Student Guide
Table of Contents
- Objectives
- Log On/Log Off
- Personal Home
- Course Overview
- Calendar Tab
- Lessons Tab
- Resources Tab
- Communicate Tab
- Report Tab
- Common Tasks
Objectives
- Learn how to use the ANGEL course management system for your courses.
- Learn how to use the ANGEL course management system to manage your files, calendar, and assignments.
Log On/Log Off
To use ANGEL you will need to log on and off from the ANGEL system. To log on to ANGEL follow these steps:
- Open a browser (Internet Explorer recommended), and go to http://angel.msu.edu
- Enter your MSU NetID and pasword in the log on window.
- Click the Log On button.
You will be presented with the opening page for the ANGEL system which is called My Page. My Page, discussed in detail below, will allow you to enter your ANGEL courses, keep a calendar, and store files, among other tasks.
Note: ANGEL will automatically log you off if you are inactive for more than 90 minutes.
Personal Home
When you log into ANGEL, you are presented with your personal page - Home. Home provides you with access to all courses and groups for which you are enrolled and to a variety of tools to assist you with your coursework. The selection and display of these tools can be customized using the Edit Page hyperlink in the Home menu bar.
Navigation
System navigation is represented by icons along the left frame. These icons are available on your personal Home page and while in a course or group.
Icon |
Name - Description |
|
|
Home – returns you to your Home page |
|
|
Log Off – logs you out of the ANGEL environment |
|
|
Help – displays ANGEL online help, guides and resources |
|
|
Preferences – opens access to your user settings such as your personal information, change password, theme selector, system settings and PDA agent. |
|
|
ANGEL IM – opens the online ANGEL instant messenger |
Courses and Community Groups
The Courses and Community Groups sections of your home page gives you access to all the courses and groups for which you are enrolled. Click the Edit button in the Courses or Community Groups title bars to hide specific courses or groups or to customize the additional information displayed for each.
Course Mail
Course Mail displays the number of new mail messages. The number of messages is displayed and access to your course mail is as easy as clicking on the hyperlink Read and compose course mail messages,
Toolbox
The Toolbox offers several useful tools designed to increase your productivity and further customize your ANGEL environment. The Bookmarks tool allows you to add your favorite webpage links to your personal page for easy access and to sort them by categories. You may optionally set permissions on individual bookmarks to provide access to other users.
Create folders and files and upload images and documents to the Files tool for storage purposes or to publish content on the World Wide Web. The built-in HTML Editor allows you to create new web pages or edit existing ones with an easy to use word processing-style interface.
Calendar allows you to keep track of important personal events. To add a personal item:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Calendar Tab.
- Click the Add hyperlink (located on the left side of the toolbar). The Event Settings form appears.
- Type the title of the calendar event into the Title field.
- Select the event category from the Category drop-down list.
- Select the Date, Time and Duration from the appropriate drop-down lists.
- Click the Save button. The Calendar screen appears, with your calendar entry listed.
Public Resources takes you to the Public Home page to access the Public Information resources and the Search and Help resources. To access the mail messages, click on the hyperlinked name of the course or group. This takes you directly to the Communicate tab within the course or group to read your course/group mail.
Preferences
The Preferences icon (
) allows you to personalize your profile and course, change your password (if applicable), set system settings, and more. The Personal Information allows you to specify who can view each piece of personal information you enter.
Access the Change Password utility to change your ANGEL password. As a precaution, the Change Password utility requires the user to provide their current password and confirm their new password before applying the change.
The Theme Selector allows you to select different ANGEL themes or even create your own to change how the environment looks when you login.
The System Settings allows you to specify local media drives to allow instructors to map online course material to CD-ROMs or other media for enhanced instruction. Customize your mail settings to configure ANGEL to send a copy of all course mail to your favorite email account.
The 508 icon (located at the bottom of the navigation power strip) allows you to create a profile which determines your particular needs for accessing course material. If necessary, you can access an ACCLIP for use with ANGEL.
The PDA icon (located at the bottom of the navigation power strip) allows you to activate ANGEL in a PDA mode. Page layout and navigation will be customized to suit your selection.
Course Overview
The course or group space within ANGEL is the heart of the ANGEL environment. It provides the instructor and student with an array of collaborative tools that enhance the instructional experience.
Course Screen
The first screen that appears upon entering any course is the Course page. Your instructor uses this page to post course announcements, news, and question polls. The Activity-at-a-Glance shows your progress in the course – course logons, mail messages, discussion posts and submissions. Your course grade along with the class average is also displayed.
Course Navigation
Click the Guide icon ( 
) located at the top of the icon navigation to display the Course guide which includes the Map, What’s New, Tasks, and Search. The Map provides a course-at-a-glance view one-click access to all course content.
