RM Kaleidos Learning Platform - RM.com

RM Kaleidos Learning Platform
Connecting and Empowering the Whole School Community
With the RM Kaleidos Learning Platform, you can embrace
tomorrow’s technology today – and use it to improve
every aspect of the way your school works.
With Kaleidos, ICT is not only embedded across
the curriculum, but is fully integrated into every aspect
of your school’s day to day operation.

RM Kaleidos Learning Platform
The RM Kaleidos Learning Platform is a feature-rich environment
which enables and empowers every member of your community
to help your school to work in the most efficient and effective way
possible. And that benefits everyone.
RM’s vision for a learning platform is a world where ICT is not
just embedded, but fully integrated into the way schools and
educational jurisdictions and bodies work, where every user has
access to appropriate information and tools to enable them to be
as effective as possible.
Many schools already have a huge variety of systems and
technologies. The power of a learning platform like Kaleidos
– which is designed around the key areas of personalisation,
integration and sustainability – is the ability to bring these
numerous and sometimes unrelated systems together, combining
them to form something far more potent.
Information, resources, communication and collaboration tools are
all displayed to the user in one place using portal technologies.
Through a secure single sign-on, users no longer have to
physically move, or close and open different applications to learn
or teach. Users now have the power to work and learn efficiently
and effectively wherever they are, at a time that suits them.
Security
To ensure that a high level of security is maintained for every user
RM have built in the following features:
• Unique username and password to gain access.
• Data transfers are encrypted and sent via a secure connection.
• Schools have the option to choose which data is published to
each type of user.
• Data backup and virus protection.
• 24:7 access from any Internet connected computer is secure.
RM Kaleidos Learning Platform Provides
Schools With:
• A Portal accessing a suite of communication and
collaboration tools.
• A Virtual Learning Environment/Learning Management
System.
• Assessment tools for target setting, e-Portfolios, assessment,
analysis and reporting.
• Data Exchange technology that enables integration of data
from diverse systems and simplifies the user management
of the learning platform.
How can an RM Kaleidos Learning Platform Assist Your
School to Meet Their Goals?
teachers
• Communicate and collaborate with
students and colleagues
• Create engaging lessons for students
• Personalise learning for individuals
and groups of students
• Share resources, experiences and
best practice
• Access student information
• Track student progress
• Enhance their professional learning.
leadership teams
• Access up-to-date student management
information in one location
• Communicate and align teaching and
learning goals and strategies
• Create Interest Spaces to encourage
collaboration and adoption
• Share best practice
• Introduce and implement new innovations
• Improve student assessment and analysis.
students
• Engage in anytime, anywhere personalised
learning
• Collaborate with students and teachers to
achieve outcomes
• Communicate with teachers and other
students
• Access course materials and resources
online
• Mentor each other
• Use skills required for the 21st century
• Have fun whilst learning.
education jurisdictions
• Provide a safe digital learning
environment for learning and
teaching
• Meet the requirements of a true
enterprise solution
• Utilise existing investments to improve
learning outcomes
• Share information and best practice
across all schools
• Support system-wide data collection
and analysis
• Contain costs centrally
• Avoid schools becoming ‘islands’.
parents
• Monitor their children’s progress
remotely
• Access essential school news and
policy documents
• Support students more effectively
• Be more involved.
principals
• Access up-to-date student management
information in one location
• Increase and improve communication within
school and beyond
• Increase the ability to support students
across the curriculum
• Enhance parent engagement and satisfaction
• Introduce and implement new innovations
• Create opportunities for collaboration
through interest groups.

RM Kaleidos Portal+ Module
Portal+ provides the means by which teachers, non-teaching staff,
students, parents and other authorised users access the facilities
provided by the Kaleidos Learning Platform.
Personal online work spaces provide a personalised web site for
each user, presenting information that is tailored to meet their
needs.
There is a My Space for all students, teachers and parents with
links to calendars, file storage and timetables. Teachers and
parents also have access to their student’s or children’s details
and learning information. Users can personalise their desktops by
adding news feeds, widgets and RSS readers to name but a few.
Other features include:
• Single sign-on to your personalised learning, collaboration
and communication tools.
• e-Portfolios enable students to store and showcase their work
with teachers and parents, share pictures, maintain an online
learning journal with a blog or even host a wiki or discussion
group - and all in a secure environment.
