Wales PLC Online was launched at the ‘Teaching makes a difference - one year on’ which was the first in a series of four education conferences being held across Wales throughout March. WebBased attended the event and demonstrated the system alongside Welsh Government officials to the Minister for Education and Skills, Leighton Andrews AM. The National PLC model has seven inter-related phases and guides Facilitators and members through each phase clearly providing powerful tools for tracking progress, collaboration, files, evidence and impact. The model outlines how PLCs are established, how data is used to select the focus of enquiry and how PLC members work interdependently to secure improvements in learning outcomes.

Following the successful release of Ealing CPD Online to all schools, Ealing have recently launched their Room Booker system. Room Booker allows Ealing to manage rooms and resources at their Education Centre. The module is integrated with their CPD Online system but can also be used as a standalone product where required. Room Booker allows the venue administrator to list resources, catering options, costs and availability for each room. Automatic emails are sent to event organisers when their room booking is confirmed and when any changes are made to their booking. A day view of all bookings at Ealing Education Centre provides an up to date Foyer display screen for each room that can be displayed at reception.

Ealing CPD Online - www.ealingcpd.org.uk

BETT 2012 was chosen to launch a new online collaborative learning and assessment solution for schools in the UK by the President of Iceland, H. E. Mr Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson. InfoMentor has already enjoyed considerable success in over 1,000 schools across Iceland, Sweden, Switzerland and Germany.

HRH Prince Andrew also joined the celebrations to launch InfoMentor in the UK at BETT.

The partnership to bring InfoMentor to the UK has already had a high profile start with work starting during the Nordic-Baltic Summit hosted by David Cameron in January 2011.

Working together with WebBased Ltd, an experienced UK Education company, InfoMentor will provide simple, yet powerful online tools with a vision to enable all pupils to reach their goals and allow teachers to have more time to concentrate on learning rather than paperwork.

For more information visit: www.infomentor.co.uk

South East Wales Consortium (5 LEAs) have had huge success with CPD Online since their launch in 2008. They have 99.3% of users booking online and have seen annual savings of over £250,000. This year they have introduced a new Professional Learning Communities module (PLC) which is helping to transform the ways teachers develop their expertise. The PLC Manager enables LEAs and schools to manage the system so that the most effective use is made of the available time. This time can then be spent implementing change and improve performance rather than trying to manage a paper based system.

Schools have reported that the system is easy to use and that it has made the management of PLCs a process rather than a series of administrative tasks. Estyn (Welsh Inspection Service) has commented to colleagues that they are impressed that the PLC Manager has saved time and released teachers to focus on raising standards by focusing on improving pedagogy.

SE Wales CPD Online - www.cpdsewales.org.uk

Kent implemented CPD Online 18 months ago to enable the authority to offer access to training across the Children’s Workforce including schools staff, early years practitioners, governors, local authority staff, multi-agency partners and staff working in the voluntary and community sectors. It has enabled the authority to share resources and offer joint training opportunities across professions, to provide and facilitate a co-ordinated CPD programme to meet the needs of the Children’s Services workforce and reduce the bureaucratic burden.

CPD Online has helped to secure the effective use of resources for continuing professional development and has enabled the council to streamline and improve communication so that staff and organisations are able to identify appropriate development opportunities. It has encouraged integration while still continuing to value the distinctive contribution of each profession. Using CPD Online has supported the achievement of cost efficiencies through common approaches, processes and systems relating to the organisation, administration and reporting around training and development across the county.

Kent CPD Online - www.kenttrustweb.org.uk/cpdonline

Suffolk Learning and Improvement Service is building on the success of CPD Online by working closely with WebBased to extend learning opportunities for schools through a new Suffolk Learning website. Early priorities include electronic newsletters for headteachers and curriculum leaders linked to key documents and teaching resources and an effective practice database.

