Learning Together on the
Fronter Platform
Fronter is a learning platform used by millions of teachers and learners, at thousands of learning
institutions around the world. The platform is made up of almost 100 easy to use web-based tools
developed in close cooperation with its users. The platform is continuously developing according
to the evolving needs of the educational community.
Fronter combines tools within the following areas:
A Complete Range of Online Tools
PERSONAL WORK & PORTFOLIO
Personal Learning Environment (PLE).
E-portfolio and personal working area.
SETUP & ADMINISTRATION
Solid administration tools for
large scale installations.
PUBLISHING
Learning content management system (LCMS).
Production, management and publishing of
content.
TEACHING & LEARNING
Learning Management System (LMS).
Customised learning, assessment and follow-up.
COLLABORATION & COMMUNICATION
Intranet functionality for efficient
collaboration and communication.
FRONTER’S OPEN PHILOSOPHy:
The essence of Fronter’s Open Philosophy is to give
learning institutions the benefit of an open source and
open standard learning platform - while at the same
time issuing guarantees for security, reliability and
scal-ability, all included in a predictable fixed cost of
owner-ship package.
The open development process, managed by users in
reference groups, ensures that the platform quickly
adopts new ideas and concepts as they prove valuable
to the teaching and learning community.
Extensive compliance with open standards makes
inte-gration easy (SCORM, IMS, etc.) and support for
Acces-sibility standards (WAI) ensures that Fronter is available
to all user groups.
Collaborative Working Environment
Fronter is a virtual building, structured into rooms. Each room is equipped with the tools required
to empower the collaboration and learning activity in that room. The room owner invites members
and assigns rights according to each member’s role in the room.
The Building
Fronter is your
virtual building on
the Internet.
Virtual Rooms
The building is
structured into
virtual rooms.
Tools
The rooms are
equipped with
the tools of your
choice.
Members
Members are
invited into rooms
for learning and
collaboration.
Key
Your key (password)
gives you access to
the rooms that are
relevant to you.
We call this the Collaborative Working Environment (CWE) as it combines tools for e-portfolio, personal work and learning
(PLE), learning management (LMS), collaboration and knowledge management (KM) and content repository (LCMS).
WITH FRONTER I CAN….
Create my own e-portfolio.
•
Hand-in my work and have it assessed.
•
Learn at my own pace whenever and wherever I like.
•
Communicate with my teachers and peers.
•
Work on my own or as part of a group.
•
Access my own Individual Learning Plan.
•
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Easy to use tools for
learning and collaboration
online.
PlusPacks
Modules with additional functionality, sold separately.Services
Professional services delivered by Fronter staff.PERSONAL WORK
Personal Learning Environment (PLE) Learning Management System (LMS)
LEARNING
Whiteboard: Real-time whiteboard tool.
Test: Tool for test creation with options for format and design.
Course import: Import of IMS, SCORM and AICC courses.
Result matrix: Summary of user results.
Statistics: Complete report of activity in a room.
Hand-in: Folder for submission of as-signments and evaluation.
Learning path: Structuring of learning pages to facilitate directed learning.
Learning goals: Import/customisation of learning goals for goal-oriented work.
Portfolio: Overview of learning process and work progress.
Individual Learning Plan (ILP):
Individual assessment of progress.
Notes: Short notes linked to learning objects.
Question database: Shared database for test questions.
Video: Show video clips and other multimedia files from the resources.
External repository search: Search in predefined external repositories.
Calendar import: Import of calendar data using vCal and iCal format.
Webparts: Integration with Microsoft SharePoint portal.
Elluminate vOfficeTM: Upgrade
Meeting to allow more users and recording of live sessions.
Meeting: Personal real-time meeting tool for 3 users. Features incl. video, app. sharing, whiteboard etc.
Fronter Instant Messenger (FIM):
Internal instant messaging system.
Visual Mail: Write, draw or record a message to classmates in Fronter.
Blog client: Edit your external blogs from directly within Fronter.
To-do list: Personal task list with progress indication.
E-mail client: Complete e-mail client with support for POP3 and IMAP.
My homepage: Personal web page.
Entrance Hall: Visual overview and easy access to rooms from the Today Portal.
My resources: Network-based hard drive for personal files and content.
My portfolio: Personal portfolio and display folder.
My contacts: List of personal contacts and friends.
Today portal: Latest info from rooms in Fronter and external RSS feeds.
My calendar: Organise personal appointments and meetings.
Information central: Quick overview of new elements on Today portal.
Stickies: Internal messaging system in Fronter.
