ARTICLE 1

A Journey from WebCT to Angel.
Feng, W. (2007).

Summary of central themes

This paper looks at the transition from using the WebCT interface to the ANGEL interface. In Summer 2006, Ohio Dominican University began an evaluation of LMS interfaces. At that time, Ohio Dominican University had been using WebCT for close to 10 years. There were several motivations for a fresh look at LMS choices: upcoming annual license renewal; concerns about ease of use among faculty and instructional technologists; and a goal of extending Ohio Dominican University’s efforts in web-based learning. The school's Centre for Instructional Technology and elearning (CITe) evaluated 3 systems: WebCT, Blackboard, and ANGEL. The evaluation included user tests, vendor presentations and an online ballot. The University chose ANGEL as it's new LMS based on the following criteria: ANGEL was rated best by our campus in terms of ease of use. The interface offers an intuitive interface for adding and organising content. This was the most important factor in the CITe’s decision hoping that a simpler tool might increase and improve academic staff’s use of an LMS. Other significant factors were ANGEL offers a technical support portal and other schools had reported problems with technical support when using the other LMS.

Intended audience

This paper focuses on the introduction of a new LMS interface to a small American university and the professional development offered to academic staff. The group being studied is from the higher education sector therefore the specific target audience are educators from universities or other higher education institutions. However this does not limit the use of this article to university educators, it may be beneficial to educators from other sectors such as secondary or primary school teachers. The paper also identifies a suggested audience including instructional designers, learning and development administrators and staff and finally faculty training personnel.

Methodology and results

Academic staff continued to share positive comments about the online teaching and learning course and the ANGEL training sessions with the CITe staff and their peers. CITe also collected qualitative and quantitative feedback using a web based survey tool however results of these surveys were not published. After the face to face ANGEL training sessions, the instructional designers sent out the web based survey including feedback on ANGEL learning and the training experiences and the feedback again was positive.

How does this article relate to the topic?

The article raises the issue of the need for relevant professional development opportunities for teachers using new LMS interfaces. It presents a model specific to the ANGEL interface and tests the usefulness of this model amongst university educators. The article highlights the importance of gaining staff support to achieve successful implementation of new LMS interfaces.