New to VLE – A few questions

[FN-GM]

Hi, some of these questions will have probably been asked before sorry if they have. Today I was asked to look into a VLE and I don’t know much about them. I have a few questions.

What do you use for your VLE?
What does your VLE have on it?
How easy was your VLE to setup?
Abit cheeky but may a see what your VLE is like please?

I would also appreciate general advice please.

Thanks

Z

[mark]

1. Moodle
2. solely ICT courses - tho' all subjects have had a person trained, it fit's the ICT curriculum best so i'm told.
3. very easy
4. http://www.newtown-hs.powys.sch.uk/moodle

Moodle is by far our EG VLE of choice, I think it'd be fair to say. There are commercial alternatives, MSs sharepoint for example, that look very slick.

Some say moodle still looks a little awkward, ut in our experience with just a little effort anyone can create courses with little effort.

[CyberNerd]

1) Moodle
2) nearly 1000 courses, mostly not populated.Languages and ICT seem to be the pioneers, but some teachers can't get their heads around the fact that it isn't just a powerpoint repository.
3) very easy for just the Moodle/AD bit, I understand the CMIS integration was harder then we moved to SIMS and the SIMS integration still doesn't work properly.
4) Its the default theme, not very imaginative here.

Some of the teachers have issues with the interface which doesn't help with adoption, but it's fine from the kids side.

[CyberNerd]

@mark

Name and Shame Time.

The following KS4 and KS5 pupils are owing work, and need to be attending Catch up sessions.

Nil attendance will result in letters going home

The head boy is named and shamed ! lol

[Geoff]

1) Moodle 1.8.3, We also have a 'test' Moodle 1.9 installation.
2) Whole school, approx 300 courses. IT, Geography, Technology and Science seem to be the heaviest users.
3) Easy enough for me, although someone with little to no *nix experience would hit a steep learning curve trying to duplicate the setup.
4) http://vle.carrhill.lancs.sch.uk

[FN-GM]

bump

[maniac]

1. Moodle.
2. Courses for all subject areas in the school, but not all used well.
3. Moodle is very easy to setup, and I'm working on a CMIS-MOODLE automated link at the moment, which is almost working!
4. You can see the front page at www.nbc.medway.sch.uk/moodle/ but it's not that great at the moment. currently in discussions with SLT about purchasing a decent template for it.

Mike.

[mark]

@mark

Name and Shame Time.

The following KS4 and KS5 pupils are owing work, and need to be attending Catch up sessions.

Nil attendance will result in letters going home

The head boy is named and shamed ! lol

Hehe!

He's a nice kid.. but from another planet

[beeswax]

Zak, knowing the situation you're in, I shouldn't think that a paid for VLE will be a goer, though I may be mistaken. With BSF about 3 years away for our LEA, anything you do now could be swept away when the managed service comes in. Getting the VLE up and running is the (relatively) easy part of the job, getting staff to populate it is much more difficult. It'll be a good experience for them to think about how they should prepare work for a VLE. However, my fear is that the bulk of the work will fall on your shoulders if you're not careful.
Who asked you to look into a VLE by the way? I spent the last 16 months looking into a VLE/MLE for our school, at the behest of our ICT Faculty, and found one which ticked all the boxes, only to be told by SMT to drop it last June. Now, I may have learnt a lot from the exercise which is useful to me (c.v. etc.) so in a way my time hasn't been completely wasted, and it's an area I enjoy exploring, but, as I haven't been involved in the finer detail of the BSF negotiations, I didn't know what deals were being done, and that's why I had to drop my investigations.
You have my email address Zak, so if you want further details I can give them, as this isn't the place to discuss these things.

[FN-GM]

@ beeswax although the school is closing the network manager is going to be talking with the SLT about one so at the moment I am not going into it allot as yet. If one was going to happening I doubt it would be a paid one it will probably be moodle, although the network manager likes the idea of frog. I may be sending you an e-mail soon depending on what is happening.

Z