Digital exam: Professional examination tool.
Academy: Fronter accreditation and training courses.
Ephorus plagiarism control: Plagiarism check for hand-ins into Fronter.
Elluminate vClassTM: Full featured
virtual classroom for a fixed number of users.
Absence and gradebook: Recording behaviour, absence and grades.
My RSS feed: Personal RSS feed from your Today portal.
Support: Unlimited support for accredited Fronter administrators.
Sound recorder: Record and store sound directly in Fronter Resources and Pages.
Parental Log-in: Unique access to your child’s portfolio.
E-mail hosting: E-mail server, fully integrated with Fronter.
Project management: Project teams supervise the Fronter implementation.
User conferences and events: Train-ing and updates for Fronter users.
ADMINISTRATION
Administration of the Fronter Platform
PUBLISHING
Learning Content Management System (LCMS)
COLLABORATION
Collaboration and Communication
Learning goals: Import/customisation of learning goals for goal-oriented work.
Messages: Shared message to all members in a room.
RSS reader: Display RSS feeds from external sources on the Today portal.
Survey: Effective evaluation of all available courses in Fronter.
Chat: Real-time chat function in a room.
Shared contacts: Shared contact list for users.
Shared calendar: Shared calendar for members in a room.
Frontpage: Option to create customised start pages for rooms/courses.
Voting: Simplified test for assessing opinion.
Hotseat: Question and answer function.
Brainstorm: Forum for anonymous generation of ideas.
Debate: Discussion forum with defined standpoints.
Conversation: Discussion, non-thread based forum.
Shared document: Inbuilt editor for documents with one or more authors.
Discussion: Thread-based discussion forum.
Activity Folder: Archive for activities specific to a project plan.
Time recording: Recording time spent by project participants.
Editor: Inbuilt word editor.
Metadata search: Search on metadata associated with content.
OES: Direct opening, changing and saving of external files in Fronter.
Version control: Control of objects in the resources, with history summary.
Metadata: Metadata linked to content objects in the resources.
Statistics: Statistics for all content objects in the resources.
Page: Create pages with dynamic content and layout.
List: Preparation of lists which can contain internal and external links.
News: Date-controlled news with images and text.
Links: Shared link resources with comment function.
File transfer: Upload external files and file structures.
Shared resources: Shared archive for participants in a room.
Article: Option to combine text and images.
WebEq: Mathematical formula editor.
Webfronter: Publishing tool for easy website creation and hosting.
Free text search: Search inside content created and uploaded to Fronter.
Interface design: Customise the Fronter interface to suit your profile.
Setup: Fronter, user imports, data synchronisation and single sign on.
External hosting: Support for external hosting providers.
Content migration: Transfer content from other learning platforms to Fronter.
Reports: Administrative reports for activity summaries.
Local settings: Settings at school, faculty or institution level.
Global settings: Top level settings for the entire Fronter building.
Rights and roles: Definition of access rights and roles in Fronter.
Organisation structure: Structure customised to your organisation.
Export: Export of rooms (courses) as an IMS package.
Help: Complete online help system, with tutorials and training courses.
Language support: Tool for different language selection.
Database clean-up: Admin. routines for effective database administration.
User-defined tool: Option to define your own tools in a room.
Design: Modify the graphical interface to match your organisation.
Single Sign On: SSO with third party systems using Shibboleth or other.
Resource booking: Book equipment/ resources etc. through the calendar.
Liveroom: Entry-level, synchronous virtual classroom tool for an unlimited number of users.
Appointment list: Scheduling of individual meetings for a group of people.
Elluminate Live! ®: Upgrade Liveroom to include additional features (video, app. sharing, recording and more).
CreazaTM: Video editing, sound editing,
mind mapping and cartoon creation.
Logging: Logging of all events in Fronter.
Open API: Ability to integrate with third party providers.
Members: Room member list specifying access rights in the room.
Room: Basic building block of the Fronter platform.
Fronter hosting: Complete hosting package offered by Fronter.
LDAP authentication: Authenticate with LDAP servers.
Data synchronisation: With Fronter using SIF and other standards.
Automatic user import: From Student Administrative Systems (SAS/MIS).
Portfolio Transfer: School to school transfer of students’ portfolios.
Bridge: Share content and collaborate across Fronter installations.
Workshop: Fronter workshops for teachers and school managers.
Infofronter: Publish RSS feeds from Fronter to external sources.
SMS messaging: Purchase SMS quotas for sending text messages to users.
