Recommendations: "VLE" ~ Online Platforms for Edu

[WilliamGates]

Hi everyone,

 

I support a number of associated schools and we have the opportunity for a clean break in terms of online platform (though email will remain with office 365). We're considering straying from sharepoint, I know it can be tweaked and manipulated a lot but our experience is that it's always behind the likes of google's platform.

 

I'm just looking to see what else is out there and recommended? Including google (particularly if you use alongside O365).

 

The main objective is bring schools, teams & colleagues together, sharing files and good practice as well as news and information and diarising events/rooms.

 

Thanks in advance!

[AlanD]

You are opening a can of worms here.

 

Personally - I think they are all rubbish....but most have some feature of merit which might attract you to adopt them but at the cost of losing a feature in a rival product.

 

The eye-watering cost of some of them makes you wonder what you are getting for your money.

 

It would be good if MIS systems actually provided you with these capabilities - because those systems have full access to user/staff/timetable data. Any third party product has to rely on what that MIS system provides as external connectors (like group call).

 

And it depends what VLE means to you. To some it means parent/school communication. To others homework assignment/setting/markbooks. Some want it to include parent meeting planning and room/resource booking. Some want "messaging" integrated.

 

And to do these things well probably needs a full time manager to support staff and students in using it. (= twisting their arms to use it in some cases). This won't happen so everyone will be given half a days training and told to get on with it and learn as you go.

 

I usually paint a red line with such software installations (and this goes for MIS systems too) in that its not my job to be an expert in the timetable, managing the school diary, homeworks etc. My job is to maintain the computer system. If the VLE works - its up to someone else how to put data in, change it etc.

 

We are just about to install Firefly (..no its not a VLE....but it has some functions that a VLE might have). In some ways is fairly limited - but what it does do it does quite nicely. It is going to replace our home brewed web portal which linked up to our MIS via SQL and VB.net.

 

I quite like google classrooms - and several staff here use it and it seems to work well. Again its not a VLE - and could be customised to do most things....but I don't have either the enthusiasm nor the time that it would require to do everything we would like.

 

While Office365 and sharepoint could be used - its always seemed really clunky and difficult to customise - partly because potentially its complicated. Microsoft has withdrawn their "classroom" bit - perhaps recognising that it was awful - and nowhere near as good as google's offering. But you can still use "Teams" to do much the same if you were wedded to this. (I'm guessing there was a not a single school using their classroom app).

 

Always thought the RM unify could be expanded by RM to provide some VLE functionality - as its a portal that is commonly used. Magellan is another platform albeit not so well known which provides better functionality....but again not really a VLE.

 

What you can up with can be hotch-potch of several different portals/VLE/MIS systems - and of while this can provide the best of each functionality its all pretty confusing for staff/students/parents.

[psumner1992]

We are just moving to Sharepoint and like the simplicity it offers for all users.

 

At the same time we have invested in Salalamander Sharepoint and this is brilliant as it handles syncing class membership data, creating class based OneNote notebooks and class based subject areas with the ability of sharing work with staff and students.

 

The team at Salamander are very flexible and can handle pretty much anything you ask of them.

 

Microsoft Classroom never left the beta stage but Microsoft Teams for Education has now been released and should include all the same features such as assigning and marking work plus working collaboratively with others.

@rpwillis

Edited July 29, 2017 by psumner1992

[edmokeski]

We've gone with G Suite for Edu, but as Alan stated it depends on what you're looking for. We don't get parent communication from Google (for that we use My School Portal and School Post), nor do we get room booking (I like the one from School Cloud Systems, but we're going to just use Outlook as there's not much we need bookable). I used to run a VLE, and it never "worked" -- it's too much faff, too much in the way of actually teaching and learning, and they only ever seem to catch on with a top-down thou shalt VLE mandate. I'm curious that Firefly has stopped selling themselves as a VLE? When we went w/ G Suite we looked very closely @Firefly (and O365, which still handles our e-mail and some legacy office productivity needs, and Apple's offerings) but it seemed too much like our previous VLE. What I like about G Suite is the modularity, and the way that Classroom is so easy to use. (and the price tag) I definitely agree with your assessment that Google is always a step ahead of its main competitors in meeting the needs of education, although this has narrowed a little bit with Apple, and widened a bit with Microsoft, who I think are investing less in the market.

