JP2007226456A - Apparatus and method for managing class - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To efficiently manage the leaning status of students for class evaluation. <P>SOLUTION: The mail sending/receiving part of an apparatus for managing class receives emails from students. A predetermined keyword or the like is extracted from the emails to determine a module for processing the emails. In this case, a process selection table defining the correspondence between the requirements for classifying emails and process modules is referred to. When the emails are processed, the items of chart data corresponding to the emails are updated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2007,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an education support technique for managing a student's learning status.

Japan has finally entered a society with a declining population. Each university is exposed to harsh competition to survive, with the advent of the university era. In order to overcome such competition by building a position as an attractive university, there is a growing need for so-called FD (Faculty Development), a systematic effort to improve class content and methods and improve quality. ing.
JP 2004-252632 A JP 2003-18324 A

  In view of such a social background, the present inventor considered that if the learning situation for each student is put together as a medical record, the teacher can easily improve the content and method of the class voluntarily. However, if the work to fill out the chart becomes overloaded, there is a possibility that the teacher will not be able to concentrate on education as a main business.

  A main object of the present invention is to provide an educational support technique for efficiently managing a student's learning situation for class evaluation.

An aspect of the present invention relates to a lesson management apparatus for supporting lessons by managing the learning status of students.
This apparatus manages a student's learning status based on medical chart data including a plurality of items. A processing module is associated with each item. The apparatus receives an e-mail from a student and transfers the received e-mail to any of the processing modules according to data included in the e-mail. The processing module to which the e-mail is transferred extracts predetermined data from the e-mail, and updates the chart data for the item associated with the processing module.

Students may send various types of e-mails, such as e-mails indicating attendance at classes and e-mails describing impressions about classes. Various data obtained from these e-mails may be integrated as medical chart data for managing the student's learning status. The predetermined data extracted from the e-mail may be data explicitly set by the sender such as the body of the e-mail or an attached file, or may be set implicitly such as the transmission address or the transmission time. May be data. Predetermined data itself obtained from the e-mail may be managed as medical chart data, or data generated based on the predetermined data may be managed as medical chart data.
Since the student only transmits an e-mail from a communication terminal such as a mobile phone that is usually used, there is an advantage that the student can easily obtain cooperation with the operation of the class management apparatus.

The medical record data may include, for example, data corresponding to various items such as student attendance, motivation for classes, test results, and the like. For example, this device can forward the e-mail to a dedicated processing module for managing the attendance status of students when the word “attendance” is included in the subject or body of the e-mail. Good. And this processing module may update the data regarding the attendance status of a student among medical chart data.
According to such an aspect, it is possible to automatically specify a processing module as a processing subject from among a plurality of processing modules in accordance with the content of the e-mail. Therefore, it is easy to appropriately extract data from an electronic mail containing various contents according to the items of the chart data. In addition, the contents of the medical record data can be easily expanded by newly registering a combination of the condition for processing the electronic mail and the processing module in the processing selection table.

  Note that any combination of the above-described components and conversion of the expression of the present invention between a method, an apparatus, a system, a recording medium, a computer program, and the like is also effective as an aspect of the present invention.

  According to the present invention, a student's learning situation can be managed efficiently for class evaluation.

  In the present embodiment, first, the outline of the lesson evaluation system will be described, and “mail classification processing” which is the main feature of the present invention will be mainly described.

FIG. 1 is a hardware configuration diagram of a lesson evaluation system.
The lesson evaluation system 10 is a system for evaluating and verifying lesson contents assuming introduction into an educational institution such as a university. The class evaluation system 10 is a system used by teachers and students, and provides a mechanism for feeding back student responses to classes to class contents.

  The class evaluation system 10 includes a class management apparatus 100, a mail server 202, and a plurality of client terminals 204. These are connected to each other via the Internet 200. The lesson management apparatus 100 is used by a teacher (hereinafter, “teacher” is also referred to as “user” in the sense of clearly indicating that there is a user of the lesson management apparatus 100). Each client terminal 204 is a general communication terminal equipped with an e-mail transmission / reception function, such as a mobile phone or a notebook computer used by students. In the present embodiment, each client terminal 204 transmits various electronic mails to the lesson management apparatus 100.

  First, the teacher sets an e-mail address dedicated to the course when the course is opened (hereinafter referred to as “course address”). For example, a course address such as “fraA@xxx.co.jp” is set for a course consisting of 15 classes “French A”. A student who receives a course in French A sends and receives e-mails with the class management apparatus 100 via the course address. For example, when a student attends a class, an “attendance mail” for notifying attendance is transmitted to the course address. The mail server 202 transfers the attendance mail received from the client terminal 204 to the lesson management apparatus 100. The mail server 202 may be a general known device. The lesson management apparatus 100 automatically counts which students attended which course by attendance mail.

