Can anyone give me a ballpark figure for the cost of a VLE?

[witch]

We currently have moodle which was administered by the previous IT teacher - not me - and now it has borked and nobody - including MrwITch who upgraded it a year ago - can work out why. Basically it has stopped and will not restart.

So..the new IT teacher wants to look into other VLE solutions. The DH has mentioned Frog.

What I need is a rough cost for a VLE for a 370 pupil middle school (years 5 to 8)

 

I have absolutely no idea what we are talking about and would like to have some idea before I get to BETT!

[pcstru]

Why not ask Frog?

 

I think our quote was £30K over the first 3 years for a secondary with ~2000 pupils. That was two years ago.

[Edu-IT]

Have you looked at My Big Campus? I'm not sure what they charge now, we went onboard when it was free, but it's one to look at.

 

Could you not set up a new Moodle? Or use WebAnywhere (?) to provide a Moodle?

Edited December 5, 2014 by Edu-IT

[witch]

The problem is that I do not have the time to ask every provider and I was hoping to be steered towards the cheaper ones without having to go through the sales pitch every single time.

Frog seems very expensive - even if it is done by pupil numbers that would be 6-7K and we couldn't afford that I don't think

[Edu-IT]

Would it be cheaper to give you a weeks pay to get Moodle going on a new setup? I assume from your posts you know how to manage Moodle so it could be a fun project for you? Plus if you set it up yourself, you'll know more of the workings.

[pcstru]

We now use Google Apps (sites and docs) for the VLE functions. No capital, cost (but as always there is a support cost!).

[Michael]

I think it also needs to be looked at just how effective are VLEs? They either work or they don't work. I think it really depends whether the teachers themselves understand it and include it within their lessons. The fact that your VLE has now stopped working, has teaching and learning come to a stop? Are the pupils and staff missing it's not there?

 

If they are, it would be much cheaper to hire in someone who'll be able to get it back up and running for you. I'm pretty sure it'll be less than £1000 by miles.

[fiza]

@witch - you could pay someone like webanywhere to administer Moodle for you. It would be a lot cheaper than getting something like Frog. If staff are used to Moodle then this may be your best bet.

[bossman]

@witch

 

Ditto @fiza

 

Have PM'd you I could have a chat with our contact directly if you would like and get him to contact you regarding costs?

 

Regards

Bossman

[MattDLEA]

Moodle or Google Apps.

 

I have used Fronter before expensive ( is it still around) Installed a moodle server at the college when I knew very little about networking and its still up and running now 5 years later.

My schools one doesnt have a VLE the other uses Google Apps for both the school website and an Intranet site that they use as VLE but only for teachers. They say that children would not access it at home anyways so why have it.

both are free or low cost compared to FROG.

[witch]

I don't have the time or the inclination to sort out the Moodle - it has never been anything to do with me and on 3 hours a day I really do NOT want this to be dumped on me as well. I have no idea how it works! (mrwITch has done the backend stuff out of the goodness of his heart but no more )

We need something that the children can access I think.

I have contacted webanywhere- I did wonder if they might be able to make use of our moodle and either sort it out or migrate it to a new version.

We have Office 365 and could set up a sharepoint site for the children although we would need to buy licences for it and it would mean a lot more admin for me, presumably

[Ephelyon]

If your budget is tight, you could look at RealSmart.

[CamelMan]

Do you need a VLE? Im currently looking at that here - Moodle is old and unloved here and Im looking at how its being used.

 

At the moment it appears just for staff to put files out to students which can be done via OneDrive, Dropbox email etc.

[Steve21]

We are dropping Frog currently and looking to move back to internal options (Moodle/Wordpress/Joomla etc)

 

Find it too expensive and very underused (That's VLE in general) always just turns into a filedump so an expensive one at that

 

Steve

[bossman]

@witch:

 

WebAnyWhere do google docs integration block with SSO rather than 365 but I suppose they would be able to help you out with whatever.

 

[witch]

I do wonder if we need the VLE anymore. I know the old IT teacher did all his work on it but I am not sure what it is used for now apart from booking resources which I have set up on Office 365.

 

There is a link to it from the website so I think homework etc might be up on there but I don't see why they can't just use some dedicated pages on the website.

[Steve21]

I do wonder if we need the VLE anymore. I know the old IT teacher did all his work on it but I am not sure what it is used for now apart from booking resources which I have set up on Office 365.

 

There is a link to it from the website so I think homework etc might be up on there but I don't see why they can't just use some dedicated pages on the website.

 

That's pretty much what we're doing. Locally hosted site with many links/news.

 

Homework/Shared folders likely to be OneDrive based, Office365 for emails etc, Looking at potentially using the free SharePoint in Office365 if they "realllly" insist on "chat/bulletin" functions, but seems a waste paying £5k+ a year for nothing really

 

Steve

[Arreks]

I do wonder if we need the VLE anymore. I know the old IT teacher did all his work on it but I am not sure what it is used for now apart from booking resources which I have set up on Office 365.

 

There is a link to it from the website so I think homework etc might be up on there but I don't see why they can't just use some dedicated pages on the website.

 

Depends on what the VLE is used for really, ours is pretty much only used by students to 'hand in' work and view lesson notes.

[john]

Must admit I rasied that point before we spent time and money on a 3rd VLE solution after had Fronter and Moodle before that and it was a yes but that was a secondary school, some staff made good use, others could probably have been fine making more efficient use of shared areas and maybe SharePoint.

[GrumbleDook]

And if you are interested in a SharePoint solution, which can tie in with O365 ... (Usually declaration of interest and expecting a slapped wrist for selling!) ;-)

[Marshall_IT]

Webanywhere did a good job a managing my noodle at my last school, but since then I believe one or two of the main debs responsible for writing their version and server have left the company, I can't remember where they have gone.

 

We are just implementing Firefly at the moment, runs a standard £10 per year.

[Edu-IT]

£10 a year? Per user? Per device?

[Ben_Stanton]

We are currently using Firefly and HIGHLY recommend. We went though all the 'major players' and these guys came up trumps (and keep coming up trumps). It also integrates with Office365 and Google...plus our MIS (WCBS PASS). I really cannot think of a negative. Cost wise, I think we pay about 3k a year (there are also some upfront 'setup' costs) which was in the same ball-park as Frog, mybigcampus and StudyWise.

[edublogger]

Check out Google Apps, I can't fathom paying figures like £30,000 for services which are free from other vendors.

[Marshall_IT]

We are currently using Firefly and HIGHLY recommend. We went though all the 'major players' and these guys came up trumps (and keep coming up trumps). It also integrates with Office365 and Google...plus our MIS (WCBS PASS). I really cannot think of a negative. Cost wise, I think we pay about 3k a year (there are also some upfront 'setup' costs) which was in the same ball-park as Frog, mybigcampus and StudyWise.

 

How long have you been using it? I think the bar cost is now 3k with 3k for the cloud integration, o365 & gapps and the planner apps for iPad.