eLearning Platform (for those interested in teaching online)

Hi, This is my first post here but my intentions are to promote something benifital to anyone interested in starting their own tutoring courses, distance learning courses or online school.

I just put out the second release of our product SimpleClass: eLearning Platform. In a nutshell, its a management system for teachers and administrators to keep track of critical data that needs to be accessed in real-time and via the internet. Aspects include the ability to structure courses, keep an updated curriculum with modern assignments, amongst others like scheduling, and web classroom management. Students also benefit from a comfortable online working environment where they can access marks, assignments, schedule updates and of course messaging from their associated student body and teachers.

The website states 5 users max. (free), but if send me a message through the contact us page and I will give you extra users...my real concern is collecting input from new schools that sign up to better the SimpleClass system. We are still new, and simply looking for improved methods in technology to innovate distance education.

Any input helps, we are trying to make giant leaps that can really focus on an all-in-one educational platform robust enough that anyone can use it, so I hope this can help a few of you out there in the process.

Heres the URL: http://simpleclass.net and you can contact me directly for any questions at [email protected]. I will also checkup on this thread for any other questions.

Thanks!!!

 

I have taught with and administered the major learning management systems used in academia (Blackboard, WebCT & Deisre2Learn). My current institution uses Angel. I would be interested to see how SimpleClass compares, to Angel, D2L, Blackboard, Moodle and Sakai (your leading academic competitors).

Also, your may wish to reconsider your pricing model. At my previous insitution, a SimpleClass license for our 9,000 online users would cost $1,074,600 per year. This is about ten times what were were paying for the LMS license, ASP hosting, technical support and free upgrades. My current institution is a bit smaller, but this price would make SimpleClass not even a consideration for us.

 

Great Input!

Thanks Anthony, these are some great tips. Our pricing is currently setup online for small-scale web orders...a bulk order system or something similar would be add a great competitive touch to the system.

I would love to set a school up for you to get your input, if your still interested send me an email and I will get you setup for Monday.

 

It looks similar to what you can do with SchoolTool http://www.schooltool.org/ which is free.

 

Thanks BrandeX,
I'll take a look at it, hope I can pick up some pointers. Starting an open-school is one of the things ontop of my priority list right now where a robust learning environment can be provided at no cost.

Have you had experience using SchoolTool before? What are some of the benefits you saw in the technology? We started integrating Ajax technology methods for our platform. This is one of this biggest neglects I see in distance learning technology even today.

Ajax can essentially combine what used to be 4 separate web pages (add, edit, delete, and view pages) all onto one page. Take for instance Microsoft Excel, a user double clicks a cell to edit and clicks away and it auto-saves...Very Simple! This has been my focus, integrating this type of desktop innovation to increase the productivity of teachers and students as well as faculty staff.

I personally took distance learning from BCIT (Canada) and the platform they had at the time didn't seem to serve its purpose.

Thx Again!

 

I have just started testing Schooltool as a local host on my own PC. I am not sure if I will recommend it or not to the DOS at the private training center I am working at now. (It's a recent start-up.) One thing to note, SchoolTool is administrative only, and has no function for delivering courses/content online, although any authorized, user/student/parent/teacher/admin can log in to the server, see class schedules, tuition fees due, messages, sylabi, grades, etc.