Learning Platforms

The Swiss Educational Sever provides a vast amount of information about Education in Switzerland, as well as an e-learning platform called educanet².

educanet²

According to the PPP study on the integration of ICT in schools (2007), 48% of schools use an online platform. The most widely used platform is educanet² (91.7%). Other platforms include Moodle (4.8%), BSCW (3.2%), Ilias 1.6%. The study also shows that the most widely used functions are: online calendar (28.5%), wiki (28.5%), online publishing (26.1%) and forums (25.5%). It is noteworthy that more French-speaking schools tend to use these platforms than German-speaking schools. Launched in 2004 (as a follow up to the former educanet site), the collaborative platform educanet² is organised around the concept of a virtual school with four distinct, but interrelated areas: a private space including a document store, an agenda, a personal web site and short messaging facilities; an institutional space where teachers can create online classrooms, fix tasks for their pupils, provide material and use a number of interactive tools with their students such as notice boards, a shared calendar and online forums; a community space for collaborative working; a space for on-line courses with a site generator; an online course-authoring tool and the management of online courses. New features include an in-built Wiki, an alert system and on-line surveys.

As of of October 2009, 3,321 Swiss schools subscribed to educanet², with more than 109,000 teachers and 362,000 pupils in more than 28,000 classes (updated statistics can be consulted on the educanet² website).

This platform is used by more than 3,300 schools and offers four distinct areas of activities: a “private” space for each user, an “institutional” space for schools, a “community” space where groups can work together, and a space for online learning. Tools include an address book, a task manager, electronic messaging, an instant messaging system, a workbook, a web site generator etc.

Mathematics 7/8/9

Mathematics 7/8/9 is a major project of the francophone cantons, bringing together all available teaching resources for the official mathematics curriculum at the 7th, 8th and 9th grade of schooling. These resources are available to teachers via their login to educanet².

Lehrplan too

The Lehrplan tool, available on demand on educanet² offers the possibility to teachers to create a work and learning plan for their pupils and classes, structuring and timing collective and individual activities. Lehrplan gives orientation to pupils and teachers alike to monitor and assist learning progresses.