By ezheidtmann on

I'm considering writing a module to handle assignments and classes for my school. The module would support teachers (a user group), the classes they create, and the assignments in each of those classes. I want students to be able to create a class list and easily see what assignments there are. I don't want any sort of "distance learning" features - this is a real brick-and-mortar school.

I wrote a system like this outside of drupal: http://atach.sf.net/. Is there such a module for drupal already in existence? Does anyone have any tips for how to implement this?

Thanks!

Comments

silverwing’s picture

silverwing commented

if civicspace would be an alternative to drupal using this?

(I was actually thinking about this driving home from work today ;0)

just some general questions: Have you used a system like this in a school? (This school?) Do you really think it would be effective? Would it get used?

Here's a post of mine from Opensourcecms.com. (I'm not trying to disuade you from this, but instead am trying to make sure you know what you're going for.):

As a former teacher, let me ask a couple of questions.

1. Is this what your teachers want?
2. Will your teachers use it?

I ask because I know the mentality of some teachers. Some teachers don't like change, and they don't like being told to change what they do. Plus, with everything else they have to do updating a class website may not be what they want to do.

I think that most teachers wont have a class website. When I taught, I didn't have a class site, and I was the Computer Resource Specialist. It can be a lot of work, or at least, seem like a lot of work.

So would your teachers want this? If they have a system they use, would they be expected to change? I don't know what level this school is, so would the grading be in line with what the teachers use? Would it be better to use a grading system online, and have teachers choose where they'd have a site?

(I'd just hate to see you put a lot of work into something that would have little payoff for the staff and students.)

silverwing

www.landofmidnight.com
www.projectpby.com

ezheidtmann’s picture

ezheidtmann commented

We are using a system now. Not all teachers are expected to use it, but it's there for those who want it. It's very rudimentary and does not include grades. Grades are handled by another monolithic database system, so I don't intend to build grading into my module.

One teacher wants to provide information to her students on the website, but isn't up for creating an entire website. She finds this system to be just the right thing.

By the way, I'm at Lincoln HS. The current system is SchoolMate.

Josh Martin’s picture

Josh Martin commented

Many students did not get time to complete assignments before the deadline due to any reason and as a result, they score bad grades. Such students can take last minute assignment help so that they can score good grades and can focus on other activities also.

kkaefer’s picture

kkaefer commented

Hi clydefrog,

Ii would help you with programming such a module for drupal as I am also currently setting up a website for a school with drupal.
I think we should first see if anyone else wants to join and then set up a list what features this module should have. I need this module for a school in Germany and I guess the requirements are a bit different from those in the States.

Regards, timcn

ezheidtmann’s picture

ezheidtmann commented

I was planning on implementing all or most of the features that I put in ATACH. However, atach was never used by any teachers, so it might be lacking features or be difficult to use. It was also my first attempt at writing PHP, so the code is probably not a good resource. Unfortunately, I never wrote a list of features.

I've enabled the contact tab on my user page if you want to contact me directly.

ezheidtmann’s picture

ezheidtmann commented

Finals were last week, so I have lot more free time now. I'm ready to start this project.

At least in the first version, it would handle teachers, students, classes, and assignments, but it would not handle grades.

I'm looking to the Drupal community for a few ideas. First, what should it be called? I thought "school.module" would be good, but I wouldn't want to take the name of some module from the elearning group. But "assignments.module" is too narrow: my module does more than that.

Thanks for your help! (and the excellent platform!)

jaskegreen’s picture

jaskegreen commented

If this is going to be a full school module, it will also need to include pages for athletic teams with the ability to create sport schedules (something like: http://oghs.euhsd.k12.ca.us/index.php?page=team&tid=1), clubs, staff pages that include basic and extended information (something like: http://oghs.euhsd.k12.ca.us/index.php?page=staffdetail&uid=3) and maybe a section for alumni to converse. There are lots of other avenues to consider, but that is probably a good start for now. What do you all think?

