Development and Support of a Tailor Made Learning Management System

Descriptions

Development and Support of a Tailor Made Learning Management System that will enable a broad range of tools to be used to support digital learning for learners, teachers, parents and local authorities. The Learning Management System is required to have scalability to be used across all Wales and all Key Stages, but it will be initially implemented for Key Stage 4 (14-16) across 3 Local Authorities (Torfaen County Borough Council, Monmouthshire County Council and Newport City Council). As a guide, the potential numbers of learners/users are:•10,000 users in the first instance (14-16 age range, 3 LAs) •73,000 users (all 14-16 Wales) •466,100 users (all school age learners 3-19 Wales)Services Required:•the ability to deliver this project to go live January 2012•a dedicated team to provide online technical support, advice and problem resolution•high quality training in the use of the Learning Management System•support and maintain Learning Management System on an ongoing basis.Features of the ProductThe following list outlines the key functionality that we would expect the Learning Management System to provide:•A simple, easy to use interface•Bilingual interface (English/Welsh)•Different organisational/hierarchical levels with the possibility to divide by school/subject etc.•Simple course/lesson creation templates•Staff/learner forum•The ability to upload and organise all materials in any digital format, including from existing VLEs and must be SCORM compliant.•Needs to be a robust system with the capacity/plan to evolve as technology progresses•The ability to assign users with differing security levels (e.g. Headteacher, Head of Year/Dept. teacher, learner, parent…).•The system must support tagging to make content searchable by a variety of stakeholders•The opportunity to offer appropriate parental access where parents can view information about their child’s academic performance and information/courses.•Calendar function•Potential to be integrated with third party software created by TCBC’s developers (e.g. .net framework, WPF/WCF).•The ability to incorporate different forms and styles of assessment•Quiz/survey tools with different question types and settings for lesson planning and development•The ability to create, deliver, receive and mark assignments•A grade book that records grades given in quizzes, tests and assignments. The ability to track and report these tests/assignments•The ability to integrate podcasts, wikis, RSS feeds, social network sites•A messaging system•To enable it to be linked to other Management Information Systems Must be a browser based solution.•A design that appeals to 14-16 year olds.•Integration that allows access to e-mail, cloud storage / tools•allow the creation of customisable lessons and course templates•Online conferencing tools•Plagiarism prevention tools (useful for assignments)