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| Product Name | ANGEL 6.3 | Desire2Learn 7.4 |
|---|---|---|
| Developer Name | ANGEL Learning, Inc. | Desire2Learn Inc. |
| URL | ANGEL 6.2 | Desire2Learn Inc. |
| Review Date | November 25, 2005 | November 25, 2005 |
| Forums | ANGEL 6.3 Discussions | Desire2Learn 7.4 Discussions |
| Reviewer | Email Review Staff | Email Review Staff |
| Communication Tools | ||
| Discussion Forums |
The software includes support for discussion forums. Discussions can be viewed by date, by thread, by title, by author, by group, by the type of post. Students can categorize posts as problems, explanations, scientific explanations, comments, evaluations, or summaries. Instructors can associate a discussion with any course content. Discussions can be shared across courses, departments, or any institutional unit. Instructors may create separate discussion environments for small groups. Groups can be open to all or only a select set of students. Instructors can determine the level of involvement (read, write, or post anonymously) for students. Only the instructor may delete posts. Posts can include attachments, an images or URLs. Posts can be either plain text, formatted text or html. The threaded discussion software includes a formatting text editor. Discussion threads are expandable and collapsible to view an entire conversation on one screen. The entire discussion can be saved or printed for off-line reading. Instructors can set up discussion forums so new posts are sent to the email of each student. Students can enable or disable posts to be sent to their email. Instructors can limit discussions to specific time periods. The discussion forums can include a moderation function (screen all posts). Discuss |
Discussions can be viewed by date, by thread, by title or by author. Instructors may create separate discussion environments for small groups. Discussion threads are expandable and collapsible to view an entire conversation on one screen. Posts can include attachments or URL. Posts can be either plain text or html. Instructors can enable or disable anonymous postings. The entire discussion can be saved or printed for off-line reading. . Discussions can be shared across courses, departments, or any institutional unit. Instructors can associate a discussion with any course content. Instructors can limit discussions to specific time periods. Discuss |
| File Exchange |
Students and instructors can edit their text files in their folder using a browser. Students can upload files to a shared course or group folder. Students can download all the contents of a folder at one time. Students can share the contents of their personal folders with other students and their instructors. Students can submit assignments using drop boxes. Virus detection technology can be used throughout the file upload/download process. Discuss |
Students can submit assignments using drop boxes. Students have a private folder into which they can upload and download files. Students can upload files to a shared group folder. Administrators can set folder permissions and quota tracking on their folders. Virus detection technology can be used throughout the file upload/download process. Discuss |
| Internal Email |
Students can use the Internal email feature to email individuals and groups. Students must have an external Internet email address. Students can forward all messages to an external email account. Students can attach and archive files and forward messages to an external email account. Students can spell check outgoing messages. The system can generate automated e-mail reminder messages. Discuss |
Students can email individual students, instructors or groups. Students must have an external Internet email address. The internal email system supports folders, searching and attachments. Students can elect to forward their mail to an external address, or they can choose to read mail in any IMAP mailbox with this mail client. Students use a searchable address book to email individuals and groups. Administrators can choose to integrate an existing e-mail system into the internal e-mail feature. Discuss |
| Online Journal/Notes |
Students can make private notes about each of their courses and may share them with their instructor. Students can attach private notes to any resource or may make notes in their personal work areas. Students can make notes in a personal work area in preformatted text or HTML-style with tags and can perform spell checking. Students can print their study guide. Students can make private notes for all their courses in one private journal. Discuss |
Students can make notes in a personal journal and may share them with their instructor. Students can make notes in a personal work area in preformatted text or HTML-style with tags and can perform spell checking. Discuss |
| Real-time Chat |
The chat tool supports private rooms, private messages, ability to ignore specific participants, and customized chat windows. Instructors can moderate chats, monitor chats, suspend students from the chat rooms and view chat logs. Instructors can schedule chats using the course calendar. Students can see who else is online within their courses and send them an instant message or invite them to a chat room. The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms. The chat tool supports having many simultaneous group discussions. The chat tool also supports a structured way for students to ask questions and instructors to provide answers. There is also a built-in instant messaging tool. Discuss |
There is both a Java-based chat tool that can support thousands of simultaneous users and a HTML-based chat that supports basic chat functions. The chat tool supports private rooms and private messages. Instructors can moderate chats, monitor chats, suspend students from the chat rooms and view chat logs. The system creates archive logs for all chat rooms. There is a built-in instant messaging tool. Discuss |
| Video Services |
