Schools have a lot of factors to consider when first deciding to implement Frog within their school.
An important question to ask yourselves before you begin planning the transition process is:
What are your expectations and requirements for your learning platform?
This should get you thinking more about the specific details and reasons why you want to use FrogLearn around school? It is often to enhance teaching and learning through the setting of work and providing instant feedback to students or it could be to effectively engage parents or alternatively to directly combat recent negative outcomes from an Ofsted report.
The main area that schools initially struggle with is the initial uptake of staff. This is due to a number of reasons, which this guide will help to combat.
Typical excuses from staff members include:
- Too busy
- Not enough time
- We don’t have to do it this way
- It won’t be faster than manually doing it
- The way I currently work is fine
This guide will help you to understand different strategies you can implement in order to enthuse some of the most technologically illiterate or stubborn individuals around your school into willing FrogLearn participants. This does not end with your staff as this may have a direct effect on the quality of the teaching and learning for your students. Every student and even staff members will learn more effectively using different methods. As a school with this technology you will be able to address the needs for audio, visual and kinaesthetic learners using FrogLearn widgets.
It is important to understand exactly how to increase engagement for your end users as every school and business has different individuals with a variety of learning requirements. The following points will help in the understanding of this.
The Implementation Process
When beginning to implement a new system into a school or any other environments it is crucial to ensure this is undertaken at a manageable pace and well planned with a realistic and achievable goal. Our Implementation Consultants at Frogtrade can help you through this process and act as a catalyst to guide you with the steps you take to make the process as easy as possible. With budgets reducing and demand for e-learning increasing, it’s vital to implement a cost-effective learning strategy that works for your organisation.
If information isn’t fed to the staff members who are the main critics of the platform then the implementation can stall and hinder the future usage of the platform. Alongside this, cascading the information to more users is crucial to the long term future of the platform. At frog, we offer custom consultant/platform advisory packages based around the following 4 areas below.
- Assess
We assess your needs and find out exactly what you want to achieve with your learning platform.
- Plan
We work with you to create a personalised plan with a breakdown of what you need to complete, who will be completing it and to what deadlines.
- Implement
We help you integrate the platform into school life and advise how we feel this is best done alongside assisting you in the initial setup.
- Train
Future proofing your platform is crucial which is why we create a training plan that will give your colleagues the skills and knowledge to start using the platform and consequently cascade this information to other staff members in order to reach your goal and achieve a healthy platform. This is key to providing a return on investment and future proofing your platform.
Understanding Technology in the Classroom
The Substitution Augmentation Modification Redefinition Model offers a method of seeing how computer technology can impact teaching and learning.
As a school moves along the continuum, computer technology becomes more important in the classroom but at the same time becomes more invisibly integrated into the demands of good teaching and learning.

It is this models principles that need to be emphasised to teachers in order to improve the uptake of FrogLearn.
- Substitution -- Computer technology is used to perform the same task as was done before the use of computers.
Example -- Students obtain a worksheet from the teacher in the lesson, finish it then manually hand it in to the teacher.
No functional change in teaching and learning. There may well be times when this is the appropriate level of work as there is no real gain to be had from computer technology. One needs to decide computer use based on any other possible benefits. This area tends to be teacher centric where the instructor is guiding all aspects of a lesson.
- Augmentation -- Computer Technology offers an effective tool to perform common tasks.
Example -- Students take a quiz using FrogLearn instead of using a pencil and paper and having to manually hand them in and have the teacher collate the results.
There is some functional benefit here in that paper is being saved, students and teacher can receive almost immediate feedback on student level of understanding of material. This level starts to move along the teacher / student centric continuum. The impact of immediate feedback is that students may begin to become more engaged in learning.
- Modification -- This is the first step over the line between enhancing the traditional goings-on of the classroom and transforming the classroom. Common classroom tasks are being accomplished through the use of computer technology.
Example -- Students are asked to write an essay about the music in films and create their own soundtrack to a 5 minute section of a film of their choice. An audio recording of this track is created by the students and uploaded to FrogLearn via a File Drop through an assignment. The recording is then played in front of the class and also parents at parents evening.
There is significant functional change in the classroom. While all students are learning similar writing skills, the reality of an authentic audience ensures each student has a personal stake in the quality of the work. Computer technology is necessary for this classroom to function allowing peer and teacher feedback, easy rewriting, and audio recording.
- Redefinition -- Computer technology allows for new tasks that were previously inconceivable.
