WebBased are excited to be working with DCSF to achieve national interoperability between all CAP and Area Prospectus sites. We were tasked with putting together a proposed adoption plan in response to DCSF's draft interoperability roadmap - this was returned in January.

DCSF are due to release a Local Area Guidance Pack at the end of March that will provide guidance on how we work towards achieving their objectives.

Visit the DCSF website.

WebBased have been working with Education Leeds to establish a Shibboleth solution that will enable users to be authenticated in the ILP after logging into the Leeds Learning Network. This is shortly due to be rolled out to schools across Leeds.

Following on from this success, Shibboleth will be implemented across the South West, using the Merlin IDP as a mechanism to authenticate users.

Supporting schools and end users with questions regarding the ILP is a key task for Local Authorities. To help reduce the number of questions which are received, a new online help system has been developed and will shortly be added to the beta site of the ILP

Initially, this will allow users to access the latest version of the ILP help material. Further updates will be made to the help system later in the year, including the addition of more interactive help features and an FAQ section.

Click here to visit the e-ILP website.

The Area Prospectus Online Feedback module was originally designed to collect feedback from users on the site itself as well as being a general feedback/questionnaire tool. Devon and Torbay Local Authorities are taking this one step further by using the module as an IAG tool to create careers questionnaires for learners to complete.

To maximise the potential of this tool, updates will be made to the module to allow the creation of sub-questions, as well as additional reporting tools.

Find out more about the Area Prospectus.

WebBased is currently working with South West LAs to develop a SIF Agent. To allow the integration between MIS systems and the ILP, schools will install a SIF Agent which reads and writes data to the South West Grid for Learning (SWGfL).

By the end of March, WebBased's ILP SIF Agent will be able to read and write core data to SWGfL.

WBi have just launched the first version of our new CRM system for BioVault. The CRM is interfaced with WebBased's QMS system, which BioVault also operate, to process human tissue samples and extract stem cells.

This is a very exciting venture between WebBased and BioVault that has great scope for future development.

uLearn has just launched its Free Map Printing service. In addition the many maps that uLearn itself provides, there are now 38 Local Authorities who have included local historical and/or aerial mapping in the service. This makes uLearn's Free Map Printing service the easiest way for teachers to access the widest possible range of mapping - completely free!

Simply register at ulearn.infomapper.com and choose 'Free map print'. When you register, you can claim a free 14-day trial!

NI Maps, uLearn's bespoke mapping service for Northern Ireland teachers, will go live next week! Northern Ireland users have been using InfoMapper Classic (the previous version of our serice) in their teaching and will now be able to benefit greatly from the increased speed and more map interaction tools that will be provided in NI Maps. 

Contact the uLearn team for more information. 

uLearn's new FREE service allows you to view and print world maps and satellite images, European maps, local OS maps, aerial photographs, historic map areas and any aerial/historic mapping provided by your Authority. 

Simply register at ulearn.infomapper.com and choose 'Free map print'. When you register, you can claim a free 14-day trial!

Kent will be launching their multi-channel CPD Online system in 2010 which will operate across many services areas including Schools, Early Years, Social Care, Health and the Private and Voluntary sector. With 580 schools, 750 settings and hundreds of organisations, Kent CPD Online will pull together and advertise all the training opportunities across the LA, providing an easy-to-use unified solution.

North Somerset LA have completed the roll-out of CPD Online to their integrated children's workforce. This includes schools, governors, social care, health and early years. This single software solution fully supports the One Workforce Agenda. CPD Online has been so successful that other areas of the council have started to adopt it, including corporate IT and elected members.

Visit the North Somerset CPD Online website

The TDA have recently launched a national CPD database of course opportunities. CPD Online can send all course information to the TDA database automatically every night, saving LAs time and money.

Wiltshire LA were keen to get all their course information uploaded automatically from their CPD Online system to the national database and have been successfully up and running with this since August.

We chose BETT 2010 as a platform to launch our new 14-19 Solutions suite and are delighted with the interest it has received. 14-19 Solutions has been designed to help you fully meet the current DCSF 14-19 requirements. Advertise your courses with Area Prospectus, collate and track applications with CAP and once the students have enrolled, enhance and empower their learning with their own, customisable, electronic Individual Learning Planner.

You may have noticed that we made a few changes to our stand - including having more PCs. This enabled us to demo our products to many more visitors, which was especially useful considering at the time of writing, BETT 2010 was on its way to exceeding last year's record figure of 30,000 visitors!

We would like to thank everyone who took the time to visit our stand!

