Ultranet (product)

Last updated

Ultranet logo Ultranet logo.jpg
Ultranet logo

The Ultranet was an online learning management system developed for the Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhood Development in Australia to provide extensive services to students, parents and teachers in government schools. The Ultranet was built by Australian IT firm CSG and phased into school use between 2006 and 2010. Following an audit in 2012 that found that the Ultranet seriously lacked the features and functionality it was intended to deliver, the Victorian government announced that it would be abandoning support for the system at the end of 2013. [1]

Contents

Ultranet was the subject of Operation Dunham, an investigation made by the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission into the development and rollout of Ultranet. [2] This operation found corruption in the tender process, and laid charges against three individuals. [3] It also reported that the cost of Ultranet potentially reached $240 million dollars, far more than the initial estimate of $60 million. [3]

Implementation

"The Ultranet" was originally piloted in 22 schools in 2006 under the label 'Student@Centre', [4] and the system was rolled out to all Victorian government schools throughout 2010.

"Ultranet Coaches", who were teachers employed to assist in the implementation of the ultranet in DEECD schools, were notified in May 2011 that at the end of that year their positions would no longer exist. This decision sparked speculation that DEECD was planning to 'sell off' the Ultranet to other education systems, including the Catholic sector. [5] In addition to online comments and leaks, this speculation was also supported by the existence of the position of Ultranet 'Business Owner'. [6]

Launch and reception

A pupil-free professional development day was planned for 9 August 2010 for teaching staff to learn how to use the Ultranet. [7] However heavy server loads caused the system to crash around 9.00am and teaching was unable to continue. [8] Some schools were reported to have abandoned the training day and staff dismissed early. [7] Despite this failure, the next day, Ultranet held a promotional event at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, at a cost of $1.4 million dollars. [9] The event featured singing and dance performances, as well as a bus decorated with Ultranet livery.

Further criticism was made about the Ultranet being an exclusively closed space. [10] While the Ultranet was designed with online safety as a priority, the lack of modern Web 2.0 tools forced users to embed content from other sources, somewhat undermining the safety and privacy priority. At the time, many schools already had access to other free online learning management systems, including Moodle and Google Apps. [11] Criticism was also made surrounding the lack of options in 'Learning Tasks', where many other rival Learning Management Systems had more modern and flexible solutions. [12]

2012 Victorian government review of the Ultranet

In December 2012, the secretary of the Education Department, Richard Bolt, announced that the Victorian government was "looking at the Ultranet in its entirety... It's a fact, and a well-known fact I think, that the level of take-up of the Ultranet has been nothing like what was intended." [13]

An audit by the Victorian auditor general's office found "the Ultranet was poorly planned and implemented. Six years after its announcement, it is yet to achieve expected benefits for students, parents and schools. It is significantly late, more than 80 per cent over its first announced budget, has very low uptake, and does not have originally intended functionality." [14] The auditor general also found that the cost of Ultranet had reached more than $180 million dollars. [15]

This audit identified a number of serious probity, procurement and financial management issues surrounding the Ultranet project. DEECD’s tender process lacked rigour and was seriously flawed. There is little confidence in the financial management practices around the Ultranet project, and limited assurance that the selected outcome represented value for money.

Government abandonment

In June 2013 the Napthine government announced that it had signed a $2.8 million contract with NEC to continue to support Ultranet until the end of December 2013, after which it would no longer be backed by the government. Schools would then have to pay NEC to use Ultranet, or find other ways to access equivalent functions. [16] On 19 December 2013 Ultranet was officially taken offline. Some 15 schools which had signed up to use it were migrated to GenEd, NEC's cloud based Ultranet.[ citation needed ]

IBAC investigation

In December 2015, the Independent Broad-Based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) announced that an investigation and public hearings would take place with regards to the tendering process of Ultranet.

IBAC made a number of key findings:

Aftermath

Criminal charges were made against three individuals by IBAC.

Darrel Fraser, then a deputy secretary of the Department of Education was charged with obtaining property by deception, and misconduct in public office. [3] He was sentenced in 2020 to 300 hours of community service. [18]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria University (Australia)</span> Dual-sector public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Victoria University is a public research university based in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. It is a dual-sector university, providing courses in both higher education and technical and further education (TAFE).

