Whats the Point of SharePoint?

[dyoung5]

Hi Guys,

 

What I want to know is, if we have a VLE, do we need SharePoint?

 

My predecessor purchased SharePoint server last year, but no-one got round to setting it up. Now I really don't like to waste things, and if we don't need it, I will remove it from next year's school agreement renewal.

 

We have Viglen ItsLearning VLE, which, from what I can tell does most of the things that SharePoint will do. I'm just wondering if there are any advantages of using SharePoint along side a VLE.

 

Thanks.

 

David

[webman]

Not really. If you already have the features you want with your existing VLE, then don't bother. It's just a basic document management system...

[jamesb]

Not really. If you already have the features you want with your existing VLE, then don't bother. It's just a basic document management system...

 

I'd hesitate to say its a basic document management system. Much more of a very powerful document management system which is highly expandable and has lots of other features.

 

However if you're happy with your VLE and have no plans to implement anything which requires Sharepoint then no, you don't really need it.

[zag]

We used sharepoint to replace our shared drives on the network such as the teacher drive or student shared drive. It worked really well because we could remove these massive shares and start from scratch. It also gave students and teachers the option to download documents at home easily.

 

I also think its a much better VLE than the commercial ones out there.

 

Give it an install to check it out, its a very simple setup and you don't realise its power until you use it for a few months. Best thing about it is single sign on and exchange/office integration.

[Butuz]

I am using Sharepoint Services 3 to design an intranet (hopefully becoming an extranet).

 

It's so customisable, configurable and powerful it's great. So far I've created my own ICT helpdesk with integrated harware and software inventory, and an hoping to create a room and equipment booking part too.

 

Spend some time and you can do anything on it!

[apearce]

Where should I start...haha

 

SharePoint is designed to be a collaboration, document management, search, reporting and loads more but lets have a look at these and what they can do.

 

Collaboration

Staff can store answer sheets in a web portal, shared calendar so heads of department can see when staff are booked on training course, full staff calendar that is kept up to date - no more out of date hard copies.

 

Staff can use Excel Services (requires MOSS Enterprise licensing) for tracking sheets which will allow any member of staff to view the spreadsheet online and update at any time

 

Pupils can work together on a project and use the announcements, calendars, discussion forum to work together to store all the information they need. You can see what work has been done by which pupils (version controlling).

 

Other areas you can have for collaborating are, pupil council, governors, PTA...

 

Document Management

Moving away from your shared area and have all your documents available online for your staff and pupils to access from anywhere online. Convert Word documents automatically in HTML, meta data, easily transfer documents to and from moodle with the moodle webparts available at codeplex, store any kind of file type.

 

Search

With the latest Infrastructure update for SharePoint which includes the same feature as Search Server 2008 you can now search all of you sharepoint site, including inside documents, files shares, external sites (that you can specify) and google

 

Reporting

Have a look at this link

https://www.twynhamschool.com/supportinglearning/default.aspx

 

Have a look at this previous post as well

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/virtual-learning-platforms/18425-sharepoint-microsoft-learning-gateway-links-resources.html

 

I could go on for hours and start talking about how you can use it in lessons etc but this is a good start point

 

A.