The Summit is based on the same successful format as recent summits in the US and is focused on helping educators get the most out of Google Apps for Education in both ‘primary/secondary schools’ and ‘Higher Education’ environments. There will be sessions lead by some of the world’s leading Google apps experts including Google staff and Google Certified Teachers and trainers.

There will be break-out sessions for both teachers/lecturers, school administrators and school IT managers and the aim of the summit is for attendees to leave with knowledge that they can take away to their school and colleges and start using straight away.

In addition the summit will have a ‘Chromebooks playground’; A dedicated classroom with experts on hand where attendees can drop in at any time during the conference to try out Google Chromebooks.

“Having helped organise the hugely successful first European ‘Google Workshop for Educators’ with the International School of Prague in May 2011 we are delighted to be involved with this summit”, said Dan Taylor from CloudSource Solutions. “I was involved in the recent New Jersey/New York Summit and know what is involved to make the summit a fantastic learning experience for all attendees”

About the International School of Prague:

The International School of Prague is a not-for-profit educational institution founded in 1948 and has a long history of educational excellence in the Czech Republic. The school is accredited by the Council of International Schools and the New England Association of Schools and Colleges and offers the International Baccalaureate (IB) diploma program to students in grades 11 and 12. ISP is also authorized by the Czech Ministry of Education to educate foreign nationals and Czech citizens.

Their mission is to inspire students to live healthy, fulfilling and purposeful lives and prepare them with the skills and values to adapt and contribute responsibly to our changing world.

ISP has a positive and supportive atmosphere, high standards, outstanding professional staff and an active and involved parent association. Their newly enhanced purpose-built campus in the Sarka Valley area of Prague 6 provides a sunny and spacious facility that is the best in the region.

About CloudSource Solutions:

CloudSource Solutions is a specialist Google Apps for Education consultancy with clients across Europe and North America. They provide set up, migration, training and support for Google Apps for schools with Google Apps for Education. In addition they are experts at setting up fully integrated solutions from the Google Apps Marketplace and have developed ‘CourseDirector – The Google Apps Learning Management System’ for schools and Universities.

Link here:

http://cloudsourcesolutions.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/elml_2012_4_60_50105.pdf

Firstly what is the Google Apps Marketplace? Essentially it is an ‘Apps Store’ for Google Apps. The terminology is probably misleading as a typical app store is focused on mobile and the Apps Marketplace is a platform to allow third party vendors to create web-based PC focused applications that integrate with Google Apps. Most applications can be automatically added to a domain by an administrator using the ‘Add it now’ button.

The original Google Apps Marketplace launched back in March 2010 and it was a full ten months before Google launched a dedicated Education (EDU) category. The original category launched with twenty applications and it has grown at a fairly consistent rate to around forty applications today. In terms of the breakdown the Apps are a mixture of free and paid applications and roughly 50% are free applications and 50% are paid.

So what type of applications are currently found in the marketplace? I performed a brief review of all applications back in September that can be found here. The three broad categories that make up the marketplace are ‘Learning Management Systems’, ‘Learning aids’ and ‘Student and admin tools’.

Learning management
The marketplace features a variety of LMS/VLE and SIS systems, ranging from lightweight systems to full school administration systems

Interest in the Google Apps Marketplace has grown hugely with the entry of Pearson OpenClass to the Google Apps marketplace. In November 2010 Pearson, the worlds largest Education Company launched an LMS to compete with CourseDirector, the most popular incumbent LMS in the marketplace. OpenClass is currently free and Pearson are rumoured to be introducing paid content in the near future. Other LMS systems in the category include Docebo and Class.io. LearnBoost: an all-in-one gradebook and lesson plan software is also popular.

Learning aids
The marketplace features learning aids so teachers can help student learn more effectively with web-based learning aids. Examples include BrainPOP, the first App in the marketplace and arguably still the most popular. Also SlideRocket, a collaborative presentation system, is becoming increasingly popular.

Student and Admin tools
Software in this category includes EasyBib: an automatic bibliography composer that helps students format sources quickly and accurately to cite in papers. Other student and admin tools include Aviary, Edutone Sakai Connector,Edutone Moodle Connector, Leveled Library and Rcampus e-Portfolio

So what will year two of the Google Apps Marketplace bring? Based on the current growth trajectory it should reach eighty Apps in 2012 but I predict a slowing as certain systems get established in each category, and also as aplicaitons get more mature and feature rich the barrier to entry becomes higher. I predict the main growth will come from established EdTech software providers including a version of their software in the Marketplace.