In addition to this, the student transmits an impression email describing the impression of the class to the course address. The class management device 100 performs natural language analysis of the impression mail and quantitatively evaluates the degree of understanding and motivation of the students. For example, if the impression mail contains many pre-defined “motivated words” such as “done”, “done”, and “want to do”, it can be determined that the student has a high level of understanding and willingness to learn. Thus, the lesson management apparatus 100 shown in the present embodiment can also quantify the student's response to the lesson by analyzing the terms included in the impression mail.
Various information obtained from student e-mails is used as useful information for improving class content.
Whether an electronic mail transmitted from a student corresponds to an attendance mail or a comment mail is determined by a mail classification process described later.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the lesson management apparatus.
Each block shown here can be realized in hardware by an element such as a CPU of a computer or a mechanical device, and in software it is realized by a computer program or the like. Draw functional blocks. Therefore, those skilled in the art will understand that these functional blocks can be realized in various forms by a combination of hardware and software.

The lesson management apparatus 100 includes a user interface processing unit 110, a communication unit 120, a data processing unit 130, and a data holding unit 150.
The user interface processing unit 110 is in charge of processing related to the entire user interface, such as input processing from a teacher user and information display for the user. The communication unit 120 is in charge of communication processing with the client terminal 204 via the mail server 202. The data processing unit 130 executes various types of data processing based on data acquired from the user interface processing unit 110 and the communication unit 120. The data processing unit 130 also serves as an interface between the user interface processing unit 110, the communication unit 120, and the data holding unit 150.
The data holding unit 150 stores various data such as setting data prepared in advance and an e-mail received from the data processing unit 130. The communication unit 120 includes a mail transmission / reception unit 122 that processes transmission / reception of electronic mail.

  The user interface processing unit 110 includes a display unit 112 and an input unit 118. The input unit 118 receives an input operation from the user. The display unit 112 displays various information to the user. The display method will be described later.

The data holding unit 150 includes a mail data holding unit 152, a chart data holding unit 172, and a form holding unit 170.
The mail data holding unit 152 holds an e-mail received from a student. Students may send a report file instructed to be submitted as homework attached to an email. The mail data holding unit 152 also holds such a report file.
The chart data holding unit 172 holds chart data that is a basis for the user to determine the student's learning status. The medical record data includes, for example, a plurality of items such as a student's name and email address, attendance status, contents described in the impression email, and report file submission status. For example, when an attendance email from a student is received, the attendance item of the student's medical record data is updated. The impression item is updated when the impression mail is transmitted, and the submission item is updated when the submission mail is received.
A specific data structure of the chart data will be described later with reference to FIG.
The form holding unit 170 holds form data in which a display layout is defined when the display unit 112 displays medical chart data on the screen. The form data defines the data to be displayed and the display method of the chart data. The form data can also include logic for displaying a result of a predetermined calculation based on the chart data. Specifically, this will be described in detail with reference to FIG.

The data processing unit 130 includes a mail processing unit 132, a front processing unit 146, and a lesson data management unit 138.
The mail processing unit 132 analyzes the content of the electronic mail. The mail processing unit 132 includes a classification unit 134 and a matching determination unit 136. The classification unit 134 includes a processing selection table therein, refers to the table, classifies electronic mail according to the content, and determines a module to be processed. For example, the e-mails are classified under the condition “If the subject includes the word“ attendance ”, classify it as attendance mail”. Then, it is determined that the module corresponding to the classification condition is to process the e-mail. The association between the condition and the processing module is performed in the processing selection table. A configuration example of the process selection table will be described in detail later.

  The matching determination unit 136 determines whether the received e-mail is a valid e-mail as a processing target. For example, when the user has set a condition that the e-mail received within 5 minutes after the start of the lesson is accepted as an attendance mail in the setting unit 142 described later, the e-mail received within 5 minutes after the start of the lesson Is valid as an attendance email, otherwise it is not valid.

The prefix processing unit 146 performs a predetermined prefix process on the acquired e-mail in response to an instruction from the classification unit 134. For example, the prefix processing unit 146 may check and correct a typographical error included in an e-mail as a pre-processing, or translate it into Japanese when an English word or English is included in the e-mail. May be. In addition, the processing content of the prefix process may be various, such as counting the number of characters in an e-mail, determining whether a specific term is included, and calculating an average sentence length.
In this embodiment, the preprocessing unit 146 only checks and corrects typographical errors.

