimited quiz retakes to achieve mastery. I think I may try this with grammar basic skills. I think having the new mail interface (looking more like Outlook) and the capability of having all courses in one mail server will help with time management. I am sure there will be many more features of 7.2 that I will use and appreciate, but these were the features that I have in my notes.

Speaking of notes....I will upload some of my notes from the conference in the next few days.

The Penn State presentation showed a template with navigation that a team of designers (yes, I said designers) create for the instructor. (yes, designers create the ANGEL site....not the instructor) My notes from this presentation are voluminous! I would like to develop a template that includes a table of contents for the site, a "meet the instructor" page that includes a short video of me introducing myself and the course, a contents navigation menu for each unit, and navigation buttons for forward, backward, and home. I have BIG plans for ways I want to use the information from this session! I do believe it will take a fair amount of time to set up the template, but in the long run the template should save me time.

The West Texas A&M mentoring model is a 7-step program for mentoring a new user in ANGEL. During discussion in the van on the way home from Indianapolis, we talked about our responsibility to the college after attending this conference, and I believe we all have the responsibility to help others use the ANGEL CMS. I don't know if the college will institute any mentoring system at all, but I hope that each of us that attended will be open to helping anyone that asks for assistance. The West Texas A&M model included an online mentoring for adjuncts. I may attempt to set up an online mentoring program for adjuncts....I still need to think about this and plan how it would work, but I am sure it would be beneficial if I can get it started.

Right now I am energized to put into practice some of what we saw at the conference. This next week is when I hope to dedicate 15-20 hours of intense ANGEL time. I hope to get a start at the template and create a document for summer ANGEL orientation. When I get this handout created for the May 31 orientation, I will share it with you.

Back from Indy

We just got back from the Angel Users Conference in Indianapolis. Based on the conversation had at the conference and in the van on the way home to Iowa, it was a great experience for each of us. I think each of us walked away with a couple good ideas for our own classes.

I, personally, plan to work this summer on creating some good templates for unit pages, create a set of good instructions for my students (using the resources Angel has available), have long conversations about orienting students to and preparing students for Angel, discuss training needs, create some quick guides for instructors, and develop more visual interactions for my students.

Hopefully this blog will serve as a good space for our discussion!

-Carrie