This online resource will sit alongside the range of training and CPD already offered through the WebBased system and a new Expertise Directory which helps schools find appropriate external support.

i-essex has launched across the county to all schools. i-essex is a web based solution for both young people and members of staff which provides information, advice and guidance in an impartial manner that promotes the best interest of the pupil. It facilitates schools in meeting their statutory duty to ‘provide access impartial Careers Information, Advice and Guidance’. The suite of tools includes a new Area Prospectus and an Individual Learning Planner (ILP). As well as careers information, i-essex gives young people the opportunity to customise their individual learning planner, set targets, record achievements, create online e-Portfolios and start thinking about their career options. The powerful range of administrative tools allow members of staff to track and monitor learners, run reports, share information across establishments and support young people through regular progress reviews; i-essex also fully supports work with parents and carers, allowing them to keep up to date on their child’s learning journey.

"This is an innovative approach to Raising the Particpation Age and supporting schools to meet statutory duty to access impartial IAG. Schools have welcomed this new approach; almost 50% of the schools in Essex have bought the tools within 4 weeks of launch. What’s great about i-essex is that it will continually develop to meet the needs of Essex learners and staff."

- Avis Parker (14-19 Area Adviser, Essex)

Following on from the previous years’ success, Devon and Torbay LAs completed another IAG Evaluation with Year 9 and Year 11 learners at the end of the last academic year. The purpose of the surveys was to collect feedback on how learners feel about the careers education and guidance they have received, with the aim of improving the process in the future. Nearly 2,000 learner responses were submitted for the surveys, allowing the LAs to produce powerful reports and look at implementing improvements for the coming year.

A range of new features recently released also allow schools to create their own in-house surveys, build a library of response options to use in different surveys and compare the results of one survey side-by-side using different reporting criteria.

“Our schools were so delighted with the results from last year that we are running evaluations across the two year groups again this year. We are also supporting them in creating their own surveys for use for example with parents, governors or even subject groups. From an administrator’s point of view the feedback has been very positive in that Survey Centre is a flexible tool and simple to use”.

- Chris Maccullie (Area Coordinator, South and West Devon Partnership)

Basildon Education Services Trust has gone live this week with CPD Online and their website. They are a company with charitable status, working on behalf of a partnership of 25 schools in the Basildon area. They are delighted with their new site and have launched it to all their schools at a conference this week.

BEST CPD Online - www.basildonbest.org.uk

Peterborough have launched CPD Online across Children’s Services and will be rolling out the system across Corporate Services in January. CourseFinder allows staff to advertise courses and users can search and book courses online. Each user has an Electronic Professional Development Record allowing users to track and review their qualifications online. After they have completed a course each user can evaluate the course and reflect on the impact of courses.

Peterborough CPD Online - www.peterboroughcpd.co.uk

Following the successful launch of CPD Online across Suffolk earlier this year they have recently gone live with their Expertise Database which has officially been launched to the public. The database allows users to search for Educational Advisers and specialists across the LA as well as planned training opportunities.

Suffolk CPD Online - www.suffolkcpd.co.uk

We are delighted to announce West Sussex CPD Online has gone live. CPD Online is being rolled out across Corporate and Social Care services. All users have an Electronic Professional Development Record and Staff, partner organisations and members of the public are now able to book places on courses or events. During the Autumn further modules will be launched including the Room Booker and e-learning modules.

Wandsworth Children’s Services Department has launched TPD Online. Multi-agency Safeguarding and Schools & Governors courses and events are now advertised online allowing users to book online anywhere at any time. Courses and events can also be cross advertised to different areas of the workforce making it a complete hub of opportunities. CPD Leaders and Line Managers can authorise booking requests and view colleagues’ training records quickly and easily online.

Wandsworth TPD Online - www.wandsworthtpd.org.uk

A new Progress Books module was released at the beginning of September for the start of the new academic year. The new module forms part of the reporting features available to track learners that travel offsite for their courses. New features have been introduced which simplify the process of creating Progress Books, allow the download to Word for customised reports, and introduce colour-coding options for target and actual grades. Feedback received so far has been very positive from all users.

Camden TDS have installed touch screen terminals in the reception area at their Training Centre. When participants arrive at the centre they can use the touch screens to sign in through our new CPD online touch screen interface. When users self register this also marks their attendance in the register which increases efficiency for Camden TDS.

What is the cost of not getting started?