  The lesson data management unit 138 manages data related to courses as lesson data for each lesson. The lesson data includes data such as the average score of the exam, the degree of understanding of the student analyzed from the impression email, and the lesson plan. The course consists of one or more classes.

The lesson data management unit 138 includes a student management unit 140 and a setting unit 142.
The student management unit 140 manages data related to the student's learning status, such as attendance rate and test results. The student management unit 140 further includes a medical record management unit 168 and a processing module group 144. The chart management unit 168 manages chart data. The chart management unit 168 updates the chart data in the chart data holding unit 172 as appropriate in cooperation with various processing modules of the processing module group 144. The processing module group 144 will be described in detail with reference to FIG.
The setting unit 142 is used to set various conditions related to the analysis of electronic mail. Conditions used by the matching determination unit 136 and the classification unit 134 are also set by the setting unit 142.

FIG. 3 is a functional block diagram showing various processing modules included in the processing module group 144.
The processing module group 144 includes an attendance processing module 180, an impression processing module 182, a voting processing module 184, a submission processing module 186, a test processing module 188, a questionnaire processing module 190, a special note processing module 192, and a registration processing module 194.

  The classifying unit 134 refers to the process selection table and, for example, classifies an electronic mail as an attendance mail, identifies a module that should process the attendance mail next, that is, an attendance processing module 180, and transfers the electronic mail. The attendance processing module 180 determines the student who has sent the course address and the attendance mail from the attendance mail destination and the transmission source address, and determines which student is taking the course. If it is determined that the student is attending, control is transferred to the medical chart management unit 168, and items relating to the attendance status of the student in the medical chart data are updated. The impression processing module 182 receives the impression mail and determines whether or not a specific keyword is included in the comment mail text. Then, in cooperation with the medical record management unit 168, the item about the impression of the student's class is updated. The voting processing module 184 processes data related to voting from students. The submission processing module 186 processes data relating to the report file for the assignment. The test processing module 188 processes data related to the test. The questionnaire processing module 190 processes data regarding the questionnaire. The special item processing module 192 processes items related to the special item written by the teacher in the medical record data. The registration processing module 194 processes data related to student registration in the lesson management apparatus 100.

FIG. 4 is a data structure diagram of medical chart data managed by the medical chart data holding unit 172.
The figure shows the chart data of each student for the course “French A2005”. Here, only a part of various data included in the chart data is shown.

  The ID column 282 indicates an ID (hereinafter referred to as “student ID”) assigned in advance to identify the student. The name column 284 shows a student name. An attendance history column 286 indicates the attendance status of students for 15 classes of “French A2005”. Circles in the figure indicate attendance, and crosses indicate absence. The electronic mail classified as attendance mail by the classification unit 134 is transferred to the attendance processing module 180. The attendance processing module 180 and the medical chart management unit 168 cooperate to update the attendance history column 286. For example, when an attendance email of the 15th class is transmitted from the student “Hideyuki Ishii”, the cross indicating the attendance of the 15th class in the attendance history column 286 of the student “Ishii Hideyuki” changes to a circle.

The unsubmitted column 288 indicates the report file submission status. When an electronic mail with a report file (hereinafter referred to as “submission submission mail”) is effectively received, the chart management unit 168 cooperates with the submission processing module 186 to apply the corresponding item in the unsubmission column 288. Update the data. The unsent impression column 290 indicates the arrival status of the impression mail. When the impression mail is effectively received, the medical chart management unit 168 cooperates with the impression processing module 182 to update the corresponding data in the untransmitted impression column 290.
For example, when a submission file email is received from the student “Yoshikatsu Takeharu”, “Yes” in the unsubmitted column 288 of the student “Yoshikatsu Takeharu” changes to “No”. The same applies when a valid comment email is received.
The special remarks column 292 is data input by the teacher via the input unit 118. You can write comments about the students freely. In FIG. 4, the teacher describes the student “Hideyuki Ishii” as “sick”.
Thus, the chart data is composed of data that is automatically described by the chart management unit 168 upon receipt of the electronic mail and data that is input by the user.

