4-page Case Study - Posted 9/2/2007

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Crescent Girls' School

School Empowers Students and Teachers For Collaborative Learning Opportunities

Singapore-based Crescent Girls’ School is a leading girl’s school that provides a nurturing and innovative environment that empowers students to be confident and visionary leaders. An innovator in utilizing technology to create learning experiences, the school was a pioneer in equipping students with individual tablet PCs for all lessons. Responding to a changing, inter-connected learning landscape, the school wanted to develop an application that could foster collaborative learning beyond existing classrooms and borders. Selecting Microsoft® Office Live Communications Server 2005 as its platform, the school created the Global Learning Faculty, providing integrated learner-centric experiences with real-time communication in a robust collaborative environment.

Situation

The access to information resources and teachers in real-time and persistently encourages new learning habits. Mr. Lee Boon Keng, Head of IT, Crescent Girls’ School

Selected as a BackPack.NET School in 2004, CGS became the first school in the world where an entire grade was equipped with Tablet PCs. BackPack.NET is a joint initiative of the InfoComm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA) and Microsoft, designed to bring new and exciting technologies to schools to enhance the education experience.

The CGS campus is wirelessly enabled, allowing students to learn anytime, anywhere. Working with a partner, CGS co-developed several leading edge applications under the Backpack.NET initiative. These included a Virtual Classroom that offers features like remote log on for students to a class; controlling student Tablet PCs; flash screens for multiple project sharing; tests and quizzes, and white board features.

However the school was keen to explore an integrated school-wide platform that would allow students and teachers to connect in real-time—both in and out of the classroom. “Having used the Virtual Classroom for the past three years, we realized its numerous benefits, but also recognized the limitations of the system,” says Mr. Lee Boon Keng, Head of IT, Crescent Girls’ School. Noting the changing nature of learning, and the proliferation of new media tools such as blogging, instant messaging, web conferencing and podcasting, the school wanted to tap into this new potential. “Moving forward, we wanted to add more collaborative features to the system to support future learning,” says Lee.

Lee notes that BackPack.NET applications like Virtual Classroom focused on one-to-many teaching and learning delivery systems. “Virtual Classroom offered a unique platform, but our plans for the future called for more collaboration and communication. We wanted our students to learn and think differently in the future.”

For example, Virtual Classroom students could only use basic features like whiteboard sharing to allow for collaboration. With a more robust collaboration environment, CGS knew it could offer desktop sharing, enabling groups of students to interact with each other’s individual learning workspace for real-time input and exchange of ideas. Lee points out this would foster a more participative and interactive learning environment.

CGS had two goals for the next phase of its long-term plan. First, to empower teachers to be able to manage classes effectively and secondly to provide a platform for collaboration for multiple partners including students, teachers, parents, and even global SOF initiative partners. “Ultimately, we want a system that could provide the links for future learning,” says Lee. “In terms of collaboration, this could be between staff and staff, student and student, and beyond—linking up with experts in a specialized subject area, for example.”

Solution

The plan to extend the Virtual Classroom was conceived in September 2006. An established Microsoft user, CGS explored the possibility of using Microsoft® Office Live Meeting and Microsoft® Office Live Communications Server 2005 to incorporate collaboration in the Virtual Classroom application.

Says Lee, “Both products featured strong functionality but we wanted more features to support a robust collaboration among all parties. Fortunately, our development partner, HeuLab, had developed an application, HeuCampus Messenger, that did just that.”

Microsoft® Certified Partner, HeuLab, has been a long-term collaborator with CGS in developing applications under the Backpack.NET initiative. HeuCampus Messenger is an instant messaging platform that runs on the Windows Server® 2003 environment. HeuCampus Messenger leverages on the functionality of Live Communications Server and Microsoft® SQL Server™ version 7.0 to provide a campus-wide solution that can provide real-time connections for staff and students alike, both in and out of the classroom. “The instant messaging platform was chosen as a solution to fit exactly this need,” adds Lee.

After due diligence, CGS began installation in February 2007 on a Dell PowerEdge Server with 4GB RAM, using a team of six engineers and one trainer.

The biggest challenge of the implementation was scaling it to support thousands of online users. “We selected Live Communications Server because it was highly scalable. We then established our solutions around this core architecture,” notes Terence Sim, Project Engineer, HeuLab.

“Overall, the installation and implementation was smooth,” notes Lee. “We had some bandwidth issues with features such as desktop sharing, so we are upgrading our network to accommodate this.”

Called Global Learning Faculty (GLF), the end solution operates much like any messenger client, and merges into the CGS Virtual Classroom application. “This gives the best of both worlds; real-time communication and robust collaboration,” says Lee.

When a user logs into the system, his or her details are authenticated by the HeuCampus Server which runs on top of the Live Communications Server. The class roster and roles are then loaded from an SQL Server database which can be integrated with the School Information System. As all users are connected via the server, the server can give presence information on the users who are online.