• Presenting information relevant to you, when you need it
including students and teacher timetables, class lists, contact
information and student achievement.
• Individuals can personalise their desktop by selecting from a
number of themes.
• Users can add Sticky Notes (electronic versions of postit®
notes) to their e-portfolio or other Interest Spaces as a
reminder to action next time they log on.
• Record contact details for friends and colleagues.
• Store and access favourite websites.
School/Jurisdiction Portal
Portal+ allows schools to have their own portal where they
can publish information relevant to the whole school. If
Portal+ is delivered across a cluster of schools or even an
entire state education system, the cluster/jurisdiction has
access to their own portal that can be accessed by all schools
within the group allowing communication and collaboration
on a larger scale.
Using the portal; schools, clusters or jurisdictions can:
• Add organisation photos and logos and personalise the
layout and appearance.
• Create Interest Spaces to suit the needs of the school or
cluster – ie student sites, parent sites, teacher sites.
• Access events calendars for the school and for Interest
Spaces, which can be overlaid into a user’s personal
calendar.
• Create and contribute to discussion groups and
collaborate with groups or individuals both within the
school or across a wider area.
• Receive and send announcements about the latest news
and updates.
Communication and Collaboration Tools
Communication and Collaboration Tools encourage
interaction between users and offer the ability to:
• Target news at specific groups of people.
• Configure secure discussion forums.
• Deliver useful web links to users.
• Publish an events calendar.
• Share collaborative documents.
• Keep users up to date with a Principal’s blog.
• Enable knowledge and thought sharing through wiki
pages.

Snapshot – Principal
At 5:45pm, Diane is still in her office. Like many
other principals, she is faced with too many tasks
and not enough time to do them all in. Part of the
problem used to be that the information she needed
was never to hand. But during the last few months,
the school’s IT Manager has been leading the rollout
of RM’s Kaleidos Learning Platform – and it has
really started to make a difference to how effective
she can be.
Diane has a school board meeting scheduled for
6:30pm and needs to prepare information about
student behaviour and attendance to demonstrate
her belief that there has been a recent improvement
in both. She finds the information quickly and easily
within Kaleidos, which is integrated with the school’s
management information system. She is able to
efficiently produce the figures and graphs she needs,
leaving her enough spare time to also tick another
task off her ‘to do’ list.
Having recently created and distributed a survey
for all the staff, Diane is interested to see who has
responded so far, so that she can nudge those who
haven’t. After all, it’s their working environment and
they should all have a say in what improvements are
made to the facilities. Only a few people haven’t yet
responded, so she sends them a friendly reminder.
Snapshot – Deputy Principal
Danielle is a Deputy Principal and is responsible for
assessment and intervention strategies. She’s a real
data person, and loves the fact that she can analyse
students’ progress throughout the year.
Thanks to the fully integrated information available
within the school’s RM Kaleidos Learning Platform,
she doesn’t have to wait for test results to spot that a
particular class or year group is starting to struggle.
She can view and assess the performance of whole
year groups or classes in Kaleidos at any time – and
from anywhere.
The learning platform benefits everyone as well as
making her own life at school a little easier. Now she
can spot and sort out all kinds of issues in a timely
fashion – before they become problems.
Snapshot – Secondary Student
It’s 7:10pm on Friday evening and Matthew’s keen to
get his homework out of the way so that he can really
enjoy his weekend. But he’s experiencing a bit of
writer’s block. While he is logged on to the school’s
RM Kaleidos Learning Platform, he spots that his
mentor, Stefan, is also online. So he instant messages
him to request some help with the assignment.
Matthew’s interested in becoming an engineer
and Stefan, a teaching assistant at TAFE, has been
assigned to help him achieve his goal. They discuss
the assignment and Stefan points Matthew to some
really useful curriculum content titles within the virtual
learning environment, which he found earlier.
Matthew thanks Stefan and continues on with the
assignment. When he has finished, he submits his
homework and starts thinking about the rest of his
weekend.
Snapshot – Teacher
Jon is outside, getting a breath of fresh air during his free period. He is using his
wireless connected laptop to prepare for lesson focusing on ‘The Sixties’, which
he is scheduled to deliver next week. It’s not an area he has taught before so he
searches the wide range of content, activities and lessons within the school’s RM
Kaleidos Learning Platform.
