ANGEL Learning, Inc. was a privately held educational software company specializing in eLearning. Its main products are the ANGEL Learning Management Suite (LMS), ANGEL ePortfolio, and services offerings. In May 2009 it was acquired by Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc.

Blackboard Inc. is an enterprise software company with its corporate headquarters in Washington, D.C. and is primarily known as a developer of education software, in particular learning management systems. Blackboard was founded by CEO Michael Chasen and chairman Matthew Pittinsky in 1997 and...

.

Background

ANGEL Learning and the ANGEL LMS evolved from research at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). The initial research system deployed in 1996 became Indiana University's OnCourse. The ANGEL LMS was created using the early system concepts and was released by the newly formed CyberLearning Labs, Inc. in July 2000. The company has since changed its name to ANGEL Learning. On May 6, 2009, competitor Blackboard Inc announced that it is purchasing ANGEL Learning with the merger's completion planned for the end of May, 2009.

ANGEL Learning Management Suite

The ANGEL LMS is used by K-12 schools and districts, community colleges, universities and proprietary schools to create Virtual Learning Environments

Virtual learning environment

Defined largely by usage, the term virtual learning environment has most, if not all, of the following salient properties:* It is Web-based* It uses Web 2.0 tools for rich 2-way interaction* It includes a content management system...

 for online learning and to offer hybrid or blended (web-enhanced) classes. Corporations also use the system for online corporate training. The latest version, 7.4, was released in April 2009.It is for all students of the United States.

ANGEL ePortfolio

ANGEL ePortfolio is used by students to create an electronic portfolio of their digital work. Schools use ANGEL ePortfolio to collect and report on data for accreditation purposes

Educational accreditation

Educational accreditation is a type of quality assurance process under which services and operations of educational institutions or programs are evaluated by an external body to determine if applicable standards are met...

. The latest version, 2.1, was released in June 2008.

Services

ANGEL Learning also offers services such as training, implementation, integration, and application hosting.

Open Source Contributions

ANGEL Learning recently contributed source code to the development of the IMS/GLS Common Cartridge Digital Content and to educational wiki development through a source code contribution to TiddlyWiki

TiddlyWiki

TiddlyWiki is an open source single page application wiki. A single HTML file contains CSS, JavaScript, and the content. The content is divided into a series of sections, or Tiddlers. A user is encouraged to read a TiddlyWiki by following links rather than sequentially scrolling down the...

. See e-Literate's comments on ANGEL's TiddlyWiki contribution.

Second Life

ANGEL Learning created and maintains ANGEL Learning Isle in Second Life

Second Life

Second Life is an online virtual world developed by Linden Lab. It was launched on June 23, 2003. A number of free client programs, or Viewers, enable Second Life users, called Residents, to interact with each other through avatars...

. The island is open to educators for educational experimentation in the use of virtual collaboration technologies for online learning. Early findings from the project are documented in The Power of Virtual Worlds in Education: A Second Life Primer and Resource for Exploring the Potential of Virtual Worlds to Impact Teaching and Learning. The San Jose School of Library and Information Science is now working with ANGEL Learning on a project to integrate Second Life with the ANGEL LMS.

Partnerships

ANGEL Learning has a number of partners who either offer content in the ANGEL format or integrations to the ANGEL LMS. Some of these partners include BigGyan, Elluminate, Emantras, Pearson Education, SMARTHINKING, Tegrity, Turnitin, Wiley, and Wimba.

Awards

The ANGEL LMS has received several industry awards, and ANGEL Learning has also been recognized by various organizations. Recent awards include:

• 2009 CODiE Finalist - Best Classroom Management Solution for preK-12
• 2009 CODiE Finalist - Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management Solution
• 2008 CODiE Finalist - Best Postsecondary Course or Learning Management Solution
• 2007 IMS GLC First Place Learn-Sat Award
• 2007 CODiE Award - Best Postsecondary Course Content Management Solution
• 2006 CODiE Award - Best Postsecondary Course Content Management Solution
• Parature Legend Makers Award