Rolling out Login Details

As am sure you are aware, you have three main types of Users on the Learning Platform: Staff (both teaching and no-teaching); Pupils; and Parents (or Associates as they are termed in the KLP).

While the temptation is to issue these all in one go and hope for the best, this could, not only generate limited engagement but, also result in increased problems with logins. A tailored approach with each group will help reduce login problems and increase engagement within each of the target audiences.

Teaching staff and non-teaching staff might be issued their login details along with a set of activities to achieve when first logged in, for example: Completing a survey on what they would like to the Whole School Interest Space used to communicate, Finding their class lists and viewing the information being made available to parents from the school's MIS, creating subject focused discussions for pupils to contribute to and of course create their v-me.

Pupils could be issued their logins as part of an ICT lesson where they could complete tasks such as replying to the discussions teachers have created, completing a home Internet access survey, setting up their directory structure in their shared files of their E-Portfolio, viewing to see any Interest Spaces and Learning Spaces they have been made a member of.

Parents might have their login details issued at parents' evenings or via an invited session on the Learning Platform where they have the opportunity to login there and then to interact with targeted content with the hands on support of staff. They too would require set tasks or directed activities during any introduction session which may include, finding their child's information from the My Space page and checking if they are correct, completing parental survey, accessing news and calendar events from the whole school or parents spaces and reading/commenting on a heads/deputy heads blog.

Each of the above suggestions would require clear planning and proper materials and while in the short term will generate a volume of engagement to be proud off, you will need to start thinking about long term engagement (i.e. creating a purpose for engagement)