Hi,
I have been using Moodle on and off for a year or so with some return on the investment. The boss mentions MS Class Server today after a trip to Microsoft Way, Reading, UK.
Does anyone have any pointers to balanced views of that product's place in the internet-based learning playing field, please...? They must exist somewhere...?
Kind regards,
Jocelyn
Hmm, not even mentioned at http://www.edutools.info/course/compare/byproduct/index.jsp
From
http://www.microsoft.com/education/productresources.mspx
it looks to be more of a content management system than a course/learning management system, though they seem to be shy about listing actual teaching learning features and heavy on marketspeak.
This quote was particularly interesting:
http://www.microsoft.com/Education/ClassServerFAQ.mspx
Nothing about how it actually does that, but it looks designed to appeal to principles who are wondering what to say about what they are doing about NCLB.
I checked out the newsgroup, teacher talk section that MS sends you to http://groups.msn.com/ClassServerUsers/_whatsnew.msnw. Last post was on 9/4. Not much activity. Tech talk forum looks pretty dead, also. Lots of questions, not many answers.
From
http://www.microsoft.com/education/productresources.mspx
it looks to be more of a content management system than a course/learning management system, though they seem to be shy about listing actual teaching learning features and heavy on marketspeak.
This quote was particularly interesting:
| What is the main value being offered by Microsoft Class Server? | |
| A. | Designed specifically to meet the needs of K-12 institutions, Microsoft Class Server 4.0 is a powerful learning management platform that enables school districts and teachers to track, analyze, and improve student achievement in accordance with the requirements of No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The focus of NCLB is to ensure that all children have a fair, equitable, and significant opportunity to obtain a high-quality education, and reach, at the minimum, proficiency on challenging state academic standards and state academic assessments. |
Nothing about how it actually does that, but it looks designed to appeal to principles who are wondering what to say about what they are doing about NCLB.
I checked out the newsgroup, teacher talk section that MS sends you to http://groups.msn.com/ClassServerUsers/_whatsnew.msnw. Last post was on 9/4. Not much activity. Tech talk forum looks pretty dead, also. Lots of questions, not many answers.
I used Microsoft Class Server when I was doing a short term contract as a teacher. I found it to be a bit disorganised in terms of forums. It quite easy for preparing materials and marking assignments but I think it falls short in the area of forums.