Instructors can include real-time video with slide or web presentations within the optional synchronous tools. Course developers can integrate streamed Real audio and video into a course. Discuss | |
| Whiteboard |
The software supports a whiteboard. The whiteboard supports image uploading and annotation, PowerPoint or webpage slideshows, group web browsing, polling and instructor moderation. The software can archive a snapshot of whiteboard sessions for future viewing. The software supports group web browsing. Discuss |
The software supports a whiteboard that can have multiple instances in the same course. The whiteboard supports image uploading and annotation. Discuss |
| Productivity Tools | ||
| Bookmarks |
Students can create, share, categorize and annotate bookmarks in a personal folder. Students can bookmark any content material in a course Discuss |
Students can bookmark any content material in a course. Discuss |
| Orientation/Help |
The system includes an online student guide and how to access the system help. The system includes an FAQ page that provides a product overview, guidance password recovery and system navigation. Students can access context sensitive help for any tool, each of the major tools, or fields within tools including discussion forums and internal email. Students can use keywords to search a student manual and other help documentation made available by the organization. Discuss |
The system includes an online student guide. Students can access context sensitive help for each of the major tools. Help items are further customizable by the institution. Students can use keywords to search a student manual and other help documentation made available by the organization. Discuss |
| Searching Within Course |
Students can search all titles, subtitles, page content, course notes, and discussion threads by message contents or message topics in their courses. Students and instructors can constrain a search using filters. Discuss |
Students can search all course content, discussion threads, calendar postings in their course or organization. The content repository can also be searched based on Learning Object Metadata. Students can constrain a search using filters. Discuss |
| Calendar/Progress Review |
Students can keep track of all their assignments, deadlines, and due dates in an online calendar. Students can use a course calendar to store private events. Instructors can assign tasks using the online calendar and can post events and announcements in the online course calendar or to the course homepage with an announcement. Entries in the online course calendar can be posted for the entire class, a specific team, or a specific user. Instructors can link items on a learning objective checklist with the calendar. Students can view their completed and pending course readings and activities. Students can add items to and edit a ToDo list. All students have a personal home page that lists new email, all courses and groups in which the student is enrolled and all course and system-wide events by date, from their personal calendar. Students can view their grades on completed assignments and any instructor feedback total points possible and percentages per gradable item and overall course grade compare their grades against the overall class performance. Calendar entries can be exported in an ical format. Discuss |
Instructors can post events and announcements in the online course calendar or to the course homepage. Entries in the online course calendar can be posted for the entire class, or individual user. Students can keep track of all their assignments, deadlines, and due dates in an online calendar. Students can use a course calendar to store private events. Students can view their grades on completed assignments and any instructor feedback and can compare their grades against the overall class performance. Students can view their completed and pending course readings and activities. All students have a personal home page that lists new email, all courses and groups in which the student is enrolled and all course and system-wide events by date, from their personal calendar. Discuss |
| Work Offline/Synchronize |
Students can download course content and email messages and synchronize calendar events with a PDA. Instructors can publish course content on a CD-ROM for use by students who do not have Internet access and that can be linked to dynamically from within the online course or viewed offline. Upon re-entering a course, students have the option of resuming at the last page viewed. Students can access the course management system using Wireless Access Protocol. Discuss |
Instructors can publish course content on a CD-ROM that can be linked to dynamically from within the online course or viewed offline. Students can compile and download the content for an entire course into a format that can be printed or stored locally. Discuss |
| Student Involvement Tools | ||
| Groupwork |
Instructors can assign students to groups or the system can create groups of a certain size or a set number of groups. Each group can have its own shared group presentation folder, discussion forum, chat room, group email list, polls, assignments, activities, assessments, shared calendar events, file exchange, assigned group leadership. Instructors can monitor groups. Discuss |
Instructors can assign students to groups or the system can create groups of a certain size or a set number of groups. Each group can have its own shared group presentation folder, discussion forum, chat room, group email list, polls, assignments, activities, assessments, shared calendar events, file exchange, assigned group leadership. Instructors can assign grades to entire groups. Discuss |
| Self-assessment |
