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9802008's picture
Posted by 9802008 on March 14, 2007 at 9:48am

Hi Guys!

Thanks billfitzgerald for starting this group.

I spent four years teaching in a South Africa. While teaching we developed a school communication tool called ClassNavigator (www.classnavigator.com). I am now seriously considering considering replicating the ClassNavigator functionality in Drupal. Some of the functionality I think is specific to South African schools. We are also a bit behind when it comes to things like blogs, pod casts, online lessons. ClassNavigator is more of a communication tool with the emphasis being on simplicity.

I would appreciate your advice and input:
1. Is this viable?
2. What has already been developed? (as per our current features below)
3. Best way to handle classes and different types of users. I was thinking of making each class a taxonomy term and eg type of user (eg parents, students, learners) a different role.
4. Possible challenges?

Functionality we currently have:

  • Post homework/assignments. Homework has a due date, automatically archived once the due date is past. Homework has attachements. The same homework can be allocated to more than one class. Each class has its own homework policy which can be attached to homework. (eg '10% deducted for late homework).
  • Class Announcements. Announcements have a start and end date. Announcements are posted for a class or classes. Archive feature - announcements past the event date are automatically archived. Announcements can be archived by the user.
  • School wide Announcements. Same as class announcements except the target for the announcement is more general - eg Parents, Educators, students in certain grades, high school parents, primary school parents or combination.
  • Notes. Attach files. Notes have an optional field 'Display after date'. Notes can be allocated to more than one class.
  • File manager to organise files that have already been uploaded. Upload new files. Send files to another user.
  • Calendar showing homework and announcements
  • Parent Login: Parents receive a login to view information (marks, homework etc) for their children.
  • Class Manager. Teachers use the class manager to allocate, remove students form their classes.
  • Percentage based mark book. Teachers can create overall categories eg 'Class Tests' and then allocate marks (Class Test 1, Class Test 2) to the overall categories. Marks and categories have weightings that are then used to generate a term/semester mark. Marks can then be viewed in a 'spreadsheet' format by teachers. Teachers can decide which marks are available to learners. Learners can login and view their marks. Parents login to view their child's marks. A school may have 'unusual' marks, eg Exam marks that are not included in the semester mark. Ultimately an ajax or flash mark book is what is needed.
  • OBE mark book. Outcomes based marks need to be catered for. Eg a teacher creates their outcomes per subject and then rates each student on a scale of 1-5. Outcomes are grouped according to headings.
  • Percentage Reports. PDF report generated according to percentage mark book. Report has school logo plus space for a comment.
  • OBE Report. PDF obe report generated based on outcomes per subject.
  • XML web services to add subjects, students and teachers from external school admin systems.
  • Internal mail system. Teachers, students and parents send messages to each other. Messages sent to individuals or to a group of users. Eg send a message to all parents of a particular class. Backups of all messages are kept. Files can be attached to messages. Certain rules apply eg Parents can only send messages to their own children and to teachers.
  • Parents, students and teacher only see content that is relevant to them.
  • Home page for each user contains a summary of all homework and announcements.

I can provide screenshots on how the functionality works.

Subject/Class Information:

  • Title
  • Grade Name: eg 10H
  • Actual Grade: eg 10
  • Educator (can be more than one)
  • Students in the class

Student information:

  • Name
  • Register Class Teacher
  • Register Class Name
  • Email
  • Contact Number
  • Birthday

Bonus:

  • Email notification of new content. Eg parent is notified of new marks.
  • Content appearance that has been viewed by a user changes. This way a user can quickly see what homework, announcements etc they have not yet read.
  • Let teachers see what homework etc their learners have viewed.
  • Allow teachers to clasify content and then share it with other teachers. Teachers decide who has access to their shared material eg only teachers in the same school, teachers in the same group of schools or all teachers

Computer literacy among South African teachers is very low. The system needs to be very easy and straightforward to use. I have experience developing Drupal modules.

Thanks!

James