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The BC government recently entered into a 12-year contract with Fujitsu Consulting (Canada) Inc. to deliver ConnectEdBC, a new web-based student information system, Minister of Education Peter Fassbender announced recently. The online platform will make it easier for students to engage in their own learning, for parents to connect with educators, and for teachers to collaborate and share learning materials.
“This is an amazing opportunity to connect everyone in our education system like never before,” Fassbender says. “The new service will make it far easier for parents to engage in ongoing conversation about their child’s progress and for teachers to gain better insights into their students. It will also deliver powerful collaboration tools to better engage students in their own learning and help educators share learning strategies and materials with their colleagues across the province.”
The new service will be built around Follett Corporation’s Aspen Student Information System software, selected for its proven ability to support the BC Education Plan’s focus on personalized learning and other key BC requirements, including:
• A secure web-based portal, accessible through all browsers (including mobile device browsers), to provide parents, students and teachers with real-time access to student records, assignments and learning resources.
• The ability for parents and students to monitor progress on a continual basis and communicate securely with teachers and school-based staff.
• A modern, easy-to-learn and easy-to-use interface. The ability for students to submit work online and for teachers to collaborate and share learning materials across schools or districts.
• Features and flexibility to support personalized learning, group collaboration, special needs and flexible scheduling options.
• A provincewide solution that maintains a single record for each student throughout their entire education journey, from pre- kindergarten to high school graduation.
• Security and privacy management, backup, archiving, and disaster recovery services, and ongoing user support and training.
While delivering far better features and functionality, the value of the contract is up to $9.4 million per year. The charge to school districts will remain at $10 per student per year, the same as the cost of maintaining the current BCeSIS system.
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