Instructors can create anonymous, timed or untimed self-assessments that students can take multiple times. The system automatically scores multiple choice, true/false, and multiple answer type questions and can display instructor-created feedback and links to relevant course material. Instructors can create a database of questions that the system will randomize to create a unique self-assessment for each student. Instructor may create assessments that route the student to additional assessment, modules, or learning path based on the results of the assessment. Instructors and students can use the MathML equation editor to enter and edit mathematical notations. Discuss |
Instructors can create timed or un-timed self-assessments that students can take multiple times. The system automatically scores multiple choice, true/false, multiple answer, fill in the blank, matching, and ordering type questions and can display instructor-created feedback, explanations, hints and links to relevant course material. Instructors can create a database of questions that the system will randomize to create a unique self-assessment for each student. Regular expressions can be used to create unique variables and answers for every question. Discuss |
| Student Community Building |
Students can create online clubs, interest, and study groups. Students can send email to their groups, use a shared chat space, calendar and announcements, and share material privately within the group. Students from different courses can interact in a system-wide chat rooms or discussion forums. Discuss |
Students from different courses can interact in system-wide chat rooms or discussion forums. Students can create online clubs, interest, and study groups at the system level. Discuss |
| Student Portfolios |
Students can create a personal home page. Personal home pages may include their photo and personal information. Students have a private folder and a team folder for displaying their work. Students can create a private folder, which is accessible system wide, to display their work. With the optional e-portfolio, instructors can specify learning objectives a student should meet with their portfolio. When uploading a new artifact to their portfolio, students are prompted by the software to identify which objective the artifact is meant to fulfill. Students can share portions of their ePortfolio with others by publishing their work. Discuss |
Students can create a personal home page. Students’ personal home pages may include artwork or pictures. Students can use their personal folder to display their work. Discuss |
| Administration Tools | ||
| Authentication |
Administrators or Instructors can set courses to be publicly accessible or protect access to individual courses with a username and password. The system can also authenticate against an external NT domain server, Active Directory, POP mail server, or using other protocols (Kerberos and Shibboleth have been implemented). User logins and/or sessions can be encrypted with SSL or secured with time-loaded encryption algorithms. Administrators can set up fail-through authentication against a secondary source in the event that the primary source fails. The system has a password reminder option. Access can be restricted based on IP address or number of login attempts. Discuss |
Administrators can protect access to individual courses with a username and password. The system can authenticate against an external LDAP server or using the Kerberos protocol. Administrators can set up fail-through authentication against a secondary source (e.g. the system's own database) in the event that the primary source (e.g. LDAP server) fails. The system can support multiple organizational units or organizations within one server setup and each unit contains its own unique database of users and can be authenticated against a different source. The system has a password reminder option and students can maintain their own passwords. Administrators can set password length restrictions and require password changes after the initial logon and after a specified period of time. User logins can be encrypted with the Secure Sockets Layer protocol. Discuss |
| Course Authorization |
Administrators can assign different levels of access to the system and to courses based on the following pre-defined roles: student, staff, faculty, manager, system editor, and system administrator. Instructors can assign different levels of access to their course based on the following pre-defined roles: guest, student, team leader, course assistant, course designer, and instructor. Administrators can customize existing roles and can create new, custom roles with specific access privileges to course content and tools. Instructors can customize existing roles within the context of their course. Instructors can customize specific access permissions for each student. Administrators can distribute the roles across multiple institutions to facilitate school board-wide or consortia-style approaches. Instructors or students may be assigned different roles in different courses and group contexts. Discuss |
Administrators can create an unlimited number of custom organizational units and roles with specific access privileges to course content and tools. Instructors can customize specific access permissions for each student. Administrators can distribute the roles across multiple institutions to facilitate school board-wide or consortia-style approaches. Instructors or students may be assigned different roles in different courses and group contexts. Discuss |
| Registration Integration |
Students can self-register. Student self-registration is time limited. The software supports integration with a number of ERP, HR systems and student information systems through an event-driven API or through a tool that is based on scheduled system exports. System has been integrated to SCT Banner, Peoplesoft, Datatel and custom Legacy systems. Administrators and instructors can batch add students to the system or course using a delimited text file or using customizable registration templates and then send a system generated email message to students notifying them of their enrollment. Administrators can transfer student information bi-directionally between the system and an SIS. The service provider may assist with transferring student registration information from the course management system back to the institutional SIS. The software is compliant with the IMS Enterprise Specification for Student Data. Discuss |