Example -- A class is asked to create a documentary video about society and its reliance on technology. Students are split into groups and each student takes on a different subtopic and they collaborate to create one final product. Students/teams are expected to collect their own anecdotal evidence by contacting outside sources for information. At this point, common classroom tasks and computer technology exist as supports for student centred learning. Students learn content and skills in support of important concepts as they pursue the challenge of creating a professional quality video. Collaboration becomes necessary and technology allows such communications to occur via the use of FrogLearn forums and walls but also through the use of Site Timelines and the mobile application FrogSnap. Using FrogSnap students can actively evidence via pictures, short videos and audio, where they are and what they are doing there. It would allow other students in the group to see what other team members are working on and can comment accordingly to provide assistance or pointers (peer review) into their work.
Another simpler example through using FrogLearn is to create a quiz for students for a music lesson. FrogLearn quizzes not only offer a wide variety of question types but also the ability to add images and audio to support your quiz. In addition to this, images can be pulled directly from Google without having to leave the platform and access a search engine through another window or tab.
Increasing FrogLearn Usage
There are a number of uptake strategies as a school you can implement in order to not just get the most out of FrogLearn but consequently to get your users actively and willingly using the platform.
It is generally the staff uptake of FrogLearn that is more difficult to achieve surrounding the initial implementation the platform. It will greatly improve your chances of a successful launch if both technical and educational staff are involved in order to provide enough expertise from both ends of the spectrum in order to achieve your long term goals with the platform.
Students will follow suit and use the platform providing staff are, for example through the setting of work and the display of their learning content. This section hopes to highlight some of the ways you can use FrogLearn to encourage your users to frequently use the platform.
Gamification
This is the process of introducing a competitive game playing elements within your learning environment. Typical examples include point scoring, quizzes, achievements or competitions all of which can help to keep users motivated and potentially eager to learn. This can be accomplished in a number of ways, whether it be through FrogPlay, Vivo (An external third party app available with single sign on functionality through FrogLearn), or by using a number of FrogLearn widgets.
FrogPlay is a simple and effective assessment tool that incentivises students to learn. It is an add-on for the FrogLearn platform that through the use of games, avatars and leader boards, students are rewarded for answering set questions correctly.
Teachers can instantly assess their students’ level of understanding on specific topics through simple, insightful reports. Schools with this add-on are granted access to a bank of pre-made quizzes within the system.
It introduces an element of camouflage learning whereby students are able to take quizzes simultaneously whilst learning. Students are unable to play games without taking a quiz and there are a number of elements in place to enhance the learning aspect of this, such as the better you score the more time you get to play the gaming elements etc. There is also the opportunity for an additional competitive element through school and friend leaderboards.
Within the standard FrogLearn platform it is possible to introduce several methods to provide a level of gamification to the platform. Some of these elements are explained later in this guide in more detail such as introducing FrogLearn quizzes with rewards/incentives for the highest scores.
Other examples include introducing student awards through the use of a site timeline where you can upload image stickers/badges to a site timeline dedicated to a student or for a class. In a primary school scenario you could provide achievement images for good behaviour, effort, attainment, attitude, or even for finishing their school meals.
Create site for each house system – add points
Once you’ve created leaderboards on Frog that display to the whole school how well each house is doing, you’ll find that motivation can soar for some users. Users are more likely to work up the leaderboards to get more points or badges/achievements so competition is likely to increase.
Pre-Launch
This section has been split into two sub- sections, one covering pre-launch ideas and one covering pending/post launch strategies. Please bear in mind these suggestions can be used in either stages of launching FrogLearn.
Marketing Materials
A popular starting point for schools when launching a new scheme or platform etc to teachers and/or students is to launch a marketing campaign around school.
Aside from communications via email and the school website, the use of the existing school intranet will help to increase hype and spread the word. Pre/re-launch Frog posters and teasers can be posted around the school to increase the anticipation and excitement. For example in the staff room, bathrooms, and other highly visited areas around school. The addition of Frog related adverts in school newsletters and flyers and other methods will also help increase awareness for the upcoming changes.
Digital Signage
To support marketing materials around school you can highlight the uses of Frog by including this on your digital signage. The use in a schools reception is a great way to welcome visitors and allow parents to see more about Frog upon entering the school. Popular areas such as the lunch hall and staff room can help to highlight the latest information about Frog and help to ensure staff are up-to-date and to generally improve information flow to staff, pupils, parents and visitors regarding any changes on Frog.