Click the What’s New hyperlink located at the bottom of the guide to display a list of new mail messages, calendar items, content items, etc. for the course. The Tasks hyperlink displays Milestones, Personal Tasks, and Unread Mail as task items to be completed. Search hyperlink provides the ability to search calendar, content, mail or roster entries.
Course tabs allow you to navigate to a specific area of the course. The tabs consist of Course, Calendar, Lessons, Resources, Communicate, and Report.
As you navigate through the course tabs, the Breadcrumbs update to provide hierarchical context for the current content item or tool.
Calendar Tab
The Calendar tab allows you to view course specific schedule items for the day, week, month, or year. To change your calendar view, click the Day, Week, Month, or Year hyperlink in the toolbar located near the top of the page.
Your instructor can post personal calendar events that are viewable only by you and the instructor(s). To view only personal items, click the Personal Entries hyperlink in the All Entries box at the bottom of the calendar. Use the Next and Previous toolbar hyperlinks to navigate to the next view (Day, Month, or Year) or click Today to bring up the current day’s events.
Lessons Tab
The bulk of your instructional material is located under the Lessons tab. Your instructor can use the Lessons tab to create lecture notes, links, quizzes, discussion forums, drop-box assignments, and more. Click the My Notes hyperlink (located in the toolbar) to create or view personal notes for specific content items. The Previous and Next hyperlinks (located in the toolbar) allow you to navigate through the lesson content.
Resources Tab
The Resources tab provides resources that are important to your course. The Course Syllabus is available on the Resources tab Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia that anyone can edit. The Wikipedia also provides access to the Wiktionary which is a free wiki dictionary including thesaurus and lexicon in every language. The Wikibooks section provides access to a collection of free textbooks, manuals and other texts that are written collaboratively on the website. Google search tool is available to search the web.
Course Resources are resource links provided by your instructor that assist you in your course studies. Institutional Resources are resources provided by your institution. These may include links to your institution help desk, academics and libraries, events, etc.
Communicate Tab
The Communicate tab provides access to the course’s communication tools. The Send Course Mail and Read Course Mail tools allow you to communicate with your instructor and classmates. The Sent Mail folder provides an archive of all course mail messages you have sent in the course.
The Roster section displays the class roster and provides access to the profiles for each member. Information available under the user profile is limited to what the user has elected to share.
The Team Files utility provides a space for you and others in your team to upload and share project files and other documents. The Team Projects section provides a page describing the requirements for the team project and is made available by your instructor.
Live Chat allows communication online in the modes of today’s learners – in real time. Participate in peer-to-peer chat reinforcing concepts and building community. Instant messaging is available through the Instant Messenger icon (
) on your left power strip.
Live Office Hours provides a virtual office allowing you online communication with your instructor. The link to access the office hours appears during the scheduled office time.
The News and Events section allows you to check out the Announcements, News, and Polls hyperlinks catching the latest announcements and news or to take or review course polls.
Post your thoughts to a threaded discussion list under the Discussion Forums section of Communicate. Class discussion forums can also be accessed online with your lesson content under the Lessons tab.
Course Mail
How to Send Course Mail
The Course Mail tool allows students and instructors to correspond with each other without requiring the use of an internet email account. The Course Mail tool provides access to the HTML Editor and Spell Checker utilities, supports adding attachments, forwarding to internet email addresses and allows the sender and recipients to monitor who has and has not read a message.
To send a course mail message:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Communicate tab.
- Click the Read and compose course mail messages hyperlink. The Course Mail interface appears.
- Select the Compose hyperlink located above the System Folders to send course mail.
- Select the Add Recipients hyperlink to add recipients to the mail message. When all recipients have been added click the OK button to close the Select Recipients window.
Press and hold the Control key on your keyboard (or the Apple key on a Macintosh) to select multiple recipients.
Optionally, you can send a copy of your message by using the Cc -> button to add selected name(s) to copy. Bcc -> sends a blind copy of your message to the selected name(s).
- Type a subject for the message in the Subject field.
- Select a priority from the Priority drop-down list. By default, Normal is selected.
- Type the message in the message field or use the inline HTML editor to format your message.
Click the Attach files hyperlink if you want to add an attachment to your message. Select the Do not disclose recipients checkbox if you want to blind carbon copy (bcc) or hide the identities of the recipients. Select the Send a copy of this message to recipient’s Internet email account checkbox to send a duplicate message outside the ANGEL environment to the recipients' email address. You may save a draft of your mail message by clicking on the Save Draft button.
- Click the Send button. A message appears stating that the message was successfully sent.
- Click the OK button.
How to Read Course Mail
To view a course mail message:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Communicate tab.