During BETT you look into and meet several suppliers of online solutions for schools and choose one to implement. Two years later you realise that only a fraction of the system is used by colleagues. Your pupils and their parents are already advanced Internet users. What is the cost of not getting started?

Read full story...

WebBased are delighted to have sponsored the Peterborough Children’s Film Awards which took place at Kingsgate auditorium on Tuesday 12th July. Thomasina Ward, Managing Director presented an award to Years 5 and 6 for ‘Stories from around the world’.

Managing Director of WebBased, Thomasina Ward said,

"We thoroughly enjoyed the evening and we were proud to be part of such a great event."

Camden TDS have launched their new multichannel CPD Online site across the Children’s Workforce, Schools, Adult Social Care Workforce and Early Years Workforce. The new system provides the whole of the workforce with one unified solution. Users can now access training opportunities across the workforce, opening up training opportunities to users. The new system will also allow users to search for training targeted at their area of the workforce.

Camden TDS - www.camdentds.co.uk

Herefordshire has launched Governors Online for their schools. This module allows Herefordshire LA to target training as well as manage and monitor governors, terms of office, governing body composition and governor communications.

Herefordshire CPD Online - www.herefordshirecpd.co.uk

Torbay have gone live with their CPD Online multi channel site across, Schools, Early Years and Children’s Services. Users now have one login and can use different channels to search for training targeted at their area of the workforce. The new system also allows events to be cross advertised, opening up training opportunities to users. Each user will have an Electronic Development Record and will be able to search for courses and book online using CourseFinder. Torbay LA are due to launch their CV Builder module soon.

Torbay CPD Online - www.torbaycpd.co.uk

ibelong has gone live in Torbay council for their e-learning courses, and is in the process of being rolled out to Poole. The ibelong e-learning and information site has been developed in conjunction with the South West Regional Centre. The site includes the facility to build and join online learning journeys, along with interactive tutor tools to mark and review students’ progress. There are 11 courses, covering a variety of topics already available for students to join and use. The site also includes resource channels, forums, podcasts, news feeds and more.

 ibelong - www.ibelongpartnership.co.uk

Cornwall LA has successfully been using the Offsite Learning System for the last year to track the attendance and progress of travel to learn students. Starting in the new academic year, two Consortiums will also be piloting the student tools available in the ILP. The six month pilot will allow around 40 students participating in programmes for NEETs (Not in Education, Employment or Training) to have access to an ILP that they are actively involved in.

Working with Babcock 4S Education, the rollout of i-Surrey to schools and colleges across the county over the last 9 months has been recognised as being one of the most successful IT projects in recent years! i-Surrey allows offsite learners’ attendance and progress to be tracked, monitored and reported on; fulfilling safeguarding requirements for schools as well as removing paper based versions. Surrey has also praised the supportive and responsive WebBased team that has made achieving these excellent results possible.

Student tools will be introduced over the coming months, allowing every learner to have their own online Individual Learning Planner (ILP) which will, in turn, lead to a Transition Passport at 16+. The initial focus for the ILP will centre on students following Foundation Learning programmes, before extending it more widely among 14-19 year olds in Surrey.

“This system has made our annual reporting so much more efficient for teachers and administrative staff, saving valuable time and money.”
- Graeme Adams – Guildford 11-19 Partnership

“i-Surrey has made the tracking and monitoring of attendance and achievement in collaborative provision so much easier. We can now see patterns or trends and act accordingly.”
- Jonathan Stewart – 14-19 Consultant, Surrey

Ealing has rolled out CPD Online to all schools across the Local Authority. The solution provides an integrated system to advertise and manage training and development provision for school staff, governors and members of the wider Children’s Workforce. Over the coming months Ealing will launch a venue management system with room bookings which is fully integrated with the training module and an Expertise Database, allowing users in a number of West London local authorities to search for specific expertise.

We are delighted to announce West Sussex LA will be rolling out CPD Online to Corporate Services and Social Care this Autumn. CPD Online will provide West Sussex LA with a Course / Event Booking System which will allow staff, partner organisations and members of the public to book places on courses or events.

The rollout will also include an Electronic Professional Development Record for every user, the Evaluations and Impact module, which will allow West Sussex LA to evaluate the effectiveness of each course and CPD Online’s Room Booking module.

