Shortcomings of typical paper/fax/phone systems:

How Event Manager overcomes improves provision:

Access to Course Directory

• Access to Course Directory is restricted:
• Course Directories can often be difficult to locate.
• Limited number of copies of Course Directories are available in schools, this limits the number of staff that can use the directory at any one time.
• Course Directory can only be used in school - this may not be the most suitable time for staff.
• Staff cannot borrow the Course Directory, for closer inspection of courses, without hindering others' use of it.

• Event Manager is a web-based service, therefore:
• Course Directory is always in the same location
• Virtually unlimited simultaneous viewing is possible.
• Facilitates anywhere, anytime access - staff can view the course directory when it is most convenient to them.
• All schools are connected to the internet, most staff have home internet access and all staff have free internet access at public libraries.

Identification of Appropriate Courses

• Can be difficult to identify which of the many courses would be suitable for different individuals without reading through whole sections of the directory. This can be very time consuming.
• Time consuming and costly to make copies of appropriate courses for distribution in school.

• Event Manager is a searchable directory in which staff can search for courses by category, key stage, interest type, keyword and their profile.
• Bookmarks provide staff with quick direct access to courses of interest.
• Staff can choose to receive targeted emails of events that match their profile.
• If staff prefer hard copies to soft copies then printouts of all or suitable events can easily be made.

Responsibility for Professional Development

• Staff are responsible for identifying suitable courses, but the mechanics of booking places is often performed by PDC or administrative staff.

• Event Manager simplifies booking process by reducing the need for additional faxing and telephone calls to check availability etc.
• Staff can enable “Remote Booking” on their accounts, and allow the school's PDC user to manage bookings on their behalf.
• Event Manager provides schools with a choice of how they wish to incorporate the service into their existing school procedures.

Professional Development Portfolio Information

• Staff professional development information is not readily available to staff. Additional systems need to be established in schools for the provision of this information.
• No system is in place to allow staff to ‘take' their professional development record to new jobs in other schools.

• Event Manager gives staff the ability to manage their own professional development portfolio. It provides a central store for essential information for CV's, performance management, threshold applications etc.
• Staff accounts and professional development records are portable – they can be easily transferred to other schools.

Programme of Course Development

• The Course Directory is published once a year and so quickly becomes out of date

• Event Manager enables a rolling program of course development and publication so that the training provision can better match developing training needs. The service is continually updated, so it enables staff to obtain the latest information on courses (e.g. additional dates, cancellation of course etc.)

Shortcomings of typical paper/fax/phone systems:

How Event Manager overcomes improves provision:

Reporting on Professional Development

• Schools are required to duplicate course attendance information and create their own systems for reporting on professional development.

• All course requests and attendances are automatically entered into a school's online professional development Report. This report provides PDC's with have a continuously updated record of staff professional development for their school.

Monitoring & Evaluating Professional Development

• Schools are often required to operate their own internal approval systems This information needs to be duplicated and stored for monitoring purposes (e.g. staff performance management, threshold applications etc.)

• Event Manager can be used to provide a full internal approval system for professional development requests.
• Schools can choose to require all booking requests to be routed via the PDC account for approval prior to submission to the service.
• A single system for all aspects of professional development management is more efficient and easier to use.

Shortcomings of typical paper/fax/phone systems:

How Event Manager overcomes improves provision:

Course Development

• Course development is limited by once yearly publication of the Course Directory.

• Event Manager enables a rolling program of course development & publication. This enhances the LEAs ability to provide training targeted at changing training needs e.g. training to addressing new initiatives etc.

Costs

• Costly and time consuming to create and reproduce Course Directories.

• Courses can be published directly onto redbridgepdc.org.uk by course organisers at virtually zero marginal cost.

Course Management

• Costly and time consuming to manage course requests (fax, postage etc.)

• Course request processing conducted online with additional automatic email alerts & confirmations allows for more rapid responses at lower costs.

Monitoring & Evaluation

• Differing internal school professional development recording systems means that monitoring & evaluating borough-wide professional development is extremely difficult.

• Event Manager creates a standardised system across the LEA for professional development management (although choice ultimately remains with individual schools)