Back in June we announced that RM Education Ltd had been selected by Education Scotland to continue to deliver Glow Authentication and Portal Services. The new contract will commence in January 2018 for 5.5 years with opportunities to extend up to a maximum of 10.5 years. The full cost (£1.3 million per annum) will be met by Education Scotland and Scottish Government.

This means Glow Users will be able to continue to use the services, free of charge and in full confidence of the stability and continuity of provision.

As part of this new contract we are pleased to announce a range of new features, helping to improve the Glow platform.

NEW FEATURES AND THE BENEFITS TO TEACHERS AND LEARNERS

• Notifications – all users can be kept up to date with information relevant to them, right on their Launch Pad.
• Continuity – the service remains the same for 5.5 years, with possible extensions up to 10.5 years. This guarantees availability and continuity for at least that period. Teachers work plans won’t be negatively affected by changes in the service and learners and teachers will continue to have access to the tools Glow offers and to their work and documents stored online.
• Age appropriate sign-in – helping users get easier access by reducing difficult and complicated passwords. This will make it easier for learners to log in quickly and save teachers time from helping users who have forgotten their password.
• Self-service Identity-matching – Glow users who are not provisioned via SEEMiS can keep access to their Glow account more easily than before when moving establishment. This is positive for student teachers as they will be able to carry over their accounts once they graduate.
• Security Improvements – behind the scenes, a number of security improvements are being made, including an enhanced account lock-out policy based on a number of failed login attempts, an audit record for failed and successful logins and improved reporting tools. Increased security brings increased confidence for users.

These new features will all join Glow in the future. Alongwith the recent addition of Microsoft Teams; external sharing; the announcement of continued support from Microsoft; and the addition of G Suite, this all adds up to a very exciting time for Glow.