SIMS Learning Gateway + SharePoint

[Kenneth_Ting]

Hi

 

Anyone can share experiences on SharePoint in SLG.

• How does it works?
  
• Is it like a CMS which allows to change the content?
  

 

Much appreciated with any thoughts and sharing

 

Thanks

 

K

[vikpaw]

It's like sharepoint anywhere else.

It is like a CMS, not many people find it very user friendly, and it takes a lot of work to setup and maintain. You might be better off looking at alternatives like TASC software who will plug in to SIMS.

Alternatively, there are a few threads on here that talk about it SLG - @Sylv3r is very positive about their setup.

[danwolvesfan]

Hi Kenneth,

 

SharePoint is effectively a CMS but a very expensive and resource intensive enterprise level one if that is all you are looking to use it for.

 

A common SharePoint farm usually consists of a SQL server, an applications server and at least one web front end server although. You could have this all running on the same box if you wanted to but I wouldn't advise it in production unless you had a very small user base (around 20). The platform itself is made up on Web Applications which are IIS websites that you can publish as an intranet/extranet/external website. Inside these web applications are Site collections which is a hierarchy of sites (of numerous templates - publishing sites, team sites, search sites, wiki sites etc.) that you use to lay out your content as well as to host lists that hold data and libraries that store files and documents. All this content is stored in the SQL back end within designated content databases which when used generally have a supported limit of 200gb. We currently use SharePoint as our intranet that students/teachers utilise as a VLE and admin staff utilise as a business management platform. Everything from HR policies, school calendars, to our estates help desk live there.

 

The whole thing came become an untameable beast though if it is not governed properly - I am currently building a brand new SharePoint 2013 farm to replace our 2010 farm due to the way it has evolved over the last 6 years. It was initially used to replace file shares so staff were advised to move all their content onto SharePoint, the original architecture that was put in before I started was not able to scale well and only one site collection and content database was created to house all of this (you can only have 1 content database per site collection). We quickly exceeded the 200gb limit and so much legacy and duplicate content began to appear which has cost implications on expensive SQL storage.

 

This is all related to the on-prem version of SharePoint though and there is the SharePoint online platform as part of office 365 which is a cloud based - making it a lot cheaper if you have a small number of users or limited requirements compared to SharePoint's capabilities. If you have any specific questions about your scenario, feel free to ask.

[gpjt]

If you can!

 

We have SIMS learning gateway, but use Remote App to give staff access to SIMS. Staff who are already versed in using the SIMS client can have the same experience and they can also then use it off site and on a number of devices.

[jertsy]

Hi Kenneth,

 

SharePoint is effectively a CMS but a very expensive and resource intensive enterprise level one if that is all you are looking to use it for.

 

A common SharePoint farm usually consists of a SQL server, an applications server and at least one web front end server although. You could have this all running on the same box if you wanted to but I wouldn't advise it in production unless you had a very small user base (around 20). The platform itself is made up on Web Applications which are IIS websites that you can publish as an intranet/extranet/external website. Inside these web applications are Site collections which is a hierarchy of sites (of numerous templates - publishing sites, team sites, search sites, wiki sites etc.) that you use to lay out your content as well as to host lists that hold data and libraries that store files and documents. All this content is stored in the SQL back end within designated content databases which when used generally have a supported limit of 200gb. We currently use SharePoint as our intranet that students/teachers utilise as a VLE and admin staff utilise as a business management platform. Everything from HR policies, school calendars, to our estates help desk live there.

 

The whole thing came become an untameable beast though if it is not governed properly - I am currently building a brand new SharePoint 2013 farm to replace our 2010 farm due to the way it has evolved over the last 6 years. It was initially used to replace file shares so staff were advised to move all their content onto SharePoint, the original architecture that was put in before I started was not able to scale well and only one site collection and content database was created to house all of this (you can only have 1 content database per site collection). We quickly exceeded the 200gb limit and so much legacy and duplicate content began to appear which has cost implications on expensive SQL storage.

 

This is all related to the on-prem version of SharePoint though and there is the SharePoint online platform as part of office 365 which is a cloud based - making it a lot cheaper if you have a small number of users or limited requirements compared to SharePoint's capabilities. If you have any specific questions about your scenario, feel free to ask.

 

I have used a company called SMIS, who support our SIMS software and they provide a SLG that talks to our SIMS server. They are a very good company and take all of the hasstle out of using the gateway. Let me know if you want their details.

 

I have also published SIMS via remote app for a small number of users.

Edited February 10, 2015 by jertsy

[Sylv3r]

We use SLG, I think we've been relatively lucky and certainly wouldn't class ourselves as Sharepoint experts but we have grown to use and tweak it for our needs. When we first got SLG around 3 or 4 years ago, we had our staff taking registers, Profiles and viewing student and staff data - we only rolled the SIMS client to a small number of staff. All parents and students had access to their information plus we never printed school reports and e-mail parents to say they are available online.

 

Due to the lack of some functionality within SLG, we rolled out the SIMS client to all staff - some still choose to use SLG, but thats their choice.

 

I think CAPITA will openly admit, that Sharepoint isn't the best thing to manage and is a little clunky at best, but like I said barring web part updates for us, it's something I generally can forget about and everything works fine from consolidationg users to day-to-day use.

[Steven_Cleaver]

I did have a look at the SLG but it did look a bit clunky, expensive and a lot of work to get setup compared to other solutions. We decided to use our own Remote access system Dual Factor Authentication for Staff Access to SIM's machines, Students access the system but can't access SIM's machines can use Single factor Authentication. We also use Insight from Tasc Software for our Parental Portal which has been excellent. Another School in the LEA who were using SLG for around three years but found this a bit clunky and are now adopting our methods about three other schools in our Borough are using remote access for staff and then Insight for Parental portal.