AU2004100279A4

AU2004100279A4 - Web-based database application for student tracking and reporting system

Info

Publication number: AU2004100279A4
Application number: AU2004100279A
Authority: AU
Inventors: Michael Ricketts; Philip Woodward; Ruth Zhai
Original assignee: ABI MAN CONSULTING Pty Ltd
Current assignee: ABI MANAGEMENT CONSULTING PTY Ltd
Priority date: 2003-04-17
Filing date: 2004-04-14
Publication date: 2004-05-06
Anticipated expiration: 2012-04-14

Description

AUSTRALIA

Patents Act 1990 -2001 COMPLETE

SPECIFICATION

INNOVATION

PATENT

For the invention entitled: WEB-BASED DATABASE APPLICATION FOR STUDENT TRACKING AND REPORTING

SYSTEM

Name of Applicant ABI MANAGEMENT

CONSULTING

PTY.LTD.

The following statement is a full description of this invention, including the best method of performing it known to us: Title: Web based Database Application for Student Tracking and Reporting System This invention relates to a web database application that provides a methodology and system for managing the process of student reporting including initial recording, reviewing, reporting and archiving of student progress and achievements at schools S and other educational institutions through secure access.

Students are progressively assessed on their achievements at school during the year. Increasingly the educational trend for student assessment and reporting has been towards achievement of desired learning outcomes based on the school curriculum. What are outcomes? Outcomes are statements that reflect the desired level of educational achievement.

1 0 The assessment of a student's educational achievement is based on the student meeting defined criteria based on the subject and the curriculum. The criteria may be objective (from results of tests given to students) or subjective (eg observation by a teacher on student behavior, attitude, awareness, ete). Assessment is part of any teaching and learning program and, like all reporting, assessments need to be ongoing, timely, accurate, reliable and reported 1 5 in a professional manner. Reporting is an important tool in the educational process as it enables the parties with an interest in the student's education to make informed decisions as well as providing a very important communication tool between the teacher school and the student's parents or guardians.

The current system for student tracking and reporting of student progress works reasonably well, but there is room for substantial improvement in overall methodology. The current systems for student reporting are all window based applications. The nature of HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol) allows web-based database applications to have more concurrent users or heavier traffic in comparison with traditional window-based database applications. Improvement is needed especially in the areas of ease of implementation, use, 2 maintenance, accessibility via the internet, security safeguards, flexibility in report format and output, and functionality.

This invention substantially improves the process of student tracking and reporting through the methodology used in the process and the reporting combined with the use of technology incorporated in software design and implementation. As the invention is a webbased application, the users are not required to install any additional software on the computers used to access the application. Window based applications would always require the application software to be installed on the user's computers.

This invention consists of a database application that resides in a web server. A school can have its own web server or utilize with a number of other schools a centrally located web server. The database can be easily and simply populated by electronic means enabling the system to be able to go 'live' within a very short time. All data can be populated electronically saving lots of time in the initial implementation stage and in maintenance of the database. Flexibility of the program makes integration with other systems easy, again enabling 1 5 big savings in time and cost.

During the school year, teachers make assessments of students based on specific criteria. The results of these assessments are recorded in the program. The program can summarize the results of the assessments made during the term semester year based on specified conditions such as weighting, averaging, etc. The overall results of these assessments can then be automatically summarized in the report where such assessments are objective. The summary will be based on specific conditions that the school determines. The results will then assist the teacher in the writing of reports for the term semester year.

According to one aspect of the invention, there is provided a computerized method of creating and editing reports interactively on a sheet or sheets displayed on a VDU and for 3 use by educational institutions for assessing and reporting progress of a student in a class environent, the method incorporates a student data assessment and reporting management system based on a web database interactive computer software program hosted on a webserver, wherein authorised access to the program and thus to the system may be made from a plurality of security levels according to authorization levels of a user and can be made via the Internet, Intranet or a school LAN.