Jason
JC SWAK - web hosting & design
www.jcswak.com

ezheidtmann’s picture

ezheidtmann commented

Those things you mention sound like separate modules. Athletics schedules could probably be shoehorned into a generic event management system. Clubs and staff pages could both be a "user page" module (does that exist already?). Alumni could have their own forum, or their own site.

In any case, these aren't things my module is going to do. Feel free to write them yourself! :-)

My module is making good progess. I'm going out of town for a few days and I'll post a rough first version when I get back. I ended up calling it 'school.module', but it's a few search-and-replaces away from any other name.

jaskegreen’s picture

jaskegreen commented

I'm looking forward to using it. I am putting together my school's site right now and this will be a great addition. I am doing my best right now trying to figure out a way to create athletics pages. I'm looking at possibly using the webforms.module to get information and creating a php page to read the data from the database. I don't know of a better way to do it at the moment, and I haven't had enough time to really dive into building modules yet.

Thanks for your time in creating this mod. I will use it as soon as it is available and will provide feedback for you.

Jason
JC SWAK - web hosting & design
www.jcswak.com

jaskegreen’s picture

jaskegreen commented

Why exactly are you interested in designing a Drupal module when there are other open source applicaitons available? One such app is http://www.atutor.ca/.

Jason
JC SWAK - web hosting & design
www.jcswak.com

ezheidtmann’s picture

ezheidtmann commented

We use Drupal for our school website and this module would be an easy way for teachers to put their assignments on the web for students. ATutor looks like way more than we need; Drupal can do what we need (or will soon).

jaskegreen’s picture

jaskegreen commented

You are absolutely right that Drupal is awesome. I've been using it for a while now and have made many sites with it. I can't believe how much better it has gotten since v2.0, and I can't imaging how much better it will get in the future. It just goes to show what a community of practice can do.

Jason
JC SWAK - web hosting & design
www.jcswak.com

Jaza’s picture

Jaza commented

I agree: Drupal currently has zero functionality as an e-learning platform, and there are heaps of really good open source products out there that have all the functionality you could need. If you want to set up a learning site at the moment, you'd be crazy to ignore all these great options.

In one of my university subjects last year, they used a system called Moodle. Great, free open-source system, plenty of features: e.g. discussion forums, document repository, flexible grading system, online tests (multi-choice), events calendar.

Drupal is great, and I love it and use it for my sites extensively. But it doesn't (yet!) do everything.

Jeremy Epstein - GreenAsh

Jeremy Epstein - GreenAsh

Eglish’s picture

Eglish commented

I've tried all of the e-Learning Options at OpensourceCMS.com and a few other not listed. They all had issues when I was working with them and a drupal solution would integrate much nicer since the school website also uses Drupal.

The largest problem was themability, but other issues include were usability of the interface, illogical design and structure, customizability. The current solutions are very unmature unlike drupal.

jmarkantes’s picture

jmarkantes commented

Has anything been moved forward on this project? I just started on a similar site.

I'm working on a system for students to sign up, and also pay for, classes online using Drupal. Products are easy, and signing up for classes is alright, but we need to simplify the admin side of this.

Mainly, when adding a class or two each day, there needs to be an easier way than creating a new event/product each time.

Just curious what's been happening here.

Thanks!
Jason

Rosamunda’s picture

Rosamunda commented

... if there were any improvements about this excellent project!

I´ve been using Moodle for a while for our elearning course, but with Moodle, you cannot get each student enroll to a course whenever they want. With Moodle you have to put students into groups, and then work with all of them together.
And in our courses, people don´t do classes together, there are courses made for single users.

I´ve read that this module was created with a brick-and-mortar course in mind, but as I want that too for our "brick" classes as a community support, I would love to see it adapted to a "virtual" class too, it would be much helpful and flexible.

Just the 2 cents of a non techie person that is very glad with this project!!

Thanks!! (and sorry about my terrible spanglish!)
:-)

Rosamunda
Buenos Aires | Argentina

mailleux’s picture

mailleux commented

I have a specific need and I'm working on a module that may be similar to what you need. I posted a comment here:

http://drupal.org/node/108180#comment-657508