Microsoft UK Education - Microsoft Learning Gateway - Schools Features and Benefits

The Microsoft Learning Gateway offers a rich, collaborative environment for all education stakeholders. It is a flexible, extensible set of capabilities that can help build on your existing IT assets and work securely across boundaries - ready to support future growth.

Equipped with the right tools and IT infrastructure to deliver a reliable and accessible service, everyone involved in schools can benefit.

With the Microsoft Learning Gateway, pupils are able to get straight down to learning. Using a secure password they can simply log on to any computer in any location. This takes them straight to their personal home page. From this one location they can find, use and share information:

Find – Quickly connect people with the right information.

Use – Effectively apply information to their needs.

Share – Convert insights into institutional knowledge.

Each pupil’s files, assessments, and homework can be securely stored and accessed from their individual Microsoft Learning Gateway portal site. In addition, students can:

• Complete and submit assessments online.
• E-mail questions to teachers.
• Collaborate with others sharing photographs, videos, and project work.
• See when educators and fellow students are online and communicate in a secure environment.
• Customise their portal site.

In the future, there will be less emphasis on whole class teaching and more on personalised, mixed age and mixed group teaching and learning.

The Microsoft Learning Gateway can be used to mark multiple-choice tests automatically, help teachers to assess each pupil’s progress, and monitor pupils’ learning according to each individual’s learning style.

It provides easy-to-use communication features and shared documents that increase productivity, save time, and cut workloads.

Microsoft SharePoint Learning Kit is a free, simple and powerful extension that gives teachers the flexibility to create an assignment out of any document in a SharePoint Document Library.

Teachers can use it to create, edit and distribute assignments to students. They can store students’ work, reports, lesson plans, and course materials in a central location.

By using Microsoft Learning Essentials, a free extension to Microsoft Office, teachers have access to customised templates, wizards, and other tools - including tutorials from leading educational publishers, making it easier to plan lessons and manage administrative tasks more efficiently.

With a Microsoft Learning Gateway ICT solution in place, password-protected access can be extended to parents, providing up-to-the-minute information on students’ attendance, grades, assignments, timetables and upcoming events.

Parents can participate directly in the learning process and visit discussion forums on the portal to share information and views with other parents and with teachers.

Create an e-portfolio for each student: an e-portfolio provides a portable and interactive digital transcript of each pupil’s assignments and achievements, all recorded and stored in one place and accessible from any Internet connection.

Phased implementation: the Microsoft Learning Gateway framework can be implemented in stages, starting with the basic elements and adding modules over time. This means your school can move towards the full solution at a pace it can manage and afford.

The modular architecture enables easy customisation and integration with existing applications and systems. This offers your school the opportunity to save money by building on existing Microsoft server products.

Affordable: although the Microsoft Learning Gateway is a comprehensive and wide-ranging solution, it is still affordable. For example, School Agreement customers pay annually for their software, spreading the cost, and may find that some of the technology in the solution is already included in their licence.

One source: going to a single source for all your e-learning solutions makes business sense. You get the one-stop-shop service, support and market-leading advantage all rolled into one.

Simple IT and system management: the Microsoft Learning Gateway is an integrated framework that ties together different IT systems, simplifying system management.

Tailored to your unique needs: Microsoft Learning Gateway partners can help you design and implement a solution that meets your school’s specific requirements, budgets and plans.

Find out more about Microsoft Learning Gateway Partners