More particularly and preferably, in the method according to the invention, there are five levels of security provided by the program for authorized access to input or view data stored in the system program, the five security levels comprise; at the lowest level a parent/guardian-authorized access level, then a student-authorized access level, the next being a teacher-authorized access level, then a reviewer-authorized access level and at the highest level an administrator-authorized access level, whereby at first level a parent/guardian can view the report of their child, student access can allow no access, read only access or the ability to undertake limited self-evaluation, teachers can login for purposes of preparing and 1 5 editing a report on any student member of their class by inputting grades and comments into the program and then locking the input data when they have completed to their satisfaction the reports of an entire class, a reviewer authorized by an administrator logs in and, for locked reports, reviews comments entered by a teacher on student class reports and only when the reviewing of the report has been completed by the reviewer the report is released by the reviewer to an administrator at the top level for publication by any suitable media such as email PDF file or print, the reviewer's initials are saved to the report when the reports are released for publication.

4 More particularly, and preferably, the five security levels of the system's program of the invention are based on access granted by an administrator of the school using the program and who is enabled to lock out unauthorized access.

Preferably, data pages of the system's program are accessible and downloadable from the web server an authorized teacher's computer and displayed thereon for input and comprise a student class list sheet and or a student report form with special user interactive features including: a) a list of classes subjects taught by the teacher and incorporates appropriate active symbols indicating status of reports, the report sheet being accessible for 1 0 display by an authorized user such as a teacher upon log-in page or area on the sheet, b) a list of student names on the class list sheet preferably in a separate frame on the sheet and a symbol or icon next to the name of each student on the sheet to indicate the status of the report for that student, c) an symbol on the sheet whereby clicking on the symbol will display the course outline, d) an active button with a unique symbol on the sheet to display a photograph of a student when the button is pointed with a computer mouse arrow, Preferably, the method according to the invention includes one or more of the following feature steps: e) the list of student names and classes subjeqts and associated student progress report are on the same sheet.

f) the student report form has separate frames thereon with main headings Assessment tasks, Work Skills and specific headings thereunder for entering results, marks and comments, g) an authorised user of the student assessment data and reporting system of the invention can lock access to specific records from the database available to said user based on the security level granted to said user, h) a teacher-level authorised user can lock student class data after all reports are finished for a given class and the locked class data is then ready for reviewing, i) only a reviewer can edit locked student class data reports and reviewers have authority to unlock the locked class data to teachers for further modification of comments, j) the program generates certain symbols and icons that reflect the status of the 1 0 reporting process, k) when in use each class report form displays on the screen an active icon to indicate whether a report has been completed, 1) the released class data reports cannot be edited but the reviewer can unlock and release the data reports if further editing is required.

1 5 The method and system of the present invention will be further understood by referring to the accompanying fully labeled flow chart annexed hereto which is selfexplanatory and explains the invention in greater detail.

6 During the school year teachers make assessments of students based on specific criteria. The results of these assessments are recorded in the program. The program can summarize the results of the assessments made during the term semester year based on specified conditions such as weighting, averaging, etc. The overall results of these assessments can then be automatically summarized in the report where such assessments are objective. The summary will be based on specific conditions that the school determines. The results will then assist the teacher in the writing of reports for the term semester year.

To write or edit the reports for a class, the teacher simply clicks the button beside the class and then clicks go. All the students in the selected class are listed on the left of the 1 0 new screen and the teacher clicks the icon beside the student's name. The reports with results and comments can then be filled in. Teachers can also add their own comments or combine other comments. Comments may be global or personal. Global comments are generic comments available to all teachers and personal comments are comments that have been made by up by a particular teacher and is available only to the teacher who made up the comment. In 1 5 writing comments teachers can ensure that the comments do not exceed the permissable number of characters determined by the school by viewing the counter. Comments can also be categorised to excellent, good, average, poor.

Being web-based, this invention enables teachers to access the database via the internet or school LAN at various levels of access (parent/guardian, student, eacher, reviewer, administrator). Access to the secured database is only permitted to authorised users and then only either individual reports or to the classes that the teacher has, unless a higher level of access is granted. By having five levels of security access, the particular responsibility of individual users is defined. When finished a class, the teacher locks the class so that it can only be changed by a reviewer. Reviewers are people authorised to review report comments.

