Class Room Control software.

[Bob007]

Am trying to price a job. The scene is as follows. The room has up 42 clients each with there own PC. In this room there is 2 tutors and 1 or 2 learner support. So 46 poeple total.

Now the idea is to have a way to deliver demonstrations to as many of the PC's as required from 1 PC.

Now i've tested a few in a lab enviroment. I am recommending these two.

Italc, free, open source. Have a few issues with it such as higher bandwidth useage then next one. Wouldn't be to bad for 20 clients. But gets a bit to much when am in the late 30's. Will be considered as the chances of doing a demo to 35+ clients are slim. But if the tutor leaves it on the networks going to slow to a crawl and i'll get a phone call and be made to look like a tit for someone elses stupidity

Fairly simple interface and does what they requested.

Lan School. Bit less chatty then italc. Costs money. has text based monitoring instead of screen based. Won't be an issue if the tutor leaves it on. Less likely to get a phone call and be made to look like a tit.

Simple interface with clearly labeled buttons.

Now the request/question.

These 2 solutions are both fine if you have a centre tutor PC. Currently the room does not as the tutors are dealing with different ppl at differing stages of training. So they actualy walk the floor most of the time.

So what am after is a solution that can be installed on all 42 PC's and act as a client but with the use of a user name and password supplied by the admin staff any one of the machines can be turned into a tutor machine and used to deliver a demostration to who ever requires it.

Not even sure something like this is out there. But i like to present as many options as I can. So anyone heard of anything like this ?

 

[Munkey]

Yeah, my university uses software for that. Can't remember what it was called.

IET: Tutor Control: What is AB Tutor Control is kind of close to it, but not really.

 

[Bob007]

Seems Ab should be able to do what I need it to do. Just sent off for the demo and i'll run some tests.

Cheers.

 

[Kryten]

AB Tutor is the basis for many classroom based tutoring systems including a rebadged version for Research Machines. It's very good, although I also do like iTalc

 

[AJKOK1]

AB Tutor is the basis for many classroom based tutoring systems including a rebadged version for Research Machines. It's very good, although I also do like iTalc

Actually that is not the case. RM Tutor is a rebadged version of NetSupport School. RM Tutor used to be based on NetOP school, but they moved to NetSuport in 2006. The promote the product as "RM Tutor powered by NeSupport".

Viglen Classink, Ranger Remote Control, Stone Classroom Mentor and SchoolVue are all currently based on NetSupport School.

AB Tutor is a good solution, but is pitched more against the "lighter" solutions such as LanSchool, Faronics Insight ( which is LanSchool under a different name) and NetOp School.

iTalc is OK, but it has not been developed for some time and has fallen behind the commercial solutions.

Lots of options to suit budget and features needed.

 

[Chilly]

rmeote desktop to the "server" machine? Then you can use one of your reccomended pieces.

 

[Kryten]

plays spot the spam...

I'm well aware of what the programs are thanks - been in the educational IT field long enough. I did actually make a slight mistake, yes, thanks for pointing that out.

And please, I don't think anyone here appreciates companies, NetSupport or otherwise randomly joining forums to defend their own products, or even start advertising them.

 

[old.user4556]

lol kryt, questionable user name along with the "most visited" being me, you and Teeds (with a probable raised eyebrow).

 

[`mongoose]

We use Lanschool but our needs are different.

It's good to see people using these classroom controls more as aides to learning rather than as "thou shalt not do..."

For demonstration purposes I'd have thought something like webex or another of those "desktop sharing" clients might work well and if you only need 3/4 concurrent connections at any one time it might work out a damn site cheaper and easier to implement as well?

M

 

[Kryten]

It's used rather commonly in schools round here, along with interactive whiteboards it's a fantastic way of showing students what to do, it's also a great way of showing off people's work, leading to a sense of accomplishment for that student.
Plus it's great for controlling unruly kids too

 

[`mongoose]

It's used rather commonly in schools round here, along with interactive whiteboards it's a fantastic way of showing students what to do, it's also a great way of showing off people's work, leading to a sense of accomplishment for that student.
Plus it's great for controlling unruly kids too

Yeah - one of our better lecturers uses the "quiz" function to get feedback on whether the session met the students expectations - learner consultation and all that stuffs

They also use the blanking function to display a page on the screen of the pc's with the session aims and outcomes at the start - it's a shame more peoples don't use it in this way tbh.

M

 

[Bob007]

Cheers for the info folks. I'll spread some rep to the nice folks

1 of the reason am leaning towards Lanschool is its very light on resources. As all the students are 18+ "adults" who have been controled via internal dns servers and access to programs restricted to what they need and nothing more by me am not to worried on watching what they do as they can't do anything outside a strict set of rules. (Its not that strict, more office type strict)

Also am trying to aviod giving the tutors access to the server. So thats out cheers for thought tho, did pass my mind then i thought about who would be doing it. Put me right off.

I'll take a look at webex tomorrow. See what else fits that bill as well. tbh never heard of it till now, might do the job a treat. might not i'll check it out. Thanks for the pointer.

Also I like italc and as a rule it would be top of my list and I have used it before in other centres. But the size and structor of this one means its just going to cause me problems

 

[DaGaffer]

From what I remember Webex has a limit of 25 simultaneous users.

 

[Bob007]

I checked Webex, put it in the report but I think its to costly for what its needed for. Am hoping they'll go with LanSchool as i did some extra testing and get manipulate it to function as I need it to. Meets tomorrow so see how it goes.

Cheers all for your input. Love FH nice clever ppl

 

[AJKOK1]

plays spot the spam...

I'm well aware of what the programs are thanks - been in the educational IT field long enough. I did actually make a slight mistake, yes, thanks for pointing that out.

And please, I don't think anyone here appreciates companies, NetSupport or otherwise randomly joining forums to defend their own products, or even start advertising them.

Hi Kryten.

Not sure why you are so defensive of my posting ? I didn't provide an advert for any product, i didn't suggest one was better than another, and simply corrected an incorrect posting and provided a summary of all of the main alternatives with a closing comment suggesting there are plenty of products to suit different budgets.

I didn't "defend" a product or advertise "one" as being better (other than to advertise all available solutions).

Would you suggest it is better for the forum to leave inaccurate statements un-corrected ?

I'm well aware forums are not a place to post biased views or try to sell, but honestly, having simply clarified the situation and provided a list of options ( none with any specific bias) and not specifically for your benefit, but all readers, I really can't see what your issue is.

 

[MYstIC G]

Ajkok1, knock it off.

 

[Kryten]

We're an open community and welcome people with open arms but there are very obvious reasons why anyone would be dubious of anything said by someone who has joined only to back up information that benefits their own company.

If I had time, I'd love to correct Apple in all their marketing "mistakes" but that's just not good practice.