While cramming for finals last semester, Thomas Rinker logged into ANGEL to review the entirety of his class materials.
Then the unthinkable happened: ANGEL crashed.
"I was counting on something that should work," Rinker (sophomore-crime, law and justice) said.
Last semester, ANGEL, the university's course management system, experienced an unexpected malfunction during finals week, leaving students unable to access online notes or take their e-finals.
Now, officials are taking steps to ensure that it will not happen again. The import and export wizard tools will be temporarily disabled from 5 a.m. on May 3 until 7 a.m. May 10, said Robin Anderson, director of customer communications for Information Technology Services (ITS). Anderson also said ANGEL's hardware has been upgraded by 50 percent.
The combination of students taking tests and reviewing notes, and faculty uploading course materials for the next semester caused ANGEL to experience degraded performance, she said.
Richard Alley, the instructor for GEOSC 010 (Geology of the National Parks) said he fielded dozens of inquiries from frustrated students last semester when the course's ANGEL-based online final malfunctioned.
"ANGEL kept crashing in the middle of the exam," Alley said. "ANGEL would go down in flames, and then ANGEL would flicker back to life."
In his first time administering an online final, about 1,000 students were affected in his GEOSC 010 classes alone, Alley said. However, despite last year's issues, he said he will still give his final through ANGEL, as he has had strong assurances by ITS officials that it will function normally.
Similarly, last semester, the Smeal College of Business was forced to switch to "plan B" paper exams after nearly 1,000 students were unable to take their e-final via ANGEL, said Ginger Breon, chief administrative officer and coordinator of online testing for the Smeal College of Business.
The college, which has been administering online finals for a decade, is confident ANGEL will function normally, Breon said.