We've wound up with what one might call a hotch-potch of specialised systems for each major function, but what we require of them all is federated logins and/or AD SSO, so that nobody has to ever remember more than their one username/password. Works well for us thus far.

[mthomas08]

Think the first thing you might want to do is write a list exactly what you want. Maybe try and get a survey setup for all the schools. I worked at a school once that wanted to setup everything online similar to how Universities have it. You logon and gain access to the whole subject course with learning materials and assignments. One of those things that on paper makes sense with so few not having access to IT/Internet.

 

We currently have a few here and we've just pulled the plug on RealSmart - quite a bit of money for a simple SIMs sync to google and simple platform to create shared resources. Probably didn't help their rep who arrived to tell us we can scrap Micosoft tomorrow to save £££ and it will be easy... (while sitting there with his MacBook)

 

Moodle which is mainly used by ICT for their courses etc - It's simple, free and does the basics.

G Suite which a few of our staff are using it to share files with students and now we've got back full control of it we will use Classroom in September. Also going to advise our students to use this instead of a USB stick (due to the amount of misplaced/damaged ones come through our door).

 

We are also considering going cloud based for some storage/email - again free instead of purchasing expensive servers.

 

Some staff are looking at Show My Homework to replace SIMs Learning Gateway due to the complex nature of passwords and not so fluid system (smooth) to use. Cheaper than SLG.

 

It would be good if MIS systems actually provided you with these capabilities - because those systems have full access to user/staff/timetable data. Any third party product has to rely on what that MIS system provides as external connectors (like group call).

 

Capita do SLG... and it's really not all that plus don't get me started on their password settings. It does link with SIMs well though..

[deano3693]

We are with Overnet Data and have a Moodle VLE it does all we need and more! Messaging, Edulink app which integrates with SIMS for timetable, behaviour etc information. Parents also have access to behaviour/achievement/attendance data - All customisable! Pulls SIMS groups out MIS and enrols on courses - Year end procedure then unenrols previous groups and enrols the new groups.

 

Everything that we used to have to do manually now happens automatically overnight and it isn't that badly priced compared to what we have paid in the past for VLE/Integration etc etc.

[bossman]

+1 Overnet Data run our Moodle which has all the benefits of pulling all the Sims groups and data out plus Parental connectivity, this coupled with our move to G-Suite and all the EDU apps that brings has been fantastic and the Staff just love the simplicity of it and how good it works. We sync the AD groups using the Google sync tool and this again just works.

 

Our network shares are read only now so Staff and Students have all their data in Googles team drives where they can have access anywhere, mapped drives are now hidden so shared resources are now also in the cloud using team drives again, just works so well alongside Gmail which links everything together so staff can collaborate with students using Google classroom and also share files with other members of Staff via team drives or Gmail.

 

Eventually when Sims is finally web based from September so I am led to believe we can utilise the cloud service even more.

 

Even 3D technology apps are finding their way into web based apps so it shouldn't be long before most schools become Cloud service based.

 

I find its the only way forward and will save the school money in the long term.

[zag]

Microsoft Teams for Education + SDS data sync with Sims is a great combo. We've launched this year after 3 failed VLE's (netmedia, frog, moodle) and teachers are actually starting to use it!

 

Integrates well with online sharepoint, onenote and onedrive.

 

I think Microsoft have finally cracked it!

[SHimmer45]

we have been a moodle school for a long time ticks the various boxes we need, only downside to all VLE's is that the require decent content and people to keep the content flowing otherwise they can do a bit dormant

[lcthompson]

Hi. We are thinking about moving away from realsmart in the summer and we are concerned about what will happen with the website etc. when we leave. We want to keep Google Apps but lose the smoke and mirrors that is realsmart! Any advice would be greatly appreciated!