Technology Advisory Group

All-faculty email sent out by CTLE on 2013-11-26:

Dear Faculty,

The conversion of ANGEL courses to Desire2Learn (D2L) will take place in 2 stages next month.

On December 10, 2013 courses from the following semesters/terms will be converted:

• Fall 2011
• Special Fall 2011
• Intersession 2012
• Spring 2012
• Special Spring 2012
• Summer 2012
• Special Summer 2012

On December 19, 2013 courses from the following semesters/terms will be converted:

• Fall 2012
• Special Fall 2012
• Intersession 2013
• Spring 2013
• Special Spring 2013
• Summer 2013
• Special Summer 2013
• Fall 2013
• Special Fall 2013

Suggestions for Conversion
The conversion tool is robust and performs well; it transfers all course content from ANGEL to D2L. However, in order to ease the transition from ANGEL to D2L, we suggest that you perform the following steps in your ANGEL courses prior to the conversion dates:

• Nest all content in folders under the lessons tab,
• Save all of your original syllabus files in .doc and .pdf,
• Eliminate any unnecessary syllabus files from syllabus files area. D2L will migrate any file in the ANGEL syllabus files area with the word syllabus in it,
• Label all content explicitly,
• Save subtitles in content items in a text document OR move to the Description area for each content item. Content item subtitles will not migrate over to D2L,
• Move/copy all LOR content back to the course.

Student Data
Course content from ANGEL will copy over to D2L. However, ANGEL student data will not. We suggest that you backup all grade book, discussion, and dropbox submission data prior to May 31, 2014.

Back up student grades:

• Navigate to the ANGEL Manage tab of each course,
• Gradebook => Overall Report => Save as PDF or,
• Gradebook => Export Grades to save as a comma delimited file.

Back up discussion forums:

• Navigate to the ANGEL Communicate tab of each course,
• Click on a forum,
• Select Nested View in drop down menu next to New Post,
• Click [+] in front of Post Title to turn it into [-],
• Click the printer icon at top right,
• Select a pdf printer to save your discussion forum in pdf format.

Back up dropbox submissions:

• Navigate to the ANGEL Lessons tab of each course,
• Locate a droppbox,
• Mouse over the dropbox title and click Submissions,
• Click on Download Submissions,
• Select All Submissions from the drop down menu,
• Click Download to save a zip folder to your computer.

Desire2Learn Workshops
The CTLE will offer numerous workshops in January 2014 to prepare you for the switch to D2L. There will be 2 types of offerings: training hands-on sessions and open migration workshops. The hands-on sessions will cover basic functionality of D2L as well as the grade book, discussion forums, and assessments. The open migration workshops will provide one-on-one assistance in adjusting the converted content from ANGEL into D2L. The workshop schedule is available online.

As always, the CTLE and ITDA will be available to help make this transition as smooth as possible. Please do not hesitate to call upon us at any time.

Happy Thanksgiving!
Best regards,
Connie Wisdo, ITDA
Eugeniu Grigorescu, CTLE