Students can self-register. Administrators can batch add students to a course using a delimited text file. The software supports integration with SCT Banner, Peoplesoft, Datatel, and Campus Pipeline. The software also supports customized integration with other SIS or portal systems. Administrators can transfer student information bi-directionally between the system and an SIS. The system provides registration progress tracking. The software is compliant with the IMS Enterprise Specification for Student Data. Discuss |
| Hosted Services |
The product provider offers a hosted system that includes managed software installation, 2+ GB storage space, 40 GB bandwidth usage, redundant Internet connections, redundant and conditioned power, fault-tolerant servers with fail-over capability, 24x7x365 monitoring, nightly tape backups, and a secure facility. Discuss |
The product provider offers a hosted system that includes 24x7x365 monitoring, redundant hosting platforms, intrusion detection, nightly backups, options for geographical disaster recovery, and service level agreements on a network of high-performance, fault-tolerant servers with fail-over capability with redundant Tier 1 network connections. Discuss |
| Course Delivery Tools | ||
| Course Management |
Instructors can selectively release materials, assessments, announcements, and emails based on previous course activity or specific start and end dates. Instructors can personalize access to specific course materials and assessments, based on access rights, group membership, previous course activity, or student performance and/or specific start and end dates or other criteria. Instructors can set up specific course content that is released on a specific date and that students must complete before they continue with course. Instructors can link discussions to specific dates or course events. Instructors can design courses for instructor facilitated learning or system managed self-study. Discuss |
Instructors can selectively release course material, quizzes, assignments, announcements and tools based on previous course activity or specific start and end dates. Instructors can link discussions to specific dates. The system can synchronize course dates defined by the institutional calendar. Instructors can set up specific course content that is released on a specific date and that students must complete before they continue with course. Instructors can design courses for instructor facilitated learning or system managed self-study. Discuss |
| Instructor Helpdesk |
Instructors can attend one to three day face-to-face training workshops, take an online course, access an online instructor training guide, help, and context sensitive help, and form online groups to share documents, course components, schedules, and other collaborative tools and learning objects with instructors in their organization, using discussion forums, chat rooms, and other collaborative tools. Instructors can share instructional content and learning objects which reside is a searchable database with instructors in their organization. Instructors can save content as exemplars of best practices in instructional design, which are viewable by other instructors or developers. Instructors can subscribe to an instructor mailing list. Discuss |
Instructors can access an online instructor manual, context sensitive help, take a free online course, and subscribe to an instructor mailing list. The product provider can setup an instructor group so instructors in the organization can access faculty resources and discussions. Instructors have access numerous instructor support communities to share information in a number of discipline-specific or general interest forums. Depending on security permissions, instructors can share instructional content and learning objects which reside is a searchable database with instructors in their organization. Discuss |
| Online Grading Tools |
Instructors can mark all assessments not automatically scored online. Instructors can assign partial credit for certain answers. Instructors can add the grades for offline assignments to the online gradebook. Instructors can view grades in the gradebook by assignment, by student, and for all students on all assignments. Instructors can export a comma-delimited version of the gradebook to an external spreadsheet program. Instructors can create emails which the system automatically sends to those students whose grades do not meet a minimum threshold. Instructors can provide feedback on all assignments through annotations. Instructors can search the gradebook to find all students who meet a specific performance criteria, mark, or status such as exam completion. Instructors can manually edit all grades. Instructors can create a course grading scale that can employ either percentages, letter grades or pass/fail metrics. When an instructor adds an assignment to the course, the software automatically adds it to the online gradebook. Instructors can delegate the responsibility for grading assignments. The software automatically calculates the minimum, maximum, and average grade on each assignment. The gradebook supports the creation of custom columns which can contain either grade information or other instructor-determined details. Discuss |
