Southwest Baptist University Gets “Fresh Start” with Adoption of ANGEL Learning Management Suite to Support Web-Enhanced Instruction and Online Learning
For Immediate Release - Nov. 19, 2008
Indianapolis, Ind. – November 19, 2008 – ANGEL Learning, a leading provider of enterprise eLearning software and services, today announced that Southwest Baptist University (SBU) in Missouri has adopted the ANGEL Learning Management Suite (LMS) to support web-enhanced instruction in traditional face-to-face classes and its hybrid and fully online courses. Although the university achieved an impressive 80% adoption rate with the course management system (CMS) it first licensed in 1997, increasing costs and a decline in technical support led SBU to investigate alternative systems. Faculty support for the SBU decision to migrate to the ANGEL LMS was unanimous.
“Over the last year or two, we experienced a steady decline in support from the provider of the CMS we originally licensed, and prices were increasing,” said Dr. Bob McGlasson, vice president for information technology services at Southwest Baptist University. “We heard a lot of good things about ANGEL at conferences and from schools similar in size to us. We scheduled demonstrations, and we liked what we saw in ANGEL.”
“Our CMS is a very important instructional tool, and our faculty are gung ho as long as they are supported,” added Neal Cross, SBU director of instructional technology. “We brought faculty in every step of the way in our decision to switch to the ANGEL LMS, and they liked ANGEL from all different perspectives. The ANGEL gradebook knocked their socks off. The ability of ANGEL agents to automate work, ANGEL’s communication capabilities, they are all impressive.”
At the conclusion of the SBU LMS evaluation, the faculty decision to go with ANGEL was unanimous according to McGlasson. Now SBU is looking at its ANGEL adoption as an opportunity to increase its LMS adoption rate even more. “We want to get everyone on board and extend our LMS usage with our ANGEL adoption,” said McGlasson. “We consider adopting ANGEL a fresh start. We’re very pleased and excited with the tools ANGEL provides.”
“When an institution that is as deeply invested in its CMS as Southwest Baptist University decides that migrating to ANGEL is its best alternative, that decision is validation of both the university’s commitment to providing a superior teaching and learning experience and the hard work ANGEL Learning is doing to provide the best LMS, the best value among LMS alternatives, and outstanding customer support,” said Christopher Clapp, president and CEO, ANGEL Learning. “ANGEL Learning is pleased to welcome SBU to the ANGEL community. We will help them manage change as they transition to ANGEL, and we look forward to their participation in the ANGEL community over the long term.”
A private, four-year Christian university, Southwest Baptist University offers associate, bachelor, masters, and doctoral degrees in more than 45 academic disciplines including pre-professional programs, business, nursing, and liberal arts. SBU fuses the study of liberal arts with career preparation and the Christian faith, recognizing the enduring values of the liberal arts as the foundation of critical thinking, decision making, and the high literacy required for responsible careers in the contemporary world. In addition to its main campus in Bolivar, Missouri, SBU operates three fully equipped off-campus sites in surrounding communities. The university has been named one of America’s Best Christian Colleges® for eleven consecutive years and one of America’s 100 Best College Buys® for twelve consecutive years by Institutional Research and Evaluation, Inc., an honor that recognizes Southwest Baptist University for providing students “the very best opportunities in higher education.”
About ANGEL Learning
ANGEL Learning, Inc. develops and markets enterprise elearning software. Our flagship products are the ANGEL Learning Management Suite and the ANGEL ePortfolio system. Our products have been honed by use – with millions of students and instructors served from K to corporate. We enjoy a reputation for creating products with exceptional ease of use, excellent vision into learner progress and for keeping our commitments. The ANGEL LMS won the Software & Information Industry Association CODiE award for Best Postsecondary Course Management Solution in both 2006 and 2007 and is the only product to win the award two years in a row. ANGEL Learning won the 2008 Parature Legend Makers Award for “customer service and support excellence.” Educators ranked ANGEL first in customer satisfaction in the IMS GLC Learn-Sat awards. ANGEL world headquarters are in Indianapolis, Indiana. To learn more about the ANGEL difference, visit us at www.angellearning.com.
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