After reviewing several resources, he settles on some appropriate items in the VLE,
as well as some clips that his colleagues have successfully used in the past. It’s a
mixed ability class, but he’s happy that he can engage everyone with the content
he has found.
RM’s Vision of a Learning Platform
e-Portfolios
Learners and teachers
can organise, reflect upon
and publish work. Creates
a picture of pupils’ ability
as they progress through
their learning.
Connectivity
Anytime, anywhere access
to the learning platform
via a safe and secure
Internet connection.
Virtual Learning
Environment
Powerful content
management and delivery
solution. Supports learning
activities with additional
data, communication and
collaboration tools
within the portal.
Infrastructure
Access the learning
platform using any
Internet ready computer
from the school network,
teacher laptop or other
web-enabled
device.
Snapshot – Primary Student
Managing Change
Implementing a
learning platform requires a
significant investment in time
for planning, evaluation,
procurement, implementation
and embedding new
technologies.
DATA
MANAGEMENT
Sophisticated technology that
simplifies user management
and enables data from diverse
systems to be integrated and
presented via the portal.
Charlie is in Year 6 and like most other boys his age, he loves football. His teacher,
Mr Richardson, is delivering an integrated program of work on ‘Sport Throughout
the Ages’. Charlie has selected to do his research topic on AFL. Four other students
in his class are also doing their research projects on football and they have formed
an online interest group where they can use online chat and share documents and
resources they find.
Mr Richardson has set a series of tasks for all students to complete on their Sport
Throughout the Ages project as well as their usual homework assignments for
Mathematics and English. After school, Charlie goes home and logs on to the
Kaleidos Learning Platform. He clicks on his ‘To Do’ List. He realises that before he
starts work on his project, he has an online quiz to complete. He completes the short

Once he has created his lesson plan in Kaleidos, Jon prepares four homework
sheets to assign at the end of the lesson. He’s decided to mix up the usual
groups and get different learners working together on each of the four projects,
for which they’ll need to set up some interest groups to share documents and ideas.
Seeing Jasmine’s name on the class list reminds Jon that she had asked for
feedback on the work that she is showcasing in her e-Portfolio. He posts her
some comments with suggestions on where she can improve her presentation.
He quickly checks the duty roster on his personal pages to see if he’s still on
lunchtime duty – then dashes off to take his post before the end of morning lessons.
Snapshot – Parent
Tania is concerned that she hasn’t had much time
recently to keep up-to-date with what her daughter
Madison has been doing at school. She’s just been
so busy at work; there was no way she could have
made the parents’ evening last week.
But at least with Kaleidos she can keep an occasional
eye on Madison’s progress.
PORTAL
Provides a personalised
experience for every user.
Personal online learning space
enables users to share ideas
and collaborate across the
education community.
Assessment
Comprehensive tools for
target setting, assessment,
analysis and reporting.
Teachers can build and
share a holistic picture
of every learner.
Communication
Tools
Creates the structure to take
advantage of communication
tools available such as email,
online discussion groups
and video conferencing.
She’s just finished her weekly shop online, so she
logs on to the school’s learning platform to check
how things are going. The first bit of welcome news
is that Madison’s attendance is good and she has
been given 5 team points this week for good work.
The lunch menus are looking good too, so Tania is
confident that her daughter is eating well at school.
Madison also has a school trip to the art gallery
tomorrow and needs to remember her lunch!
Tania then looks at Madison’s recent test results and
is pleased to see top marks, especially in Maths and
some really encouraging feedback from her teacher.
Her work’s up-to-date and she’s doing really well
against her personal goals and targets. However,
she needs to keep working hard at her English to
keep the grades up. Tania has a book or two that
may help...
Just before she logs off, Tania spots that there is a
school disco coming up in a few weeks time. She
decides to treat Madison to a new outfit for the
disco as a reward for her good grades.
Support
A cyclic programme of
on-going support, training
and change management is
recommended to ensure the
successful adaption of the
learning platform. A learning
platform solution can
be delivered as a
managed service.
School
Management Systems
Data from the SMS is used
to populate the learning
platform. Updates are automatically
recognised, avoiding
the need for additional
administration, while ensuring
a central accurate
data store.
