Becta Schools - Resources - Learning platforms

Preparing to purchase and implement a learning platform

To introduce a learning platform successfully into your school, you need to start with a good understanding of your school's educational needs. Develop a statement of requirements, which sets out what you want from your learning platform, and any specific local or technology requirements. Then consider the type of underlying technologies that will support this.

1. Establish your requirements

You should first identify your school’s current and future educational requirements. This information will form your 'wish list' for your whole learning platform implementation and should consist of not only the functional specification but also how you will manage and deploy your new system, the training and support required and any other implementation issues.

Timescales

The implementation of a learning platform starts long before your school actually takes delivery of the system and continues long after the software is installed. You will need to allow enough time for implementation, and don't worry if people take several months to get started.

Plan delivery with realistic timescales for full implementation across the school. Although most schools take around two to three years, changes can take place very quickly, with significant benefits within a term of installation.

Some implementations may also require input from consultants who can help to define requirements. Ensuring the right skills and experience are applied at the start will significantly increase the chances of a successful outcome.

You can find out about other schools' experiences of implementing a learning platform by joining our learning platforms community and reading a number of case studies.

2. Planning

Create a project team

You will need to bring together a ‘project’ team to manage the implementation. In small primary schools, this may be the head teacher and ICT co-ordinator. Larger schools will want to establish larger teams representing a range of different perspectives.

Define your aims

What do you want to achieve by implementing a learning platform within your school?
What do you want your learning platform to provide?
Which parts of the real school environment do you hope to extend into the virtual world?

Our self-review framework will help you to assess your whole-school use of technology, and how a learning platform for learning and teaching fits into your overall vision for ICT use within the school. It will enable you to produce an action plan for improvement, links to further advice and guidance and the ability to save and track your progress.

Work with partners

What are your local authority’s plans regarding learning platforms? If your local authority isn't purchasing on behalf of all schools, contact us through our online form or email customerservices@becta.org.uk or telephone 0800 877 8777 for advice on how to purchase.
What are your regional broadband consortium’s plans regarding learning platforms?
Are there other consortium arrangements in place which might benefit from collective purchase?
Will the collective systems meet your needs?
How can you influence plans made on your behalf?

Discuss with staff and pupils

Consult staff on functionality so that the system meets their needs – not just those of leadership or ICT leads.
Ensure needs of all pupils are met, including those with learning difficulties and disabilities.
Ensure that the local authority is aware of school's and pupils' needs.
Communicate with governors, staff, parents and students.

Manage implementation

Ensure that you have an appropriate ICT infrastructure in place. Take a look at the key questions below.
Identify staff to lead on implementation, including ‘champions’ if required and to administer/manage the learning platform. How will you involve them in the early stages of development?
Organise staff training to use the learning platform for delivery as well as ICT skills.
How will you assess the impact that a learning platform will have upon the whole school, and whether staff are prepared for this change?

Key questions

Do you have a whole school network and enough workstations for easy access to the learning platform?
How will you know if access is easy enough?
Is your broadband link reliable and fast enough for an internet-based system?
Do you have a budget to buy more equipment if needed?
When it comes to transfer of data and resources to learning platform, what about: learning resources, school organisation information, pupil data?
How will you ensure the security and safety of the users of the learning platform and their data?

3. Get ready to buy

Once you have completed the assembly of all your requirements, you'll need to pass these on to your local authority, or whoever it is that is introducing an authority wide system, so that they can consolidate them with those of all the other schools to form a comprehensive statement of requirements. They should already be consulting with you, but if not, do make sure that you get involved in the consultation.

If you are determined to 'go it alone' you will need to know about our Learning Platform Services Framework, details of which can be found on Becta's Local Authorities website, with details of the approved suppliers.

If you need help on how to purchase your learning platform you can contact us for FREE help and advice through our online form, emailing customerservices@becta.org.uk or calling 0800 877 8777.

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