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No video tool: Schools criticize the NRW learning portal Logineo

On the Rhine and Ruhr
NRW offers a free learning portal. However, over half of the schools rely on commercial offers for distance teaching.

“The long wait is over,” announced State Secretary Mathias Richter in November 2019. After a five-year development period, the North Rhine-Westphalia school ministry solemnly announced the launch of the state-owned school platform Logineo. A “real update for digital work in our schools,” promised Richter. But when the coronavirus broke out in spring 2020 and more and more schools were looking for programs for their digital lessons, interest in Logineo remained low. The school principals insist that there is a great desire for a uniform solution.

The figures speak a clear language: According to the Ministry of Education, only 2,226 of the more than 5,000 schools in North Rhine-Westphalia used the Logineo learning management system until January 4th. More than half continue to rely on commercial portals. Logineo’s messenger service, through which teachers and students can communicate digitally in individual and group chats, was added in August 2020. The chat program is currently in use in less than a third of schools (1,441). But why is there so much interest in what the country has to offer?

“One of the main reasons why we decided against Logineo was the lack of a video tool,” explains Astrid Weidler, headmistress at the Otto Hahn Gymnasium in Dinslaken. The school looked at various learning portals at the beginning of the pandemic. Because video conferences are indispensable in digital lessons, the Otto Hahn Gymnasium decided against the offer of the Ministry of Education at an early stage. “Logineo is not reliable and central elements are missing,” says Weidler. “A judgment couldn’t be more devastating.”

Headmistress: “At Logineo there was no trust”

The headmistress would very much like to switch to Logineo. “Then we would also be protected under data protection law,” says Weidler. “But in contrast to other portals, the program is not user-friendly enough.” In addition, there was this security concept – to rely on something that has already proven itself over several years. “There was no trust in Logineo,” explains the headmistress. Weidler predicts that it will be “a long way to go” until all doubts have been resolved and the learning portal has caught up with the competition in terms of technology.

Alexandra Haußmann from the Hulda-Pankok Comprehensive School in Düsseldorf would also find a national solution to be fundamentally correct. “That would also be much easier for children who switch to another school,” says the headmistress. However, when the school had to choose a learning platform in March 2020, the choice fell on “itslearning”. “What we lacked at the time were a video tool and a messenger service,” says Haußmann. “These are both important aspects.”

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