John Ruskin College adopts revolutionary ILP solution for all its students

by jon@vlesupport.co.uk on 10/12/2007
in Main News

John Ruskin College adopts revolutionary ILP solution for all its students

 

10 December 2007:  John Ruskin College, a sixth form college in Croydon, is rolling-out a pioneering online personal assessment tracking solution called eTracker, that it believes will revolutionise the way in which all of its 1,200 students can monitor their individual progress against their personal targets.  The college anticipates that eTracker will become a motivating influence for the students, helping to improve performance both academically and pastorally. Equally important, it will help the college support their individual needs and aspirations. 

 

eTracker was developed and implemented by a company called VLE Support – a specialist in building technology solutions for educational institutions.  It brings together all the data on each student held by the college, from their grades through to attendance records through to disciplinary issues.  This delivers better quality of information to teachers and provides them a greater holistic view of individuals or groups of students, allowing them to identify issues and intervene quickly. eTracker will also deliver greater efficiencies -  saving time and reducing paperwork. 

 

Jennifer Sims, College Prinicipal at John Ruskin College, commented: “Each student’s page has several percentage bars showing them exactly how well they are doing in relation to their personal goals.  It is easy for them and their tutors to identify where they are succeeding and if they are having difficulty with anything, including pastoral achievement. We firmly believe this will help both students and tutors work together to resolve any issues.  It is not a one-way system; students can also provide input to their page which will help generate ‘buy-in’. 

 

“We feel that eTracker complements the ethos of our college, which is to help our students achieve their full potential and prepare them for a happy and successful future.”

 

Access to eTracker is strictly controlled and varies according to each person’s permission level.  For example, students can only see information relevant to their personal work, whereas teachers have access greater depth of information on each student and greater breadth of information across groups of students. 

 

Louis Strover, Director of ILT Learning, commented: “Like most colleges today, our ICT systems were quite disparate.  Being able to bring all the data from different sources together to a one-stop-shop is a real advantage.  VLE Support has been invaluable in helping us to achieve this, tailoring eTracker to suit our needs, and applying their knowledge and experience of similar projects to our college.”

 

eTracker was implemented over the August bank holiday weekend.  Since then, the college has been rolling it out on a team by team basis, starting with the curriculum managers and student support staff.  All the teachers will have attended a training session by the end of this term.  Feedback has been extremely positive. 

 

 

For more information, please contact Anna Fraser on 07958 380568 or Lesley Russell on 07815 778038, email: anna@spotlightcomms.co.uk or lesley@spotlightcomms.co.uk

 

 

NOTES TO EDITORS

 

John Ruskin College…

 

 

 

VLE Support is the only company in the UK to provide an all-in-one package for education and commercial sectors introducing virtual learning environments (VLEs).  It facilitates the installation, configuration, training, maintenance and support of VLEs.  Focused on Moodle software, it offers a comprehensive package of training and support for teachers, trainers, administrators and support staff.  VLE Support also designs and develops bespoke content ranging from enhanced static documents to fully interactive multi-media presentations.  Clients include Bromley College of Further and Higher Education, St Dunstan’s College and the London Ambulance Service.