After release of the platform you may wish to use digital signage to inform the school that the latest extra information regarding extra-curricular activities will be on Frog. If an urgent change is made to FrogLearn this can be highlighted quickly to users and
The digital signage software itself could inform viewers of the highlights such as “football club after school at 3pm” however FrogLearn will be home to an entire site of information surrounding the football club, from notices, match information and pictures taking using FrogSnap.
Assemblies & Staff Briefings
Assemblies are great ways to introduce students to the FrogLearn platform. This time can be spent getting them enthused about what’s to come, instructing them on best use for the upcoming platform and slowly releasing more information about the future. This will help to integrate the platform within the school at a slower, less intimidating pace and more manageable pace.
Training
In order for staff members to get used to the platform it is highly advisable to perform training.
One approach is to have a Frog consultant undertake the training or have the VLE manager at your school perform the training to staff members. This will likely depend on how your school distributes the responsibilities of the learning platform and how much dedicated time you are allocated to work with Frog. Some schools are fortunate enough to have dedicated VLE managers whilst many schools have managing the learning platform as an addition to an existing role.
For schools who wish to have Frog consultants perform the training this can be used to train an individual at the school who will cascade the training downwards through the staff members or it can be done to a selection of Frog Champions. Whole school staff training is often not an effective exercise due to the increased number of distractions and lack of the personal touch (1v1 tuition) which allows users to ask questions freely. The most popular method is for a Frog consultant to perform training to a selection of individuals who will act as Frog Champions throughout the school who will enthuse staff and help staff get to grips with the platform. This is often the heads of departments and/or key members of the SLT. Once these Champions have been trained, they are then capable of cascading down the training to their departments in order to increase the use of the platform by staff at release.
Theme/Aethetics
You want to ensure that the look and feel of the learning platform not only suit your audience but is also aesthetically pleasing. People are instinctively attracted to things that look nice. Whilst the content in your platform is crucial, the appearance is not far behind. You want your users to enjoy their learning experience and ensuring you have relevant and quality site backgrounds and themes.
It’s possible to create your own themes for your platform providing you have an understanding of HTML and CSS. It can help to enhance your platform with a relevant theme to the school containing a school logo or pictures of the building or students.
Launch
When it comes to the launch of your FrogLearn platform there needs to be some considerations into who you release the platform to and exactly how it is released.
Schools often choose a soft release to staff members first in order to ensure they have the opportunity to get used to navigating around the platform and to build some sites/learning content.
From experience, when releasing to staff members it can be worthwhile launching to your SLT and heads of department who consequently will act as Frog Champions, enthusing and assisting other teachers with the platform. Subsequently these users will require training to be provided. Some schools do choose a hard release approach to students who as a rule are more familiar with technology and social networking than some staff members so get to grips with the Frog platform fairly quickly. In turn, this can put a little positive pressure on staff members to start using the platform in order to deliver their teaching and learning content through the use of FrogLearn sites and the setting of work.
A good starting example for FrogLearn is to provide students with revision sites. Once they see the benefit of these sites they will naturally expect and request further content to be available through the learning platform. An expansion of this would be to then obtain as much information about the release as possible whether it be positive or negative; through the use of FrogLearn forms and polls. Once idea is to include dashboard a poll so users can rate their experience on the platform or a form titled “What would you like to see next in Frog Learn?”. This will ensure you will be addressing the requirements of your users around the school.
Staff drop in sessions
After school sessions can be employed pre or post launch of the platform for staff members to come to a designated place and ask any questions they have about the learning platform. This will ensure they are able to gain more knowledge about the platform from the individuals driving the project; otherwise some staff members may never ask key questions that consequently may get them enthused and really using the platform in an effective way.
This is also useful to expose staff members to new features within Frog after a main release (for example when the new Markbook was released). Schools are contacted by Frog before a FrogLearn update is released by email and via our community site.
This idea can be expanded to include students who may be struggling to submit work (or claiming this) in order to help them use the platform in the way they should be.
Student Mentors
Similar to the introduction of Frog champions within the staff base, you may wish to introduce student mentors (or student champions) into your school. This can often help to encourage more students to get involved with the platform particularly if the student mentors are given additional privileges to edit sites or access to extra widgets. These students can assist teachers with using the platform or even help parents at a parents evening get used to navigating around the platform.
Student mentors could also run a “Frog club” to help students with understanding how to submit homework via Frog or how to make best use of their personal dashboards. Furthermore they could act as a voice for the students in regards to new information required on the platform and consequently feed this back to the staff in charge.
