ANGEL Help and Information Guide
Support Forms
To improve the management of ANGEL's storage and future growth, beginning Monday, August 28, 2006, Information Technology Services (ITS) will place a cap on ANGEL course file space (1GB), group file space (300 MB), and the number of groups (10) that each user can create.
The allocation cap on courses and groups will enable Penn State to better utilize the available storage space in ANGEL, maintain system stability, and maximize the use of other ITS services, such as the streaming media server, which is designed to support the efficient delivery of specific content.
The allocation for course storage will be 1 gigabyte (GB), which corresponds to the maximum size of a course that can be reliably imported and exported. Therefore, no additional storage space will be allotted. Faculty who approach the 1 GB limit may request a consultation (see below) to assess their use of the course space and determine whether this can be reduced through the use of ANGEL repositories (i.e., master courses and/or resource libraries) or other ITS services. Exceeding this allocation cap will prevent faculty and students from being able to upload additional files, such as course content or attachments.
The initial storage allocation for groups will be 300 megabytes (MB). The number of groups that each user can create will be limited to ten.
These limitations meet the needs of 99 percent of ANGEL users. Users who reach these limits may request additional space and/or groups.
Any requests by users for additional groups or group storage space beyond the initial allocation will necessitate a review of need and current usage (e.g., file types, content, and purpose) by ITS staff prior to approving increased allocations. Examples of legitimate requests for increased allocations are: expand course delivery (using groups as individual team space), collaborate on course development, advising, and research. As a result of this review, users may be asked to remove excess files and/or put some files in alternative storage services (such as PASS space). To request increased group allocations, a user must complete and submit the Request More Group Storage Space or Request More Groups form.
ANGEL courses will be archived one year after the end of the academic semester in which they were offered. The one-year time frame is sufficient to resolve any deferred grades and grade changes based on Faculty Senate policies and GURU retention policies. Archived courses will be moved to long-term storage and will no longer be available to faculty and students. However, faculty can submit a request to recover a course in long-term storage using the ANGEL Ask Question form. Turnaround time is two weeks. Archived courses will remain in long-term storage for two years before being permanently deleted. After permanent deletion, recovery will no longer be possible.
The first archive occurred in June 2004 and affected all courses that ran before and including spring 2003 semester.
Archiving will occur at the end of each semester, approximately two weeks following commencement. At that time, the same semester from the prior year will be archived. For example, at the end of fall 2004, fall 2003 courses will be archived.
To improve its management of Penn State’s Course Management System, ANGEL, Information Technology Services (ITS) has issued a group storage policy affecting all users of ANGEL, including faculty, students, and staff.
ANGEL groups are separate from courses. While courses last for a semester, groups are not tied to the academic calendar and can theoretically exist for years. To free storage space of groups no longer in use, the ITS ANGEL support team will now archive groups that have been inactive for six months or more. Approximately thirty days prior to each archiving event, ITS will alert editors of the groups slated for archiving, giving them a chance to enter the group so it will be recognized as active. This policy will go into effect on December 3, 2004.
The next archiving event is tentatively scheduled for January 4, 2005, and will coincide with the
archiving of fall 2003 courses. Archived groups can be restored upon request. They will be
retained for two and a half years, and then permanently deleted.
Questions regarding ANGEL policies may be submitted using the Ask Question form within the "Help" section.