Who's up for a challenge? (Iran)

[ChrisBate]

OK. I am a DoT by day and have gone through an Engage/Google deployment over the last two years.

 

I am working with a beautiful school in Iran to replace their current MIS (a modified business CRM system) with a modern MIS and LMS. I really want the LMS to be the main front end of the system. The country has some severe restrictions to web resources, so It is important that the LMS is a platform that the teachers want to spend some time well stocking with internally hosted media and content for the students to reliably access. I also wish there to be only one main application (and login) to interact with on a day-to-day basis for the teachers/parents and students so I want data to go both ways from the LMS back to the MIS (for reporting, registration etc). The Admin team, I am happy with them using the MIS and LMS seperatley for the more complex/setup tasks.

 

As with all international schools they are complicated:

• Has to be locally hosted (unreliable net)
  
• Has to be available within Iran (no US products due to embargo)
  
• Has to be multi lingual, at least all the systems the parents/teachers/student interact with between German and English (selectable by the user)
  
• Will need to work within a PYP and German National setting (not to difficult if LMS is not just locked down to one system, so no Managebac?)
  
• Do all the things you want from an LMS
  
• Do all the things you want from parent communication, and parent access to their childs data)
  
• They have a 'virtual money' and door access system that was locally developed. The developers are able to take the user records from an SQL Db or API if it is open.
  
• Some kind of e-portfolio for the PYP students would be nice, so I don't have to have another system.
  

 

So far the closest I am getting is iSAMS (They are working on the multi-language) with something custom from Titus as the front end.

 

My fallback is Engage, which I have used now for 2 years, but their LMS is lacking and there doesn't seem to be the same tightness in integration into other systems due to not having a proper decent API.

 

Suggestions/Guidance/Advice welcomed.

 

Chris

Edited July 6, 2017 by ChrisBate

[vikpaw]

Whack on Frog LMS, it will work with both Engage and iSAMS. The better integration will be with iSAMS. I think they have the closest two way link to SIMS though.

 

I moved a school from SIMS to Engage , and current schools use Engage. Both have Frog and can be the front end. Best auth mechanism is with Google, and if you have AD then you could sync AD to Google and SSO. Engage if self hosted will use AD credentials for all users. Staff is easy, pupil needs a bit of SQL coding and similar for parents.

 

From an LMS perspective, Frog is the best for usability and ease.

 

Language should be easy for all.

 

I also rate Titus, they can do wonderful things with Moodle.

 

By the way there is a new API coming to Engage. I quite like the current system though as I can hack the SQL to suit my need without having to go programmatic.

Edited July 6, 2017 by vikpaw

[ChrisBate]

Thanks Vik. We have met a couple of times. I was the guy who demoed the student achievements from Engage on a rotating TV screen at the Engage Conference, last March? On that, I can send you the source code and get it installed on your system if you would like? It now looks a lot nice and brings in tweets and shows the current weeks house points. PM me your whatsapp and we can arrange it.

 

I have contacted the frog guys. Firefly don't do locally hosted (I think they are developed with php and don't want the source on non controlled servers). Google is a no go for this as G-Suite for Businesses (and in extension the Edu licence) is blocked in Iran (see it is a challenge).

 

I use Engage every day and have poked around within the SQL DB (when pulling out the achievement DB) and just find it a little slow. I also want a fully web based environment (personal preference) so i am leaning towards iSams for that.

[vikpaw]

Ah, cool. Thought you were in Oman! How's it going?

 

I'll pm you.

 

Is Microsoft any better than Google? I'm testing out the sync from Engage to that.

 

Otherwise ADFS works with Frog too, just the Google link is more developed.

 

Are you on the Engage ME user group? It's a Google Community mind...