Best VLE

[SpuffMonkey]

OK guys (and guyesses) - just wondering what people reckon is the best VLE (irrespective of what you actually use); and why?

 

Thanks

[ninjabeaver]

Unfortunately it's the only one I've used. It's made by M$, but the LP+ support for the 10 schools in West Norfolk using it has been superb. Seems very flexible and we seem to be getting the best out of it.

[Silvor]

Looked at them all, used LP+, Moddle and Kaleidos - but I don't think I can vote. Not entirely sure yet. We use Kaleidos in our LEA and it's - well...a barrel of laughs.

[Sylv3r]

Don't think I can decied. I have seen a few in action and have used TALMOS here for a couple of years. Also had Digitalbrain for a year which was awful. I didn't necessarily think TALMOS was a bad product, it just wasn't for us and at the time.

 

We are curently implementing our own system, creating our own webparts for sharepoint as well as using the SIMS webparts. And I much prefer our in house system - it is catered exactly for our needs.

[Wallgo]

This is weird, I was gonna do this poll this morning. I've been through Learnwise and Digital Brain (both Sh1T), now have to use Fronter, which is so damn fugly.

 

Moodle is best but still not pretty. Surely someone can make something which looks as good as Facebook/Bebo or something, lots of widgets, bells and whistles.

[squirrel]

Frog Teacher - I've looked at them all and this has to be the best by far.

 

AD Integration - saves students/staff having multiple passwords

 

SIMS Integration

 

Server sits in your school - doesn't matter if the Internet goes down, you can still use the VLE in school. Also speed - much quicker at uploading/downloading your files

 

Excellent tech. support

 

Allows staff to add their own content or to purchase content from SCORN compliant third parties - normally you only get one or the other with other VLEs.

 

Easy to use - saves one person having to manage the whole site. Bits can be 'given out' to others to use.

 

 

Take a look, well worth it.

[gaz350]

IMO Moodle.One reason because you can do what ever you like with it.

and those VLE's that insist on hosting the solution are at the bottom of the list in my eyes (great for primaries or schools lacking support though).

 

During school hours we could have 60+ active users at once, evening time i would be suprised if it ever passed 15 active users. uploading files is pretty instant on a local server, instead of minutes.

[kingswood]

OK guys (and guyesses) - just wondering what people reckon is the best VLE (irrespective of what you actually use); and why?

 

Thanks

 

I would have to say that my "ultimate" VLE would be Moodle, but that we currently use Studywiz and it is simply brilliant. There is room for improvement in Studywiz and SIMS integration is the holy grail...but even so, it's working far better than LP+ ever did for us!

[zag]

I've used sharepoint, Netmedia and Moodle.

 

Sharepoint is great but the learning kit bit is very poor at the moment.

 

Netmedia is awful, stay away.

 

Moodle Easily the best VLE out there at the moment although it is difficult to learn how to administer.

[pmassingham]

How do you determine 'best'? For us, Netmedia provides an easy to use interface for all stakeholders. It is low cost and yes it does have its downsides, but overall, as a managed service, it does what it says on the tin.

[gshaw]

Very interesting poll and I haven't voted yet as there's a few ways to look at it...

 

- Moodle can be very good when paired up with web devs and theme designers to give value added bits on top of a basic install. Without extra prettying up and modding it looks poor, which has generally been my feeling on Open Source stuff until Asus came along with the eeePC We're going for Moodle provided by our MIS company so it's dynamic and integrated as people enrol, sounds very promising so far

 

- Frog I saw at BETT when looking at VLEs with a mate, best at the show by a mile and they made a sale that day on the strength of their pitch and demo

 

- SharePoint based ones look good but haven't seen one fully running before so can't tell how it works in the real world?

 

- Fronter was diabolical, how that got an LEA contract I'll never know... but I can guess

[maniac]

I don't think there is a 'best' and 'worst' I think they're all different and suit different schools. What one school loves about a particular VLE, another school will hate and visa-versa.

 

When we were recently choosing a learning platform, we went to great lengths to choose one that suited the school, and not necessarily the one that offered all the technical bells and whistles. As a result our chosen platform is a fully hosted solution, which wasn't my personal favourite, but when staff saw it I got nothing but positive comments about it's usability, look and feel and features so it was an easy decision really, the staff are more likely to use something they themselves are enthusiastic about.

 

OK, so it doesn't integrate with AD which I would like, but that's not the end of the world. It does link well with SIMS however, and in my opinion it's excellent value for money. A lot of people dismiss hosted solutions from the word go, but once you factor into the equation how much a server costs for the school to buy and run, paying for a hosted solution really doesn't offer that bad value for money. No backups to worry about, no firewalls and port forwarding to worry about, it's all maintained and setup for you, upgraded when necessary and totally hassle free so the school can actually concentrate on using it rather than maintaining it!

 

And what platform did we choose? It's not listed above, we've gone for Viglen/IT's Learning and we are currently mid-way through implementation process. So far so good!

 

Mike.

[stratisphere]

We use Dokeos. Very clean, very quick, AD intergration, fully scorm compliant... very very nice

[nadeem]

I voted for Moodle

[GrumbleDook]

At the risk of being a heretic ... none of them or any of them.