- Click the Read and compose course mail messages hyperlink. Your Course Mail Inbox appears on the screen.
 New/Unread messages appear in bold. Once the message has been opened, it appears non-bold. |
|
Messages with attachments display a paperclip icon located to the left of the message subject. |
|
The message importance is displayed in the column marked by the red exclamation point. |
|
To delete a message, select the checkbox located next to the message and click the Delete hyperlink. Deleted messages are moved to the Trash folder. To completely delete a message, you must delete the message from the Trash folder view. |
|
To select all of the messages listed, select the checkbox on the Menu icon ( |
|
To move a message to another folder, select the checkbox located next to the message, select Send to Folder from the More Actions… drop-down list and select the desired folder from the Send to Folder pop-up list. |
|
To view a different folder, select a folder from the System Folders or My Folders list located on the left side of the Course Mail. |
|
Click the Preferences hyperlink to configure course mail preferences for viewing, signatures, editing and privacy. |
). You can then move the selected messages to another folder, delete selected messages, etc.
Report Tab
The Report tab includes common course tools to help you track your course progress, grades, and more.
Click Learner Profile to see an analysis of your activity, submissions, and grades and compare them with the class average. Your learner profile also includes a place to store personal notes about the course.
Grades allows you to check your grades for all assignments (both online assignments and off-line) and provides a cumulative grade at any point of the semester.
Milestones allow you to track your progress on key course objectives and assignments.
Common Tasks
How to Forward Course Mail
By default, users must log into ANGEL to send or read course mail messages. Users can optionally configure ANGEL’s course mail forwarding settings to automatically forward course mail to an Internet email address.
 Course mail forwarding is a global setting. Therefore enabling course mail forwarding forwards all course mail messages received in any course or group for which you are enrolled. |
To forward your ANGEL course mail to an Internet email account:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Preferences icon (
) located in the left navigation. The Preferences page appears. - Click System Settings in the General User Settings area. The System Settings Manager appears.
- In the Forwarding Address field (located in the Mail Settings section), type the email address where you want your course mail to be forwarded.
- Select a forwarding mode from the Forwarding Mode drop-down list.
- Click the Save button.
How to Take an Assessment
Your instructor can create online quizzes, tests, or surveys which may include images or other multimedia elements and various question types such as multiple choice, essay, fill-in-the-blank, etc. The following steps apply to taking a quiz, test, or survey.
To take a assessment:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Lessons tab.
- Navigate to the assessment you want to take and click the icon or title of the assessment.
- Click the Take Assessment hyperlink. The assessment appears on the screen.
If your instructor has imposed a time limit on the assessment, a pop-up message displays to inform you of the amount of time you have to complete the assessment.- Select a choice or provide a response for each question.
ANGEL attempts to automatically grade fill-in-the-blank question types based on an instructor-provided answer key. It is important to answer fill-in-the-blank question types as concisely as possible.
- When you have finished all of the questions, scroll to the bottom of the page and click the Submit button. A pop-up message asks you to confirm you have answered all of the questions.
If the instructor had imposed a time limit on your assessment, you may receive a pop-up warning message when your time limit is near. If you do not submit the assessment before your time expires, a message appears asking you to submit the assessment. If the instructor has requested the assessment to auto-submit when time expires, the assessment automatically submits upon clicking the OK button.
- Once you have verified all of the questions have been answered, click the OK button to submit the assessment. A results/confirmation page appears on the screen.
Your instructor determines the amount of information that appears on the confirmation screen. This may include any combination of questions, responses, answers, score, instructor comments, and more.
How to Post to a Discussion Forum
Threaded discussion forums allow you to post, reply, and search messages from the instructor and other students.
To post a message to a discussion forum:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Lessons (or Communicate) tab.
- Navigate to the discussion forum you want to post to and click the icon or title of the board. The discussion forum appears on the screen.
- If the discussion forum has existing postings, you can click the title of each posting to review the posted message.
- Click the New Post hyperlink (in the toolbar located in the top frame) to post a new message or click the Reply hyperlink (in the toolbar located in the bottom frame) to reply to a particular posting.
- Type a subject for your message in the Subject field.
- Type your message in the Message field and click the Post button.
Optionally click the Check Spelling hyperlink to check the spelling of your message before submitting. The HTML Editor allows you to format your message with an easy-to-use editor. Click the Attachments button to upload an attachment with your message. For more information on the HTML Editor, see the How to Use the HTML Editor section of this document.
How to Post to Live Chat
Live Chat supports real-time communication between students and instructor. If enabled, users can view a log of previous chat conversations by clicking the View Logs hyperlink located below the hyperlinked chat room title.
