Mount St. Mary’s College, Los Angeles - Angel FAQ

Angel FAQ - Communicate Tab

What are the various tools I can use to communicate with my students?

ANGEL provides a number of tools to promote communication between students and the instructor. These tools include:

Course Mail - Allows you to use mail messages within Angel to correspond with your students.
- Course mail allows you to send an email to the entire course with a simple click, without copying and pasting students names and email addresses.
- Mail messages are stored and organized by course, for quick reference and access.
- An email notification of new Angel mail received is automatically sent to student and faculty MSMC email account.
News and Events - Allows you to post course news articles, quick polls and announcements for your students.
- Announcements allow you to post a message to the entire course. The announcements appear on the Course Home as well, and are the first thing a students will see once logged to the course.
Roster - Displays the course roster, allowing students to interact with one another.
Live Chats and Office Hours - Synchronous features that enable the instructor to set a specific time for students to log on and interact.
Discussion Forums - Displays a list of all active discussion forums in the course, allowing student and/or faculty to subscribe to course mail updates when a new comment appears.
Audio and Video communication tools - Allows to create a voice discussion board, for recorded discussions, live office hours and chats.

How do I send course mail?

The Course Mail tool allows students and instructors to correspond with each other without requiring the use of internet email accounts. The Sent Mail Folder provides an archive of all course mail messages you send during the course.

Go to Communicate
Click on View Inbox
Click on the Compose Message button
Click on the To button
Make sure that the Source List is displaying the course that you want
Under Quick Search, click a letter of first or last name
Under User, choose whom you want to send a message
Click on the To -> (or Cc or Bcc) button
- Name should appear in the TO box
Click Ok
Compose your message
Click on Send

How do I read and reply to course mail?

To Read your messages
- Go to Communicate
- Click on View Inbox
- Your mail box will open
- Unread messages will be in bold to read them, just click on the message
To Reply to a message
- Click on the Reply button in the bar above the message
- Compose your reply
- (If you want to add recipients, click on the To button)
- When you have finished, click on Send

How do I send a course mail to a specific Team?

Click the Communicate tab.
Under the Course Mail section, click the Quick Message link.
Click on the To button.
Click on the Teams link

Select a team name(s) from the User list and click the To-> button.
Click on the OK butoon
Enter a Subject and Message.
Click the Send button.

How do I create course announcements?

Course announcements display important announcements to your students via the welcome page when they login. Changes to homework, test dates, etc. can be distributed via the system.

Click the Communicate tab.
Click the Announcements link.
Click the Add Announcement button.
Enter a message in the Announcement field.
Click the Save button.

How do I create an announcement poll for my course?

A unique feature in ANGEL allows you to post a class poll question that will appear on the Course Announcements page upon entering the course. This can be used to draw interest to the next topic of study, poll class consensus, or a variety of other uses.

Click the Communicate tab.
Click the Polls link.
Click the Add Question button.
Type your question in the Question field.
Type your various options into each of the List Items field.
Click the Save button.

To submit a poll:

Click the Course Home tab.
Select a poll answer under Course Poll.
Click Submit.

To view the poll results:

Click the Communicate tab.
Click the Polls link.
On the Quick Poll Editor page, perform one or more of the following steps:
- Click the Summary link to view a summary of poll submissions.
- Click the Details link to view details for each poll submission.
- Click the Export link to export the poll submission results as a tab-delimited file.

How do I create a news article for my course?

The News tool allows course editors to create course news articles. Roster members can view course news articles by visiting a read-only version of the News tool. News can be displayed for a specific time as well as to a specific audience, such as all users or a particular team.

Click the Communicate tab.
Click the News link.
Click the Add Article hyperlink.
Enter a title for the news article in the Headline field.
Enter the text for the news article in the Story field.
Optionally provide an Abstract for the news article and/or provide the name of the Author, Source of the article, and Copyright.
Select a Start Date and End Date for the article to be displayed.
Select a Sequence to determine the display order when multiple announcements are shown simultaneously.
Select Yes from the Top Story list to designate the news article as a top story.
- Top story news articles appear in the My News nugget (if enabled) of the student’s personal page (Home).
Click the Save button.

How do I create a chat room?

Chat provides real-time communication between multiple users within the course. Chat is like a party line or conference call using text instead of conversation. The text appears to all users after it is typed and sent.

Click the Communicate tab.
Click the Edit button on the Live Chat title bar.
On the Live Chats page:
- Click the Add a Live Chat link.
On the Live Chat Editor page:
- Enter a name of the event in the Name field.
- Enter a description in the Description field.
- Select whether tracking is on or off from the Tracking list.
- If applicable, select a team from the Team list.
- Select who can view the chat session from the Viewable By list.
- Select a Start Date and End Date for the announcement to be displayed.
Click the Save button.
The chat session displays under the Live Events section on the Communication tab.

How do I post in the discussion forum?

Click the discussion forum title link.
Click the New Post (located in the upper right toolbar) link.
Type the subject of your post in the Subject field.
Type your message in the Message field.
Click the Post button.

Your posting will appear in the list of postings.

Note: Unlike the default nature of an ANGEL drop box, in which submitted content is only viewable by the instructor, discussion forums are viewable to all members of a course. This allows students to optionally add attachments to their postings to share content with the entire class.

Can I add Audio/Video tools to my course?

Yes.

More information about audio and video tools appears in our Wimba Tools support page.
Click here to view the Wimba Tools support page.

To share multimedia files with your students, visit our Academic Multi-Media Manager support page.
Click here to read more about the Academic Multi-Media Manager

Can I add or remove tools to be used in this tab?

Yes. You may edit your tab page to display only the items you want to use in your course. To edit the page:

Click on the Edit Page hyperlink:

To remove a component of the page:
- Click on the X mark next to the items to wish to remove
To add a component to your page:
- Choose the component you wish to add from the Available Components list
- Click on the Add Component Button
- Drag and drop the new component box to the column and place you want it to appear
When you're done, click on the Save button
To undo the changes and return to the original layout, click on the Use Defaults button.

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Angel FAQ - Communicate Tab