Bits & Pieces of Tips

Let’s say you have a recurring entry in your ANGEL Calendar, such as the class time (every T/Th 2:00-3:00, for instance). Then you go into all those entries and add comments about what you will be covering on those days. Then you realize that class actually meets from 2:30-3:30. So you go into an entry and make the change, and then choose the radio button that applies changes to all occurrences. This does not just apply the changes you just made – it will change the entire entry to match. For instance, if you did this on a day where the topic was going to be “Getting to Know You Icebreaker,” then all of the Calendar entries in that series will now say “Getting to Know You Icebreaker” rather than listing the original topic.

If you have a Discussion forum and you create a Milestone set to Item Completion, it will be checked off for students even if they have not posted yet. Instructors should use Manually Marked to avoid this confusion.

The Assignment Tab for ANGEL Content Items

When creating a content item in ANGEL, the Assignment tab has two subsections. The first is for Milestone Settings, which is all about the Calendar and Tasks. When you create a milestone, you are essentially creating an entry in the student’s task list. You can choose either Manually Marked, which means the student will check off the box when they have completed the task, or Item Completion, which means that ANGEL will mark the check box when the student has completed the task. The task list can be viewed in the navigation panel on the left side of the screen. Whether or not the student uses this task list to track assignment is up to each student. In addition, under the Task Type, you can set Assign and Due dates which will automatically create entries in the ANGEL Calendar. These dates have nothing to do with when the content item is visible or when it is accessible to the student – the only place these dates show up is the Calendar.

The second section on the Assignment tab is the Gradebook Settings section. These settings are for linking the content item to the Gradebook. You can either create the assignment in this tab, or choose an existing assignment from the Gradebook. In the Calculation Type field, you need to be careful when choosing Manual. You would choose Manual if the assignment is one that ANGEL can’t grade, such as an essay. However, if the content item is a discussion forum, you don’t want to choose Manual or you would be unable to copy the grades to the Gradebook and would instead have to open the Gradebook and record them manually.