We are delighted to announce Bromley LA (the largest London Borough) will be launching CPD Online to all their schools later this year. CPD Online will allow them to move from their current paper based system to a complete online solution bringing many efficiency savings and benefits to their Training team and school users. Users will be able to search the online course directory, book courses online and look for specific expertise via the Expertise Database. Each user will also benefit from an online Professional Development Record where they can maintain a record of their training and be kept informed of future courses they may be interested in.

We are delighted to announce Wandsworth Children’s Services Department will be rolling out CPD Online in the Autumn. They will be rolling out the system across the children and young people’s workforce. The department is looking forward to moving to an integrated solution where courses can be cross advertised to different areas of the workforce accessible anytime, anywhere.

We are pleased to announce Peterborough City Council will be launching CPD Online in Autumn 2011 across Children’s Services and Corporate HR. The system will revolutionise the way training is advertised, tracked and delivered and will also allow qualifications and training needs to be tracked and reviewed by users easily and securely online.

Dorset has recently launched CPD Online, integrating their system with Poole and Bournemouth. The three LAs now advertise training opportunities via a multichannel site, opening up a whole range of new possibilities for training and professional development. Every user has their own Professional Development Record and benefits from a single account pulling training together in one place.

Dorset will also be rolling out the Finance and Evaluations and Impact modules which will allow them to evaluate the effectiveness of CPD and its impact.

Redcar & Cleveland Education Authority are launching an exciting new uLearn initiative for their schools this Term. In collaboration with WebBased Ltd, the Authority has added thirty-eight local maps for their schools to use online. These include current, aerial and historic resources. They will be added to the twenty standard maps that uLearn itself provides to form a uniquely rich set of local, national and world maps, supporting a wide range of cross-curricular activities. They will be particularly useful in the teaching of Geography and History, enabling teachers and learners to explore the local area in immense detail, even following the development of local settlements over time. Redcar & Cleveland will be using uLearn to support a unique and exciting collaboration between Authority schools and schools in the Auvergne region of France, studying the Jurassic Coastal history of the two areas.

Find out more about uLearn

Suffolk County Council Children and Young People’s Services have rolled out CPD Online across their workforce. Training opportunities are advertised across the authority via a multichannel site. Users have one account which will allow them to book courses online, seek specific expertise via the Expertise Database and have anytime access to their training portfolio.

Suffolk CPD Online - www.suffolkcpd.co.uk

Wiltshire LA has launched Governors Online as part of CPD Online for the management of governing bodies in 235 schools across the Local Authority. Clerks will be able to manage and monitor the training of governors in one place and view their governing body composition and information at any time.

Wiltshire CPD Online - www.wiltscpd.co.uk/cpd/

Basildon Education Services Trust works on behalf of a partnership of 25 schools in the Basildon area. Basildon BEST will be rolling out CPD Online and a Content Management System to their schools throughout the summer term. They will start advertising all their courses online allowing users to easily book and track their training at anytime from anywhere. The aim of BEST is to provide additional support and challenge schools so that young people from Basildon can compete on an even playing field with young people from more prosperous areas across the UK.

Herefordshire Children’s Trust has successfully launched CPD Online across the Children’s Workforce including all schools. All users now have access to their own Personal Development Record. Herefordshire will also be rolling out Governors online this spring to provide a full integrated online management system for the Governors support team and online access for Clerks to review their governing body.

Suffolk County Council Children and Young People’s Services plan to roll out CPD Online from April 2011. Training opportunities will be advertised across the authority via a multichannel site, opening up a whole range of new possibilities for training and professional development. Users will have one account which will allow them to book and pay for courses online, seek specific expertise via the Expertise Database, track their qualifications and have anytime access to their training portfolio.

Camden LA have rolled out the NQT Manager across the LA and are delighted with the results.

