Customer Success Stories
Learn how schools and educational organizations around the world are using Beedle and Microsoft technology and get inspired to create innovative teaching and learning experiences of your own
ASC making a difference with Beedle solutions
Making a difference
Anglican Schools Commission International (ASCI) is a system of 15 schools across Australia. ASCI hosts the Language School and co-ordinates the Connect program, which allows students to tap into remote classes that may not be offered at their school.
Our aim is to allow students, regardless of location, to be able to access subjects with specialist teachers to achieve their educational goals. We are different from other schools as all our lessons are hybrid or 100% remote. Students log in to our Language School classes from 7 countries around the world.
Remote education opportunities – communication is key
Our division is small, but we reach a large audience so, traditional learning management systems (LMS) are expensive and prohibitive for our pilot Connect program. We needed ways to be able to monitor attendance, record grades and communicate with parents and families in Australia and around the world in a simple and easy way.
We see remote education continuing to grow, off the back of COVID, so there will be a growing market in providing remote educational opportunities and creating more bespoke learning pathways for students.
“Beedle definitely saved time for teachers and our administration staff who used to have to collate individual class attendance and marks data. We are looking at the ability to run independent courses for students who are still completing their schooling in another country, but want to work on their English skills during weekends, when we are unable to have teachers available.”
Beedle was an easy choice
“I had been meeting with LMS providers to try to find someone that fits our needs and was within our budget, but it was proving difficult. As a Microsoft Incubator School and a Microsoft Innovation Education Expert (MIEE), I saw a post on Facebook from Beedle looking for pilot schools, and we jumped at the chance, even though we had just decided to use Moodle,” says Kate Simeon, Academic Coordinator at ASCI.
We teach exclusively on Microsoft Teams and use Microsoft products, as many of our students are in China and there are no blocking issues with Microsoft. The principal reason we chose Beedle was that it works within Teams and negated the need for our teachers to have multiple programs running. Having everything in one place and having the ability to use the single sign-on features made the lives of our busy teachers so much easier.
Fast and seamless implementation
The implementation was fast and seamless, with the longest part being our offsite IT people to approve the App for use across our tenants. There were some issues with Beedle updates needing IT to reapprove the app, but that seems to have been solved today.
We teach nearly exclusively using the Microsoft ecosystem. Our classes are all scheduled through the Teams calendar, so they auto record as video content for the students. All classwork is completed on Class Notebook for effective distribution and management. We use Microsoft integrated apps like Wakelet, Stream and Canva for activities or lessons.
Beedle + Teams = unified system
Teacher’s class time is both precious and hectic. There are educational goals you need to meet, but you also need to comply with your legislative responsibilities in relation to recording grades and attendance. Having all our teaching needs in one system means there are less things teachers need to remember to do. Whilst teaching you, can see the Beedle app which acts as a visual reminder to take attendance. It makes giving students timely and effective feedback easier through the journal feature and allows you to have a log of communications at hand for any parent meetings.
A big plus for students
For students, having Beedle within their Microsoft atmosphere means they don’t need to remember multiple passwords, websites etc. Particularly for our Language School students, who have lower levels of English, having all systems combined means they can develop confidence in using the system.
“Beedle definitely saved time for teachers and our administration staff who used to have to collate individual class attendance and marks data,” continues Kate. “We are looking at the ability to run independent courses for students who are still completing their schooling in another country, but want to work on their English skills during weekends, when we are unable to have teachers available.”
“If Beedle could build the capacity to run SCORM files for independent asynchronous learning, we would no longer need to also have a Moodle plug-in. SCORM files allows out students a more full and immersive learning experience, to use interactive and responsive resources. Also, the ability to generate student subject reports would be amazing! We currently have to export the data and then mail merge them into our own report template. If that could be added in as an extension of the grade book functionality it would be phenomenal. “
