SUNY Fredonia wins awards for technology

SUNY Fredonia has received two awards from ANGEL Learning, a leading developer and marketer of enterprise e-learning software, for implementation of ANGEL programs.

Fredonia C.A.R.E.S., a drug and alcohol abuse counseling service, won one of six ANGEL Impact Exemplary Awards, while the Fredonia ANGEL project team won an Extreme ANGEL Conversion Impact Award, an honor presented to four institutions of higher learning. The awards were presented in May at the annual ANGEL User Conference in Indianapolis.

The counseling service achieved greater program efficiency and higher completion rates through the use of ANGEL software. All paperwork, formerly compiled in face-to-face meetings at the counseling center before each session, is now done online. Therapy sessions can also be conducted online, so participating students are known only by counselors. This anonymity increased student participation and improved the quality of the sessions, according to staff counselors Jeff Janicki and Tracy Stenger, who developed this innovative use of ANGEL. Completion rates were raised by reducing the number of face-to-face sessions.

The Extreme ANGEL conversion team achieved a number of milestones in a four-month span between hardware installation and switch, notably integrating ANGEL with the existing information system that tracks all students, classes and professors and also transferring other databases to ANGEL. Assistance on course migration was also extended to 300 faculty members. Training materials for ANGEL were developed and posted, and 150 groups, ranging from search committees to online counseling sessions, were created to utilize the software’s new community group feature.

Members of the conversion team included: Janet Mayer, ANGEL administrator; Karen Klose, of IT; along with Fred Ullman, Darin Yohe, Kevin Lane, Michael Gerholdt, Chris Lewis, and Craig Lending, a volunteer consultant from SUNY Brockport.

“ANGEL Learning commends SUNY Fredonia for winning 2007 ANGEL Impact Awards,” said Christopher Clapp, president and CEO. “Competition for the awards was tough. SUNY Fredonia displays the true commitment to learning and educational innovation that the ANGEL Impact Awards honor.”