Social Learning/Collaboration
Using the platform to promote social learning can help kick start usage. Frog recognises the important of social learning as evidenced by a number of widgets including the wall, site timeline and forum widgets. For example by creating an area on the platform with a forum for homework help you can allow for users to collaborate on homework and even for staff to provide help to students who could be struggling; potentially even students in other years/groups.
Learners can often retain more information when provided the opportunity to collaborate or communicate with other users, through sharing or direct group work. Working together can help to re-inforce work completed in lessons or even help to re-inforce Frog training held between staff. This could be achieved by providing a forum for staff to voice any questions or concerns they have whilst suing the platform “on the job”.
Keeping users apart has its benefits in certain circumstances but where possible it is important to allow users to feel part of a group and communicate. There are a number of widgets that help, such as the Wall, Poll, Site Timeline and Forum. Opening up a communication hub where learners can exchange dialogue with each other are likely to be more enthusiastic and eager to use the learning platform.
Competitions/Quizzes
FrogLearn can be used for competitions and quizzes in order to get students involved and looking around the platform. Quizzes on FrogLearn are self-marking and the results can easily be obtained through the use of a sites data viewer.
The first method involves setting up quizzes within a site and allowing students to login and take part. It is from here you could reward the highest scoring students with prizes. These could be Frog merchandise or if you use an external reward system such as Vivo, award the students with points to spend themselves.
Another popular idea is to aside from using the quiz builder is to include a “hide and seek” style game using the platform. For example you can add hidden “frogs” as images (or potentially part of your theme) on sites using the media widget or add a custom site background to certain sites with hidden items that student have to find.
The results of finding hidden items can be submitted via a form within a site. The winners can then win a prize. This helps to get students (or staff) clicking around the platform to see what’s there.
Resource Distribution
FrogLearn is more than just a learning platform; it’s a hub within your school that users can connect to in order to access information and access certain third party software packages through the act of a single sign on widget. We are partnering with more companies when we can in order to make it easier for users to access the software they require.
Alongside this, ensuring key resources are only accessible through FrogLearn can ensure users will visit the platform and can over time this become part of their routine. This could be accessing department notices, updating staff cover, downloading staff meeting minutes or contributing to a staff forum in order to get their opinions heard.
The link to file widget allows users to click a button to download a particular file to their machine. The File Upload widget when set in “group” mode allows you to upload and display numerous files quickly and easily with some basic information about the file. The integration of network drives within the platform allows users to access the schools home and shared drives on the platform for any schools who host their own Frog platform on a virtual machine or physical server.
An expansion of this is to use certain widgets such as the form or poll widgets for important issues so that staff can contribute to key requests for information that may affect them as stakeholders.
Ofsted Improvements
FrogLearn can be used in a number of ways to combat negative areas in the school as reported by Ofsted.
For example, it may be the case that providing evidence that staff are giving sufficient feedback to students regarding set work, is something that needs to be improved around school. If so, schools can provide feedback in a variety of ways to their students:
When a teacher receives a piece of work back from a student they can provide a mark but also leave an additional comment for the student for them to see. In addition to this if a teacher returns an assignment back to the student for rework, they can leave feedback comments here explaining what needs to be worked on.
An additional service Frog offers is the feedback application that plugs directly into the assignments app. When a student uploads a piece of work to a file drop widget, a teacher can convert the document to open in the Feedback application where they can mark the work against set success criteria and drag and drop stickers and use the pen tool to highlight good and poor areas of the work. This is also visible to linked parent accounts when they login.
Within the assignment manager, a teacher is able to communicate directly with each student they set work to. This is a private conversation that notifies the individual upon receiving a new message and also can be exported to a CSV file.
Using the “Send Copy To” functionality on the user timeline, teachers can upload a document and send a copy to any user, group or profile on the platform. This could be a word or text file for example, that contains feedback for students.
Using the Site Timeline widget and FrogSnap mobile app you are able to provide feedback to students. You can take a photo or short video of a child’s work, upload it to a site then directly comment on it. This way you will always have a record of the feedback within the chosen site too.
School Policy
With SLT on board it is more likely that the initial uptake of the platform will be successful. It is also more likely you will be able to introduce a school policy that involves work to be set through the learning platform. This ensures everyone is then obliged to follow the same procedures, which in turn will help to provide a uniformed setting in which work is set.
If you were to try and ensure that students know that the use of the VLE will be consistent such as informing them that Science homework will be set every Monday for students. If such a pattern is introduced and the trend is not followed it will only hinder the uptake of the platform around school.
Work set through the platform can be monitored by using the assignment monitor application to see which staff members are setting work. These results can be exported to a CSV file to allow you to formulate the data in any way you wish.
