ministry announces learning management system development partners

The Ministry of Education ran a tender to select a small number of vendors as
development partners for the Ministry's Managed Learning Environment project.
On 10 February 2009, Mr Paul Seiler announced the names of the successful
vendors. In no particular order they are:

*   Edtech with the "Ultranet" Learning Management System (LMS);

*   Editure with "MyClasses"; and

*   a consortium comprising:

o  Catalyst with "Moodle";

o  Dataview with "The KnowledgeNet"; and

o  Spike@School with "Learning Caves"

The Ministry has chosen to work with developers of learning management
systems because the LMS is regarded as the central hub of the teaching and
learning activity (curriculum and pedagogy). The above vendors will be funded
by the Ministry of Education to further develop their products to meet the
evolving interoperability standards. In turn this will mean that schools will
be able to share resources and over time work seamlessly in the greater
managed learning environment. Students will be able to enjoy the new style of
learning opportunities and retain a digital record of learning that can
mature and move with them. An MLE includes facilities for online
collaboration and publishing, file (digital) repositories, eportfolios,
communication, content management and delivery, social networking, planning,
course and assessment tools, federated search engines, identity and access
management, parental portal, and all the commonly used student management
system modules.

Schools can now purchase a learning management system and be reassured (for
the above providers) that the ongoing development pathway will in part be
directed, supported and funded by the Ministry of Education. The Ministry's
direct assistance to schools is limited to advice and guidance; it is not
possible for the Ministry to make funding available to help schools purchase
a learning management system. LMS vendors that were not selected for the MLE
tender will still be able to access the specifications to enable the required
interoperability; however they will not be financially supported by the
Ministry.

The MLE concept in New Zealand is still immature and the total development
time will be several years. The first obvious change noticeable to schools is
likely to be the availability of the Education Sector Federated Search from
within the LMS. As enhancements become available other benefits will include:

*       Better student outcomes from increasingly adaptive teaching
approaches, with the student at the centre, and able to take advantage of the
evolving technology;  
*       Increased family engagement through the provision of a parent portal
and timely reporting showing learning activity and achievement; and
*       Additional MLE modules and services available through the provision
of funding assistance to take selected LMS vendors on an enhanced development
path.

Ian Munro

Senior Adviser
Student Management Systems
Ministry of Education
04 463 7629

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