Instructors can mark assignments online. Instructors can provide feedback on all assignments. Instructors can manually edit all grades. When an instructor adds an assignment to the course, the software automatically adds it to the gradebook. Instructors can use the gradebook for basic statistical analysis and final grade calculation. The software automatically calculates the minimum, maximum, and average grade on each assignment. Instructors can assign partial credit for certain answers. Instructors can add the grades for offline assignments to the online gradebook. Instructors can view grades in the gradebook by assignment, by student, and for all students on all assignments. Instructors can export a comma-delimited version of the gradebook to an external spreadsheet program. Instructors may export the gradebook in PDF format. Instructors can provide feedback on all assignments through annotations. Instructors can create a course grading scale that can employ either percentages, letter grades or pass/fail metrics. Instructors can delegate the responsibility for grading assignments. Discuss |
| Student Tracking |
Instructors can get reports showing the number of times and time and date on which each student accessed course content, specific course units, discussion forums, assessments, and assignments. Instructors can get a report that shows number of attempts and time per attempt on each assessment for individual students. Instructors can maintain private notes about each student in a secure area. Instructors can get a report that summarizes individual student performance on assignments. Instructors can set a flag on individual course components to track the frequency with which students access those components. Instructors can set up custom reports. Instructors can share tracking information with students. Instructors can get a report displaying the date/time each student accessed a specific course assessment, assignment, or self-assessment. Instructors can view all student folders simultaneously. Administrators can monitor students who are currently logged in to the course. Instructors can summarize all discussion posts to date by group or by student. Discuss |
Instructors can view reports of student session tracking, login/logout dates and times, dropbox submissions, and discussion participation as well as both individual and aggregate student performance data on assessments, number of attempts and time per attempt. Instructors can share this tracking information with students. Discuss |
| Automated Testing and Scoring |
Instructors can create automatically scored true/false, multiple choice, multiple answer, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer, and calculated answer questions. Questions can contain images, video, other media files. Instructors can create different levels of feedback messages. Instructors can import questions from existing test banks. Instructors can create personal, course specific, and system-wide test banks and use these test banks to create tests for students. Instructors can also create survey questions. The system can randomize the questions in a test and the alternatives for multiple choice questions. Instructors can set dates times for when students can access tests. Instructors can set a time limit on a test. Instructors can use IP addresses and/or passwords to restrict access to tests. Instructors can use the HTML editor to enable students to enter and edit mathematical notations. Instructors can create unit-specific tests or course-level tests. Instructors can associate a test with competency level demonstrated and can release additional materials and test based on level. The system supports proctored exams and the proctor can turn off browser controls during the exam. The system provides analysis data for surveys and test item results can be exported for analysis. Instructors can override the automated scoring and determine how to communicate test results to students. Instructors can differentially weight tests and create grading rules. Instructors can lock students out of the course content for the duration of an exam. Discuss |
Instructors can create assessments that use the following types of questions: True/False, Fill in the Blank, Matching, Multiple Choice, Multiple Select, Ordering, Arithmetic, Significant Figures and Short/Long Answer. Custom questions types can also be defined. Test questions can incorporate images, sound, video and other media types. Questions can be built with the tool or instructors can import and export questions from external test banks in the IMS QTI specification format. Questions can be randomized to provide different questions to different students. Random values can be generated for variables to provide different questions to different students. Instructors can set a time limit on a test. Assessments can be restricted by IP address or a password. Assessments can be shared across several organizational units, and data can be aggregated during report generation. Instructors can customize reports on user and question data that can be exported. Instructors can override the automated scoring and determine how to communicate test results to students. Instructors can weight assessments according to a grading scheme. Students can also be locked out of the instant messaging tool and have their copy/paste and print tools restricted while taking a quiz. Instructors can also create survey questions. Discuss |
| Curriculum Design | ||
| Accessibility Compliance |
The product provider self-reports that the software complies with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act and with the W3C Priority Level I items and most Level II and III items and the WAI WCAG 1.0 Level A guidelines. To enable accessibility, the software implements the following features: a tool for instructors to add alt tags to uploaded images, alt tags on all system images and interface elements, aural style sheets, an authoring tool that enables course developers to create compliant web-based content, an HTML-based chat option that are usable with popular assistive technologies, collapsible menus, content available without color in a high contrast color scheme, content is only presented in text and graphics, content readable without style sheets, data tables that are optimized for use with screen readers, the software does not require frames, appropriately titled framesets that describe the functionality of the frames layout, consistent use of form labels, keyboard access to all utilities and chat, table-based layouts compatible with a screen reader, support for the JAWS screen reader technology, Window-Eyes technology, and most screen reader tools, support for most screen magnification software, software can detect screen readers and then offer a version of the site with less Javascript to improve access, compliant web templates, allowing invisible navigation links to be used by screen readers, consistent use of form labels, and the ability to suppress Java applets and to increase font size. The software includes an accessibility setting to optimize the use of various assistive technologies. Discuss |