The Fronter values determine the way in which we provide easy-to-use tools for learning and
collaboration online, including the future development of the Fronter platform. These values
ensure that Fronter engages with the users, develops and provides a product, in a way that is:
The Fronter Values
Easy
Fronter is designed for the user,
and to a large extent, by the user.
With an intuitive interface,
the Fronter Platform enables
efficient operation with minimum
training.
Open
Fronter believes in openness and
embraces the term in a number of
ways through our open
development, integration,
accessibility, source code and
product guarantee.
Professional
In all areas Fronter strives to
provide a professional product
and service to the users,
promoting communication and
collaboration throughout
development, delivery and
operation.
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OPEN DEVELOPMENT:
The process of development is fundamentally based on an open communication and
collaboration with our customers - current and future.
OPEN INTEGRATION:
Fronter’s component based architecture and standard API makes it easy to integrate with
other legacy systems.
OPEN ACCESSIBILITy:
Fronter is available to all users, through support for the accessibility standard WAI level A
and support for many languages.
OPEN SOURCE:
The Fronter source code is available to all licensed customers.
OPEN GUARANTEE:
In contrast to traditional open source products, Fronter offers tight service level agreements,
quality control and a zero-bug regime.
Ease of use
A self explanatory interface and metaphors that
eve-rybody can relate to, ensure an easy start up for new
users.
A unique development process
Fronter offers a radically different approach to product
development. Key decisions about future development
are taken by Fronter Reference Groups, consisting
ex-clusively of Fronter users.
Powerful and flexible admin module
Fronter’s administrative module is flexible enough to
handle the largest and most complex organisational
structures and user groups. The learning platform can
also be integrated with third party administrative
systems.
National point of contact
When implementing the Fronter learning platform you
can rest assured – we are available with unlimited
support and implementation strategy guidance for all
certified
administrators. We are fully aware, and prepared to
help you with any challenges you may face when
im-plementing the learning platform.
Through our partner and subsidiary network, we will
guide you through training, administrative support,
customised courses and user conferences. We have
an extensive range of traditional and online courses,
manuals, online help, implementation guides and
white papers to make sure your implementation runs
smoothly.
Customised interface
Fronter comes with a variety of interface designs.
One example is a special look and feel for the youngest
learners, developed in close cooperation with primary
school teachers. With this feature, the same learning
platform can be offered to both younger and older
learners, but presented in a way that is appropriate
and appealing to the age group.
Centrally hosted solution
Fronter offers a centrally hosted solution at one of
Europe’s largest hosting centres with 24/7 and year
round availability. With the highest focus on security,
in the form of virus protection, encryption, back up
and surveillance
- your data is safe.
Guarantee
Fronter’s Open Platform philosophy combines the best
of two worlds; innovation based on open source, with
guarantees and fixed cost of ownership issued by a
corporation. In addition we offer our customers a tight
service level agreement to ensure minimum fix-time for
bugs, 24/7 watch, guarantees for further development,
predictable roadmaps and a professional service team.
A Platform for the Future
We are committed to ensuring that the Fronter platform continues to satisfy the functional
needs within personal work, learning, collaboration, publishing and administration. Equally
important is the platform’s ease of use, scalability and flexibility, our development strategy,
support, guarantees and level of service (SLA).
Fronter UK Ltd
Fronter International
Rådhusgata 1-3
P.O. BOX 232 Sentrum
N-0103 Oslo, Norway
Fronter UK Ltd
80 Strand
London
WC2R ORL
Tel: 0845 241 8090
Offices in
:
Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark,
Iceland, The Netherlands, Germany,
Austria, Spain, Poland, The United
Kingdom, West Africa, North Africa
and The Middle East.
MORE INFORMATION AND DEMO AT FRONTER.CO.UK
About Fronter
Founded in Norway in 1998, Fronter was acquired
by Pearson in 2009, joining the world’s leading
education company. Setting the standard for
online learning solutions, Fronter provides a flexible
learning solution for the next generation of global
education.
Winning many prestigious awards, Fronter has been
acknowledged as a leader in its market, and one of only 10
Learning Platform Service Suppliers to be certified by the British
Educational Communications and Technology Agency (Becta) in
the UK. Experiencing rapid growth and expansion, the Fronter
Platform is used by millions of teachers and learners in schools,
colleges, universities, and professional organisations around the
world.
Fronter takes part in all major European e-learning conferences,
presenting the Fronter Platform to the greater educational
community. Fronter is proud to be 100% focused on education,
and is continuously evolving as a result of collaboration with its
users and the dynamic educational market.
Fronter provides easy-to-use tools for learning and
collaboration online
