Anyone here work at an "outstanding" school and uses FROG as their vle?

[jumpinjamez]

I dont think the choice of VLE is the issue its the drive from SMT and the implentation of them that is the key to success.

[timzim]

I dont think the choice of VLE is the issue its the drive from SMT and the implentation of them that is the key to success.

Try using Fronter then see if you still feel the same...

[danIT]

I think Frog charge 5k for there custom design, so 20k without it.

[Quackers]

Where are people finding FROG for only 20k?

We've been quoted 25k for the VLE and 30k for FROG with the parent portal.

I've just spat my coffee out. People are spending these kinds of money on VLE's and Parent Portals

[timzim]

Fronter is 20k a year! We can't even afford coffee anymore

[robins]

Where are people finding FROG for only 20k?

We've been quoted 25k for the VLE and 30k for FROG with the parent portal.

That sounds right. Yes - its the custom design and options like parent portal and secure gateway that hype the cost. Running costs are fair though and unlike other VLEs, if you stop paying them then the box that you've bought and host locally and all the software/content are your in perpetuity. Nice to know when the ICT .com spending spree bubble finally bursts.

[stevehill06]

I agree with Jumpinjamez, if you haven't got the drive from SMT, the teachers wont do anything. I've found it hard to get staff to use any VLE.

Steve

I dont think the choice of VLE is the issue its the drive from SMT and the implentation of them that is the key to success.

[Jamo]

Fronter is 20k a year! We can't even afford coffee anymore

20K a year?!? Blimey, out of interest, how are you finding using Fronter? Is it slow? We have issues left right and centre with the fact that its slow, laggy and keeps making our Smartcache error

[moriartythemundane]

I dont think the choice of VLE is the issue its the drive from SMT and the implentation of them that is the key to success.

Spot on!
Had this conversation not an hour ago with a deputy...GIGO...garbage in.... garbage out...

You need a strong leader to implement it. Staff that will follow it, training for those who need it and the hardest part in my opinion...the P45's for those that fight against it!
Only then will it succeed at our school...sadly!

[timzim]

20K a year?!? Blimey, out of interest, how are you finding using Fronter? Is it slow? We have issues left right and centre with the fact that its slow, laggy and keeps making our Smartcache error

It's terminally slow (apparently the content is hosted in Norway) and the support has also been fairly diabolical for us. Didn't help that the support engineer I've been dealing with is based in Australia so there's little chance of him getting back the same day.

Because of the slowness, editing pages is unbelievably rubbish - it can take up to 30 seconds to refresh a page and some page edits require six or seven page refreshes to complete (e.g. click 'Edit', refresh, choose from drop down box, refresh, etc, etc). I was getting so mad with the waiting that I got the school to employ someone else to do all Fronter editing before I broke something or went completely barmy.

While I'm having a moan I might as well add: every Fronter webpage looks like it was designed in 1992 (ooh, green ComicSans on a red background), you cannot get Fronter to change anything (despite all the promises), and there is no way I, as Administrator, can view the contents of any user's webfolder, so the kids can use Fronter as a great contraband store unless you disable their webfolder, which kind of defeats the object of a VLE, IMHO.

Value for money!

[RWi]

I've just spat my coffee out. People are spending these kinds of money on VLE's and Parent Portals

We certainly have! We had bad experiences with a hosted Sharepoint solution and staff and students found it ugly and unintuative. Sharepoint is brilliant with what it does well; tieing in with office and document management. Where it fails is in the educational aspect; constructing and assigning lessons and providing opportunities for feedback.

Out of the box Frog works brilliantly. The UI is so simple to use that even less confident ICT users on our staff body had logged into Frog and made some pages before we had launched! We were further ahead in 2 weeks with Frog than we were 2 years into our Sharepoint 'experience'.

The key aspect is the drive from your SMT/SLT. Without it any VLE/LP/LG is likely to fail. Some schools management see online learning as a tick in the box to satisfy government demands. We are fortunate that our senior management can see the benefits of using it for internal & external communication (parent portal) and developing the methods employed to deliver education in the 21st century. Seeing beyond the high initial start up cost is imperative,as in the long term, the training costs will be minimal (because it is so easy to use and the support is great) and the buzz it creates amongst staff, students, governors and parents is infectious.

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.

[CyberNerd]

Another Outstanding Tech College here, with Moodle

At the end of the day, you get what you pay for.