Education in Australia encompasses the sectors of early childhood education (preschool) and primary education, followed by secondary education, and finally tertiary education, which includes higher education and vocational education. Regulation and funding of education is primarily the responsibility of the States and territories; however, the Australian Government also plays a funding role.

Moodle is a free and open-source learning management system written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. Moodle is used for blended learning, distance education, flipped classroom and other online learning projects in schools, universities, workplaces and other sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mount Waverley Secondary College</span> School in Australia

Mount Waverley Secondary College is a public secondary school located in the Melbourne suburb of Mount Waverley. The school consists of roughly 1900 students and is one of the largest in the state. The school consists of two campuses both situated on Stephensons Road in Mount Waverley. The Junior Campus holds years 7 and 8, with year levels 9 to 12 at the Senior Campus. The campuses are a short walking distance apart.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metcard</span> Former public transport ticketing system in Melbourne, Australia

Metcard was the brand name of an integrated ticketing system used to access public transport in Melbourne, Australia. It was a universal ticket which allowed users to ride on the city's Metlink and Metropolitan Transit Authority network, consisting of suburban trains, trams, and buses, including the NightRider network. The Metcard was a credit card-sized ticket made out of cardboard and used a magnetic strip to store fare data. Metcard was operated by OneLink Transit Systems under a contract with the Government of Victoria which was managed by the Transport Ticketing Authority.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">West Gate Freeway</span>

The West Gate Freeway is a major freeway in Melbourne, the busiest urban freeway and the busiest road in Australia, carrying upwards of 200,000 vehicles per day. It links Geelong and Melbourne's western suburbs to central Melbourne and beyond. It is also a link between Melbourne and the west and linking industrial and residential areas west of the Yarra River with the city and port areas. The West Gate Bridge is a part of the freeway.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mornington Peninsula Freeway</span>

The Mornington Peninsula Freeway is a freeway in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, that provides a link from south-eastern suburban Melbourne to the Mornington Peninsula. Whilst the entire freeway from Dingley Village to Rosebud is declared by VicRoads as the Mornington Peninsula Freeway, the section between EastLink in Carrum Downs and Moorooduc Highway in Moorooduc is locally and commonly known as Peninsula Link. The entire freeway corridor bears the designation M11.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Goulburn Valley Highway</span>

Goulburn Valley Highway is a highway located in Victoria, Australia. The section north of the Hume Freeway is part of the Melbourne to Brisbane National Highway and is the main link between these two cities as well as a major link between Victoria and inland New South Wales. It is also the most direct route between Melbourne and the major regional centre of Shepparton in Victoria.

A registered training organisation (RTO), in Australia, is an organisation providing Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses to students, resulting in qualifications or statements of attainment that are recognised and accepted by industry and other educational institutions throughout Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glen Waverley Secondary College</span> Public school in Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia

Glen Waverley Secondary College is a non-selective public government school located in Glen Waverley, Victoria, Australia. It is one of the largest secondary schools in Victoria, with 1,979 students and 158 teachers as of 2017. In addition, the college is one of the highest performing state high schools in Victoria, it ranked 59 out of all 530 Victorian high-schools in 2013, based on the Australian Tertiary Admission Rank (ATAR).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Victoria (state)</span> Southeastern state of Australia

Victoria is a state in southeastern Australia. It is the second-smallest state, with a land area of 227,444 km2 (87,817 sq mi); the second-most-populated state, with a population of over 6.7 million; and the most densely populated state in Australia. Victoria is bordered by New South Wales to the north and South Australia to the west and is bounded by the Bass Strait to the south, the Great Australian Bight portion of the Southern Ocean to the southwest, and the Tasman Sea to the southeast. The state encompasses a range of climates and geographical features from its temperate coastal and central regions to the Victorian Alps in the northeast and the semi-arid northwest.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parkville Stadium</span> Sports venue in Melbourne, Australia

Parkville Stadium, previously known as the State Netball Hockey Centre is a multipurpose sporting facility located in Melbourne, Australia. It is the administrative headquarters for both Netball Victoria and Hockey Victoria and features two outdoor hockey fields and eleven indoor netball courts, with the main hockey field capable of seating up to 8,000 and the main Netball court seating up to 3,050 spectators. National Basketball League club Melbourne United played home matches at the venue in the past, as well as Super Netball team Melbourne Vixens, though both clubs have shifted home matches to larger-capacity arenas. Hockey Club Melbourne of the Hockey One league play home games on the main hockey pitch.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ashwood High School</span> Public school in Ashwood, Victoria, Australia

Ashwood High School is a co-educational public school located in Ashwood, Victoria, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Education in Victoria</span> Overview of the education in Victoria, Australia

Education in Victoria, Australia is supervised by the Department of Education and Training (DET), which is part of the State Government and whose role is to "provide policy and planning advice for the delivery of education". It acts as advisor to two state ministers, that for Education and for Children and Early Childhood Development.