The Tamar Valley Consortium is responsible for delivering training to over 1,000 learners across 130 sites in Plymouth. TVC have used the online attendance tracking facility in the WebBased e-ILP for two years. Bob Mountjoy, TVC Director, said, "The success of the e-ILP to track attendance has exceeded our expectations. Students know they are being tracked more closely and our retention and success rates have shown a marked improvement."

Click here to visit the TVC website.

Camden Training and Development Services (TDS) provides training for a whole range of sectors within both Camden's Children's Workforce and Adult Social Care Workforce. From Septmber 1st, 2009 TDS have been advertising their training opportunities online and taking online bookings. All staff have their own online Personal Development Record and Line Managers are able to easily access training information about their teams.

Click here to view the Camden TDS press release.

Click here to visit the website.

Keeping the Area Prospectus up to date is one of the largest challenges LAs face. LAs and Providers were therefore delighted with the new and improved course upload facility. Providers simply export courses from their in-house system into the Area Prospectus, allowing them to add thousands of courses in one go.

Click here to read more about Area Prospectus.

Gloucestershire's CPD Online advertises courses from the SEN Service areas and provides an Expertise and Brokerage database for users to search by specialism. Additionally, school staff from across Gloucestershire are able to request and track support from the SEN Outreach Support Service which provides a large amount of information and forums for SEN user groups.

Click here to visit the website.

A new feature has been added to the WebBased e-ILP that allows learners to think more carefully about the goals they are setting themselves. In early 2010, learners will have the opportunity to list the individual actions which they need to complete in order to successfully achieve their goals. Each action will be highlighted in red or green to show its status within an action plan. As actions are signed-off, learners will see their goals getting closer to completion.

Click here to visit the e-ILP website.

Poole Local Authority have been using CPD Online across their schools and Early Years setting for the last three years with great success. They are now gearing up to launch their Governor System which will support the management of governing bodies within the Local Authority. Clerks will be able to keep their governors information up to date and view their governing body composition and information at any time.

Click here to visit the website.

14-19 presents many challenges to LAs, not least joining together different IT systems. WebBased are delighted to be rolling out their much anticipated Common Application Process in January 2010 as pilots begin with three South West LAs. The Common Application Process integrates seamlessly with both the Area Prospectus and the e-ILP, providing young people with the easiest possible route to plan and complete applications.

Click here for more information on 14-19 Solutions.

The CV Builder module, by CPD Online, has been rolled out to all schools across the South East Wales Consortium (five LEAs). The module allows staff to easily and effectively build a CV within their electronic Development Record. Staff can record all information in one place and generate professional-looking CVs. The system reflects the key aim of GTC Wales to introduce a standardised, web-based electronic Personal Development Record for all teaching staff in Wales.

Click here for the press release.

The pilot project providing Ordnance Survey mapping for the whole of the UK has now been extended beyond its previous end date of August 2009. The pilot will now continue until JISC is able to put a permanent arrangement in place.

uLearn provides detailed OS mapping to schools and Local Authorities so the extension to this important project is welcome news. We are pleased that we can continue to bring you the most comprehensive mapping functionalities and geography resources available.

This will allow schools to add national OS data to their uLearn license on an ongoing basis. If you do not yet have a uLearn license, visit the website to sign-up for a 14-day trial or to purchase a full license.

Go to ulearn.infomapper.com to sign up for the free trial.

Ocean2012 is a new coalition dedicated to ensuring that the 2012 reform of the EU Common Fisheries Policy stops overfishing, ends destructive fishing practices and delivers fair and equitable use of healthy fish stocks.

Ocean2012 has chosen ActiveSite to manage their online presence.

Click here for the Ocean2012 website.

uLearn by InfoMapper, part of the WebBased Group, is proud to announce a new service - NI Maps - for schools through Northern Ireland. Record numbers of schools have been opting into this innovative new service.

NI Maps will include both an Irish language interface and the ability to log in to the mapping service from the Learning NI portal seamlessly using Shibboleth technology.

This service is constantly evolving so make sure you check back regularly for the latest developments.

Diploma courses and qualifications are part of a Government education restructuring programme aimed at 14-19 year-olds.

The Plymouth Local Education Authority and their Diploma Consortia have chosen to implement ActiveSite, part of the WebBased Group, in order to manage and promote their Diploma offerings online.

Click here to visit the website.

We are delighted to announce that VT Four S CPD Online has gone live and has had over 700 course bookings within the first week.

VT Four S is one of the largest school support service organisations in the country. They provide consultancy advice, training and development, and project management to schools, Local Authorities and on behalf of central Government.

Click here for the VT Four S press release.

Click here to visit the VT Four S CPD Online website.