Independent Learning
An emphasis should be made to staff that their own teaching and learning techniques can be improved and could consequently lead to better grades for their students. FrogLearn is perfect for independent learning. This would be suitable for students with disabilities who work from home or students who are off sick whether it be for shorter or longer periods of time. Another example would be for students with behavioural difficulties that need to be separated from the main population and given some quiet time. It will facilitate their ability to catch up on work and continue to keep them informed and updated with what’s going on around school.
If a teacher creates a site based on a lesson plan and shares it with their teaching group it could be viewed before lesson, during lesson and after the lesson. This allows potential students who struggle in lesson to complete the work to continue learning outside of the set classroom environment. Homework set through the platform can also be accessed by users at home along with this information and additional resources, in order to support the required tasks.
SAMR Model
Using the SAMR model you are able to express to teachers the benefits of using Frog to enhance their teaching and learning. Emphasising to teachers Frog is not there just to replicate what they already do in another way. It is there to improve through modifications and also through certain features provides them the ability to do new things such as uploading images/video/audio via FrogSnap.
The speed of setting work can often be good for teachers to see as it is faster than the conventional paper based method. For example when using the “New Assignment” button from the user timeline you are able to show staff that a piece of work can be set in 30 seconds or less. Consequently parents are able to login to the platform and access the “My childs work” app to view all of this data and communication between their children and teachers.
In the short term it can take a little time to start putting sites on Frog based on lesson resources but in the long run it saves time and money. Particularly when the FrogStore is released so staff will be able to simply choose to use and modify any sites and Frog school has submitted to the store. Using FrogLearn for setting work will results in no more running off to the printer every 5 minutes to collect worksheets or a student’s homework sheet. When the curriculum changes, simple tweaks can be made to a site to reflect the updates. Sites can also be shared amongst teachers so workload can be distributed accordingly. Some teachers focus on some sites, other focus on other modules then they invite them to be admins and explain what they’ve done. Perfect if a teacher is off work due to sickness. By making a list of how staff currently interact with students in regards to teaching and learning, will allow you to make a second list of how Frog can act as a catalyst and improve this experience.
SEN/IEP’s
Using the Site Timeline or Photo Stream for students with behavioural problems. On a site dedicated to a student, one timeline will be present with photos of positive behaviour (sat working quietly/good examples of work) and another timeline will show negative examples of school life for this student (not working/distracting students). This way it can be shared with parents accordingly but more importantly as a school it means you are not just focussing on the negative aspects of an SEN child.
Also these sites can be contracted around each SEN students Individual Education Plan (IEP) so teachers, parents and staff assistants all know the childs learning needs, the services that your school is able to offer and how the progress of the student will be measured.
We know first-hand that parents do like to know their child is happy, enjoying their time at school and behaving well. Even for non-SEN purposes, using FrogSnap and the Site Timeline widget to display the widgets is a great way to show evidence of work and progression and even just a simple picture of their child in a supportive school environment. This answers one of the main requirements of a parent seeing exactly what their child is doing, they can log in and see a photo of something their child actually made in DT, or watch a video of them performing on stage or reading a piece of French writing from their MFL lesson. Furthermore you can also allow parents to upload pictures to a site timeline too. This simple ability to upload pictures of school football matches for example is a great way to get parents utilising your platform and engaging with their students progress.
FrogSnap
The ability to take a picture of a student’s work (or short video/audio) and upload it directly to a site timeline is fantastic and is a great starting point for most teachers; particularly in primary schools.
The FrogSnap app could be used for evidencing work, displaying activities on school trips or reporting on sports days etc. With the introduction of a student’s physical presence on a learning platform it will encourage these users to actively participate in the surrounding discussions and generally use the platform more frequently.
Once these images/videos/audio has been uploaded, users that have “Can Contribute” permissions or higher for the site will be able to comment on these. This allows for peer review by students or even allowing parents access to view and comment on photos of their children on school trips. Constructing a site (or a collection of sites) and taking photos to evidence exemplar work students have done is a great way to collect information for the next Ofsted inspection. An entire site could be created solely for the purpose of an Ofsted inspection to be constructed over the year as opposed to a last minute rush of gathering information.
FrogSnap Examples:
- Student Progression/Evidence
Allow students to add images/videos to a portfolio site of their best pieces of work (art for example). This could also be used to record progress with a piece of work adding a description to explain which techniques were used to get the desired results. A great example of this is to take pictures of the different stages of a science experiment.
