Course Management and Class Work is the Synergy alternative to a traditional VLE.
Approach
The learning platform is integrated directly
into the teacher ‘Class View’ and immediately
accessible without configuration or setup. It
provides an intuitive interface where you can
share files, web-links, video links, notes and
host discussions with students outside of the
classroom.
Often with other VLEs, usage can be inconsistent.
It may be used well by a few, a sparse repository
for some and not used at all by others. As
another system to log into, VLEs can easily
become ‘out of sight, out of mind’, difficult to
maintain, access and become redundant.
Although the module is flexible and can be used
in a variety of ways, it has been designed to
become a natural part of teaching and learning.
The outline of an existing scheme of learning
can be quickly transposed on to a new Synergy
‘Course’. For each tutorial, resources, files, weblinks,
lesson plans and notes can be added to
a student or teacher view respectively. Courses
can be shared across a department to reduce
workload and support transparency.
At the time of teaching, a lesson can be linked to
a pre-made tutorial from a ‘Course’ bringing with
it the lesson plan, resources, objectives and
student view. Additional Ad hoc notes and
materials can also be added for the current
class. Using the Portal, students can access this
rich resource mapped directly to their timetable
providing structure and sequence to their
independent study.
If enabled, students can submit homework online,
discuss with their teacher and review feedback
and marks.
Learning support departments and alternative
provision units can directly access ‘Class Work’
work to manage additional support needs without
requesting from each individual teacher. Absent
students can view missed lessons to support
their catch-up. Subject leaders can analyse which
students have missed specific content, group
them together and organise catch-up provision.
The Synergy approach aims to support teacher
planning, reduce workload, and automatically
power a rich learning platform simply by linking
a planned course tutorial to a lesson.