Angel, as everybody knows, is sort of like SUNY Fredonia’s social networking site. It’s used as a way of communication between students and teachers. Students go to one website to see course syllabi, homework, and submit assignments and quizzes/exams.
With all the important information being submitted to Angel, it seems that Fredonia should pick a more reliable website. Angle isn’t necessarily stable on all web browsers. Last semester, the website said that Safari and Firefox were the best options for students to use to access the Angel system, but what if I don’t own those browsers? Obviously, I could download the browser, but it’s a waste of space and time if I only use it for Angel.
Another problem with Angel is its constant downtime. As a SUNY-wide system, it deals with a LOT of information, and therefor, needs to be updated or fixed every now and again. Not to mention, the website isn’t the prettiest thing to look at. Sure, you can customize it, but even then, it’s still a plain-looking page.
Pages like the one you’re looking at now are well-organized and customizable. WordPress is a reliable website and it’s easy to see who’s posted what. I can browse through each post or skip over ones I don’t want to read by looking through different categories.
Google Docs, I have to say, is one of the most amazing drop-boxes I’ve ever seen. I can upload my OpenOffice.org document straight to Google, and it will change it to its own format, ready to be viewed by Andy. He doesn’t have to download it to his harddrive, nor does he have to spend hours a day trying to figure out what format his students’ papers are in.
The school should drop Angel and look for a more cost-effective system that’s more reliable and accessible to all students.
2 Comments
Cost-effectiveness shouldn’t be in your conclusion, it should be one of your main points. If you follow this documentation correctly, you can estimate just how much cash we’re talking (per year – UNDERLINE) for just the licensing to use Angel. One of my professors mentioned this to me three semesters ago and I never investigated it until now.
http://wiki.sln.suny.edu/download/attachments/360501/ANGEL+Contract+Summary+Document.doc
If you factor in the enrolled population as of 2008, 5,573, we’re looking at at least $15,000 per year for the cheapest option of “ePortfolio Hosting” which is 25 megabytes per user. Say if you were to up the ante to 50 megabytes, we’d be looking at something over $22,500 (table: For Institutions Using ANGEL LMS on pg 9)
I feel like that’s a lot… is that a lot? That’s definitely a lot….
You’re absolutely correct on the cost being a main issue (I wrote the post before a class and was running late, so I kind of ended my article quickly).
25 mb is most definitely not enough for some, and if the school could pay for websites like this for each course, it may wind up equalling the same price (I’m unsure of the cost to manage such a site like this, especially with the amount of traffic it would be receiving), but the amount of space each student or professor would have would most likely be more than 25 mb.
Of course, I’ve done no research and it’s 4:12 in the morning.