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IUPUI FACULTY MEMBERS OFFER NEW SOFTWARE PROGRAM FREE TO EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS

INDIANAPOLIS - A new type of e-Learning software is available for the first time for free to educational institutions in the U.S. thanks to an Angel.

In this case the Angel is A New Global Environment for Learning, a software program developed by Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) faculty members Ali Jafari and David Mills. Angel is the first enterprise course management and portal software program to be offered to K-12 and higher educational institutions for free. It is a web-based teaching and learning enterprise environment that allows educational institutions to offer online courses that complement traditional classroom-based courses and to customize their campus web sites to individual users.

"It allows teachers to finally break down the walls of time and space that have often separated them from the community they serve," said Jana Tobbe Hickey, distance learning specialist for Jefferson County Schools in Louisville, Ky., a testing site for the software.

"Angel is a special product because it enables students to advance their own learning pathways in individual ways while it gives faculty a set of tools to ensure that all students achieve the same objectives even by different means," said IUPUI Dean of Faculties William Plater. "This is the product we've all been seeking in making a change to a learning-centered model of education."

Angel offers both a web portal and a course management system. The web portal feature customizes the school's Web site for each user when they log in with a user name and password. Students see information and links to resources pertaining to students and faculty see information and links to resources pertaining to faculty. Visitors with no password see a generic page.

"Until now, creating a portal for K-12 or higher education institutions meant spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on in-house development or product licenses and outside consulting," said Mills. "Angel changes all that. Angel provides a set of core components free to non-profit U.S. educational institutions that makes it possible for each institution to quickly and affordably develop a portal for teaching and learning that meets its own specific needs."

The course management part of the software allows schools to create a web environment for every course, as well as for campus groups or organizations. Professors can post grades, offer exams, hold discussions, and publish assignments and reading material. Each of these sites also contains a calendar, message boards, chat groups, statistics about student participation and more. Users can also post and respond to classified ads on the site.

"Most schools are currently using course management software just for their 'distance learning' courses," said Jafari. "With Angel, every course can have a web complement. This introduces a new paradigm in teaching and learning where students and teachers are connected not just in the classroom, but 24 hours a day via the Web."

The software can also be customized to meet the needs of each school and can include features that allow parents to check grades and see if their child arrived at school. For example, Jefferson County Public Schools created professional development communities for teachers where they discuss specific aspects of learning and participate in online training. Teachers now put their curriculums online and interact with parents and other community members.

The IU Advanced Research and Technology Institute (ARTI) formed a new company called CyberLearning Labs, Inc. around this exciting technology. Jafari and Mills are founders and officers of the company which will market and sell the software. ARTI is a private, not-for-profit corporation acting on behalf of Indiana University to transfer technology and know how from IU researchers to the world of business. ARTI provided financial support, business consultation and other resources to CyberLearning Labs, Inc.

CyberLearning Labs, Inc. will also offer consulting, engineering, and technical services as well as an online training course for the development and implementation of Angel. They will also market Angel to business, industry and government institutions.

The two hope to further develop Angel by forming an e-Learning consortium which will encourage input from educators to create a product truly designed for educators by educators. Researchers and practitioners interested in the research, development and use of information technology as it relates to teaching and learning can join the international e-Learning Consortium free of charge.

Jafari and Mills developed the software at the CyberLab in the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology and Office of Professional Development at IUPUI. The CyberLab is a research and development arm of the school that focuses on using information technology to better teaching and learning. The two previously developed Oncourse, the first course enterprise management software ever implemented and the software currently used by all eight IU campuses. Yahoo recently ranked IU fourth in its list of the 100 Most Wired Colleges because of Oncourse.

Jafari has worked in the field of information technology and multimedia since 1985. He has experience as a software designer, technology architect, professor and researcher. Since 1989 Jafari has worked as the director of research and development and as an associate professor of computer technology in the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI. Jafari initiated and led several major multimedia and distance learning research and development projects. He also serves as a consultant on information technology and multimedia system design to universities and educational institutions around the world.

Mills has been designing and programming software since 1984. He has worked extensively in the development of Web-based applications with an emphasis on applications for teaching and learning. Mills developed Web-based testing software iQuiz while president of Meehan Mills Software. He is currently the associate director of the CyberLab where he has served as lead system engineer on a number of projects including Oncourse, Angel and the Web-based live presentation software ClassCast. Mills holds a bachelor's degree in computer technology from the Purdue School of Engineering and Technology at IUPUI.

For a demonstration or to download the software please log on to www.cyberlearninglabs.com. For more information, please call (317) 684-6878.

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