Specialist
Applications
Integrate specialist
applications, such as
cashless catering, print
accounting and library
systems into the
learning platform.
test and submits it. The test is marked automatically online and he is pleased he
got 8 out of 10 questions correct. His Mum then helped him with the questions he
did not know. While they are looking around Charlie’s workspaces they view his
previous marks and note that he has made a great improvement in his marks for
Maths this term but that his teacher is still concerned over his spelling results. His
mother has used her Kaleidos access to find some resources to help with this at home
and will spend ten minutes a day with Charlie on some basic spelling skill activities.
Mr Richardson has given his students a research plan to complete this week and so
Charlie opens this research plan and downloads to his computer to use. By the end
of this week, he will have his research plan completed and upload it to submit to
his teacher.
Snapshot – School Board
Geoff was recently elected Chair of the School
Board. He has a full-time job, and can’t get into
school as much as he’d like. However, he can log
on to the school’s RM Kaleidos Learning Platform
from work to check how things are going.
As soon as he logs on, he gets an alert that
he urgently needs to sign some school trip
authorisations before next Wednesday. He can
also see that two of the blogs he’s signed up to
have been active recently. The school’s netball
team has just won the grand final. Geoff posts a
congratulations message, and forwards it to the
other board members.
He also takes the opportunity to check on the status
of the online nominations. They’re looking for a
new Parent Board Member. So parents, who all
have secure user access to the learning platform,
have been asked to volunteer. Three individuals
have come forward so far, so he’ll have to set up
an online vote next week. But he can also do that
within Kaleidos from right here at his desk at work.
Lunchtime is almost over. Before signing off, he
quickly checks the minutes for the last board
meeting, located securely in the document library. It
looks like he’s on top of the things he agreed to do,
and with that he returns to work…

RM Kaleidos Virtual Learning Environment Module
The Kaleidos Learning Platform Virtual Learning Environment (VLE),
also sometimes referred to as a Learning Management System
(LMS), is a powerful whole-school content management and
delivery system for teachers and learners with tools for planning
and delivering lessons and recording the attainment of individual
learners.
Imagine creating inspirational learning experiences, with learners
having the freedom to access whenever and wherever they want
to. Empower and engage learners by bringing everything they
need to one place: browse courses; search for resources; receive
personalised activities and return assignments; communicate
directly with teachers; and check their own progress using the
detailed markbook.
The VLE helps teachers to create these innovative and exciting
lessons quickly, using their own personal or school resources or by
taking advantage of content that has been purchased. Save time
for both teachers and learners by having teaching and learning
information available, whenever it’s needed.
Personalising Learning
• Target differentiated activities to individuals or groups of
learners giving them challenges tailored to their specific
needs.
• Track learners’ work progress so you can easily identify
and support those learners who are falling behind, or
provide additional challenges for gifted learners.
• Informed planning decisions, teaching activities and
assessment through having detailed and summary
information simply presented and always on hand.
Plan and Deliver Lessons and Assignments
• Set learner-specific lesson objectives so that each and
every learner understands what learning outcomes are
expected.
• Share resources with colleagues, saving time when
preparing lessons.
• Allow learners to review lesson resources whenever and
wherever they wish to support ongoing learning activities.
• Save valuable preparation time, as well as enhancing
teaching by sharing best practice.
Communication and Collaboration
• Seamless integration with Portal+ allows easy access to
sophisticated communication and collaboration tools to
create a ubiquitous learning culture that is truly anytime
and anywhere.
• The VLE provides the means of engaging parents and
carers in the learning cycle, raising awareness of learners’
activities and involving them in supporting the learner.
Recording the Attainment of Individuals
and Teaching Groups
• Make key personalised information about progress and
outstanding work available to staff, learners and parents
providing a clear picture to everyone of where the learner
is and what they still need to achieve.

Getting Started with RM Kaleidos Learning Platform
- We Can Help!
Preparing for a Learning Platform
Adopting a learning platform will be different for everyone,
because everyone will have a different starting point and want to
achieve different goals.
Recognising where you are starting from and what you want to
achieve is an important first step.
At RM, we are committed to working with you to deliver a solution
that meets your requirements. We are experienced in delivering
and implementing learning platform solutions at school, cluster,
jurisdiction and even at national level.
To help you, we have identified four key steps that will support you
in your planning and preparation for a learning platform.
Step 1
A clear vision for the future
Understanding what it is you want to achieve will enable you to
define your vision.
Step 2
Audit your existing ICT infrastructure
Understanding how ready and prepared you are for implementing
and embedding new technology is an essential part of your
change management programme.
