A new term for schools and a further improved Engage was on show for the Development Partners to see.
After a busy summer implementing many of the requested product enhancements, Double First was keen to show the latest developments at their third Engage Development Partners Conference to a room full of Delegates.
Workshops
Splitting into three groups for some excellent feedback opportunities, each of the schools was able to put pen to paper with their thoughts on prioritising some of the key potential development routes. Team discussions led to a spokesperson being nominated to present to the conference for further discussion.
Manual Timetable
Paul Rastall, Software Development Manager, first demonstrated the Timetable module in its manual form.
Starting with setting the rules (a task which everyone agreed looked far simpler than anything they had previously seen) Paul showed the ease with which a timetable could be created however complex the rules.
Manual to Automatic
‘How long does it take you to create a Timetable?’ asked Paul. ‘A day for two of us,’ answered one delegate. ‘Two days,’ responded another. ‘Staff hate doing it,’ said another, ‘and it always causes problems.’
‘For sake of example,’ continued Paul, ‘What if we said we wanted seven Timetables in a minute?’
Within one minute, the Timetable module had completed the task, listing them in order of best fit, and in each case pointing out which lessons could not be taught and for what reasons.
One delegate stated, ‘Well that blows away the timetabler software we already have!’
Engage and its VLE
The fully integrated VLE, was also demonstrated. Four delegates immediately requested they become trial sites.