Pearson Fronter and Fronter to Exhibit at BETT 2009

e¹, showcased at BETT exhibition and reveals plans for Fronter integration

Pearson Fronter, one of the UK’s leading providers of management information systems (MIS) for schools, today announced its appearance at BETT 2009, 14th-17th January, 2009, stands B40 and C40.

The company will feature alongside recently acquired learning platform provider Fronter, on the Pearson Education stand, giving demonstrations of the latest version of flagship MIS system e¹. It will also be highlighting how it is already giving Local Authorities and schools of all sizes a head start in meeting government requirements such as parental engagement and interoperability. Pearson Fronter will also be running its annual on-stand BETT survey, finding out what attendees make of this year’s hot topics – visit the stand for more details.

In December 2008, Pearson Education announced that it had agreed to acquire Fronter, a European online learning company, from its co-founders Roger Larsen and Bjarne Hadland. Founded in Oslo in 1998, Fronter has built a learning platform (also known as a Learning Management System or 'LMS') which provides easy-to-use tools for secure online education and collaboration. The Fronter platform enables students to learn whenever and wherever they choose; review their personal study plan; submit assignments; communicate with teachers, peers and parents; and study on their own or in a group. Teachers use the platform to create, store and repurpose learning resources and coursework which their students access online. The platform includes more than 80 tools for teachers and students and is highly customisable in terms of functionality, design and language.

Pearson Fronter continues to lead the field in helping Local Authorities and schools to achieve forward thinking initiatives and meet government requirements, not just in time, but well ahead of schedule. Items that have rapidly crept up the priority lists for all parties include parental engagement and system interoperability, both of which Pearson Fronter took great strides in during 2007 and 2008.

Using e1, schools can develop and deliver curriculum plans to suit individual pupils or pupil groups, monitor and evaluate pupil performance and report to statutory bodies. Due to the easy-to-access nature of the web-based system, parents can use e¹ to monitor their child’s performance and school activities, while supporting bodies can manage and integrate the delivery of their services. Pupils can also use the system to support their performance and access personal learning portfolios, timetables and reports. Government guidelines suggest secondary schools should have this functionality available to parents by September 2010 with primary schools following in 2012. Schools using e¹ have been able to provide such a service since late 2007 and rather than rushing to roll out, as many others will find themselves doing later this year, they have been able to fine tune the system according to parent feedback.

Interoperability is another hot topic within the industry that Pearson Fronter is taking very seriously. The Government called upon suppliers to standardise on a single format termed as the ‘Schools Interoperability Framework’ or SIF. This framework will facilitate easy reporting from Schools to Local Authority, and Local Authority to Central Government and back again.

As a company, Pearson Fronter wholly endorses the ethos of system interoperability and dynamic exchange of information and has incorporated the concept of interoperability into many of its systems. e¹ already boasts interoperability with many leading learning platforms, text messaging services, biometric registration, financial, cashless catering and library systems. As an organisation, Pearson Education acquired Edustructures at the beginning of 2008. Edustructures is the recognised leader in SIF Integration solutions and is based in the United States of America.

“BETT 2009 should prove to be another great event this year and we’ve certainly got a great deal to talk to schools and authorities about,” said Roger Plant, Education Systems Director, Pearson Fronter. “2008 saw e¹ adoption grow rapidly in both the domestic and international market, being represented across France, India, China, Dubai and of course the UK. We’re seeing our competitors begin to bring their offerings online but as a native web-based system, e¹ remains the most flexible and interoperative solution available. We’ve worked hard to ensure schools and authorities from London to Scotland not only achieve the goals they set themselves, but that they are on track to meet government requirements too.”

BETT takes place between 14th-17th January, 2009 at London’s Olympia exhibition hall. For further information on the show as well as travel and accommodation advice, please visit www.bettshow.com. To find out more about Pearson Fronter please go to www.pearsonphoenix.com.