ANGEL Learning: Enhancing Quality Instruction at Medical School

Click here to receive your FREE subscription to Campus Technology

Home > ANGEL Learning: Enhancing Quality Instruction at Medical School

Current News

ANGEL Learning: Enhancing Quality Instruction at Medical School

1/12/2006

By Darrin Cheney
University of Kansas Medical Center

The University of Kansas Medical Center (UKMC) is an integral and unique component of the University of Kansas governed by the Kansas Board of Regents. Located in Kansas City, KS, KUMC includes the School of Nursing, the School of Allied Health, and the School of Medicine. In addition, the School of Medicine operates a branch campus in Wichita.

KUMC currently uses Blackboard as its primary Learning Management System. In the Spring of 2005, an advisory committee was convened to identify additional learning management system capabilities needed to support current and forthcoming online learning initiatives. The School of Medicine requested a comprehensive online system to facilitate the redesign and delivery of an integrated basic science curriculum. The School of Nursing sought a system to support the design and delivery of a new online Doctorate of Nursing Program. All faculty required a simple, but comprehensive system through which to deliver their unique program offerings, and various existing undergraduate and graduate level online and on-ground courses.

The selection criteria identified were diverse. Faculty expected the new system to have the capability to create, store and search shared content in repositories or "content libraries," and to link to this content from within course modules. Faculty also envisioned an ePortfoilio system that would encourage students to post artifacts based on learning objectives and reflect on their learning experiences. In addition, faculty asked for a shared white board where students could collaborate and create concept maps in both live lectures and in small group activities. Module and curriculum coordinators requested a collaborative community system to share information with an entire medical school class, thereby eliminating paper placed in student mailboxes. All three schools requested a secure, but simple tool to provide online testing. Finally, Teaching and Learning Technologies (TLT) required a system that could provide a simple but effective way to migrate existing Blackboard content to the new LMS.

After a careful review of various options, the committee selected ANGEL Learning's ANGEL Learning Management Suite, determining that it could meet all identified requirements and provide additional tools and capabilities for less cost than competing systems. Independent of cost, faculty felt that ANGEL's design focused on student learning and would meet the diverse needs of students at the Medical Center.

KUMC will switch online learning systems in time for the Summer 2006 term. During the Spring 2006 term, TLT will convert over 350 Blackboard courses, train faculty and assist them in designing new courses. At the same time, KUMC will "pilot" 10 courses using ANGEL and support two research collaborations and several design/collaboration projects. KUMC will use ANGEL to support a variety of learning experiences, several of which are described below.