FIG. 5 is a diagram showing an e-mail format 400 transmitted by the student.
A destination 401 indicates a course address that is a transmission destination of the e-mail. The destination 401 is analyzed by the classification unit 134, and it is determined to which course the student has sent the attendance mail, the impression mail, and the like. The subject 402 may be analyzed by the classification unit 134 to determine what type of email the student has sent. For example, a student sends an e-mail with “Attendance” in the subject line. The classification unit 134 refers to the process selection table and classifies the electronic mail as an attendance mail. Then, the attendance processing module 180 performs processing. Further, when an e-mail with the subject “impression” is transmitted, it may be classified as an e-mail and processed by the impression processing module 182. As a result, items related to “attendance” and “impression” in the record data of the corresponding student are updated.
In this embodiment, the subject of the electronic mail is used to classify the attendance mail, the impression mail, and the submission mail.

  When a report file submitted by a student as a class assignment is attached, the attached file name is displayed in attachment 403.

As a modification, the classification unit 134 may detect a specific character string in the text 404 and determine a module that requests processing. For example, if there is a character string of “Attendance” at the beginning of the mail text, the attendance processing module 180 may process it. If a character string “Impression” is at the top of the mail text, the impression processing module 182 Processing may be performed.
The specific character string to be detected does not need to be at the beginning of the mail text, and may be at the end of the mail text or in the text. In addition, when a specific password is written in the text, the processing module corresponding to the password may process the mail.
In this embodiment, the e-mail is not classified using the e-mail text, but the e-mail text is analyzed as an impression e-mail class impression.

  In the above example, it has been described that the e-mail is transferred to one of the modules. However, the classification unit 134 may transfer the e-mail to a plurality of modules. For example, if there are both “attendance” and “impression” character strings in the mail subject, an e-mail may be sent to both the attendance processing module 180 and the impression processing module 182.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing an e-mail acceptance process. The attendance mail acceptance process will be described below as an example.
The e-mail transmitted from the student is received by the mail transmitting / receiving unit 122 via the mail server 202. The received e-mail is sent to the classification unit 134.
After the e-mail is received (S10), the classification unit 134 refers to the process selection table and classifies the e-mail according to whether a specific keyword is included in the subject 402. For example, if the subject 402 has a character string of “Attendance”, it is classified as an attendance mail, and the processing target of the electronic mail is specified as the attendance processing module 180 (S12).

Next, a consistency check is performed (S14). Consistency check is a check of whether or not an attendance email matches a condition set by a user. For example, if the user sets a condition of 5 minutes after the start of the lesson, attendance emails within 5 minutes of the lesson start proceed to S16 (Y in S14), and attendance emails after 5 minutes (N in S14) The mail data holding unit 152 is subjected to post-processing described later and then stored (S22). The reason for saving is that inconvenience may occur if it is deleted without saving. For example, when the user has set the condition that he / she accepts attendance emails within 5 minutes of class start, the condition that he / she accepts attendance emails within 20 minutes of class start after considering the trouble of transportation Suppose that In this case, if the e-mail is stored, e-mail classification and consistency check can be performed later. As a result, students who send an attendance email within 20 minutes after the start of class can be treated as attending.
In this embodiment, the post-processing before storing the electronic mail (S22) is replacing the mail text with a fixed message. For example, in order to apply for registration in the lesson management apparatus 100, a student may write a registration command including a password in the body of a transmitted e-mail. If replacement with a fixed message is performed, such confidential information can be protected.
As a modification, it is possible to encrypt the mail subject, destination, and text.

  The attendance mail determined to be consistent is sent to the prefix processing unit 146 to check and correct the typographical error (S16).

  The attendance mail that has undergone the pre-processing is transferred to the attendance processing module 180 alone or together with the attendance mail before the pre-processing (S18). For example, when an attendance mail including a typographical error is transmitted, the attendance mail is transferred alone or together with an electronic mail in which the typographical error is corrected.

  Finally, the attendance processing module updates items related to attendance in the chart data (S20), and the attendance mail is saved. When an impression mail or the like is received, the e-mail is processed in the same flow. In particular, when an impression mail is received, a pre-processing is performed on the text of the impression mail in which the lesson impression is written, and the impression after the typographical error check / correction is displayed on an impression reception screen 250 described later.

FIG. 7 is a screen view of the menu screen of the lesson management apparatus.
When a user who is a teacher logs in to the lesson management apparatus 100, first, the menu screen 210 is displayed. The course selection area 212 displays a list of currently opened courses. Here, three courses of “French A2005”, “French B2005” and “French C2005” are opened. In the figure, “French A2005” is selected.

