Technology Tips & Tricks

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ANGEL Guide & What's New
Look for a tiny tab with four vertical dots right next to the Home icon to the left of your screen. This is the Guide function and provides another way to navigate course content. It will show the same list of course items that you would see under the Content tab, but will remain visible while you click through links. Many people prefer navigating a course this way instead.

After you click the Guide button, click the "What's New" button the bottom of that window. You will now see all the new "stuff" that has been posted, submitted, or e-mailed since your last login. This way you don't have to go into each and every discussion forum to see "what's new."

Keep this tool tucked in your toolbelt to use when you teach online to see what your students have e-mailed, posted, and submitted--will save you a lot of time! This Guide button toggles, so if you don't want to see it anymore, just click on it again to hide that window.

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ANGEL HTML editor
Another ANGEL tip is the HTML editor. You don't need to know HTML to use this! Anywhere you compose a discussion posting or e-mail, you can click on the HTML Editor link. This will bring up a window with all kinds of editing buttons. You can use the text features of bold, italic, etc., add links, images... Insert Math, Insert Formula, and Insert Greek, as well as Superscript and Subscript.

If you use Microsoft Word to compose a message to copy/paste into an e-mail or a discussion forum posting, open the HTML editor first, then paste your text from Word. The HTML editor allows ANGEL to maintain most of the formatting carried over from Word.

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ANGEL Response Rubric
Chances are if you will be teaching the same course year after year you will be repeating the same themes of feedback. To save yourself time, you may want to create a Response Rubric in Word that catalogs your responses to students into categories. That way, you do not have to start from scratch each time, just copy & paste and tailor the appropriate response to the individual.

You may want to copy the page of announcements in your course to a Word doc for the same reason. If you do, be sure to set the dates to hide the messages until you are ready to use them. This is also a good way to see what you've said to see if there are revisions/tweaks needed to the course.

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ANGEL WHODUNIT
The WhoDunIt agent allows you to keep your finger on the pulse of your course and provides an easy way to reach out to groups of students who have or have not completed various tasks in the course. Consider sending mail to those users. The WhoDunIt is found on the Reports tab.

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Educause 7 Things You Should Know About...
http://www.educause.edu/ELI/ELIResources/7ThingsYouShouldKnowAbout/7495

The EDUCAUSE Learning Initiative's (ELI's) 7 Things You Should Know About... series provides concise information on emerging learning technologies and related practices. Each brief focuses on a single technology or practice and describes:

• What it is
• How it works
• Where it is going
• Why it matters to teaching and learning

2009 technology reports include: Personal Learning Environments, Live Question Tool, Location Aware Applications, QR Codes, and Alternate Reality Games.

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