To post to a chat room:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Communicate tab.
- Navigate to the Live chat you want to participate in and click the hyperlinked title of the Live chat. The Live chat interface appears on the screen.
- Type a message in the empty text box (located at the bottom of the screen) and click Send.
To send a private message, click on their name in the Online Users frame, type your message, and click Send.
- Click the Options hyperlink to adjust the font color and message scroll options. When complete, click the Save Options hyperlink.
How to Submit a Drop Box Assignment
Uploading electronic files to a drop box is a convenient way to submit assignments to your instructor. The Drop Box accepts virtually any type of electronic file including word processing documents, images, web pages, and more.
 When uploading electronic files from a Macintosh computer, it is important to add the proper file extension to the file name (e.g. .doc, .jpg, .htm, etc.) before uploading the file. |
To submit an assignment to a drop box:
- Log into your ANGEL course and click the Lessons tab.
- Navigate to your drop box and click the drop box title or icon.
- Click the Browse button, locate the file you want to upload, and click Open.
- Type a title for the file in the Title textbox.
- Click Upload File. A File Upload Successful page appears on the screen.
- Click the OK button.
How to Use the Inline HTML Editor
ANGEL’s editor is a full WYSIWYG (What you see is what you get) HTML editor specifically designed to work within the ANGEL LMS. The editor is present any place text can be formatted or edited.
Notable features include:
- Full WYSIWYG editing everywhere you’re able to edit content within ANGEL.
- Simple menu options allow you find and link to any other content item within your course or the World Wide Web.
- The Insert Image tool features an integrated file / web browser with the ability to select a graphic, seamlessly upload it to the course, and then insert the image into the document.
- Content template support allows for the creation of course content with a consistent look and feel.
- Integrated equation editor from industry-leader WebEQ
- Full table support makes it easier to present complex tabular data.
- Paste from MS Word feature allows you to paste into your HTML editor directly from MS Word.
- Edit window automatically resizes as you enter text – allowing the window to start small and expand dynamically as you add text.
Accessing Menus
The HTML editor is a toolbar which contains a menu of tools which will help you enhance your pages within ANGEL. The editor has three modes that are implemented to best support the user’s current task:
- Full Menu – The menu bar with all 32 menu features active.
- Partial Menu – the menu bar with 16 menu features active. Available in ANGEL’s Announcement Editor, Page Banner, Data management nugget, Page Folder, Institutional Resource nugget, Did you know nugget, About this section nugget, Course News and Events nugget and Syllabus nugget.
- Slim Menu – the menu bar with 13 menu features active. Available in ANGEL’s Calendar feature.
The HTML editor includes the following menus and tools:
A |
B |
C |
D |
E |
F |
G |
H |
I |
J |
K |
L |
M |
N |
|
Letter |
Menu/Tool |
Description |
Full |
Partial |
Slim |
|
|
Collapse/Expand toolbar arrow |
Allows you to hide the HTML editor toolbar |
|
|
|
|
|
Macro Icon |
Allows you to create and edit macros. |
|
|
|
|
|
Edit menu |
Allows you to cut, copy, paste, undo/redo, find, replace, select all and remove. |
|
|
|
|
|
Font Style menu |
Allows you to bold, underline, italicize, strikethrough, superscript and subscript text. |
|
Bold, italic and underline only |
Bold, italic and underline only |
|
|
Link menu |
Allows you to enter content and web links, remove links and create anchors. |
|
Content link, web link only |
Content link, web link only |
|
|
Media menu |
Allows you to insert and format images, movies and Flash presentations. |
|
Images |
|
|
|
Insert menu |
Allows you to use an HTML Widget, create and modify equations, insert special characters, use the universal keyboard, insert lines and page breaks. |
|
Equation editor and special characters only |
Equation editor only |
|
|
Table menu |
Allows you to manipulate rows, columns and cells. |
|
|
|
|
|
Form menu |
Allows you to create forms using elements such as buttons, text fields and form parameters. |
|
|
|
|
|
List menu |
Allows you to add bullets, numberings and indents. |
|
Numbered and bulleted only |
Numbered and bulleted only |
|
|
Justify menu |
Allows you to justify your text either left, right, center or block. |
|
|
|
|
|
Text & Background color |
Allows you to change your text and background colors. |
|
|
|
|
|
Formatting & Styles arrow |
Allows you to change your styles, fonts, font size and format your text. |
|
Font and Size only |
Font and Size only |
|
|
File Menu |
Allows you to view HTML source code, spell check, preview, save or change document properties. |
|
Spell check only |
Spell check only |
|
|
You will need to enable pop-ups to use some tools in the HTML editor. Failing to enable pop-ups may result in loss of information in the HTML editor. |