  When any button included in the menu button group 214 is selected, a screen for accessing various data about the course selected in the course selection area 212 is displayed. The attendance book button 216 is a button for displaying the attendance status of students. The impression reception button 218 is a button for displaying an impression of a student's class. The submission management button 220 is a button for displaying the submission status such as homework. The test result button 222 is a button for displaying a list of test results. The consistency check button 224 is a button for displaying a screen for setting consistency conditions. The medical record button 226 is a button for displaying information on the student's lesson attitudes and grades as “karte”. The notification button 228 is a button for displaying a screen for notifying notification items related to lessons such as absence notice. The voting button 230 is a button for displaying a screen for collecting students' opinions.

  Here, in order to explain only the basic functions of the lesson management apparatus 100, when the attendance book button 216, the impression reception button 218, the submission management button 220 and the medical record button 226 are selected from the menu button group 214. The attendance list screen 240, the impression reception screen 250, the submission management screen 260, and the chart screen that are displayed respectively will be described.

FIG. 8 is a screen view of the attendance book screen.
The attendance book screen 240 is displayed when the attendance book button 216 is clicked on the menu screen 210 of FIG. The teacher shows the secret words of the class to the students at the start of the class. The secret word may be presented verbally in the classroom or may be the theme of each lesson in the lesson selection area 242 described below. For example, suppose that the teacher shows the password “pronunciation of R” at the start of the class. Then, it is assumed that “the mail subject is“ attendance ”” is set as the attendance email classification condition and “within 5 minutes of class start” is set as the valid email condition via the setting unit 142. At this time, it is assumed that the student who attended the class writes the password in the text of the e-mail, sets the subject to “attendance”, and sends an e-mail to the course address within 5 minutes from the start of the class. The classification unit 134 classifies the electronic mail as an attendance mail, and the matching determination unit 136 determines that the electronic mail is a valid attendance mail. Then, the lesson data management unit 138 recognizes the student who is the sender of the attendance email as a regular attendee. The display unit 112 displays the names of students attending the class on the attendance list screen 240.

  The secret word is a mechanism to prevent students who are not actually attending from attending. As a variation for attendance management, an attendance management method based on the position of the client terminal 204 can be considered. For example, when the client terminal 204 is equipped with a GPS (Global Positioning System) function, the attendance mail may include position information of the client terminal 204 at the time of transmission. Based on this position information, the alignment determination unit 136 determines whether it is an attendance mail from a student who is actually in the classroom. In addition to GPS, the client terminal 204 may transmit the connected base station ID as location information.

The class selection area 242 displays the attendance status regarding each class of the “French A2005” class. According to the figure, the lesson of this course is the fourth, and the attendance rate for the four lessons is listed. In the lesson selection area 242, the fourth lesson of the theme “pronunciation of R” is selected. The attendance status display area 244 displays a list of names of students attending the fourth class selected in the class selection area 242. Here, of the 6 students registered in the course, 5 students except for “Takeharu Yoshiharu” attend the class.
When the lesson management apparatus 100 accepts the attendance email, the display unit 112 automatically updates the contents of the attendance book screen 240, so that the teacher can accurately grasp the attendance status of each student in real time by the attendance book screen 240.

FIG. 9 is a screen view of an impression acceptance screen.
The impression acceptance screen 250 is displayed when the impression acceptance button 218 is clicked on the menu screen 210 of FIG. When the class is over, the student sends an impression email to the course address. This feedback email allows the teacher to immediately know the student's reaction to the lesson. For example, it is assumed that the teacher sets “mail subject is“ impression ”” as the classification condition of the impression mail via the setting unit 142. At this time, it is assumed that the student who attended the class transmitted an e-mail with the mail subject “impression” to the course address. The classification unit 134 classifies the e-mail as a comment mail, and the comment mail text is posted in the comment list area 256.
The lesson selection area 252 displays the reception status of the impression mail regarding each lesson of the “French A2005” course. In the class selection area 252, the fourth class is selected. The impression list area 256 displays a list of student's impressions regarding the fourth class selected in the class selection area 252. Furthermore, the impression display area 254 displays the impression of the student “Mayumi Arai” selected in the impression list area 256.

Here, since the teacher has set the keyword “question” via the setting unit 142, the student whose word “question” is included in the comment email text is marked with an asterisk. This feature allows teachers to easily find feedback emails that contain questions.
In addition, the present embodiment can also implement a method of finding an impression mail that includes a question by processing the mail body in natural language, or classifying the question according to the level of importance. Those skilled in the art will understand.
And if there are similar questions from multiple students, you can also send an e-mail to the student who sent the question by e-mail, for example, “How many students have asked the same question as you” Those skilled in the art will also understand that this is possible.
When a valid comment email is accepted, the chart management unit 168 updates the item related to “impression” in the chart data.
When the lesson management apparatus 100 accepts the impression email, the display unit 112 automatically updates the contents of the impression acceptance screen 250, so that the teacher can grasp the impression of each student's lesson in real time with the impression acceptance screen 250. .