“The use of NQT manager has completely revolutionised the way in which Camden controls and monitors the NQT process. The previous system was paper based which led to mistakes taking a long time to rectify due to the posting and collection of paper based forms, the conversion to a online process this has led to a much quicker and more efficient NQT manager system. The process has allowed for NQT's to input information into their NQT form allowing Camden to gather the information quickly and precisely. In addition to this, the online assessment process has completely streamlined the way in which Camden gathers assessment information, the system allows NQT tutors, NQT's and Headteachers to input information online and review on a constant basis the criteria for completing the assessment process.” Joe McLatchie, Training and Development Database Manager, Camden TDS

Camden Training and Development Services - http://www.camdentds.co.uk/cpd/

Devon are due to launch a new Survey Centre tool, following the successful take up of the Year 9 IAG evaluation survey which was completed last year using the Area Prospectus Online Feedback module. This powerful survey and reporting tool is based on the existing functionality from both Aimhigher and the Online Feedback module, and will allow all of the partnerships in Devon to carry out further evaluations with year 9 and year 11 students in March and April. Individual schools will also have the facility to log in, create surveys and see the results for their own learners.

Surrey started the roll out of the Offsite Learning System across the LA in September 2010 and have seen a successful take up of the system since its launch.

“All external providers in Surrey use the Offsite Learning System to report attendance and track learning progress. With the Yr 9 option process looming, I am confident that the system will accelerate the enrolment and allocation of students.

The eprogress book features have allowed us to track performance throughout courses such as the Higher Diploma, and set up standardised reporting mechanisms. This has made our annual reporting so much more efficient for teachers and administrative staff, saving valuable time and money.”

Graeme Adams – Guildford 11-19 Partnership.

WebBased are delighted to confirm that the new interface for the Area Prospectus sites has been rolled out across Cornwall, Plymouth, Devon, Torbay and Somerset. The new designs give the sites a fresh look, making them more visually appealing and engaging for young people. The uniform layout and prominence of the search on the right hand side of every page will give users a consistent feel when browsing the site. Further releases will follow in the coming months, including updates to the search engine, new reporting functionality and improvements to the screens for adding and managing courses.

Visit the Area Prospectus site for 14-19 year olds in Devon & Torbay

Following the launch of the Aimhigher site in September 2010, a series of further updates have now been released. The new features build on and enhance the existing functionality, and include, the addition of a staff sign up screen, the facility for young people to reveal the quiz answers and see how the rest of their class answered, the introduction of an Ickle-Me gallery and the ability to upload answer sheets for each quiz.

WebBased has been announced as one of the top 20 stands at the BETT Show this year by Business and Industry Today magazine. The BETT Show is the UK’s biggest education trade show held in January every year.

We exhibited our online education solutions which include, CPD Online, 11-19 Solutions and uLearn.

Managing Director of WebBased, Thomasina Ward said,

“We are delighted to have been named one of the top 20 stands at the BETT Show. The trade show allows us to meet a variety of individuals from the education sector and demonstrate our products live so users can get a clear idea of how our systems work and how they will benefit them.

In these times of economic difficulties we are delighted to be presenting those in the education sector with cost-effective IT solutions, saving Local Authorities and schools time, money and resources.“

> To read the article in Business and Industry Today click here

> Click on the following links for more information on our online education products: CPD Online, e-ILP, Area Prospectus, Offsite Learning System, Application System and uLearn.

Following the successful launch of CPD Online the SE Wales Consortium have been rolling out new modules. This has included the CV Builder allowing staff to easily and effectively build a CV within their Electronic Development Record and the Effective Practice Database which allows schools to upload information and case studies of effective practice with an easy-to-use search for end users to utilise. They will also be releasing their Performance Management module to all schools very soon allowing the performance review process, targets, evidence, learning aspects and progress to be managed and tracked online.

"CPD Online has saved the South East Wales Consortium (5 LEAs) £150,000 this year - savings will be repeated in future years... In these difficult economic times we are delighted to have invested in such a cost effective and powerful IT solution that is paying for itself many times over." Mark Austin, School Improvement Adviser, Cardiff LEA.

South East Wales CPD Online - www.cpdsewales.org.uk/cpd/

Herefordshire Children’s Trust will be launching CPD Online in January across the workforce. This will include Schools, Early years, Governors and Multi Agency. The Trust are very excited about moving to an online system where they can remove paper based systems and give all users access to their own online Personal Development Record which they can access anywhere and at any time.