To comply with Section 508 of the US Rehabilitation Act, the software implements the following features: alt tags on all system images, an authoring tool that enables course developers to create compliant web-based content, style sheets, appropriately titled framesets that describe the functionality of the frames layout, data tables that are optimized for use with screen readers, content available without color, personal preferences for tool display and content readable without style sheets. Non-visual navigation links are used throughout the site to improve screen reader usability. Discuss |
| Course Templates |
Instructors can use templates to create announcements, calendar entries, course content, course units, discussion forums, instructor biography, links, syllabus and course descriptions. The templates include a WYSIWYG content editor. Instructors can categorize course content as agendas, announcements, calendar entries, course units, discussion forums, glossaries, handouts, instructor biography, learning objectives, lecture notes, links, multimedia content, syllabus and course descriptions, tips, FAQs and resources. Course content may be referenced or uploaded through a form chosen from a system-wide, department-specific, course-specific, or personal learning object repository/content library. Instructors can clone and modify the default templates. Instructors can create new content templates. Instructors can incorporate course functions into specific course templates. Discuss |
Course templates containing either layout or content can be created at any level above the specific section level. Instructors can create announcements, calendar entries, discussions, links, syllabus, course descriptions and other course content using templates that include a WYSIWYG content editor, or upload and choose content from the system-wide content library. Instructors can create new content templates. Instructors can incorporate course functions into specific course templates. Course content may be uploaded through a form, uploaded through WebDAV. Discuss |
| Curriculum Management |
The system supports management of curriculum and competencies. Instructors can specify prerequisites and sequence of each course within the curriculum. Instructors can specify multiple paths through courses for different skill levels or job functions. Instructor can map specific learning objects to individual training needs. Discuss |
Instructors can specify multiple paths through a course for different skill levels or job functions. Discuss |
| Customized Look and Feel |
The system provides over ten default course look and feel templates. Institutions can create their own look and feel templates across the entire system. Institutions can apply their own institutional images, headers and footers across all courses. Instructors can alter the appearance of their course. Administrators snd instructors can clone and modify existing look and feel templates. Instructors can change the navigation icons and color schemes, the background, and the availability of tab items for a course. Administrators can change the availability, order and name of menu items. Discuss |
The system can support multiple institutions, departments, schools or other organizational divisions on an individual server setup. Each unit can be separately branded. Distinct designs can also be applied at both the course and specific section level. The instructor can customize the appearance of a course by changing the order and name of menu items and the location and width of the navigation menu. Custom tools can be created and quickly added and removed from course or student home pages. Students can customize the sounds, colors, font sizes, and layout of the tools within the interface. Administrators can change the availability, order and name of menu items. Discuss |
| Instructional Standards Compliance |
The software has been issued a certificate of compliance with SCORM 1.2. The software supports the the IMS Enterprise 1.1 specification. The provider company supports migration between the following course management systems: BlackBoard or WebCT to ANGEL. The product provider will work with the institution to migrate existing courses into the system. The system includes tools to facilitate the migration of course content between different versions of the software. Discuss |
The software has been issued a certificate of conformance with SCORM 1.2 RTE 3 and SCORM 2004. The system also supports IEEE LOM, IMS Enterprise 1.1, IMS QTI 1.2, IMS Content Packaging. The system includes a tool to import courses from other learning platforms into Desire2Learn. Discuss |
| Instructional Design Tools |
Instructors can create both linear and nonlinear learning sequences using a content library organized hierarchically by course, lesson, topic, and chunk. Instructors can organize learning objects into learning sequences that are reusable. Instructors can create lesson content using instructional design guides and customizable lesson templates. The company offers instructional design services to help instructors create their courses. Instructors can access information and tips and context sensitive help, tutorials on creating a collaborative learning environment. Instructors can create relationships between assignments and required resources which can then serve as templates for future lessons. Discuss |
