Problem Statement

There is unsatisfactory communication between teachers and parents. Oftentimes, important information does not flow efficiently and reliably between teachers and parents.

Parents complain that they are not aware of all their child’s assignments or of the activities in which their child participates.Teachers complain that they have a difficulty getting items like permission slips back from parents. Parents have a hard time reaching teachers and teachers are sometimes overwhelmed by overly-involved parents.

Requirements for viewing the prototype

  • Platform: Windows or Mac
  • Browser:  Chrome

Instructions to access the website

  • URL: http://talya.scripts.mit.edu/login.php
  • On the Log-in page:
    • For teacher:

      • Username

        Password

        frizzle

        password

        sinew

        password

    • For parent:

      • Username

        Password

        arnoldsMom

        password

        lizsMom

        password

        carlosMom

        password

        dorothysMom

        password

        keeshasDad

        password

        phoebesMom

        password

        ralphiesMom

        password

        timsDad

        password

        wandasMom

        password

Contributions:

Ido Efrati - Front End: 

  • Front end overall design and icons
  • Login page
  • Teacher and parent homepage 1 and 2
  • Students List page
  • Teacher and parent assignments pages
  • Teacher and parent gradebook pages
  • Teacher and parent form pages

Jing Fan - Back End:

  • Database data population
  • Teacher and parent homepage 1 and 2
  • Teacher and parent private messages
  • Teacher and parent calendar pages
  • Students List page

Philippe Schiff - Front End:

  • Teacher and parent calendar pages
  • Teacher and parent private messages pages
  • Teacher and parent private messages design
  • Teacher and parent form pages

Talya Wasserman - Back End:

  • Database creation
  • Login page
  • Teacher and parent assignments pages
  • Teacher and parent gradebook pages
  • Teacher and parent form pages
  • No labels

1 Comment

  1. Unknown User (jks@mit.edu)

    Overall: Great site for communication between teachers and parents. Both breadth and depth is impressive, considering where you were 2 weeks ago. In the future, use earlier paper and computer prototypes to explore this breadth in advance.

    • Presentation: 
      • Good guided tour of website, demonstrating teacher and parent interfaces in parallel as they interact with each other.
    • Usability:
      • Graphic design:
        • Great large icons that are consistent across your site, and eye-catching splash page.
        • In general, make font choices across your site bigger and more consistent (e.g. 8 point font in all your tables is way too small).
      • Redundancy between assignments and grades pages, might serve as a point of confusion for users - combine them.
      • Navigation within a class (e.g. between grades and forms) is available within navigate, but your users will always want to get back to the great higher-level screen with large icons for their class. RIght now they have to press the back button on their browser. Create a link that persists as soon as you choose a class from the homepage, which always takes them back to the overview page for that class.
      • Messages:
        • Subject is irrelevant if each conversation continues indefinitely
        • Consider how to display the messages if all it consists of is a list of people (e.g. list of people on left, message pane on right - like Piazza/Facebook).
      • Slip creation: allow teacher to pull in assignment names from assignments table.
      • Calendar: 
        • Pull events and assignments from the forms and assignments tables - shouldn't need to enter this information twice. 
        • Color code information by child or class (depending on if this is for parent or teacher).
    • Completeness:
      • Bug on responding to permission slips.
      • Make session last longer, so you don't run into timeout problems during user testing.