Kaleidos Learning Platform: Virtual Learning Environment

The Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) is a powerful whole-school content management and delivery module for both teachers and students with tools for planning and delivering lessons and recording the attainment of individual learners.

The new VLE module is entirely web based and has been designed to support your school at each stage of the teaching and learning cycle, with tools for:

• Planning and delivering lessons and assignments.
• Personalising learning by simply targeting differentiated activities at individuals or groups of students.
• Creating your own content, importing content from other schools or commercial providers such as Nelson Thorne and RM.
• Sharing resources with colleagues in your school.
• Recording the attainment of individuals and teaching groups.
• Making key personalised information about progress and outstanding work available to staff, students and parents.

The VLE is integrated with the Kaleidos Learning Platform and benefits from the sophisticated communication and collaboration tools in the portal module, as well as providing the means of engaging parents and carers in the learning cycle. The range of tools and functionality in the VLE can help a school:

Empower and engage students by bringing everything they need in to one place: they can browse their courses; search for resources; receive personalised activities and return assignments; communicate directly with their teachers; and check their own progress using the detailed markbook.

Save time for both teachers and students by having the information needed, whenever it's needed. As a web-delivered service, the VLE is available from any Internet connected computer and provides an intuitive search tool to access a wide range of content which can be tagged using a combination of keywords and curriculum frameworks. Click on the 'Content' tab for more information on the options for making content available in the VLE including details of the vast range of educational content available for use in the VLE module.

Encourage collaborative working practises by using the shared work spaces in the VLE. This helps save valuable preparation time, as well as enhancing teaching by sharing best practise.

Inform planning, teaching and assessment by having detailed and summary information simply presented and always on hand.

Like all Kaleidos Learning Platform modules, the implementation of your VLE is supported by a flexible programme of educational training and consultancy. All educational training is provided by ex-teachers with experience to help guide schools through the change management process.

To find out more about the features and benefits of the new VLE module, click on the "Features" tab.

Supporting the way students learn and the way teachers work...

Empowering and engaging students

• Students have their own workspace within the VLE which brings everything that they need together in one place: they can browse their courses; search for resources; receive and return assignments; and check their own progress using the detailed markbook. 
• Teachers can make different activities and resources available to sub-groups of students within the same class, to provide a personalised learning experience based on students' needs and interests; this can be done without making it obvious to the student or their classmates and with very little additional effort from the teacher.
• Teachers can provide individual students with additional support for an assignment using the communication tools.
• Access anywhere and at anytime enables students to have greater independence in their learning.
• Even students that are unable to attend school can still receive and return work. They can also maintain contact with their teacher by sending and receiving messages in relation to specific assignments.
• The simple interface makes it easy for students to see what work they have and more importantly, when it is due in. Status indicators make it easy for students, and their parents, to identify assignments where the deadline is imminent or has passed.

 Getting the information needed, whenever it's needed

• Find the perfect resources for any occasion using the sophisticated and intuitive search tool, whether a student or teacher.
• All content can be tagged using a combination of keywords or curriculum frameworks.
• Helps with planning and enables teachers to create stimulating lessons and engage all students in their learning.
• Share resources with colleagues across the school, encouraging collaboration and best practice.
• Quickly import existing materials or create new resources in the VLE using the resource builder including simple text, multimedia files, tests and links to web-based resources. 
• Save time by customising existing materials rather than always having to create everything from scratch.
• Great choice of content available commercially. (see "Content" tab for further information.)

Assessing Progress

• Teachers can readily see when students first accessed an assignment and when they handed it in.
• Tests can be set using a variety of formats, eg multi-choice, multi-response, short answer. The VLE can automatically mark tests and highlight students which have had high or low scores. This reduces marking and administration time and allows teachers to spend their time analysing the results to identify how best to support individual students.
• Like other lesson materials, questions and tests can be shared, allowing teachers to re-use and re-purpose existing materials rather than waste time by starting again.
• The online markbook can be used to record a wide range of activities from completed tests and assignments, to whether learning objectives have been met, as well as informal observations.
• Staff can export the markbook, for example to a spreadsheet, for further analysis.
• Get an overview of performance over a whole course or piece of work, either for individuals or groups. This helps the teacher to quickly identify students who are racing ahead or falling behind, so that their learning programmes can be appropriately adjusted.
• Teachers can also use the built-in communication tools to send a message to a student or group of students in relation to an assignment - no more time wasted in tracking down students, or delays in sending messages via the office or form teachers.

 Reliable access at any time

• VLE is an entirely web-based service freeing both students and teachers from the constrains of the classroom.
• An Internet browser is all you need to access VLE - no necessity for any additional servers or storage hardware.
• Take advantage of new product features as soon as they are available without having to wait for software updates to be installed locally or across your network.

Whole-class teaching

As well as supporting independent and personalised learning the VLE includes tools to support teachers delivering lessons in front of the whole class. The "Teach Screen" gives teachers direct access to all their chosen lesson materials via one screen. They can create lessons that contain a wide variety of different materials (for example Power Point, Flash, video, Easiteach, Excel, etc) and confidently move between them without having to worry about finding the next resource on the network or getting everything in one place before the lesson. This helps teachers maintain pace in their lessons and is particularly useful in supporting less-confident teachers to introduce ICT-based materials into their lessons.

A learning platform that is built on solid foundations

As a module of the Kaleidos Learning Platform, you can be sure that the VLE module will evolve and adapt to your needs over the months and years that it will be in a school. Integration with the other key elements of the Kaleidos Learning Platform delivers some important benefits:  

• Because VLE is integrated with the Portal+  and Data Exchange modules, user accounts and groups (eg teaching groups) can be created from MIS data.  This saves a lot of time when initially setting up the learning environment.  Over time, as the MIS is updated, changes are automatically reflected in the VLE - again saving time in the ongoing administration of the system.
• Portal+ gives parents and carers access to relevant information held in the VLE, such as a view of homework that has been set and marks for completed work, which enables them to become more involved in their child's education.
• When additional learning platform modules become available, such as Assessment, these can simply be 'switched on', ie no need to install, populate and administer a new product.
• Portal+ provides sophisticated communication and collaboration tools that further enhance your learning environment. Click here for more information about Portal+.

VLE is web-delivered and the supported browsers are IE6, IE7 and Firefox 2.0 on a PC, and Firefox 2.0 on a Mac.

Please note: these requirements refer to the VLE module only. In order to implement the VLE, schools will first require the Kaleidos Learning Platform set up. When initially released, the VLE module will only be available in conjunction with Portal+. For details of the requirements for the core learning platform service please refer to the "Specifications" "tab in the Portal+ section, please click here.