Partners in Learning School Research is now available on the Partners in Learning Network. A school in Canada started a survey and sent this feedback,
“I spent some time this morning setting up a survey. I also did a test survey myself. I can tell you honestly that the process was significantly less cumbersome than the last version. It was certainly easy to navigate. I am going to wait until tomorrow when I have this survey set to close to see what the results look like…In the meantime, kudos to Microsoft on an excellent revamp to an amazing resource.”
What is Microsoft Partners in Learning School Research (PILSR)?
PILSR provides individual schools with an online research tool to measure their own innovative teaching practices that develop the skills students need for life and work today. Based on globally-recognized research, the PILSR research tool is international in scope, enables school-specific measurement of innovative teaching, and provides a common language to drive community dialogue and systemic change – all at no cost to schools. A sample report is attached.
Overview page
What’s changed from the older version that was separate from PILN?
1. The survey has been updated
2. Once the survey is set up it sits in the School Profile on PILN
3. To help you drive your registration goals, everyone involved in the survey must be a member of PILN
4. When a teacher is invited to take the survey and clicks a link to take it, they are automatically joined to a school profile
5. The PILSR badge will automatically be awarded when a survey is complete
What are the benefits of the online research tool?
Partners in Learning School Research helps schools achieve a common understanding of innovative teaching practices, educational transformation, and how all parties can collectively move forward. PILSR is:
Credible: The research tool validates the role/importance of ICT and is based on globally-recognized research* that measures innovation in three key areas:
- Student-centered pedagogy (teaching/learning)
- Extend learning beyond the classroom
- ICT** used for teaching and learning
Complimentary: Available at no cost to primary and secondary schools worldwide.
Easy/Accessible: Available online and easy to administer. Set up, distribute surveys, and receive data easily and with minimal time commitment.
Measurable: School-specific measurement and a path to innovation. Research data provides factual, school-specific information to empower leaders to make educated, data-driven decisions.
Personalized: Provides school-specific results based on each individual school’s own environment.
How does the research tool work?
1. Schools sign up using a simple set up wizard: Sign up for PILN. Identify a research leader. Invite teachers. Invite School leaders. Takes 15-20 minutes to set up. (Note: it is only available to schools on PILN, so if you try to set one up using your Microsoft company profile, you will be prompted to establish a school profile.)
Set up wizard start page
2. Distribute Surveys & Reminders
Easy Distribution: PILN sends emails that contains survey links, call-to-actions, and deadlines. PILN enables research leaders to see who has and has not taken the surveys and sends reminder emails to complete surveys.
Invitation to take the school survey
Monitor your school’s survey progress screen
Reminder emails are sent to participants who haven’t completed their survey
3. Use the Report
Insightful Results: Once the survey window has closed, a report is generated and available to people who participated in the survey. The report measures elements of innovative teaching practices and compares educator and school leader responses.
Below are a few examples of PILSR results.
- Innovative Teaching Practices Index
- Student Centered Pedagogy
- Extending Learning Beyond the Classroom
- ICT Used for Teaching and Learning by Educators
- ICT Used for Teaching and Learning by Students
- Barriers to Technology Use
- Topics of Professional Development and Levels of Innovative Teaching Practices
- Types of Professional Development and Levels of Innovative Teaching Practices
- Collaboration among Educators
- Incentives and Recognition for Innovative Teaching
In what languages have the surveys, invitations and reports been localized?
In addition to English, PILSR surveys and their corresponding report have been localized in the following languages:
1. Brazilian Portuguese
2. Polish
3. Finnish
4. Greek
5. Latvian
6. Lithuanian
7. Norwegian
8. Portuguese
9. Slovenian
10. Spanish
11. Russian
12. Swedish
Action Items:
1. Countries who localized the surveys:
a. Amplify in your social media channels, for example;
- Schools can now measure their innovative teaching practices with this tool http://bit.ly/1bwXk5C #msftpil
- New research tool supports schools to evolve teaching practices, provides tangible measures of innovation. http://bit.ly/1bwXk5C #msftpil
b. Let schools know the tool is ready
c. Continue to include PILSR in Shape the Future deals and the sales motion as a value-added tool
2. Countries who did not localize:
a. If you are in a country where customers will be using PILSR with the Microsoft Translator, walk through the customer experience and suggest and approve better translations. Note that their reports can only be generated in English.
FAQ
1. What will happen to the old version of PILSR?
The old site is offline and the URL www.pilsr.com will be redirected to www.pil-network.com.
2. Will the old customer data be on PILN?
No, for several reasons including that there is no way to tie the customer accounts together between the two systems because the sites used different authentication methods.
3. What if I would like to localize PILSR into an additional language for my country/region?
We will look at the cost for each additional language and determine when the work could be done among other development efforts.
4. Where are there likely to be customer support issues with PILSR?
- Schools often lock down their internet environments which prevents them from accessing many websites. If PILN is blocked, the invitations that are sent to take the survey may not be received. When this has happened in the past, schools simply email their IT departments who put www.pil-network.com on the “white list” and invitations can be resent.
- School leaders can set up a survey in English and then translate the page using the Bing machine translator. However, the report they receive, will be in English. There is no way around this scenario, other than to localize the surveys and reports.
5. What happens if customers encounter issues with PILSR?
As with any major, multi-lingual release, we expect to have to issues that we couldn’t foresee. Ask customers to email Contact-PILN@microsoft.com.
Please let us know if you have questions.
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Partners in Learning School Research Now Live on PILN Updated at :
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Tuesday, October 8, 2013
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