Twiddler

Thanks RichB. The trouble is we have Moodle already and in that there is a problem forcing us to try and look elsewhere. It is installed and has been managed internal historically by different people with different agendas - the result that staff are not confident of their courses and data staying where it's put or getting removed accidentally or on purpose without consultation. Additionally my experience is that Moodle is not popular with many staff in the UK at least as it's seen as clunky and they are not motivated to make use of it as opposed to the all shiny Frog VLE for instance - word gets around! Appreciate the reply and still looking I guess! Mike

Hi I am new to Edugeek so apologies if this sort of information has already been discussed. We are trying to create an environment whereby the students (aged 11-18) get information electronically from staff and other students by subject area under the banner of independent learning. We do not have a well supported or well developed VLE and the ICT staff are snowed under - so we are looking to create a more independent environment that is easy to set up and maintain by academic staff. It seems that the ideal environment to achieve this is using a hosted forum software suite without being too expensive or in the case of some free hosted sites passing their personal information to 3rd parties and/or being age restricted (13+). I have looked at and tinkered with Proboards which is just perfect (categories, boards, sub-boards, polls, moderators, calendar and other features) - it would be perfect but we cannot really go with it due to the commercial implications and age restriction on use. I've looked but nothing obvious pops up - I am sure Moodle has an offering but that is probably off the menu due to the problems I have mentioned earlier - I would be very grateful to hear your wisdom on this ...! Many Thanks