Why Blackboard to ANGEL?

In my first blog post, I mentioned a transition away from Blackboard (Bb) to ANGEL during the 2008-2009 year. Most of this message will be a timeline that provides some details of where we have been, and also looks ahead to where we going. But before giving that timeline, I’d like to say a few words about Change. Even if we did choose to stay with Bb, there was going to be Change. Our current 6.3 version will no longer be supported in the near future, which would mean moving to versions 7.3 or 8 in the near term, and versions 9 and 10 coming along soon after that. With Change being inevitable, ITS and IT worked with the Faculty Senate Educational Technology committee to investigate the best Change to make. Faculty assemblies held at Springfield and Bolivar in December 2007 provided demonstrations of ANGEL, and the feedback was overwhelmingly positive in favor of a change. With all the information we’ve considered, a move to ANGEL is Change to a better product at half the cost. Now, for the timeline:

May 2008
SBU ITS reps will attend the ANGEL User Conference.
Summer 2008
Initial install and setup of ANGEL with 1000 users will be made. Testing of integration with other SBU systems will be conducted.
Fall 2008
CCTC students begin using ANGEL, faculty training conducted.
Spring 2009
Pilot programs for areas of SBU to use ANGEL for classes will occur. Further training to be conducted as well.
June 1 2009
Blackboard will no longer be used or available.
Summer 2009
First semester that will be fully ANGEL (enabled with 5000 users) for all SBU courses.

Please feel free to make comments on this blog post or, send an e-mail to blackboard@sbuniv.edu