FIG. 10 is a screen diagram of the submission management screen.
The submission management screen 260 is displayed when the submission management button 220 is clicked on the menu screen 210 of FIG. When the lesson management apparatus 100 receives the e-mail sent by the student as a submission, the item related to the submission of the medical record data is updated, and the user knows the latest data of the item related to the submission on the submission management screen 260. be able to.
For example, suppose that the user has set the email subject is “submit submission” as a classification condition for the submission email, and the student sends an email with the subject “submission submission” along with the attached file (submission). To do. In this case, the classification unit 134 classifies the email as a submission submission email, and transfers the email to the submission processing module 186 together with an attached file that has been checked for and corrected for typographical errors. The submission processing module 186 regards the attached file as a submission, cooperates with the chart management unit 168, and updates items related to “submission” in the chart data.
The class selection area 262 displays the submission status of submissions related to each class of the “French A2005” class. In the class selection area 262, the third class is selected, and the presentation status list 264 below the class selection area 262 displays the submission status of the student's submissions for the third class selected in the class selection area 262. .

FIG. 11 is a screen view of a medical chart screen.
Here, only a part of various data to be displayed on the medical chart screen 300 is shown. When the user designates a course on the menu screen 210 of FIG. 7 and clicks the chart button 226, the display unit 112 displays the chart data in the display layout defined in the form data. The ID display area 302 shows the student ID in the ID column 282 of FIG. When the student ID is changed, the chart data for another student is displayed. Thus, the chart screen 300 is displayed on a separate screen for each course and for each student. Here, the medical record data of “Mayumi Arai” who is a student of “French A2005” is displayed.

  The name display area 304 displays the student name in the name field 284 of FIG. An attendance status display area 306 shows the attendance status of students in the attendance history column 286 of FIG. In the form data, the column of the attendance status display area 306 is designed on the assumption that there are 15 classes of the “French A2005” course in advance. Users can freely design form data. The attendance rate display area 307 indicates the attendance rate and absence rate (collectively referred to as “attendance rate”) of “French A2005” by “Mayumi Arai”. The form data describes an expression for calculating the attendance rate based on the attendance data shown in the attendance status display area 306. The display unit 112 instructs the medical chart management unit 168 to execute calculation when such calculation formula is described in the form data when displaying the medical chart data. The medical chart management unit 168 calculates the attendance rate and absence rate by referring to the medical record data and form data, and passes the calculation results to the display unit 112. The display unit 112 displays the calculation result in the attendance rate display area 307 as an attendance rate.

  The consistency display area 308 shows the results of various condition determinations such as the report submission status and the validity of attendance emails. In the form data, various condition settings can be described for the situation to be displayed in the consistency display area 308, such as sending an impression mail without attending a class or not submitting a report. For example, whether or not there is an unsubmitted report can be determined based on the data in the unsubmitted item column 288 of the medical record data. Students with an attendance rate of 50% or less and an average test score of 70 or more may be marked. Various determination conditions described in the form data are determined by the chart management unit 168.

  The sentence length transition display area 310 shows, as a graph, changes in the number of impression characters in the text of the impression mail sent by the student after the class ends. When an impression mail is received, the number of impression characters is measured. The number of impression characters is also held in the chart data holding unit 172 as part of the chart data. Students who are actively participating in the class are generally considered to have more impression letters. Therefore, the graph in the sentence length transition display area 310 is a useful judgment material in estimating the change in the student's motivation. In this way, not only the contents of the e-mail but also the data reflecting the unconscious psychology of the student, such as the number of impression letters, can be used as a medical record, so that the student's learning status can be explored in a multifaceted manner.

The medical record management unit 168 calculates the average value of the number of impression characters for all students. The display unit 112 displays in the sentence length transition display area 310 a comparison between the average value of the number of impression characters of all the students and the number of impression characters of the student “Mayumi Arai”. For this reason, the user who is a teacher can grasp the overall tendency and the individual tendency together.
When the chart data 300 is updated by the cooperation of the reception, classification and processing module group 144 and the chart management unit 168 of the electronic mail, the chart screen 300 is updated. Therefore, the user can grasp the medical chart data of the student accurately in real time.

