ANGEL Technical Tips

Here are a some tips to help you have a successful ANGEL experience this semester. If you have questions regarding this information please contact Online Education Support by emailing online-ed-support@washburn.edu anytime or by calling 785-670-2381 during regular business hours.

1. Increase your MyWashburn Timeout Setting by logging in to your MyWashburn account and clicking on the My Account link in the upper left corner. Click on the "minutes" drop down under Change Timeout and select a new value. Select a time that is long enough for you to accomplish what you need to in your ANGEL course, yet short enough to expire your session in a reasonable amount of time if you forget to log out. In general, Online Education Support recommends 120 minutes if you regularly access your account on a public computer (labs, kiosks, libraries, etc.) and 480 minutes if you almost always access your account on a personal computer. Click the Save Changes button in the bottom right corner of the page when finished.
   
   NOTE: We also recommend composing lengthy mail messages or discussion forum posts in an offline editor such as MS Word or Notepad before copying and pasting the text into ANGEL. Doing so helps prevent loss of work if timed out or disconnected.
   
   
2. Your MyWashburn password should be made up of numbers and letters only. MyWashburn is linked to ANGEL and although MyWashburn allows for special characters, ANGEL does not. To change your password to one that includes only numbers and letters, access your MyWashburn account and click on the My Account link located in the upper left corner of the page. Enter in your current password, your new password, and then confirm your new password before clicking the 'Save Changes' button at the bottom right of the screen. For more information, see ANGEL Access Information.
   
   
3. It is safe to click 'Agree' if you are prompted with a message stating "The Blackboard software application on this website has placed cookies on your computer" when accessing your ANGEL account. In fact, it's the only way to proceed to your ANGEL courses since clicking 'Decline' returns you to the login page. Although ANGEL is our learning management system, Blackboard became our vendor when they purchased ANGEL a few years ago.
   
   
4. ANGEL supports two browsers: Internet Explorer and Firefox. It does not support Safari, Google Chrome or any other web browser. Although you may be able to view ANGEL course content when using an unsupported browser, interactive tools such as the discussion forum, mail, assessment, dropbox, etc. do not function properly. Internet Explorer usually comes installed on PCs and Mac users can download Firefox for free.
   
   
5. Mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets are not supported at this time. Although you may be able to view ANGEL course content when using a mobile device, interactive tools such as the discussion forum, mail, assessment, dropbox, etc. do not function properly.
   
   
6. You can save time and reduce access error messages by jumping from course to course while in ANGEL instead of closing the window and going back to MyWashburn. When you are in an ANGEL course and wish to visit another ANGEL course, click on the drop down arrow next to your name in the upper right corner to see a list of courses that are available to you. You can also click the Home link or Home button (house icon) in the upper left corner of the screen to go to your ANGEL Homepage where you will see a list of your ANGEL courses.

If you have questions regarding this information please contact Online Education Support by emailing online-ed-support@washburn.edu anytime or by calling 785-670-2381 during regular business hours.