The reviewers can only modify the reports locked by the class teacher. When the reviewing 7 process is completed, the reviewers release the reports which are then ready for printing. The School Administrator is responsible for printing the reports released by the reviewers.

Within the student reporting system, the icons or symbols aforementioned indicate the progress and status of the reports for each class and each student. Icons change to indicate the status of reports. This provides teachers and school administrators with an easy reference for managing the report writing process.

Report status lists all subjects and classes taught by the teacher, number of students for each subject class taught by the teacher and the number of reports completed for each subject class taught by the teacher and whether the report for each subject class has been 1 0 reviewed.

Locating the mouse on the appropriate icon would reveal a photograph of the student. Similarly clicking the mouse on the symbol would show the course outline and when editing homeroom reports, clicking on the paw symbol gives a summary of the student's results in all subjects for the current reporting period.

1 5 The report format is easily customizable to suit the requirements of the school.

Reporting can also be extended to include statistical data and graphs. This is ideal for benchmarking.

There are a number of choices in the output of student reports. They may be output in hardcopy, emailed in PDF format or viewed by the parents (if the school chooses to give access to parents) through a secure environment using the internet.

For school administrators, the status of reports can be displayed on screen or printed. Teachers can also see the status of each of their classes.

Reports can be archived electronically indefinitely and can be easily retrieved for future reference.

Claims

2. The method according to claim 1 wherein there are five levels of security provided by the program for authorized access to input or view data stored in the system program, the five security levels comprise; at the lowest level a parent/guardian-authorized access level, then a student-authorized access level, the next being a teacher-authorized access level, then a reviewer-authorized access level and at the highest level an administrator-authorized access level, whereby at first level a parent/guardian can view the report of their child, student access can allow no access, read only access or the ability to undertake limited self-evaluation, teachers can login for purposes of preparing and editing a report on any student member of their class by inputting grades and comments into the program and then locking the input data when they have completed to their satisfaction the reports of an entire class, a reviewer authorized by an administrator logs in and, for locked reports, reviews comments entered by a teacher on student class reports and only when the reviewing of the report has been completed by the reviewer, the report is released by the reviewer to an administrator at the top level for publication by any suitable media such as email PDF file or print, the reviewer's initials are saved to the report when the reports are released for publication. 9
3. The method according to claim 2 wherein, the five security levels are based on access granted by an administrator of the school using the program and who is enabled to lock out unauthorized access.
4. The method according to any preceding claim wherein the program of the system has data pages which are accessible and downloadable from the web server to an authorized teacher's computer and are displayable thereon for input and the data pages comprise a student class list sheet and or a student report form with special user interactive features including: a) a list of classes subjects taught by the teacher and incorporates appropriate active symbols indicating status of reports, the report sheet being accessible for display by an authorized user such as a teacher upon log-in page or area on the sheet, b) a list of student names on the class list sheet preferably in a separate frame on the sheet and a symbol or icon next to the name of each student on the sheet to indicate the status of the report for that student, c) an symbol on the sheet whereby clicking on the symbol will display the course outline, d) an active button with a unique symbol on the sheet to display a photograph of a student when the button is pointed with a computer mouse arrow, The method according to claim4 and which includes one or more of the following feature steps: e) the list of student names and classes subjects and associated student progress report are on the same sheet. f) the student report form has separate frames thereon with main headings Assessment tasks, Work Skills and specific headings thereunder for entering results, marks and commnents, g) an authorized user of the student assessment data and reporting system of the invention can lock access to specific records from the database available to said user based on the security level granted to said user, h) a teacher-level authorized user can lock student class data after all reports are finished for a given class and the locked class data is then ready for reviewing, i) only a reviewer can edit locked student class data reports and reviewers have authority to unlock the locked class data to teachers for further modification of comments, j) the program generates certain symbols and icons that reflect the status of the reporting process, k) when in use each class report form displays on the screen an active icon to indicate whether a report has been completed, 1) the released class data reports cannot be edited but the reviewer can unlock and release the data reports if further editing is required. Dated this 1 3 th day of April 2004 ABI MANAGEMENT CONSULTING PTY.LTD. By Our patent Attorney JOHN L.DA VIES CO