Sam Learning

[bossman]

Hi Everyone,

 

I have been asked to evaluate Sam Learning, so could I ask everyone, how good is Sam Learning?

 

Appreciate all aspects.

 

Thanks in advance

Bossman

[JRowley]

I believe our school dropped it mainly due to its cost and problems with using it, but this was years and years ago, so I presume it has improved since then, though the cost still seems rather high.

[Linfit]

We have used it for years.

From a technical point of view, config is minimal - send them anextract from SIMS every year at that's it. It uses flash and I think still uses java which can be a pain, but generally just works for us.

I think from a curriculum point of view, coverage is variable. It seems to be good in some subjects, not so much in others: difficult for me to comment on which as I'm not involved at that end and I don't get the monthly usage data. I know our Maths dept used to use it extensively, but have now moved over to MyMaths instead. I think these more specialised sites are generally better as the ones like Sam Learning that try to cover everything tend to spread themselves too thin. Having said that, its good for revision and the minority of our pupils that use it use it extensively for this and do seem to find it useful - but despite the fact that they all have access and we push it quite hard, it is a relatively small proportion that choose to use it, I would say no more than 20% of our year 11 are regular users.

[JRowley]

Our Maths department also moved to MyMaths, I think this was a/the trigger to drop Sam Learning in favour of more specialised sites, though as I say this was a while ago.

[clockend25]

We're a big user and have been for a number of years, racking up all sorts of awards for number of hours on the system etc. Our staff like it, our students put the hours in, and senior management wax lyrical about the effect it's had on results, particularly in certain subject areas where they've had a big push.

 

Me, I like it because the Data Manager is responsible for administering the accounts.

[fiza]

We use it. Used mainly by our Science & MFL Depts.

They now have an update client so no need for the SIMS extract. The client sits on your network and updates Sam Learning every week I believe.

No complaints from the teachers, they all seem to like it and set work on it.

[tj2419]

We used to use it a good few years back.

 

New deputy head wanted us to look at it again recently which we did but it didn't really offer us much more than what some of the departments already have and what we could create via moodle ourselves.

[Sylv3r]

We used it 3 or 4 years ago, take up was minimal by students although it may be because it wasn't pushed by the staff as much as it should.

 

It's a revision tool, rather than something the students would use in lessons at school. I guess you need to judge your own students and whether they would use another tool to boost their exam grades.

 

How you manage the success of such a tool on exam results I am not so sure, but 3 or 4 students moving from a D grade to a C, could work wonders for your school figures especially in English or Maths.

[round2it]

Ditched it and went with iamlearning.

Never looked back.