ANGEL Learning
Technical Information
Data Integration
Key information about courses, students, faculty, and an enterprise's operation are generally used by several applications. To avoid errors, the LMS must be able to obtain and propagate data automatically.
- ANGEL’s data tables are purposely kept very simple to support easy integration with the enterprise SIS and other data systems
- ANGEL tools simplify data integration and perform tasks your way
Batch Enrollment & Account Creation Tool
Create accounts and enrol users in courses automatically using data from virtually any delimited file. The tool's wizard interface guides you through the data import process, identifying users who do not have accounts and creating accounts for them. Users who have accounts are enrolled with their existing user IDs. The tool can automatically send a custom email, complete with username, password, and ID to users with new accounts and send enrollment notification to users who already have accounts.
Text Import Wizard
Import data from a text-delimited file into any ANGEL table. Because the wizard does not require a specific file format, it can adapt to any existing systems. Use the Text Import Wizard to import calendar information, process drop/add files, update personnel files.
Database Import Wizard
Import data directly from any ODBC compliant data source or copy data out of ANGEL into any ODBC compliant database. The wizard's interface attempts to map matching fields between source and destination tables automatically. Once created, script can be reused.
Program Custom Solutions
Custom solutions can easily be programmed against ANGEL tables. Once written, a SQL stored procedure to process data and import it into ANGEL can be scheduled to perform updates as needed.
Scalability
ANGEL LMS handles both large and small deployments efficiently and cost effectively:
- Accommodates a large number of users with relatively low hardware requirements; smaller institutions can run effectively on a single machine.
- Architecture separates major technology layers; implementation can be structured so each component is on a separate server.
- ANGEL is intuitive. Beginning users are quickly comfortable using ANGEL's normal mode, decreasing training time.
- Users can select beginner, intermediate or advanced modes, allowing beginners to ramp up at their own pace and experienced users to access all the power they need.
System Configurations
ANGEL has been cost effectively deployed in institutions with fewer than a thousand users and in situations with nearly 100,000 users. Many institutions can provide excellent service with one web server. When user numbers are greater, ANGEL's separate technology layers allow effective deployment in a variety of sophisticated system configurations including load balancing.
Technology Layers
By supporting variety, ANGEL system configurations can be built to meet the needs of your institution. Where demand is relatively light, the entire application can be executed on the same server. However, an ANGEL implementation can also be structured so that the database and web application run on separate machines. For extremely high-loads or high-availability installations, ANGEL supports scalability and redundancy for both the database and the web application via data replication, hardware clustering, and load balancing solutions. ANGEL's component-based architecture and scripting framework ensures optimal performance without sacrificing the flexibility institutions require to adapt ANGEL to their particular needs.
Scaling Support & Education
The impact increasing numbers of users has on IT support services is often overlooked. Enterprise environments train and support users from dramatically different backgrounds with widely varying skills. ANGEL is an ally in these efforts. Beginning users quickly gain value in ANGEL's intuitive, easy-to-use normal mode. But, ANGEL will not disappoint technology savvy, power users. ANGEL's advanced mode has all the power they need. ANGEL also lets you choose to delegate or decentralise many common administrative tasks, so you can avoid bottlenecks at the central office and focus on getting value from ANGEL.
Security
Your institution is dynamic. Students come and go. Their courses change. Their roles can differ by course. Instructors' needs vary. Some prefer that rights apply only to them. Others want teaching assistants to have editing, grading rights, or other faculty rights.
- ANGEL’s role-based permissions provide user rights assignment flexibility
- Rights may be set in a single script page that is easily overridden
Environment-Level Rights
Each ANGEL user has environment rights that identify their level of resource access. These rights determine a user's access to system-level resources and specific features. By default, environment-level rights are defined as student, faculty, editor, and administrator, but other levels can be added as desired. Default rights appropriate to your institution can also be set.
Course-Level Rights
These rights levels apply to courses and groups such as committees and clubs. Course-level rights determine what a user can access in a specific course or group. A faculty member may have faculty rights at the environment level and in some courses, but only student-level rights in other courses. Roles defined for course-level rights are: unauthenticated guests, authenticated guests, enrolled students, enrolled faculty, course assistants, course editors, and course administrators.
Course Teams Rights
Further access may be restricted with course teams. At this rights level, users enrolled in a course or group can be subdivided into teams to work on special projects. This rights level is also effective in handling large enrollment classes.
LAN or WAN Integration
ANGEL's API exposes user context information: username, environment rights, course rights, and the unique ID of the active course. This allows integration with LAN or WAN security elements.
Standards Compliance
Making the conceptual a practical reality is a driving force behind ANGEL Learning’s development initiatives. ANGEL Learning has demonstrated our commitment to interoperability standards as they have emerged and is recognised for many course management system firsts. Customer-driven technology innovation will continue to be a driving force at ANGEL Learning.
ADL SCORM Certification
The Advanced Distributed Learning Initiative is a collaborative effort among government, industry, and academia to establish a new distributed learning environment that enables interoperability of learning tools and course content on a global scale. The Sharable Content Object Reference Model (SCORM) is an outcome of the ADL initiative. The SCORM defines the interrelationships of course components, data model, and protocols so learning content objects are sharable across systems that conform to the model.
Resources
Defines the ANGEL database, web application, and ANGEL components and presents high availability system configuration for ANGEL diagram.
High Availability Architecture Overview
Explains the variety of methods ANGEL supports for integrating with Student Information Systems and other existing systems and applications and the ANGEL tools that provide integration options.
EduTools provides independent reviews and side-by-side comparisons to assist decision making in the educational community. Compare course/learning management products on the EduTools website.
Copyright © 2006 ANGEL Learning