 

Other than being a walled garden I cannot see the point in restricting yourself to a single platform ... the students won't so why should we.

 

It also has to fit in with the curriculum you are delivering. If you are working with other schools you need something common and accessible, but that could be locally hosted, centrally hosted (RBC) or externally hosted ...

 

Personally I like FirstClass ... but it is way too much hassle to sort out, after that I am split between sharepoint and moodle ... I would still like to see a hosted sharepoint and seperately hosted moodle working together ... and hopefully Santa will bring it this year since I have been a good boy!

[Jay]

Interesting that Frog came up quite high, I've seen it a fair bit and though although the extras that came with it were very good, the basic system was no more than a CMS for storing files. Wonder if I've not seen it as its best?

 

I've used or reviewed most of the others. Fronter is very good for interoperability and functionality, you do have to buy plus packs though, (also just been bought by Pearson so it's future direction is a little uncertain). RM's system is superb for primary schools due to its look and feel. Uniservity was liked by a lot of students due to its speed of use (fewer clicks). Netmedia is improving, the new look is much better.

 

Have to admit, I'm not a fan of the sharepoint VLE's, I've yet to see one that really stands out as more than just a content management system.

 

Moodle is great, as long as you have someone looking after it with plugins, add ons and branding etc.

 

One thing where I think it's hard to be impartial, its not *always* best to host the server yourselves. If the server room burns down and you're off sick and can't take off site backups... (frankly, who wants to take off site backups.)

[webman]

One thing where I think it's hard to be impartial, its not *always* best to host the server yourselves. If the server room burns down and you're off sick and can't take off site backups... (frankly, who wants to take off site backups.)

 

What if your internet connection fails or is unreliable or slow? What if your VLE provider has a fire and they can't be trusted or are incompetent or take X amount of months to restore access?

 

In my opinion it is far safer, quicker and more reliable to host a VLE internally and allow secure external access than to farm it out to some random company who you have no idea how their operations are ran, how secure your data is or how it's backed up (if at all).

[Jay]

What if your internet connection fails or is unreliable or slow? What if your VLE provider has a fire and they can't be trusted or are incompetent or take X amount of months to restore access?

 

In my opinion it is far safer, quicker and more reliable to host a VLE internally and allow secure external access than to farm it out to some random company who you have no idea how their operations are ran, how secure your data is or how it's backed up (if at all).

 

Those are the kind of thing contracts are suppose to take care of.

 

You could also argue why bother buying web hosting services from say Rackspace when you could host in-house. I'm not suggesting its always the best idea, but its not always the worse option either.

[soapyfish]

Frog !

 

We have had it in place scince September and it works wonderfully. The support is 1st class and its locally hosted. Anyone looking at VLE's should start here and see what "CAN" be done

[bossman]

@soapyfish:

don't feel you have to be impartial on this one hehe!

with it being your first post and all?

Have you used any other VLEs BTW? ;)

[soapyfish]

I have had several demos from Netmedia and RM, Built and run a moodle server for a start. I might not have been very impartial sorry about that but I would not be enthused by a terrible product !

[Denise_phillips]

At our school we use LP+. The biggest bnefit of the system is that it based on sharepoint. This allows us to add Meta data to resources we pu up and allows searching.

It can be customised and even with my limited knowledge of wb design I have been able to create work spaces and document libraries for staff and pupils to search to help n all aspects of teaching and learning.

The team behind the VLE are always looking to develop the platform and constantly liase with schools to help customise it for them and look at new ways it can be used within schools.

I believe it is a VLE which will grow and develop to meet school's needs and will never get to the end of it's life. It is adaptable and can meet needs of all learners and adults.

[mleighton]

We are curently implementing our own system, creating our own webparts for sharepoint as well as using the SIMS webparts. And I much prefer our in house system - it is catered exactly for our needs.

 

Then you may be interested in visiting The Kraal. We do the same - an in house SharePoint implementation - with SLG2. We are also writing our own web parts to supplement those already around. At least it means we have an MLE which does what we want it to, and which we can customise every step of the way!

[mleighton]

Personally I like FirstClass ... but it is way too much hassle to sort out, after that I am split between sharepoint and moodle ...

 

Wow I've not seen much mention of FirstClass for a while. We used to use it for a few years - and loved it - but when the VLE wave came along they really dragged their heels, so we jumped ship for SharePoint.

[KarlGoddard]

It's a bit like saying which is the best football team.. (which is naturally Arsenal)

 

Moodle evangelists will say 'Moodle' FROG users will say 'FROG', Uniservity users will say 'Moodle'

 

Seriously though I've only really used Moodle and Uniservity. I love Moodle, but I also like Uniservity for some perverse reason.

 

As our LA has opted for Uniservity I'll be spending most of my time, when I move to VLE / curric development, making Uniservity the best it can be for the school, pupils, staff and parents.

 

I don't really get too involved with which is the 'best' type things as, as Tony rightly says, there is no 'best'. Whatever I get given whether good or crap I'll make it work for my school.