Two site timelines can used for showing examples of positive behaviour and examples of negative behaviour. This can be shared with the parents and child so they are kept informed of their child’s evidenced progress.
You may wish to use FrogSnap to record your class trips, add descriptions to each image/video uploaded to provide details about each media resource. You can then share the site with parents, display it on digital signage in school or just use the images when you return to do some follow up work.
Meeting notes can be written then a picture quickly taken and uploaded to a timeline dedicated to meeting minutes meaning you won’t have to type them up later and send them to people, instead they can visit this site and comment on the picture of they have any queries.
This is a great way to feedback to a school how student teams are doing in after school matches or even sports days. For more technical sports FrogSnap can also be used to help students understand movements and positions. A good example of this is understanding A-Level PE movements such as flexion, extension, abduction and adduction etc.
- Showcasing exemplary student work
Taking evidence of a student’s exemplary work and displaying it in a site is a great way to collect evidence for the next Ofsted inspection or even to display to parent users when they login to the platform. Similarly if students are aware they have their own work on the platform they will be more likely to contribute to the site in question and potentially even work harder to get their work uploaded.
FrogSnap can be used to implement quick games into the platform, a prime example is spot the difference. Whether it’s a “real life” picture you’re taking or something drawn by hand once uploaded students can then post the number of differences as a comment, between the two pictures.
- Homework/Independent Learning
Using FrogSnap as a staff member you may wish to upload a picture/video/audio and ask your students to describe what they see/hear as a comment below for homework. You could also display examples of independent learning that students could choose to do before next lesson to give them an insight and head start for what’s to come. An example of this could be recording a quick verbal audio clip of next lessons French words will be covered or simply counting 1 to 30 in German to allow users to learn this before the next lesson. This will save time for staff as they won’t have to record the audio clip on their computer with a suitable microphone, upload it to the platform and organise the clip/clips into a site. Another similar example would be to record clips for a music lesson and ask students to comment on the dynamics of what they heard (crescendo, forte, pianississimo etc). An expansion of this would be to add
By taking photos you are able to display either step by step instructions to students or simply tell a story by using the Site Timeline widget. Particularly for primary schools this has the potential to work incredibly well as the staff member can upload photos and also audio clips to use for sound effects alongside the media. Students could then comment on what they think may happen next week in the story or simply whether they enjoyed the story, or even what they thought the sound effects were etc.
- Drama Performances/Leavers Ball
A great way to capture the memories of a leavers ball or drama performance is through the use of FrogSnap as it will actively allow users to leave comments and engage in discussions beside each media resource uploaded. This gives students, staff and parents alike a live feed to the event and can prevent busy staff members from having to download/transfer the photos to a computer then upload them to Frog and display them in a site using the media widget; therefore saving a considerable amount of time.
A great way to enthuse students about clubs around school would be to provide them with as much information into what actually happens at them. Using FrogSnap will allow you to do this, for example videoing the school band or taking pictures of the after school sports club activities. This can highlight that certain events/clubs exist and if a student is aware of what happens at a particular event/club they will be more likely to attend and be less nervous about what to expect.
Feedback
Providing feedback to students is a vital part of a student’s improvements and FrogLearn helps to facilitate this.
In the default platform if you wanted to provide ongoing feedback you could use the private conversation tool available in each assignment. When a message is sent to a student or back to a teacher a notification is sent to alert that user. A teacher could write a message such as “Activity 1: Great work here, good use of emotive language here, keep up the good work but remember to check your spelling.” Collecting student responses to the feedback could be achieved by using the private conversation tool in the assignments area which will notify the teacher accordingly when they receive a reply. Forms and polls are also an effective method of gaining crucial feedback from students. When setting an assignment you are also able to choose whether you wish for students to provide a self-evaluation when handing in their work when clicking “complete assignment”. This allows students to choose using a slider, how well they feel they understand the assignment.
With regards to providing targeted feedback to students in an ongoing manner this could potentially be done in a few ways. We offer an additional service in the form of the feedback application. This application allows staff members to instantly convert certain file types directly into a window within the FrogLearn platform consequently allowing them to provide instant feedback to students via the use of a selection of drawing/highlighting tools. This application works directly through the assignment manager application and works in conjunction with the File drop and Text Activity widgets.
Staff, students and parents (providing a school has FrogParent) are able to view all feedback provided to the appropriate students via the assignments or my child’s work applications. Upon creation of an assignment, when the feedback application has been enabled, staff members are able to add “Success criteria” as part of these widgets. After the student has submitted the activity, teachers can feedback based on the success criteria that has been stated. In addition to this if work is returned to a student and the student keeps submitting more of the activity (for example a text activity) then there is a record saved for each activity (along with the feedback provided alongside these).