Step 3
Get buy-in to your vision
Involving your community from an early stage is a critical success
factor to your change management programme. Through
sharing your vision and goals, you will give everyone a clear
understanding of what you are trying to achieve.
Step 4
An action plan for success
Set out what needs to happen to make your learning platform
implementation a success and make the action plan visible to
stakeholders.
Training and Consultancy Services to
Make Your RM Kaleidos Learning Platform
a Success
RM Kaleidos Learning Platform Training & Implementation
Consultancy will help school managers to plan the
implementation and training phases of their school’s learning
platform programme; drawing on our knowledge and
experience will save you time and effort developing these
plans alone. The consultancy for your RM Kaleidos Learning
Platform will cover:
• The benefits, purpose and vision of what you want to
achieve with your Kaleidos Learning Platform.
• Consultation on the areas of functionality that will most
benefit you and your school.
• Opportunities for customisation, such as the look and feel
of Portal+ for your school.
• Timescales for introducing the various aspects of your
learning platform to ensure that Kaleidos makes a
difference from day one onwards.
• Agreement on roles and responsibilities to ensure
everyone is working together effectively to achieve
success.
A range of flexible training courses for administrators and
teachers is available.
• Schools can select from a training course menu to ensure
the training meets localised needs.
• Courses are run at our training centres or onsite as
required.
• Users have access to all training materials via the school
portal.

Why Choose the RM Kaleidos Learning Platform?
What are the Key Educational Benefits of Implementing the Kaleidos Learning Platform?
Personalised Learning
• The Virtual Learning Environment gives teachers tools
to create tailor-made lesson plans designed to meet the
needs of both the whole class and individual students.
• Assignments can be made specific to students and
accessed through a student’s personal area.
• Students can access material and courses independently.
• If a number of schools form a cluster, students can access
courses available from other schools.
• e-Portfolios enable children to collect evidence and
demonstrate their achievements.
• Students unable to attend school can still continue to
contribute to school life.
• Opportunities for Student Voice, for example, using surveys
or online debates.
Extended Schools
• The RM Kaleidos Learning Platform is accessible from any
Internet connected computer allowing students, teachers
and parents outside the school and outside normal school
hours to continue to learn and be involved in school
groups.
Raising Attainment and Achievement
• Creating a robust and thorough implementation plan
can allow schools to ensure that their ICT is used to full
effectiveness. As part of the RM Kaleidos Learning Platform
service, training will be ongoing, offering assistance to
each school ensuring the planned implementation is right
for them and their aims.
Experience Counts
RM has been providing education solutions, worldwide,
for 35 years. We are recognised across the globe as
the educational partner of choice to deliver end-to-end
service offerings for schools.
With over 3.5 million users, RM’s Kaleidos Learning
Platform has established itself as the most widely used
learning platform solution in the UK, successfully
implemented in individual schools as well as large scale
education jurisdictions.
We are also the provider of Glow, the acclaimed national
learning platform for Scotland that serves around 1.5
million teachers, learners and parents.
With this experience, RM is uniquely placed to provide an
intuitive and appealing solution that provides seamless
integration with existing systems. We are committed
to ensuring your success by assisting you through each
phase of your implementation and ongoing use of the
system.
School Effectiveness
The Kaleidos Learning Platform will reduce both staff workload
and obstacles in many different ways.
• Lesson plans and content such as handouts can be
assigned to students electronically.
• Notices and other handouts can also be displayed via the
learning platform.
• Student data within the learning platform is automatically
extracted from the school student information system,
including class lists. This means that student data only
needs inputting once - when the student first joins the
school.
• Staff involved in analysis of student data will benefit from
the more holistic student picture provided by the learning
platform.
Parental Involvement
• Parents/carers will be able to see an all-inclusive view
of their child’s development; be able to view their child
attendance records, assessment details and interest
groups; ensure that the student data held by the school is
accurate.
• The collaboration tools available with RM Kaleidos
Learning Platform also allow parents to communicate with
the school.
Collaboration and Cross Institutional Working
• Most teachers would agree that sharing ideas, resources,
information and best practice with their colleagues could
really help to raise teaching standards. RM Kaleidos
Learning Platform helps make collaboration easier by
giving staff tools such as discussion groups and shared
documents to enable quicker and more accessible means
of sharing resources and good practice.
For further information:
phone: 1800 816 454
email: sales@rmap.com.au
or visit: www.rmap.com.au