The present invention has been described above based on the embodiments.
According to the lesson management apparatus 100 shown in the present embodiment, in the lesson evaluation system 10, the content of the e-mail sent from the client terminal 204 is analyzed to extract predetermined data, and the processing module corresponding to the extracted data The electronic mail can be transferred to the chart and the chart data can be updated, and the burden on the user's evaluation work can be reduced. Then, the management burden of the report can be reduced by checking / correcting typographical errors and omissions by the front processing unit. In educational settings, typographical errors and omissions occur frequently in reports, and in the past, typographical errors and omissions were manually checked. However, according to the present invention, this can be done automatically, and the user does not have to spend time.

In this embodiment, the processing selection table is included in the classification unit 134. However, the processing selection table may not be included in the classification unit 134. For example, the process selection table may be stored in a hard disk as a database file in a predetermined format. In this case, for example, a record in the database file includes an attribute indicating an email classification condition (hereinafter referred to as “classification condition attribute”) and an attribute indicating a processing module path (hereinafter referred to as “processing module attribute”). May be included. The classification condition attribute may be subjected to natural language processing by the classification unit 134.
For example, it is assumed that an attendance processing module a.exe is prepared and saved directly under the C drive. It is assumed that the database file includes a record with a classification condition attribute “If an email subject is attended, it is an attendance email” and a processing module attribute “C: ¥ a.exe”. At this time, when an e-mail with the subject “attendance” is transmitted from the student, the classifying unit 134 refers to the processing selection table, processes the character string “if the e-mail subject is present, it becomes an attendance e-mail” with natural language processing, and performs electronic processing. Attempts to detect the string “Attendance” in the email subject. Since the transmitted e-mail matches the classification condition, the processing module attribute is acquired, a.exe directly under the C drive is determined as the processing module, and the e-mail is transferred to a.exe.
The record may be arbitrarily edited by the user. For example, the user may change the classification condition attribute of the record to a character string of “attendance mail if the attendance is written in the text or subject”. In this case, the classification unit 134 performs natural language processing on the character string, and if there is a character string “attendance” in the subject or body of the e-mail, the e-mail is transferred to a.exe.
In addition, a combination of an IP address and a port number may be set in the processing module attribute. In this case, the module associated with the corresponding port number of the machine for which the corresponding IP address is set sends an e-mail. It may be processed.
And, by adding, deleting, and changing records to the database file, the types of e-mails processed by the lesson management apparatus 100 can be easily added, deleted, and changed. The burden on the user can be reduced.
If the e-mail sent by the student does not meet any classification condition, the lesson management apparatus 100 may send an error e-mail indicating that the e-mail was not accepted to the student who sent the e-mail. This saves the user the trouble of sending an error mail and further reduces the burden.

Further, the pre-processing function need not be incorporated in the lesson management apparatus 100, and may be performed by an external module. For example, a method of adding a DLL (Dynamic Link Library) having a preprocessing function to the preprocessing unit 146 or communicating with an external machine may be used. The external module may be a service process or the like. The method of transferring the electronic mail to the processing module by the classification unit 134 may be a method of outputting attendance mail data to a file, or a method of writing it in a shared memory.
It is also conceivable that the preprocessing unit 146 outputs an e-mail to a file in a specific format. For example, it is conceivable that the prefix processing unit 146 outputs an e-mail in which the homework answer is written as an HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) file. In this case, if the output file is disclosed, the student can easily confirm the transmitted answer at a later date, and an environment can be constructed in which the student can send the answer mail with peace of mind.
In addition, when the preprocessing unit 146 has a translation function, for example, if the instructor is an American English teacher, if the preprocessing unit can translate the e-mail into English, the teacher takes time to translate. You do n’t have to.

  In the present embodiment, the function of updating the medical record data by extracting the predetermined data from the e-mail using the class evaluation system 10 as the subject has been described. However, the medical record data updating function shown in the present embodiment is a class evaluation. Needless to say, the present invention is not limited to the system 10 and can be widely applied. The following are two examples of application.

  Employee information management device: A management device that analyzes an e-mail sent by an employee and updates the address item of the employee chart data when the subject is “address”, for example, is conceivable. Thereby, employee information can be managed efficiently without manpower.

Business reporting device between head office branches ... If a specific keyword is included in the branch transmission mail, it is determined that the mail is a report mail regarding a specific order, and the head office computer automatically processes the e-mail. A method is conceivable. For example, a method of writing a keyword as an order number in an e-mail subject and determining a module for processing an e-mail based on the order number is conceivable, and information sharing between head office branches can be performed smoothly.
Also, a method of translating e-mails from foreign branches into Japanese at the front processing unit and updating the chart data can be considered.

