e-Learning Credits Made Easy!, Don Johnston Ltd.

e-Learning Credits Made Easy! New Announcement on electronic Learning Credits Andrew Adonis announced an extra £125 million of eLearning credits for schools to spend on educational software. This means that a total of £200m is being invested in education software over the next two years to help create tomorrow's classrooms today.

Schools can use eLearning credits to purchase solutions as diverse as virtual theatres, specialist communications for children with speech difficulties and online multimedia newsrooms. Schools have the freedom and choice to use the products that are best suited to their pupils' and teachers' needs to help them to make even better use of powerful tools such as laptops, interactive whiteboards and high speed broadband in learning and teaching.

The ring fenced £125m is on top of the £75m announced as part schools' overall capital allocations in November last year and will only be available for spending on Curriculum Online approved products and services.

This investment will add to the £330m of eLearning Credits (eLCs) that schools have already had to rapidly expand the availability and classroom use of products and services bought through the innovative Curriculum Online web catalogue. This brings total investment in technology across education to record levels with funding rising over six-fold from £102m in 1998 to over £640m this year.

e-Learning Credits - What are they? The Government has set aside substantial funds for your school to spend on multimedia resources in the form of eLCs (e-Learning Credits). The money is distributed from central Government via LEAs to individual schools, who can then decide locally how to spend it.

LEAs must either transfer the money to their schools' budgets or hold the money centrally with the schools' agreement to make bulk purchases. Schools may also combine eLC allocations for larger purchases.

Every school has an appointed eLC budget-holder (e.g. your head, head of department, Bursar or ICT coordinator). All teachers are invited to recommend resources for purchase.

What are multimedia resources? A multimedia resource is seen as an item of software or a web site that requires a subscription, and is specifically targeted to support the teaching of the Curriculum in England through enriching lessons with the latest technology. It may be supplied in many different formats and at a wide range of prices.

The resource may include items such as software, user manuals, technical support and the cost of distribution. It is unlikely though to include any items of hardware as these are not allowed unless they cost only a small fraction of the cost of the software and are sold as a package.

Is your school entitled to eLC's?

Each LEA in England has been given money using Standards Fund Grant 31c for pupils in the following areas of government maintained education, up to and including Key Stage 4 -

Nursery
Primary
Secondary
Special schools
Pupil Referral Units
Non-mainstream providers such as Hospital schools and Travellers Education Services

All other institutions with maintained places are not entitled to the £1000 baseline figure and should ask their LEA if they are entitled to a pupil allocation based on maintained places. How much will our school receive?

Funding can change each year depending on how much schools have spent that or the previous year. For 2004 each school would have received £1000 plus £9.73 per pupil. For example, a 1400 pupil school will receive £1000 + £13,622 - that's £14,622 e-Learning Credits.

All Curriculum Online-certified products must be: Digital products. (A minimum of approximately 80% of a product's price can be attributable to digital products; with up to 20% being attributable to non-digital materials designed to support the classroom use of the product). Specifically targeted at and tagged for use in the classroom in line with the Curriculum Online guidelines.

How do I spend our schools eLC's? We have noticed that there seems to be some confusion over how you are able to spend your eLCs. So here is how you do it;

Contact your budget holder to find out how much money your school has. If you are unsure who your budget holder is contact your Local Education Authority. If you still cannot find the answer please contact DfES on 0870 000 2288.
You must purchase products from an approved eLC supplier.
The products purchased have to be appropriate for their intended end-user's age and capabilities.
Choose a product that is eligible to be purchased with eLC's. For ease, the DJSN web site and catalogue have both been designed so the eLC logo is next to products to indicate that they can be purchased by using government funded eLC's.
Complete the order form or call 01925 256500.
Either write on the order form provided on our web site or call and tell your sales advisor you would like to purchase by using eLCs .
We will do the rest.

Most of our software is now available for purchase with eLCs.

Although you cannot use eLCs for directly purchasing hardware, we do have some special offers to bring you hardware at special prices when making an eLC purchase. Buy Co:Writer for AlphaSmart Neo for £99.00 using eLCs and you can also purchase an Neo machine with USB Cable for just £161.00 (total price £260.00 excluding VAT). Order Co:Writer for Neo and Co:Writer SOLO together for £248.00 using eLCs and you can purchase an AlphaSmart. Neo with USB Cable for just £132.00 (total price £380.00 excluding VAT). In both cases we will preinstall Co:Writer for Neo on the Neo machine for you.

How long will eLC's be provided by the Government? All Standards Fund grants must be spent by the end of the academic year (31st August) to ensure their effective use. If the money has not been spent by the deadline, the DfES will reclaim the money from LEAs so it can be redistributed to other areas. In practice "spent" means that schools must have either placed orders for resources or paid for ordered resources by 31 August. If an invoice is yet to be received and/or paid prior to 31 August, then the expenditure should be recorded as "committed" in the school accounts. The outstanding invoices can then be paid after 31 August.

In some cases, schools may decide to pool their allotted eLC money in order to make larger purchases for shared use. Schools may also decided to authorise their LEA or RBC (Regional Broadband Consortium) to spend eLC money on their behalf - for example, to obtain a greater diversity of products or to make bulk purchases.

Still need help? If you are still unsure about eLC's then please feel free to call us on 01925 256500, Monday to Friday between 8.30am and 5pm.

To access other registered eLC products link to; http://www.besa.org.uk

For more information on ELC's log onto; www.curriculumonline.gov.uk/Default.htm