Angel compared to other LMS products

[Jeffrey Riman]

Many of us use more than one LMS platform on a regular basis. Since we know Angel will be replaced in the next few years I thought this forum might serve as a place where we can compare Angel features with other products. I found this blog post interesting an interesting place to start.Angel vs....  I use both Blackboard 9.1 and Angel 7.4 and find the differences in the user interface to be vast. Ultimately they both provide (for the most part) many of the same features but in my opinion everything takes longer to accomplish on Bb. Here are few items on my list.

• Bb pages load very slowly no matter how wide the bandwidth is. In Angel youexperience a similar delay (only) with discussion forums. Angel overall is far more spunky.
  
• The Bb gradebook has some interesting features which allow for far more concise control of individual assignment weights and objects but it has more moving parts than a swiss watch making trouble-shooting difficult. Overall I'd still give Bb an edge here.
  
• Bb 9.1 does not allow you to copy assignments from one course to another without going through a mult-step export import process. This is a serious flaw
• Bb 9.1 has Course Files which in some ways offers an LOR like solution.  Simply put the LOR is at this point, far easier to setup and use.
• Over a year ago Blackboard purchased Xythos. They provide a storage, share and tracking solution that is not part of the basic Bb package.  This product links to Bb through a menu option known as file bridge which establishes a link between the two platforms which mimics an LOR for linking only. If Xythos is hosted on your campus this solution offers a viable option to store course files and media without loading them directly into the LMS. 
  

More to come...

[Margi Winters]

• Bb does allow you to copy assignments from one course to another very easily. Using the course copy feature you can select  just the assignments, just the tests, just the discussions -roughly 3 clicks and copy them into the new course
• The LOR in Bb isn't easy to navigate.
• I find ANGEL nearly impossible to navigate, especially the discussion tool, Bb is much more obvious
• Bb has a built in Early Warning System
• Bb has an institutional survey system that can be used for the semester course surveys
• Bb doesn't load slowly IF it is configured correctly. When we first moved, ITEC didn't have us configured correctly and it was slow.  Now it is as fast as Angel or faster.