Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Students seeing calendar items from past course

Question:
Students are reporting to me that they are seeing assignments on their calendar for classes of previous semesters, that they no longer have access to. What is happening and how do I fix it?

Answer:
Even though students may not have access to a course anymore, it still exists within the Angel system. A possible cause for this could be that a faculty member accidentally put in the wrong dates, or changed the dates when they were going to copy the course for another semester. Either way, to fix the problem, the faculty member will need to go in and delete the events from the calendar for students to stop seeing them. This shouldn't be an issue as the course is over and the only person who has access to it as the faculty member themselves.

Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Limit on attachments sent through Angel

Question:
Is there a limit to the attachment file size sent through Angel's email?

Answer:
Yes there is. The limit is 2 megs, but this can be increased on a case by case basis depending on need.

Tuesday, October 16, 2012

Gradebook category showing decimals when the scores entered as whole numbers


Question:

One of my categories in angel gradebook is showing the wrong number of points. There are decimals in the point totals, but all of the scores I entered were whole numbers.

Answer:

A possible solution to this would be that the category is using weights/percents rather than points.  If at some point in time you had set the gradebook weighted/percents under gradebook settings, and set a category not to auto calculate this could be the culprit.  Note that usually when you change from percentages to points, the system will automatically change everything from percentages and points, but if it doesn't here is a way to correct it.

To check and see if this is the problem, go to Manage > Gradebook > Gradebook Preferences. Under gradebook settings change the gradebook mode to percentage instead of points then click save.  Now click on Categories and look in the Auto Calculate column. Does it say No? If you are using straight points, you need to change this to Yes.  Click on the settings for the row that says No, then check the box next to Auto-calculate, then click Save. Click the done button to bring you back to the Gradebook menu. Now go under Gradebook Preferences and change the Gradebook Mode back to points.

Student can't see courses


Question:

One of my students reports that they are unable to view any of the sections they have registered for, for their online classes.  What do I need to do to give them access?

Answer:

First thing you can do is make sure they are actually registered for your class. To do this you can go to www.kirkwood.edu/facultyelearning log in, and check the roster for your class. While you are here, you can check if they have taken the Online Student Orientation quiz, which is usually the culprit . If next to their name it says NO in the quiz column, then the student would need to watch the video and take the quiz before they can see their sections for the online classes.

Monday, October 15, 2012

Creating a grade report and put it on the homepage.

Question:

 How do I create a grade report and have it show up on the home page of my course?

Answer:

This is a pretty easy task to do, and one that makes student's lives a little easier in your course. The first thing you need to do is create the grade report. Navigate to the Manage Tab > Gradebook > Grade Report. Now if you have a report in here, great. If not, enter in the title of your grade report such as "Overall Grade Report."  After you have entered the title, make sure category is set to all and click on the add item button on the right hand side.

Now to place the grade report on the front page of your homepage, navigate to the home page of the course. A quick way to do this is by clicking on the word course in the page's breadcrumbs at the top of the page. Once you are at the course's homepage, under the course name, click on the Edit Page link.  Click on the Add Components button.  Now scroll through the list that shows up and check the box next to Gradebook Reports and click on the button Add Selected. Click Save on the upper right and the Reports nugget should be showing up on the front page of your course.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Students submitting assignments after the due date has passed


Question:

How can I stop students from submitting assignments after the due date has past?

Answer:

There are two options for this. One is once the due date has passed, you can hide the assessment from the students. To hide the assessment you go to the settings for the assessment  click on the access tab, turn on advanced options and change the End Date view restrictions. Make sure to check the check boxes next to the start/end dates to enable them.

The second option is to change the start/stop accepting submission dates. Setting the start/stop accepting submission dates will allow the students to see the assignment once the submission date has passed, but be unable to submit. This can be found by going to the settings for the assessment, clicking on the interactions tab, and setting dates in the start/stop accepting submissions, making sure to check the check boxes next to the dates to enable them.

Either way you can always see the time stamp of when a student submitted an assignment to determine if they met the deadline or not.

Importing grades from an excel document into Angel

Question:

How can I import my grades from an Excel document into Angel?

