NCSL
Award winning site drives knowledge and learning for teaching professionals
The National College for School Leadership (NCSL) is a leadership and training organisation that provides career-long learning and development opportunities, as well as professional and practical support for the UK's existing and aspiring school leaders. Currently used primarily by head teachers, deputies, middle leaders and business managers, it was created by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) to ensure that school leaders have the skills, recognition, capacity and ambition to transform the school education system into the best in the world.
In support of these goals, the organisation employed sophisticated internet technologies to tackle the historical lack of coordination between training and information resources and provide a site that offers training and qualification programmes, access to learning resources and a forum for discussion with other learning professionals.
Working closely with site developers BT Ignite, Docent and FM Systems, System Associates was sub-contracted for the integration of three key components: a content management system that would deliver a best of breed website; a user registration system that allows the management of authentication and registration of school leaders and a 'single sign-on' solution that allows users to browse between a number of applications without having to re-login.
Content management
"The scale of the challenge seemed huge," explained Jonathan Dale at NCSL. He added, "We needed to disseminate some wide-ranging knowledge, yet as the pages would be created and maintained by fairly inexperienced web users, the resulting web interface needed to be highly user friendly."
However, a simple template, did not mean that content would be basic. The new NCSL web content would include enhanced media such as streaming video, presentations and PDF documents, as well as a site-wide search facility. A sophisticated workflow was also required to control who could change content and when.
Using Macromedia's ColdFusion products as a framework, System Associates developed a complete web content management system for NCSL. Initially launched with 300 pages of content, the website now has more than 2,000, including course materials, video footage from conferences, feeds from BBC news for education, useful web links, bibliographies, references, research reports, publications, online communities, essential documents, example policies and a media archive.
Prior to the final launch of the new NCSL website, an independent testing team from Macromedia was engaged to assess the performance of the site under enterprise volume traffic. System Associates had employed an advanced caching technique to ensure the best possible results. The report from Macromedia recognised the system for NCSL as the most advanced and efficient caching/performance implementation they had ever tested.
The DfES also engaged user acceptance testing (UAT) specialists from Cap Gemini Ernst and Young for a six-week assessment. System Associates easily resolved any issues raised by the UAT, well within deadline.
Furthermore, it was recognised that the web content management system, developed by System Associates, was flexible and extensible enough to be used for the primary delivery and management platform for the portal, without the requirement to purchase additional and expensive portal software.
The registration system and single sign-on
One of the most significant features of the solution is a single sign-on user registration system. There are now more than 60,000 users who have registered via talk2learn, of which 18,000 are actively participating in a learning programme through the 'Learning Gateway'. The personalised registration process allows content and information to be delivered, based on the user's specific interests and preferences.
"This is where the project management skills proved so important," continued Dale. "Before the development even started System Associates ensured that they had consensus between all parties so that they could develop a tailored registration system, a consistent style guide and fully e-GIF compliant site."
However, the functionality does not end there. The site also boasts embedded third party applications such as automated forms, indexing of external databases and websites. Online micro site creators and editors allow members to create their own internal micro sites and communities. The site also features:
- Listings of education and training providers
- Self-assessment software applications
- Online registration, account validation and 'enablement' messages
Outcome
The user registration system, single sign-on function and comprehensive content management system combine to provide an extremely powerful and highly effective solution that makes it easy for users and content authors to navigate and maintain the site.
The Learning Gateway, which allows learning professionals to embark on NCSL programmes has become particularly successful and now has more than 18,000 registered users. Dale comments, "Its success is largely due to the flexibility it offers teaching professionals to enhance their skills and qualifications in a way that suits their own personal circumstances."
The success of the site was acknowledged at the UK e-Government National Awards, 2004, where the Learning Gateway was singled out for an e-Government excellence award. The award recognises NCSL's achievement for the successful implementation of a strategic e-Government initiative.
NCSL's ongoing relationship with System Associates over several years has led to a programme of continual business improvement.
"It's now the largest learning portal for education professionals in the UK," explained Dale. "Features like the user registration system, which allows school leaders to sign up for courses and track progress throughout their career, are really innovative and highly effective. Services that were previously performed by the DfES and NCSL offline have been integrated into the new web content management system, so that they're now offered online and are instantly available to a greater number of teaching professionals," he concluded.
Experience
System Associates was selected by BT Ignite as the technical web development partner for the NCSL project. The company specialises in the delivery of integrated software services, including advanced web management such as high availability hosting, security and support. System Associates boasts particular expertise in e-GIF and government-related specifications, accessibility, technical architecture, project management, databases and integration, having previously worked for public sector organisations such as the Greater London Authority and Her Majesty's Treasury.
Note: The Department for Education and Skills (DfES) was renamed in 2007, and is now known as the Department for Children, Schools and Families.
View the NCSL site (link opens in a new window)