In this embodiment, the function of the transfer control unit described in the claims is realized by the classification unit 134.
It should be understood by those skilled in the art that the functions to be fulfilled by the constituent elements described in the claims are realized by a single function block or a combination of the functional blocks shown in the present embodiment.

  The present invention has been described based on the embodiments. This embodiment is an exemplification, and it is understood by those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made to the combination of each component and each processing process, and such modifications are within the scope of the present invention. is there.

It is a hardware block diagram of a lesson evaluation system. It is a functional block diagram of a lesson management device. It is a functional block diagram which shows a processing module group. It is a data structure figure of the chart data in a chart data holding part. It is a figure which shows the format of the mail which a student transmits. It is a flowchart which shows the reception process process of an email. It is a screen figure of the menu screen of a lesson management apparatus. It is a screen figure of an attendance book screen. It is a screen figure of an impression reception setting screen. It is a screen figure of a submission management screen. It is a screen figure of a medical chart screen.

Explanation of symbols

  10 lesson evaluation system, 100 lesson management device, 110 user interface processing unit, 112 display unit, 118 input unit, 120 communication unit, 122 mail transmission / reception unit, 130 data processing unit, 132 mail processing unit, 134 classification unit, 136 consistency judgment Department, 138 Class data management part, 140 Student management part, 142 Setting part, 144 Processing module group, 146 Pre-processing part, 150 Data holding part, 152 Mail data holding part, 168 Medical record management part, 170 Form holding part, 172 Medical record data holding unit, 202 mail server, 204 client terminal, 400 e-mail format, 210 menu screen, 214 menu button group, 240 attendance screen, 250 impression reception screen, 260 submission Management screen, 300 medical record screen.

Claims (8)

A device for supporting classes by managing the learning status of students,
A medical record management unit that manages the learning status of students based on medical record data including multiple items,
A plurality of processing modules associated with each of the plurality of items and updating the chart data;
An email receiver for receiving emails from students;
A transfer control unit that transfers the received e-mail to any one of the processing modules with reference to a process selection table that associates the data included in the e-mail with a processing module that should be the e-mail processing entity; Prepared,
The class management device, wherein the processing module extracts predetermined data from the transferred e-mail and updates the chart data for an item associated with the processing module. The medical record management unit holds medical record data including attendance items that are items for managing the attendance status of students to classes,
2. The processing module according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of processing modules include processing modules that process e-mails for notifying attendance of classes and update the medical record data for the attendance items. Class management device. The medical record management unit holds medical record data including an impression item that is an item for managing an impression on a student's class,
3. The processing module according to claim 1, wherein the plurality of processing modules include a processing module for processing an e-mail in which an impression of a student about a class is described, and updating the medical record data for the impression item. The lesson management device described. In the processing selection table, keywords and processing modules are associated with each other,
When the keyword defined in the process selection table is detected from the received e-mail, the transfer control unit transfers the received e-mail to a processing module associated with the keyword. The lesson management device according to claim 1, wherein the lesson management device is provided.   When a plurality of keywords defined in the processing selection table are detected from the received e-mail, the transfer control unit receives the received information from a plurality of processing modules associated with the keywords. The class management device according to claim 4, wherein the e-mail is transferred. A pre-processing unit that executes a predetermined pre-processing for the e-mail;
The transfer control unit transfers the received e-mail to the front-end processing unit and obtains the processing result, and the processing result is replaced with the e-mail or together with the e-mail. The lesson management apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the lesson management apparatus is transferred to a processing module. A method for supporting a class by managing the learning status of students,
Receiving e-mails from students;
The received e-mail is transferred to one of a plurality of processing modules with reference to a process selection table in which data included in the e-mail is associated with a processing module that should be the e-mail processing entity. And steps to
In the processing module to which the e-mail has been transferred, predetermined data is extracted from the e-mail, and the item to which the processing module is associated among a plurality of items included in the chart data for managing the student's learning status Updating the medical chart data for
Class management method characterized by comprising. A computer program for supporting lessons by managing the learning status of students,
The ability to receive email from students,
A function of transferring the received e-mail to any one of the processing modules with reference to a process selection table in which data included in the e-mail is associated with a process module to be a process subject of the e-mail;
In the processing module to which the e-mail has been transferred, predetermined data is extracted from the e-mail, and the item to which the processing module is associated among a plurality of items included in the chart data for managing the student's learning status A function to update the medical chart data for
A class management program characterized by letting a computer demonstrate.

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