Best VLE

[SpuffMonkey]

OK guys (and guyesses) - just wondering what people reckon is the best VLE (irrespective of what you actually use); and why?

Thanks

[ninjabeaver]

Unfortunately it's the only one I've used. It's made by M$, but the LP+ support for the 10 schools in West Norfolk using it has been superb. Seems very flexible and we seem to be getting the best out of it.

[Silvor]

Looked at them all, used LP+, Moddle and Kaleidos - but I don't think I can vote. Not entirely sure yet. We use Kaleidos in our LEA and it's - well...a barrel of laughs.

[Sylv3r]

Don't think I can decied. I have seen a few in action and have used TALMOS here for a couple of years. Also had Digitalbrain for a year which was awful. I didn't necessarily think TALMOS was a bad product, it just wasn't for us and at the time.

We are curently implementing our own system, creating our own webparts for sharepoint as well as using the SIMS webparts. And I much prefer our in house system - it is catered exactly for our needs.

[Wallgo]

This is weird, I was gonna do this poll this morning. I've been through Learnwise and Digital Brain (both Sh1T), now have to use Fronter, which is so damn fugly.

Moodle is best but still not pretty. Surely someone can make something which looks as good as Facebook/Bebo or something, lots of widgets, bells and whistles.

[squirrel]

Frog Teacher - I've looked at them all and this has to be the best by far.

AD Integration - saves students/staff having multiple passwords

SIMS Integration

Server sits in your school - doesn't matter if the Internet goes down, you can still use the VLE in school. Also speed - much quicker at uploading/downloading your files

Excellent tech. support

Allows staff to add their own content or to purchase content from SCORN compliant third parties - normally you only get one or the other with other VLEs.

Easy to use - saves one person having to manage the whole site. Bits can be 'given out' to others to use.


Take a look, well worth it.

[gaz350]

IMO Moodle.One reason because you can do what ever you like with it.
and those VLE's that insist on hosting the solution are at the bottom of the list in my eyes (great for primaries or schools lacking support though).

During school hours we could have 60+ active users at once, evening time i would be suprised if it ever passed 15 active users. uploading files is pretty instant on a local server, instead of minutes.

[kingswood]

OK guys (and guyesses) - just wondering what people reckon is the best VLE (irrespective of what you actually use); and why?

Thanks

I would have to say that my "ultimate" VLE would be Moodle, but that we currently use Studywiz and it is simply brilliant. There is room for improvement in Studywiz and SIMS integration is the holy grail...but even so, it's working far better than LP+ ever did for us!

[zag]

I've used sharepoint, Netmedia and Moodle.

Sharepoint is great but the learning kit bit is very poor at the moment.

Netmedia is awful, stay away.

Moodle Easily the best VLE out there at the moment although it is difficult to learn how to administer.

[pmassingham]

How do you determine 'best'? For us, Netmedia provides an easy to use interface for all stakeholders. It is low cost and yes it does have its downsides, but overall, as a managed service, it does what it says on the tin.

[Galway]

We use Netmedia.

Not sure how easy it is to admin, since it was provided by the authority.
I have a moodle server, and that seams far better to use, but we don't use it atm so its just a IT plaything, setup just for the sake of interest.

At this point im not really bothered what they use, so long as they use it. But I think eventually everyone stop using it because its a pita to use.

[gshaw]

Very interesting poll and I haven't voted yet as there's a few ways to look at it...

- Moodle can be very good when paired up with web devs and theme designers to give value added bits on top of a basic install. Without extra prettying up and modding it looks poor, which has generally been my feeling on Open Source stuff until Asus came along with the eeePC We're going for Moodle provided by our MIS company so it's dynamic and integrated as people enrol, sounds very promising so far

- Frog I saw at BETT when looking at VLEs with a mate, best at the show by a mile and they made a sale that day on the strength of their pitch and demo

- SharePoint based ones look good but haven't seen one fully running before so can't tell how it works in the real world?

- Fronter was diabolical, how that got an LEA contract I'll never know... but I can guess

[maniac]

I don't think there is a 'best' and 'worst' I think they're all different and suit different schools. What one school loves about a particular VLE, another school will hate and visa-versa.

When we were recently choosing a learning platform, we went to great lengths to choose one that suited the school, and not necessarily the one that offered all the technical bells and whistles. As a result our chosen platform is a fully hosted solution, which wasn't my personal favourite, but when staff saw it I got nothing but positive comments about it's usability, look and feel and features so it was an easy decision really, the staff are more likely to use something they themselves are enthusiastic about.

OK, so it doesn't integrate with AD which I would like, but that's not the end of the world. It does link well with SIMS however, and in my opinion it's excellent value for money. A lot of people dismiss hosted solutions from the word go, but once you factor into the equation how much a server costs for the school to buy and run, paying for a hosted solution really doesn't offer that bad value for money. No backups to worry about, no firewalls and port forwarding to worry about, it's all maintained and setup for you, upgraded when necessary and totally hassle free so the school can actually concentrate on using it rather than maintaining it!

And what platform did we choose? It's not listed above, we've gone for Viglen/IT's Learning and we are currently mid-way through implementation process. So far so good!

Mike.

[stratisphere]

We use Dokeos. Very clean, very quick, AD intergration, fully scorm compliant... very very nice

[nadeem]

I voted for Moodle