With the growth of CourseDirector we have started to build up a great network of EdTech professionals at forward thinking schools and colleges and we’ve had a lot of requests for introductions to other CourseDirector admins. To facilitate this we have created a closed Google group for CourseDirector admins to connect with one another and to share things like course templates and tips with each other. All CourseDirector admins will receive an invite in January and CourseDirector staff will actively participate in the discussions.

Now available for Google Apps Standard Edition

We are delighted to announce that CourseDirector is now available for Google Apps ‘Standard edition’, not just the ‘Business’ and ‘Education’ editions. The reason for the delay in releasing this is that Google restricted the API’s on the free ’standard’ version of Google Apps, but have now opened them up which is great news for us. It will allow small companies and institutions to use CourseDirector, as well as allowing educators to evaluate the system on their ‘Standard edition’ test domain. To expand this further we are working on making CourseDirector allow you register students who are not set up on your domain via their individual Google Account.

Customise the look and feel of CourseDirector

A lot of schools have requested the ability to customise the look and feel of the main screen so we have listened and rolled out several customisation options for admins this week. All the changes below can easily be made in the admin screen:

Firstly a lot of schools have requested the ability to have their own logo on the CourseDirector screen instead of our logo, so we have added this feature now. It’s also now possible to disable the links to help and pricing etc. so students don’t see them.

We also went one step further for our power users and it’s now possible for admins to completely customise the look and feel of CourseDirector with CSS!

CourseDirector welcomes…

We are delighted to welcome the London Academy of Management and Business to CourseDirector. LAMB is part of the University of London system and offers programs ranging from short courses through to Masters degrees and has training centres in Russia and China.

Posted via email from email: info@cloudsourcesolutions.com

Posted via email from email: info@cloudsourcesolutions.com

It’s also important from the beginning to state that this has often been misreported as a joint venture between Google and Pearson, whereas in fact Pearson are adding a product to the EDU Marketplace like any other, although clearly a company with Pearson’s reach will have a far larger impact.

The ‘Free LMS’, of course, is not a new concept. Currently within the Google Apps Marketplace are several free systems with many LMS features and in addition there are many free ‘cloud based’ LMS systems outside of the Marketplace. For example Moodle is offered via free hosting from several providers and there are numerous other free cloud based LMS systems available from providers such as NineHub and of course ‘CourseSites’ from Blackboard was introduced in February this year.

So how does this tie-in to my original proposition that “There’s no such thing as a free LMS”? Well effectively if a company is offering an LMS for ‘free’ they generally have one or more of three broad business models in mind:

• 1. Advertising supported – Adverts and sponsorships on pages of the LMS provide income to the provider
• 2. Building up a large user base in order to (a) Introduce a paid model in the future (accepting that this will lead to a high attrition rate), (b) Introduce paid premium features in the future (see below) or (c) Be on the radar to be acquired by a larger eLearning company due to the large user base
• 3. Have a free version and on top of this sell premium content or premium features. Effectively some variation on the ‘freemium’ model

It seems fairly clear at the moment that Pearson is following the third option, using it’s captive audience to sell its online courses and other premium content to schools. None of this is of course intended as a criticism of Pearson, theirs is a business model like any other. But it is important to be clear that it is a business model, not a display of altruism.

So back to our approach. As a company founded by Google Apps EDU certified trainers we do a lot of work with schools for free to promote the amazing Google Apps for Education platform, but in terms of our approach at CourseDirector we plan to keep a pay model, charging a very low cost per user, typically meaning an average school will pay a maximum of $499 per year. Within this our focus is on no additional costs or ‘up-selling’ to the school; providing free support, making custom changes for free and focusing on exceptional customer support.

With this approach we won’t be the right LMS for every school but our keys point are clear: Our goal is to help schools who require a simple LMS with the highest possible integration with Google Apps. For schools who want the most tightly integrated LMS with Google Apps, where for example courses are created in Google Sites and coursework is submitted to Google Docs, we hope to continue to  find many schools to partner with.

It’s important to say in conclusion that we welcome the arrival of Pearson in the Google Apps Marketplace.  The immense interest in OpenClass will bring many additional visitors into the Google App Marketplace, and lead to some schools adopting systems from other vendors as well. Additionally it will help promote Google Apps as the great learning platform it is. As Google Apps EDU certified trainers we work with many K-12 schools and colleges and promote various technologies other than CourseDirector and for some schools this will be the best solution.

Posted via email from email: info@cloudsourcesolutions.com