JaneLWaite

Hi - we migrated from the old University platform recently - to life and we get very good support from the team at uniservity - they have been really great helping us set things up, get our SIMS feed working, users set up, training going etc. The Life forum is starting to develop nicely and the tech tips are great. They have created some good sample sites that showcase useful ideas. The help vids are super. Many of the changes that have been requested have been implemented - feels like they are listening. Its not perfect - but at the price - how can it be - its not microsoft word sold to zillions... nor is it a bespoke banking system. The security is being revamped - good thing - as its convoluted and hard to use unless you are a frequent user. But I like LIFE overall I would not be without it! I like the ease of posties and the ability to load loads of photos and get a slideshow. It was the best of the bunch when I looked some time ago and is really improved. I like being able to set up links and pages for my own units of work, share these with collegues, the kids and then the kids to use independently and at home. NO more favorites, webquests or other daft things. Looking forward to mediated blogs and other stuff. I recommend. (Infant teacher - 8 form entry)

Oh dear we must be missing a trick here. We have very stringent rules about access and each pupil is set up with their own username and password - 120 new pupils per year. They are not allowed to see photos of any other children from other classes - so each pupil is allocated to a class and there are the relevant group/sub group permissions to maintain as children are mixed up as they move from year R to year 1. Then each class has its own home page - which teachers maintain - adding photos/work etc. We also have year group pages and public pages that we maintain. Pupils are starting to collaborate but resoruces are created by teachers. Is it the user maintenance side that we seem to be making a meal of?

Hey kat, we are an infant school - so there are the ends of the spectrum. Our head will make the decision as to what product we go with. Cost is such a significant factor - particularly short term. Plus critical mass of other schools. My preference is to stay with uniservity - as I can see that some of the changes in LiFE look good and its that whole thing of we have some momentum to change practise and a new provider would slow/jepodise that. I can so understand your situation that you are the adminstrator and 'developer' and you have a 'day' job - I am very fortuante that our lovely head and ICT co-ord have allocated an admin staff member to do the admin and half termly staff meetings devoted to the VLE (in the ICT suite) mean that adoption by others is taking hold. Not looked at Smartassess butwill now.

We were quoted a free replacement front end website and less than £3K for three years licence/maintenace and support if enough schools in the area signed up for webanywhere - maybe I misunderstood the pitch. So Uniservity is way more expensive (for us) at more than £3K per year with again enough schools - a postcode lottery?

Thank you all for replies so far. Cost seems to be the bottom line for our school (yes I agree it should not be) - are our choices (broadly)?? -can anyone add more options to further confuse me? Moodle ( pricing seems based on inhouse skill/time from earlier post in this thread - so I suspect would be more expensive in short term for us) Uniservity (seems to be most expensive long term but as we are with them them inertia to stay and the 'promise' of life - impoved functionality and useability...), DBprimary (any experience from anyone and pricing?), Mylearning (earlier post in this thread - need to find out about pricing) Webanywhere (cheap but perhaps off shelf version is rather inflexible and our use would be mostly using their website bit (jotter) for content management - not sure how infant user friendly the front end is + seperation of VLE bits may then constrain us moving into exploiting more of the interesting VLE bits ???) Google + other free shareware products (I think too hard and scary for me and my confidence and tech level) Has anyone done a recent comparision of costs/functionality/performance/useability/sustainability/support etc? Then I can use this to argue strategic choice rather than a knee-jerk pricing choice? Cheers Jane - thanks again for helping

Yes and here lots more schools in Brighton & Hove with the same problem. I was not involved in the orginal tender process that Uniservity 'won' - so do not know the criteria that they 'passed. We have had a company called webanywhere recommending their services for a learning platform. I do not know if these guys were in the original tender bids. Does anyone have any experience of this alternative - very cheap - way less than uniservity for a 3 year licence with a thrown in front Website built by webanywhere to replace the uniservity front end. I on a personal level have spent man months (or so it has felt at times) loading up links, photos, videos, touting the product with parents and pupils. We have had training for all staff to use uniservity VLE. Seems daunting to start again. We have not seen Cloud yet - is it easier to use than the rather old fashioned long winded old uniservity version. Sorry for the rant but it is great to find a forum where other teachers are doing the same as us - re-doing the tender process - in their spare time. Many thanks for any help Jane