Direct Feedback tools available are:
-- Positive Stickers
-- Wish stickers
-- Highlighter Tool
-- Freeform paintbrush
Current supported file types:
- .doc
- .rtf and .txt (text files)
- .xls
- Image files (.jpg .png) etc
- .pdf
The Feedback application can help schools in the following ways:
- Saves time and money on printing out documents, manually adding comments then having to hand it back to the student.
- Provides instant feedback, allowing students to understand their strengths and weaknesses without having to wait until next lesson to see feedback.
- Prevents loss of work (on student or staff side) with work manually handed in for review/marking/feedback.
As a staff member you are able to download a copy of the original and unannotated document at any time. We will be expanding our supported file types to include Powerpoint files (.ppt) and potentially more, in the near future.

Governor Logins
To get further use out of the platform you can introduce login credentials for governors so they can login to the platform. If they were provided with a specific site or dashboard then they would have the potential to:
The could be uploaded to the platform, typed directly to a site or even hand written notes can be uploaded via a photo via the FrogSnap application straight to a site timeline.
Governors can chat and discuss key school issues through the use of a closed forum.
This would allow for increased communication and improve collaboration between governors. Different sites or pages within a site can be separated accordingly.
Allow governors to have access to the school calendar or create and manage events of their own in a governor calendar.
Key folders can be uploaded to the FrogLearn platform and shared with governor users. Using a network files widget they could be provided access to particular areas on your network to access documents.
- Messages -- Communicate through internal messages ensuring all members are kept up-to-date.
Ofsted Logins
Members of Ofsted can visit a school at a moment’s notice. What you may wish to do is create a dedicated site with access to key documents and a FrogSnap timeline showing exemplar photos/videos of students work taken using the FrogSnap application. This would then be accompanied by Ofsted login credentials in order for these users to login to the platform and see what is present on your learning platform. These resources on the platform can be shared with the headteacher, governors and any other key individuals at a high level within the school to ensure everyone required, understands the strengths and weaknesses of the school and the potential methods of improvement. These sites can help you to track the progress and evidence the stages reached in order to improve your rating for the new visit from Ofsted. These sites can also be used to display specific case studies within the school for vulnerable children, detailing information about the individuals (IEP’s and student work) and through intervention and other methods, how they have been managed the process. Other key bits of information that Ofsted may ask for evidence of that could be displayed through Frog through a number of methods, can be found below:
- Achievement of pupils at the school
- Behaviour and safety of pupils
- Quality of leadership and management at the school
Parent Logins
In order to further enhance the uptake of the learning platform schools often wish to provide parents with user accounts of their own. This way they can login to the platform and view any general school information and also gain specific information about their children and how they are doing at the school.
Below there are a variety of ways in which FrogLearn can be used to engage parents, the majority of which relate to the display of information via sites.
- School Policies/Handbooks
Displaying general school information such as closures or specific school policy PDF handbooks it allows parents to gain access to crucial information much faster than before.
Both costs and uniform policies can be displayed online to parents.
Information and bookings, not only to inform the parents how well their child are doing but run parent clubs.
Grant access to the Eclipse or Oliver library system single sign on application.
A site dedicated to members of the PTA at the school to store meeting minutes etc.
Information such as school closures and term dates.
- Feedback and Questionnaires
Using forms and polls you are able to gain important feedback regarding any subject of your choice such as “How safe do you find our school?”.
Using the Forum and wall widgets this will allow parents to put forward their ideas and discuss important subjects around the school from e-safety to school trips.
Displaying current and previous newsletters can prevent you having to print off hundreds of pieces of paper and send them home with students.
Communicate to parents about the potential dangers of an online presence along with providing general information about keeping their children safe online.
Information for new or existing parents can be provided via FrogLearn whether it be a general overview of the school, a virtual tour, or even the headteachers blog.
Dedicated sites aimed at parents can provide them with help and guidance on how they can support their child’s learning and homework tasks. This could be in the form of videos, images and text.
FrogLearn can be used to display to parents information regarding what is being taught in the different lessons and modules around school.
Communication about upcoming school events (reserving a place) or parents evenings (booking a timeslot) accompanied by booking forms mean that parents will login to FrogLearn and consequently be subjected to a wealth of other important information.
