In late 2016, three Industry Training Organisations (ITO) in New Zealand - ServiceIQ, The Skills Organisation, and Primary ITO reported similar administrative and technical challenges in supporting trainees with their literacy and numeracy progression. The Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) was made aware of these challenges and the resulting impact on Tertiary Education Organisations (TEOs). Working in conjunction with ServiceIQ, the TEC responded by engaging New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) and their technical partner, Fronde Systems Group, to develop an Application Programming Interface (API). This enables a direct and more efficient integration with the Literacy and Numeracy for Adults Assessment Tool (LNAAT) application.
Late in 2017 Tribal Group was pleased to take the opportunity to be one of the first Student Management System (SMS) vendors to collaborate with TEC and NZCER and integrate its ebs SMS platform with the LNAAT app using the API.
The opportunity to pioneer the deployment of this API was the outcome of Tribal being awarded the contract by English Language Partners New Zealand (ELPNZ) to replace its existing SMS. The integration with the new LNAAT Web Services API was a key milestone of the ELPNZ ebs implementation project.
ServiceIQ and ELPNZ are the first TEOs to utilise the LNAAT API, and Tribal’s ebs is the first commercially marketed SMS to directly integrate with the tool via the API.
The integration of the LNAAT Web Services API with an SMS allows institutions to manage their data centrally. Learners, their assessments and their assessment result records are shared seamlessly between the SMS and the LNAAT, with the information only ever needing to be entered once. Tribal is looking forward to helping its customers realise the benefits of this direct integration, including the significant efficiency and data accuracy gains from what can now be a completely automated operation.
NZCER project lead Ben Gardiner says:
"It has been fantastic to see TEC respond to the need to support digital solutions for TEOs. We are delighted to have worked with ServiceIQ, Fronde, Tribal, and English Language Partners to see this project through to a successful release. We are looking forward to having more TEOs connect to the API to improve their administration of the LNAAT and focus on improved outcomes for their learners and trainees"
This is echoed by Tribal’s General Manager in New Zealand, Steve Exley saying:
“Tribal has made a significant investment in building out an API layer for integration with third party solutions in our ebs Student Management System. On signing English Language Partners New Zealand in late 2017, we made a commitment to implement an interface with the LNAAT tool and we were committed to achieving this using the latest technical approach available. The close collaboration between Tribal, NZCER, Fronde, TEC and English Language Partners has resulted in Tribal being able to build out a web services integration to LNAAT. We would like to thank all involved for their support in guiding this through to a successful release”
NZCER and Tribal are looking forward to next year and seeing more TEOs utilising the LNAAT API integration to bring efficiencies to their institutions through this tool.
About Tribal
Tribal Group plc is a pioneering world-leader of education software and services. Its portfolio includes Student Information Systems; a broad range of education services covering quality assurance, peer review, benchmarking and improvement; and student surveys. Working with Higher Education, Further and Tertiary Education, schools, Government and State bodies, training providers and employers, in over 55 countries; Tribal Group’s mission is to empower the world of education with products and services that underpin student success. Visit www.tribalgroup.com @tribalgroup.
About NZCER (New Zealand Council for Educational Research)
The New Zealand Council for Educational Research (NZCER) is Aotearoa New Zealand’s independent, statutory education research and development organisation established in 1934. The NZCER Act 1972 requires the organisation to carry out and disseminate education research and provide information and advice. They conduct research and evaluation work with a range of public and private sector clients. They also produce research-based products such as tests, journals, books and services such as online testing, surveys, test marking and analysis.