The software provides lesson-level templates that include the ability to link to course tools in context. Instructors can create annotated bookmarks, one at a time, for specific courses. Instructors can create sequences using conditional release based on a user’s past performance. The company offers course design services to assist organizations in creating their course material. Discuss |
| Content Sharing/Reuse |
The system supports sharing content across course and institution boundaries. The system provides a central content repository where course content files can be stored and accessed by other instructors. Instructors can designate their files to be private or publicly accessible. Instructors can create links to content files in the central content repository so that changes made to the linked content are automatically displayed in their courses. Discuss |
The system provides a central content repository where course content files can be stored and accessed by other instructors. The repository can be system-wide or for individual organizational units. Instructors can designate their files to be private or publicly accessible. Instructors can create links to content files in the central content repository so that changes made to the linked content are automatically displayed in their courses. Instructors can describe course content using metadata. The repository supports IEEE LOM and metadata application profiles such as, Dublin Core, Cancore, and custom profiles. Discuss |
| Hardware/Software | ||
| Client Browser Required |
The software supports IE 6.0+, Netscape 7.0+ , and Firefox 1.0+ for Windows, Firefox 1.0+ and and Mozilla 1.0+ for Macintosh OS. Discuss |
The software supports Internet Explorer 5.5+, Netscape 4.7+ and Mozilla 1+. Discuss |
| Database Requirements |
The system requires Microsoft SQL Server 2000. The database server hardware recommended for moderately high-volume, high availability service is a Pentium III 900Mhz CPU with 2GB of RAM and 20GB of disk space. Discuss |
The system requires Microsoft SQL Server 2000. Discuss |
| Server Software |
Web-based administration allows the product administrator to configure site, manage the database and even customize scripts remotely. Resource monitoring administration reports are standard. An Installation Setup wizard is supported that includes database creation. The software also offers full backup and archiving utilities for the system as a whole and for individual courses and groups. Discuss |
The product provider installs the system and provides new releases and patches over the network. The software requires Microsoft Internet Information Server (IIS) software 5.0, 6.0 or newer. Discuss |
| UNIX Server | ||
| Windows Server |
The required web server hardware for moderately high- volume, high availability deployments includes Pentium III, 900 Mhz or above CPU with 1028 MB RAM. And 50 MB of disk space. The single required 3rd party component is SAFileUp control from Software Artisans. Software Artisans SAArchive is optional. SAAdmin is required to use NT Authentication. The system requires Windows 2000, Windows 2003 or Windows XP operating systems. Discuss |
The software is available for Windows 2000 Server, Advanced Server, and Datacenter Server, and Windows 2003 Standard, Enterprise and Datacenter Editions. Discuss |
| Pricing/Licensing | ||
| Company Profile |
ANGEL Learning Inc., formerly CyberLearning Labs Inc., based in Indianapolis, IN, develops and markets ANGEL. The Indiana University Research and Technology Corporation (IURTC), an independent 501(c)3 corporation affiliated with Indiana University, created the company in mid-2000. ANGEL Learning evolved from research conducted by the CyberLab at the Purdue University School of Engineering and Technology on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. Discuss |
Located in Kitchener, Ontario, Desire2Learn was founded in 1999. It employs 85+ people and is privately held. Discuss |
| Costs |
The annual license fee is dependent on the number of user accounts. The annual license fee includes version upgrades and support for the administrators (the customer’s primary product administrator plus the administrator’s designated backup). Discuss |
There is an initial startup fee. The license fees are typically based on either an FTE or per user/enrollment depending on the client requirements. Discuss |
| Open Source | ||
| Optional Extras |
The software provider offers on-site consulting and support is available to help with installing and configuring the software. The provider also offers online and classroom instructor education courses. The advanced synchronous communications tools and extended enterprise integration come as optional modules. ANGEL's Insight Window and ePortfolio are also available as optional modules. Large educational institutions can license the software source code for internal use and subscribe to a consortium of developers. Discuss |
The system provides support for secure online tuition payment by credit card. Custom Tools can be built within the platform using the D2L Widget tool. Custom XML and SQL interfaces can be defined for data exchange with the system. Full commerce and portal systems are available. The software can be integrated with external authentication servers, Student Information Systems, Library Systems, email systems, and other campus based systems. The company offers consulting services for implementation planning and advanced technical services including an initial technical assessment and evaluation of issues such as authentication, load balancing, and migration and upgrade planning. The product provider also offers full services for instructional design and custom courseware creation.
Discuss |
| Software Version |
The software version number is 6.3. Discuss |
The software is version 7.4. Discuss |
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