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Re: [school-discuss] Easy-to-use gradebook software




For the killer gradebook application I would suggest a couple things.

Keep the students gradeview app separate from the gradebook 
application.  My desire is that there is absolutely no way that a student 
can login to the gradeview application and through some bug in the code be 
able to edit the information in the grade book.  Also if student view pages 
are kept separate from the gradebook app a school can use the opensource 
gradebook app and a commercial gradebook at the same time and still be able 
to have a unified method for student (and parents) to track their progress.

Create a good database structure and use lots of OOP and abstraction.  If 
PHP is choosen platform it would be possible and very cool to both have a 
web-based version of the application and also a version that will run as 
locally using the PHP-GTK extensions.

Build in easy and robust reporting.  Currently where I work we are doing a 
lot of work trying to get teachers and schools to make DATA-DRIVEN 
decisions.  The gradebook application would store lots of data.  We should 
make it easy for teachers/administrators to use it.

If possible make it easy to import/export existing data and accounts 
from/to other applications.

I have been thinking about building a gradebook application for quite a 
while.  The tables for a gradebook application for a fully functional 
gradebook is fairly complex if you want to be competitive with the some of 
the popular commercial apps.

Chris

At 09:07 PM 4/2/2002, you wrote:
>[snip]
>mysql/php/apache would be low heartburn for us, that's our normal venue.
>so that's our platform ... any problems ?
>[/snip]
>
>Sounds good.  My only concern is the programing "style" for PHP.
>What I would like very much is if most parts of the program are all broken
>down into small functions called from a single main file.  I think this
>makes it easier for integrating with other Programs, like my own
>MyPHPSchool, so that if I wanted to use it, I could just include/require the
>file and call any of the needed functions instead of having to go line by
>line changing everything to fit it in my existing system.
>
>Also, one thing that would be *nice*, but not too important would be to
>build in a database abstraction layer from the start so that it could use
>PgSQL, or MySQL, or other SQL databases.
>
>-Paul Querna




 > 1) Student - student information including:
 > a) Lastname
 > b) Firstname
 > c) Student Number (local or state/provincial)
 > plus any other useful demographic stuff.
Maybe a password colloum?(md5 of cource!)
So that students could view their grades?

On this matter, it would be nice if users are authenticated via a single
function, and then granted/dennyed access based on what vhat that function
returns.(ie so it would be easy to rip and replace the authentication system
to use another Table/database from an existing system)

 > *****************
 > Operations Required: (by a teacher)
 > a) Enter/Edit/Delete Students
 > b) Enroll/Drop students in Subject/Section.
 > c) Add Tests to the Subject/Section.
 > d) Enter/Edit/Delete Student Results.
 > e) Print/View results by Student, Test.
 > f) Adjust Test Weightings including grouping by category.(overall balance
 > of course)
Regarding E, I know with PHP it is possible to output to PDF files, which
would be good for making printable reports.

-Paul Querna