Somerset College rolls out eTracker

by jon@vlesupport.co.uk on 26/11/2009
in Main News

26 November 2009: Somerset College has rolled out eTracker™ throughout the college. Provided by VLE Support, eTracker™ is a flexible electronic learning plan proven to help improve students’ academic and pastoral performance.

eTracker™ is a one-stop-shop for the tracking, monitoring, measuring and analysing of the performance of students against the personal targets agreed with their teachers, presenting all the relevant information on one simple page. The data ranges from grades, attendance and disciplinary issues through to pastoral targets and goals.

Kristyn Woodward, senior tutor team leader at Somerset College comments: “Throughout the Autumn term vital learner information was collated by various services across the college. The difficulty we faced was ensuring these discreet pockets of information were shared in a timely fashion to all key members of staff. We wanted to create a one-stop-shop for learner information that could give lecturers as well as students and parents instant access to live data. We looked at three different systems but were impressed with the flexibility of eTracker. It can be refined to meet our own specific requirements and ‘talk’ to our own systems. It is also incredibly user-friendly.

“While it’s still early days, the students are really on board – so much so that they’re actually nagging their tutors for grades so they can see how well they’re doing on their attainment bars! I’m confident that giving lecturers and students easy access to academic and pastoral performance should have a positive impact on retention as well as motivating the students to achieve their goals.”

eTracker™ has been developed to deal with a wide variety of curriculum models – Edexcel (BTEC), NVQs, A-levels, GCSEs and the new Diplomas – as well as dealing with the complexities of tracking each part of the apprenticeship framework within work-based learning programmes. At the heart of eTracker™ is a system which is easy for students to use and which enables them to set their own targets and to track their progress in achieving these. The system is very learner-friendly and underpins the philosophy of a more personalized curriculum.

For more information, or to arrange an interview please contact:
Lesley Russell at Spotlight Communications
Call 07815 778038 or email: lesley@spotlightcomms.co.uk

Notes to editors:
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.
Visit: www.vlesupport.co.uk