Students and teachers can see each other when they are online and out of class; they can perform chat, whiteboard and access group-based functions like shared whiteboard and desktop sharing. Students online will automatically be enrolled and attendance taken when a teacher starts a virtual classroom session. From the GLF dashboard, teachers can share screen, whiteboard, chat, lock screens, project desktops, transfer files and a host of other collaborative functions. With built-in survey and assessment tools, teachers can also request information from a class and get immediate feedback and results.

The solution went live at the start of April 2007 with 12 teachers and 300 students. Further training of teachers was held in June and the entire solution is expected to be rolled out campus-wide by July.

Benefits

With its strong focus on the learner-centric experience in a technology-rich environment, CGS is extending the boundaries of learning communication and collaboration. The GLF fulfils this vision by empowering both students and teachers with real-time tools that enable seamless, universal learning and teaching opportunities. “Our students are digital natives. Technology is their natural ‘operating’ environment, one that is in sync with their lifestyle,” says Mrs. Lee Bee Yann, Principal, Crescent Girls’ School. “Using the Microsoft-based Global Learning Faculty, students will be able to use the platform seamlessly to enrich their learning through collaboration with their peers and educators both locally and globally.”

Boosting Collaborative Learning

One of the goals of the GLF is to enrich the existing syllabus through virtual teaching, both locally and internationally. Teachers can collaborate with their counterparts and enhance their own classroom teaching syllabus with new ideas. Students have an opportunity to experience different teaching methods and interact with teachers from a variety of backgrounds, Says Lee, “With GLF, our students are now the initiators. They can see and experience the benefits of collaborating so they are asking for interaction directly—an amazing development in the learning process.”

Broadening Knowledge Access

Maintaining a lifelong learning aptitude is a critical component of the GLF. “The access to information resources and teachers in real-time and persistently encourages new learning habits,” says Lee. Students can learn more in a safe virtual space. Even more important is the cumulative aspects of virtual learning. “The process is never static. Students are always learning from each other in this system at all times.”

Extending Real-Time Learning

Within the school campus, the GLF operates in a persistent wired and wireless network, nurturing continuous interactive learning anytime and anywhere. With built-in presence management and RSS feeds, students can keep abreast of lesson progress and make contributions in and out of the classroom. Teachers are also empowered to review and amend student assignments, send out notifications on subject updates, and make assessment on the work submitted at any time, from anywhere.

Creating Innovative Workspaces

One offshoot of enhanced collaboration within the GLF is the creation of Community Project Workspaces. These are safe, virtual learning platforms not limited to a specific location, school, class or even teacher. By defining the scope of the project, a student can collaborate with his counterparts anywhere across the globe. “An innovative aspect of the workspaces is that we can enhance accessibility by deploying mobile devices when the students are out of the school grounds,” notes Lee.

Empowering Interaction

An interesting development of the GLF is the change in student behaviour towards the learning process. “We’re seeing students asking for more collaboration and interaction with their peers and teachers,” says Lee. “They’re actually keen to learn interactively and are self motivated.” Students are also seeking help beyond curriculum hours and posing questions to their teachers over weekends. “They can easily spot their teachers online presence and will initiate conversations to get answers on a subject.”

Enhanced Tracking Capability

The GLF offers numerous tools for assessing and tracking student work, as well as classroom management. This is done via the GLF dashboard. If a student is absent without notice, the system can notify the teacher when he logs in and be prompted to inform the student’s parents. Teachers are also able to check student progress, and add new course materials in the areas where a student needs additional resources. “Everything that goes on within the class, virtually or otherwise, can be monitored and managed by the teacher in charge from a central console and dashboard,” adds Lee. “This adds a level of control without being overly intrusive, and allows staff to take follow-up actions at anytime.”

For More Information

For more information about Microsoft products and services, call the Microsoft Sales Information Center at (800) 426-9400. In Canada, call the Microsoft Canada Information Centre at (877) 568-2495. Customers who are deaf or hard-of-hearing can reach Microsoft text telephone (TTY/TDD) services at (800) 892-5234 in the United States or (905) 568-9641 in Canada. Outside the 50 United States and Canada, please contact your local Microsoft subsidiary. To access information using the World Wide Web, go to: www.microsoft.com For more information about HeuLab products and services, visit the Web site at: www.heulab.com

For more information about Crescent Girls’ School products and services, visit the Web site at: http://www.crescent.edu.sg/

Microsoft Office System

The Microsoft Office system is the business world’s chosen environment for information work, providing the programs, servers, and services that help you succeed by transforming information into impact. For more information about the Microsoft Office system, go to: www.microsoft.com/office

This case study is for informational purposes only. MICROSOFT MAKES NO WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, IN THIS SUMMARY.

Document published August 2007