Lightspeed My Big Campus going ?

[Micron]

Has anyone heard in the UK that My Big Campus is going ?

 

I heard from a friend in the US and found this statement below

FAQ - Lightspeed Systems

 

 

Another Edu company in trouble ?

[synaesthesia]

Doesn't sound like it's going at all, it sounds like they're changing it for the better. Found MBC rather too gimmicky to be of use, especially in the UK but the changes at least look interesting.

[Edu-IT]

No, it's going. They are releasing a new launchpad that just integrates with other services such as Google classroom, Office 365 etc.

[Micron]

I think its going as a VLE

 

The re-lauch is smart marketing to keep all of us who invested time and effort with it onside I imagine

[Prof75]

Yes it is going but they have said they will help schools migrate to another platform, I think you have to fill in a form to say who you want to migrate to. They are offering migration of resources to O365, GAFE and in Common Cartridge format to move to Open Source platforms like Canvas and Moodle.

[ellsandell]

Doesn't suprise me tbh.

 

BT Lancs tried to migrate Moodle to MBC, which failed miserably when they realized they couldn't move any data and didn't do half the things Moodle does. So good move by Lightspeed.

[synaesthesia]

Ah, fair enough. Interesting. Don't use it here even though we have Lightspeed, no plans to either!

[Edu-IT]

You use Moodle?

[ellsandell]

You use Moodle?

 

Yes. Only select subjects mind.

[wiseoldowl]

Micron asked, "Another Edu company in trouble?" The real question is, "Is education is trouble?" Any company supplying education has to be sure of the market they are involved in and with shrinking budgets to supply appropriate IT services to education it is difficult to understand the education market and what education actually wants from its suppliers. An observer might view the market as one that is rapidly approaching a tipping-point and secondary education being divided between those schools/academies pulling back into core services regardless of the impact on learning and those understanding the benefit of investing in IT services. However, it is the responsibility of those involved in IT services within schools/academies to reduce the total cost of ownership and find ways to improve the return on investment. Big ask I know, given that IT services are rarely in control of their budgets in schools/academies. I guess it comes down to those in control of budgets (what's left of them) understanding how these things can be achieved - not an easy task for those who trained as teachers. This is the tipping-point - do you move on or do you contract? I suspect that in the long term, those that move forward will succeed and those who contract will not.

[overnetdata_reeza]

This issue of continual product development and support of VLEs is one reason why schools might consider open source – particularly platforms such as Moodle who have a massive user community, built over a number of years. Following on from wideoldowl’s commment, it can be a strategy to invest in IT whilst reducing total cost of ownership/ improving return on investment. Even more so when school budgets are under pressure!

 

If there is anyone interested in reading a couple of case studies on school’s who have opted to go into the direction of open source, just drop me a PM.