Teaching in Victoria, Australia is regulated by the Victorian Institute of Teaching, through the Department of Education and Training (DET), which is part of the State Government. The DEECD is biggest operator of schools in the state, and along with the independent and Catholic school systems have an interest in teaching as the operator of schools and employer of teachers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BigBlueButton</span> Open source web conference system

BigBlueButton is a virtual classroom software program designed for online education. It is accessed through Learning Management Systems, the application provides engagement tools and analytics for educators to interact with their students remotely. It is open source, except for some versions of its database software.

Alexandra Secondary College is a public coeducational school situated in Downey Street, Alexandra, Victoria.

Charles La Trobe P–12 College is a public, co-educational high school in Macleod, Victoria, Australia. It opened in 2011, the result of a merger between Banksia La Trobe Secondary College, Bellfield Primary School, Haig Street Primary School and Olympic Village Primary School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission</span> Australian police oversight organisation

The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) is Victoria's anti-corruption integrity agency with jurisdiction over the public sector. It does this by:

The Kellem review was an Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) inquiry undertaken by Murray Kellam from July 2014 to February 2015 into Victoria Police human source management. The review was initiated in response to newspaper reports about the actions of lawyer Nicola Gobbo in providing information to police.

References

  1. ↑ "Ultranet updates - Ultranet - School Management - Department of Education and Early Childhood Development". www.education.vic.gov.au. Archived from the original on 28 August 2008.
  2. ↑ "Operation Dunham | IBAC". www.ibac.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 3 "IBAC charges three people following investigation into corrupted Ultranet project | IBAC". www.ibac.vic.gov.au. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  4. ↑ Patrick Griffin and Kerry Woods. Evaluation of the Pilot Implementation of the Student@Centre Ultranet in Victorian Schools. The University of Melbourne Victoria, 2006, p. 4.
  5. ↑ Dave Mitchell. "OT: Ultranet", Heidelberg Teaching Unit, 5 April 2011, accessed 1 July 2011.
  6. ↑ Andrew Williamson. "Ultranet Down!", 20 May 2010, accessed 1 July 2011.
  7. 1 2 Levy, Megan (9 August 2010). "'Massive fail': technical glitches upset ultranet training day". The Age. Melbourne.
  8. ↑ Masanauskas, John (9 August 2010). "Teachers can't log in to education portal after students get day off". Herald Sun. Melbourne.
  9. ↑ Jacks, Timna (15 February 2016). "$1.4 million promotional event for botched Ultranet project". The Age. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  10. ↑ Kathleen Morris "Thoughts on the Ultranet", 16 May 2010, accessed 3 July 2011.
  11. ↑ Google. 1.2 Million NSW school students move to Google Apps for Education, reducing total costs by 66%. Google, 2010, p. 1.
  12. ↑ Moodle. "Moodle - Learning Management System", Moodle, 23 June 2011, accessed 1 July 2011.
  13. ↑ "Clunky, outdated ultranet faces an uncertain future". The Age. Melbourne.
  14. ↑ VAGO "Learning Tech" "Learning Tech", 12 December 2012, accessed 4 February 2013.
  15. ↑ "How the Ultranet scandal unfolded". The Age. 15 February 2016. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  16. ↑ "Fairfax Syndication Photo Print Sales and Content Licensing".
  17. ↑ Cook, Henrietta; Preiss, Benjamin; Jacks, Timna (27 January 2017). "IBAC finds disastrous Ultranet project for schools was a 'corrupt' shambles". The Age. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
  18. ↑ Vinall, Frances (24 July 2020). "Former Victorian education bureaucrat Darrell Fraser avoids jail over $1m fraud". News.com.au. Retrieved 26 June 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.