Answer:


On the Manage > Gradebook there is option to import / export grades from Angel.  The first step is to create your assignments in Angel.  You can find out more on how to do that in this post. You want to create all the assignments in angel first, so it is easy for the system to recognize the assignments when you re-import the file with the grades all entered. The second step is to export the Gradebook as a comma separated file. To do this go to Manage > Gradebook  and select comma separated file. Choose if you want to enter the grades as percents or points, and click export. (note clicking save will just save your settings, but not export the file to your computer).  It will save the file as a .csv file (comma separated value) that you can open in Excel

When you open it up in excel you will see that the file has all the assignments/students in the Gradebook  You can move columns around in the excel document.  When you are finished, save it using the same format (comma separated file) and import it into Angel.  To import it into angel you go to your Manage tab > Gradebook > Import grades. Browse for your file, for the  Delimiter choose comma, and click the option for headings. Now click next. The when it loads so you can double check to make sure all the titles match up.

One thing that you can do when using excel to record your grades is move the columns around in excel, just making sure to keep the column headings associated with the grades. When you import the grades back into Angel, it does not matter where the columns are at.

Change category points to weighted

Question:

In Gradebook I am unable to set weights of the categories. What do i need to change to do this?

Answer:

If you are unable to set the weight of each category, the problem is probably that you are using points for each of the categories instead of percents. To fix it go to Gradebook preferences, under Gradebook Mode, change the setting to Percentage instead of points.

Manually grading an assignment

Question:

 I am in the grade entry grid and I cant type in the points for each student. There is something about a calculated grade.

Answer:


The problem is Gradebook is trying to auto-grade an assignment for you.  To enter in the points yourself you will have to change the settings on the assignment to manual.  To do that go to Manage > Gradebook > Assignments. Find the assignment you want to edit and click the settings link on the right hand side.  On the right side of the page next to Calculation Method: change the drop down to "Manual."  Click save and you should be able to manually enter grades now.

Changing the total number of points for an assignment


Question:

I have an assignment and i want to change the total number of points that are available for this assignment. How do i do that?

Answer:

Click on the Manage tab > Gradebook > Assignments.  Find the assignment you want to change the point value for. On the right hand side for the same row the assignment is for, click on settings. Now on the individual assignment page, you can change the point value for the assignment and click save.

Students not seeing quiz even though set to accept submissions

Question:

Student's are not seeing the quiz even though I have it set to accept submissions. What happened?

Answer:

The problem is that there are two controls on how a student views or takes an assessment  The first is under the access tab (with the advanced radio button selected).  The "View Restrictions" determines when a student can view the assessment.  The second is under the interaction tab in Delivery Settings. "Delivery Settings" determines when Angel will start and stop accepting submissions.  So a possible issue is when you give students Access to the assessment, but do not allow them to start accepting submissions under the Interaction tab, which would allow the students to view that there is a quiz there, but not allow them to take it. In reverse if you do not allow students to view the assessment under the access tab, while giving them the ability to take the exam under the interactions tab, the student would not be able to complete the assessment due to the inability to access the content. In this case while the delivery settings were set to accept the quiz, the view restrictions had been in place to prevent the students from seeing it.

Allowing students to see their grades using Angel

Question:

I want students to be able to see their grades using Angel, but I've never used it before. What do i do?

Answer:

The first step is to request an angel course shell. You can do this by logging into www.kirkwood.edu/facultyelearning  After you have done this, (it will take a few hours for your course to be created) you will need to log into Angel, find your course, and navigate to the manage tab.  Click on Gradebook and then Assignments. Create your assignments, giving each one at a minimum a Name and point total. Click add and then save to create the assignment. Now go back to Gradebook  select grade entry grid and you can start inputting your student's grades. The grades will be live once you save.

Here is a video tutorial explaining how to create an assignment:
http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=22472

Video tutorial on requesting a course shell
http://www.kirkwood.edu/site/index.php?p=25967

Deleting multiple entries from the calendar

Question:

I accidentally copied my calendar from one class to another. Is there an easy way to delete multiple entries?

Answer

Yes, on the calendar page, change the view from Grid to List.  You will be able to go through and check the boxes of the entries you wish to delete, then press Delete Selected to delete multiple entries at once.

Friday, October 5, 2012

Angel Q&A - Calendar Links

Q: How can I link calendar entries to the lesson's content items?