Using Frog for the above for engaging content is likely to attract parents to use the learning platform. Combined with features such as Feedback application and Frogsnap, teachers are able to directly target parents with what their children are actually doing or how they are getting on at school.
My Child’s Timeline
On the android and iOS store is an app called FrogTimelines which provides parents with a window into their child’s life at school. Any activities undertaken by a student will appear on this timeline for the parent.
FrogParent
Frog Parent is an extension of the FrogLearn platform that allow parents to login and view more in depth information stored about their children in a schools SIMS database. This information includes:
- Attainment
- Behaviour
- Timetable Data
- SIMS Linked Documents
The data held in FrogLearn is not just the current academic year, it will keep all historic data imported.
Viewing Set Homework
There is a parent specific application that is called "My Child's Work". This allows parents to view the work that has been set for their children through assigning a site or using "quick assign".
Letters Home
In order to save money at your school you can share documents through the FrogLearn platform without having to organise a mail merge to contact parents; or having to print out hundreds or thousands of sheets of paper. Not only will the cost of this printing be high but also someone needs to spend the time to package the letters home in envelopes, further increasing the cost involved.
Within FrogLearn you can display this information to all parents of children at the school. Parents are able to view past and present letters that have been sent home meaning that they will no long be lost in the bottom of a schoolbag! This can be done through the “Send Copy To” functionality to send a file to all parent users or just specific parents. Alternatively using the File Drop widget you can display multiple files quickly and easily within a site to all staff members.
You may also wish to use features such as the form widget for online consent forms for school trips which should help to streamline the process of obtaining information back from parents and to quickly approve any requests made from the school. You could also use forms or polls as surveys and questionnaires to collect feedback from parents about school meals, uniform policy or any other important issue around the school.
FrogLearn Implementation Strategies
Strategy
|
Users Affected
|
Staff
|
Students
|
Parents
|
Marketing Materials
|
 |
 |
 |
Digital Signage
|
 |
 |
 |
Assemblies & Staff Briefings
|
 |
 |
|
Training
|
 |
|
|
Staff Drop-In Sessions
|
 |
|
|
Student Mentors
|
 |
 |
|
Competitions/Quizzes
|
 |
 |
|
Resource Distribution
|
 |
 |
 |
Ofsted Improvements
|
 |
|
|
School Policy
|
 |
 |
 |
Independent Learning
|
 |
 |
|
SAMR Model
|
 |
 |
 |
SEN/IEP’s
|
 |
 |
 |
FrogSnap
|
 |
 |
 |
Feedback
|
 |
 |
 |
Governor Logins
|
 |
|
|
Ofsted Logins
|
 |
|
|
Parent Logins
|
|
|
 |
FrogParent
|
|
|
 |
Letters Home
|
 |
|
 |
FrogLearn Site Examples
The primary use of sites is to build effective and engaging learning resources for students. There is however a limitless supply of site examples you could use on your platform. Some of these can be found below.
Educational
|
Miscellaneous
|
Parent
|
Departmental Sites
|
Bullying
|
Meet the Governors
|
Lesson Modules
|
E-Safety
|
Meet the Staff
|
Registration Group
|
Medical Centre
|
Parents Evening
|
Teaching groups
|
Newsletters
|
PTA
|
School Houses
|
Room Booking
|
Rules/Regulations
|
SEN
|
School Meals
|
School Trips
|
Subject Selection
|
School Policies
|
School Uniform
|
Extra-Curricular Activity Sites
These sites below are likely to all be student driven and could even be created/updated by students if desired.
Arts
|
Clubs
|
Community
|
Creative Writing
|
Animé
|
Ball Committee
|
Dance
|
Chess
|
Christmas Party
|
Music
|
Debate
|
Community Theatre
|
Painting
|
Role Playing
|
Duke of Edinburgh
|
Photography
|
Languages
|
Sports Day
|
Theatre
|
Skateboarding
|
Student Union
|
|
|
|
Hobbies
|
Media
|
Sports
|
Blogging
|
Book Studies
|
Athletics
|
Coin Collecting
|
Film Group
|
Football
|
Comic Books
|
School Newspaper
|
Gymnastics
|
Cycling
|
School Radio
|
Hockey
|
Fishing
|
School Television
|
Swimming
|
Knitting
|
Yearbook
|
Skiing
|
|
|
|
|
Volunteering
|
|
|
Animal Rescue
|
|
|
Church Outreach
|
|
|
Community Fund-raising
|
|
|
Nursing Home Work
|
|
|
Tutoring & Mentoring
|
|
Frog 3 + FrogLearn Example Implementation Plan