Friday 25 April 2014

My Learning offers new Cloud Store service at no additional cost.

My Learning are pleased to announce the release of their Cloud Store service.

With the ever growing demand for rich, video based media to be delivered onto an endless array of devices, My Learning have been carefully researching and building their next-generation network to power an increasing and diverse range of clients.

Our new CDN allows static resources such as video, audio and documents to be held in secure static areas positioned in caches all around the globe. Rather than storing this material on the same framework which powers your VLE, My Learning can now re-purpose this material elsewhere so that when many users want to watch the same video, the media is streamed from high-speed dedicated cloud caches which are closest to your location.


This allows the VLE to carry on with it's task of providing you with a powerful learning tool, knowing that the media required is safe and secure, and globally distributed.

There are many cloud solutions available, such as Amazon, Akamai and Azure. In order to ensure data security and integrity - My Learning built their own Cloud Store to hold this information and then cascade cached copies through a distributed cloud network. Importantly, we always control access and availability of your data (unlike some other providers).

How it works:
  1. A user records a classroom video and uploads it to My Learning.
  2. The file is received, and then transmitted to our Cloud Store.
  3. When you play the video, the content is streamed directly from the Cloud Store.
  4. Cloud streaming provides faster bandwidth, improved caching and better performance.
  5. Nothing changes on your VLE, everything works just as it previously did.
What does it cost?
It costs nothing. Simple.

Can I opt out?
Of course. Just let us know your school/business name and we'll exclude you from the migration.

Where is the data?
The original un-cached copy of the data is always protected on our central data store, within our private network infrastructure. The cached copies (for high speed delivery) reside in 24 global locations closest to where you are using My Learning.


The future?
A good question. As more people produce more digital output, the requirement for lighting fast, secure and distributed content will be as important as the roll out of fibre internet. Ultimately, the faster we drive - the more fuel and resources we need.

Expect CDN quality services to be in high demand as our digital lives evolve.

My Learning partners with ZiNET Data Solutions


As the relentless demand for data unity increases, with schools and business training establishments requiring "Big Data" services, My Learning has been assessing the market for companies that are able to provide real-time data solutions.

At first glance, it may seem prudent to select industry giants, or long established companies - but it was soon realised that this is not always the best way forward. Many of these avenues provide products which are outdated, outmoded, or are in a legacy state; and would not cater to the flexible requirements of constantly changing end-user demands.

It is because of this research that My Learning are pleased to announce our partnership with ZiNET Data Solutions who will be working with us to provide a vast array of data transfer services for the business and our existing and future clients.


ZiNET Connect from ZiNET Data Solutions provides an automated facility to synchronise data from a school’s MIS to the My Learning platform. Utilising up-to-date technology and a robust, flexible application set, ZiNET Connect provides the invisible mechanism to connect My Learning to any data source. It’s just that simple, and it just works.



Over the next few months, ZiNET will be working closely to deliver a robust and forward thinking solution to allow schools to maximise their big-data needs for many years ahead.

Business Development Director, Alan Sawyers commented that:
 "With ZiNET's resilient development model, solidly authored future-proof products and many years of industry experience in the data-transfer market, we are extremely pleased to move forward with our partnership which provides even more data extract services for our clients. Big-data may not be on everyone's agenda, but it's our role to predict what our customers require 6 months before they need it."

Over the next few months, all clients of My Learning will be offered the data transfer tool, which currently supports the following MIS products:

SIMS
Facility
Bromcom MIS
ScholarPack
RM Integris (Coming Q2 2014*)
iSAMS (Coming Q3 2014*)
Progresso (Coming 2014*)
Arbor (Coming 2014*)

Friday 4 April 2014

My Learning in Norway!


My Learning are pleased to announce the immediate availability of their new Norwegian Digital Learning Arena in preparation for their main-stream launch on 13th May 2014. This new framework for Norwegian schools has an exciting line up of features:

  • Already pre-translated into Norwegian BokmĂ„l.
  • Free integrated video content from Norwegian establishments.
  • Initial support for Nynorsk language.
  • Built-in support for Norwegian Academic Grading structure.
  • Supports all three major school types: Barneskolen, Ungdomsskolen and VideregĂ„ende skole
  • Migration tools available for It's Learning and Fronter.
  • Direct import from Youtube and Flickr.
  • Full support for SCORM 1.2, 2004 and QTI/IMS standards.
  • Available as a self-hosted, or entirely online solution.
  • PC, Laptop, Tablet and Smartphone editions as part of the package.
Upcoming support for:
  • Kikora
  • Matte Mestern
  • NRK Skole
  • Feide SSO


New Office 365 integration


In January 2014 selected users of My Learning had early access to our full integration suite for Office 365. We listened to early feedback and after a week of public release we are now pleased to launch the first edition of our new integration tool for Office 365.

What is does:

  • It gives individual users access to their Office 365 files (directly within My Learning)
  • It allows users to create shortcuts to their Office 365 files within Classes and Learning Spaces.
  • You can add our new Office 365 dashboard panel.
  • See previews of your emails in the dashboard tool.
  • See previews of your upcoming calendar items using the dashboard.
  • Connect and re-connect to your Office 365 when you need to.
  • Completely integrated single-sign-on. Login once, and then no more logins and passwords.
  • Multi device - works on PC, Smartphone and Tablet
  • Access all of your Office 365 documents and files directly.
Upcoming features in version 2:

In the next edition of the integration, users will be able to...
  • Customise the behaviour and properties of their Office 365 dashboard.
  • Email preview and calendar preview will become separate dashboard panels.
  • First version of the ability to select daily, weekly or monthly calendar views.
Remember, that all users of My Learning have been able to access their OneDrive (ex-SkyDrive) web drives since August 2013, so if you have these free services such as GoogleDrive and Dropbox - you can use these too.

Existing users of My Learning have access to our Skills Hub - packed with tutorial video's. Within the next few days, you'll have access to the 4 click process of accessing your Office 365 suite.