Which Learning Platform?

[jumpinjamez]

Its that time when SMT want a VLE however are not sure what it does and what will be required so its come to me.

I would like it if you kind people could say

"I would /do use this VLE and like it because........................"

Main features required from early consultation are intergration with SIMs and host the school website.

I would also like any info you guys have on the process of implenting a VLE.
I am trying to get as many people involved as possible and find out exactly what they want from a VLE but its difficult as people are busy or not intrested.

[t4ll1f3r]

I use Moodle because it was easy to set up.

I used Ubuntu as the platform.

We have an e-Learning Co-ordinator and a weekly e-Learning after school group.

There is no SIMS integration but I have heard that it is being developed by the Moodle guys.

However we can export the grade book along with the pupil UPN out of Moodle and into SIMS.

Happy to answer any other questions.

Mark

[Grommit]

If you are in London the LGFL has chosen Fronter.. After doing months of research of many other VLE's.. like Moodle

Very good system.. kicks the arse out of Moodle and it works with SIMS and the rest of the MIS's

[kingswood]

We use TALMOS for "bigger things" and the implementation of this solution is really getting off the ground now; but I am also using Moodle for ANother project and love it.

Moodle seems the way to go as far as I am concerned...

[alan-d]

We had a similar problem so what we have done is implemented moodle to give the teaching staff and smt the chance to look and play with it.

This gives them the opportunity to discover what a VLE is for and how it can be used before we pay out thousands on any other system.

Keep it simple to start with and don't let them get carried away with a system that promises to interact with everything else.

[artlader]

This might be interesting to you - http://www.humboldt.edu/~cdc/lms/

This American university decided on Moodle. This site explains how and why they did so.

Regards,
Art

[Grommit]

This might be interesting to you - http://www.humboldt.edu/~cdc/lms/

This American university decided on Moodle. This site explains how and why they did so.

Regards,
Art

Yea and the LGFL, a host of London Boroughs did 6 months research into VLE's.. went far far beyond BECTAS specifications and chose Fronter for the WHOLE of London

[j17sparky]

This might be interesting to you - http://www.humboldt.edu/~cdc/lms/

This American university decided on Moodle. This site explains how and why they did so.

Regards,
Art

Yea and the LGFL, a host of London Boroughs did 6 months research into VLE's.. went far far beyond BECTAS specifications and chose Fronter for the WHOLE of London

And the NGfL did the same and decided on NetMedia, doesnt make it the best one!
Id be interested if Fronter actually is the best one but saying it was chose for us isnt really reason to me as our one is pretty god damn crap (or has been until recently; one teacher has informed me he is starting to get away with it so maybe its getting better)

[GrumbleDook]

One of the problems about Learning Platform procurements is how the criteria are set up.

For an individual school (500 - 2000 students say) then it will often be based around expertise the school house, both technically and pedagogically. You tend to get the platform that a particular person or a small of group of people want and everyone else has to learn what to do and adapt. Once proof of concept is done then it needs a political push from the Manglement of the school.

When you get a consortium of schools you start to get something more based around pedagogy and finance rather than technical expertise ... and a chunk more planning on the implementation side happens ... more training, more understanding of the theory behind why LPs can help collaboration and communication.

Then you get to LA level. Finance will often make 40% of this decision with the other 60% being broken down to the answers to the Statement of Requirements, presentations to schools, and legal mumbo jumbo.

And then you get to regional level ... and boy ... it is scary the time it takes to get this through.

But as soon as you get to LA level (or even consortium if you are looking at cross-phase) you start getting conflicts of pedagogy.

The requirements for different phases from Special Schools, Foundation and KS1, KS2, KS3 and KS4, and KS5 and FE/HE differ in many ways ... and trying to find something that fits it all ... or a company that can provide means of adapting their VLE to suit each phase ... is flippin' difficult.

Some can take this as a reason why schools should be left to go their own way ... but then you start to lose the ability to share and collaborate (here we go with the disagreement and horizontal / vertical collectivism that CrispinW and I have already had) and for many schools this is as important as, or maybe even more important than, individual schools having a small collection of 'experts' and pioneers using the Learning Platform.

All of this depends on the school involved and what it wants to get from a VLE / MLE / Learning Platform.

I have to admit that I am excited and looking forward to the next 18 months and what is happening in Northants ... but more of that in another thread later in the week.

[Geoff]

This might be interesting to you - http://www.humboldt.edu/~cdc/lms/

This American university decided on Moodle. This site explains how and why they did so.

Regards,
Art

Yea and the LGFL, a host of London Boroughs did 6 months research into VLE's.. went far far beyond BECTAS specifications and chose Fronter for the WHOLE of London

And the NGfL did the same and decided on NetMedia, doesnt make it the best one!

Lancashire and Cumbria did the same and decided on Moodle. So did the Open University...

[techyphil]

Wow, urm I know that our school is in the running for a VLE and theres alot of money coming our way to fund it - theres about 4-5 companies that gave us demonstrations and are trying to get all the schools in the area to connect to our school via a portal.

Im just sitting back n watching the heads decide on who they go for... but moodle is free? So i mean how come you guys have moodle yet we get all this massive restructure with new servers and services?

[GrumbleDook]

Northamptonshire has now opted for a hosted sharepoint based solution, but there will be opportunities for integration with other VLEs (you have the web parts? bring it on!!!)

[Wizzer]

Once proof of concept is done then it needs a political push from the Manglement of the school.

This is why I like Moodle. It is easy to setup, has very few costs for a test implementation and staff can get used to the concept of a VLE without having to spend £££'s.

[wesleyw]

And seeing as all of the VLE should be able to package courses using the scorm format anything they create in say moodle or blackboard could easily be moved to any other VLE.

@techyphil: I suppose it just depends on the school I set up the VLE and I'm using it as a training exercise for the teachers they in turn seem to be creating materials and getting the pupils involved so hopefully it will be so successful I won't have control of it anymore .



Wes

[GrumbleDook]

@Wes

One of the forthcoming uphill struggles that I know will be faced by some schools is that there are a raft of forward-thinking establishments that have been using Moodle or other VLEs to create resources ... that need to be adapted again (or completely rewritten) to be SCORM compliant.

A school that has spent 400+ man hours creating moodle courses is not going to spend 800+ converting them ... and so we start to lose some collaboration ... unless everyone goes to Moodle because that is the only format people will share complete courses in ... and then you get into the same arguements about monopolies that we have about file formats, OSes and all those other lovely things that cause flame wars.

Teaching teachers how to create goo SCORM compliant resources relies on pulling in experience from other institutes ... unless you have a few key people that already have the bug, as was pointed out to me .. again .. on Monday.