JT270678

About 6 months ago we looked at these three as well as some other providers and we chose LP+ for the following reasons: Based on Microsoft technology, integration with Office which was crutial for teachers, managed service allowed us to have other people developing and managing the platform instead of it falling to us, opportunity to use Outlook, teachers found the product the easiest to use, flexibility of SharePoint, Customisation of the look of the platform, able to use existing office resources teachers had created within the platform, opportunity to collaborate with other schools on LP+ both england and abroad, the LP+ development roadmap was superb (MIS, mobile, parent, community), and we were very impressed with their knowledge around education/pedagogy and how a learning platform fits within a school environment and the challenges we face. I can say that we were really dissappointed with Ramesys, their product is old, unfriendly and generally needs a complete overhall. Frog were good and had a really great looking product on the surface, but this is really only a VLE and we were after a MLE. The sales guy was very good when kept within his comfort zone but once we delved down into specifics the functionality/flexibility did not compete with SharePoint and were poor on collaboration if you had more than one school (feeders etc), which was key to us. Since going with LP+ we have not regretted it and have a good relationship with them, the support is good and we feel we made the right choice 6 months on.

Is available now:- The new SPS Provisioning Tool enables the automatic maintenance of SharePoint sites based on a central data source. It can automatically create and update sites based on the data in the source and assign permissions to users. The canonical example within schools is to maintain their Learning Gateway. SPS Provisioning Tool can automatically extract class information from your school management system, create sites for all your classes and assign the correct pupils and teachers to them. SPS Provisioning Tool Learning Kit does everything that SPS Provisioning Tool does as well as SLK specific features. Email me for further details

SharePoint 2007 for Administrators Course Outline Module 1: Introduction to SharePoint 2007 – The Technology Introducing Windows SharePoint Services v3 and MOSS 2007. WSS and MOSS – History & Business Context & Concepts Overview of WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 features and functionality Relationship between WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 Requirements for WSS v3 and MOSS 2007 Hands-on: becoming familiar with SharePoint Interface and classroom setup. Introducing a case study and some exercises, logging on to the portal and to the users MySite. Module 2: Installing SharePoint Technologies Deployment Scenarios | MOSS/WSS Preparing for MOSS/WSS Hardware Requirements Design Considerations Installation Preparation Central Administration – The 3 Tier Administration Model The Shared Services Provider (SSP) Upgrade Considerations Backup & Restore Hands-on: Using Virtual PC Instance to study Central Administration Module 3: Creating an Enterprise portal Overview of built-in templates Understanding Site Structure and Hierarchy Understanding Web Parts Understanding Customization features, adapting to your environment Introduction to Enterprise Content Management - Publishing Features Hands-on: Using the Virtual PC instance to create a portal based on the built in templates. Module 4: Beginning SharePoint Administration Managing User Profiles Managing Audiences Managing My Sites Configuring Search Creating user roles and establishing security Hands-on: Administering the new portal, creating new users, and working through the administration interface Module 5: Using SharePoint 2007 May 2007. © All rights reserved. This document remains the intellectual property of SharePoint School (Tecnologia Limited) and may not be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the prior written permission of the author. Document management functionality (Check-in/check-out, major and minor versioning and item-level security) Integration with the Office 2007 client programs Offline document library support in Outlook 2007 Using Surveys, Alerts, Calendar New Project Tasks list for lightweight project management Recycle Bin Mobile device access to list data Content Types Site Columns InfoPath Forms (Browser Based) Hands-on: Working through Windows SharePoint Services Team site features, understanding all the components, available with a SharePoint Server environment Module 6: Introducing SharePoint Designer 2007 Basic Overview Understanding the Interface Using SharePoint Designer for Basic Administration Backup and Restore Basic Customisation Workflow using the new Workflow Designer in SharePoint Designer 2007 Hands-on: Backup SharePoint using SharePoint Designer Module 7: Microsoft Office SharePoint Server (MOSS) 2007 Advanced Features – Feature Walkthrough Enterprise Content Management Business Data Catalog Business Intelligence with Excel Services Forms Server Records Management Web Content Management Enterprise search Report Center

Class server is now available as an SDK and its free. if you want to know how to download it then drop me a line back. Are you using it with SharePoint in the Microsoft Learning Gateway Framewrok as an authoring tool?

If the secondaries want a true secondary school solution then look at SharePoint as this offers you the flexibitiy required in secondary schools. Federations like Shireland in Sandwell are a fine example to look at.