Virtual School of Languages

A new virtual platform for teachers, students and schools

The objective of the Virtual School is to create an interactive environment where not just the audio-visual contact between teacher and student is present but three basic elements of the class. The blackboard: drawing, making diagrams, arrows, writting in chosen places The notebook: taking notes, making short written explanations. The exercice book. A space designed to contain exercices Additional elements A space for multimedia applications: video and music player, youtube embebbed videos, et. A space for file transfering between teacher and student

We will start working with language teachers residing in Poland. Because of the nature of the job teachers do not have many students between 11.00 and 17.00, for that reason they are very available. The target market will be China and Japan. The teacher will select the location of the world where he/she resides The student will select the location where he/she is going to receive the lesson Both persons will see the others timetable referring to their particular time zone.

Logging in, visiting the Virtual School

Enter the Virtual School: The system Has to detect if the user is accessing the internet from China, Japan or elsewhere. The language display and the offers will vary accordingly.

Login area. In the Upper Left corner.

Main Window with a description of the Virtual School. A video showing a model lesson, a free tour and an invitation to receive newsletter

Take the free tour Yes No

Free tour: simulation of how to chose lessons, teachers, etc.

Invitation to Register. Reminder of offers.

Yes

Already registered?

No

Yes

Fill registration form or take data form facebook or similar

No

Log in

An e-mail is sent to the New user to confirm his/her registration. The new user clicks a link

The main Window.

The main window will contain separated information for students, teachers and schools that might want to use the platform. The information will be redacted taking account that the student is the main customer of the Virtual School and he or she might check what is written. Each of the sub windows will have a newsletter icon, and a formulary will appear that will differ in the amount of information asked. For the student it will be a combox with the option Mr, Miss, Mrs or the equivalent in Chinese or Japanese, a text box for the name another for the email and a button for sending. The teacher will include also surname(s), a multiple choice for selecting mother tongue(s) and another for the language(s) to teach. The school will have more information concerning the country(ies) where it is and the language(s) taught

The students profile

There are many web pages like www.scribd.com that include the possibility of logging in from a personal account in facebook, twitter or similar social networks, it might be a good idea to provide that possibility as a simple way to promote the virtual school

Nickname Name(s) Surname(s) Age Gender Nationality Language studied Level

Photograph (optional) Facebook or similar button I like this

Preferred days and hours Calendar. The calendar will be available to the student for consulting or introducing changes.

Student Logs In
Yes

New User

No

Chose language The welcome window shows that there is a New Message In the students Message board. Have you studied this language before
No Yes

A Welcome window shows the language/s studied. And the number of new messages.

Next booked lesson at xx:xx. Click to attend

Do you want to take the level test?

No Yes

Yes

Chose another language to study?

No

Lesson

Level 0
Level determination

Select a level

test. Accept the proposed level?

No Yes

Select hour and teacher

Book More

Display languages studied, and all the past and future lessons booked. Clicking in a booked lesson gives the possibility of seeing its details and modifying. Clicking an empty space calls for a booking procedure

Finish bloking?
Send SMS to teacher, if positive answer In less than one hour, lesson In booked

Modify or cancel. If done 5 hours before the lesson the student doesnt recover the money but if teacher agrees it can change the hour of the lesson without the student losing the invested money.

Check Out Cart. Check if the chosen bookings are right.

No

Is the chosen lesson going to take place In less than 5 hours

Yes

There is no warranty that the lesson will take place. We will contact the teacher and you will be noticed during the next hour if the lesson is booked.

The Teacher receives an SMS with the new bookings or the changes. The payments are realized only 5 hours before the lesson

When the lesson is finished, before logging out the student receives a short questionnaire with a simple question, how did you like the lesson?, five possible answers as checkbox, from I hated it to I loved it, a text box indicating that the writing inside is voluntary and a send button.

The students welcome page

New messages in message board: This will be a way to communicate between teachers and students and between students, apart from a forum that will be established for the virtual school or the schools that will rent the platform. Teachers will be able to search for students interested in having lessons in certain hours and if those are not booked they will be able to send a message proposing lessons.

Calendar (showing the booked lessons): open to modifications like adding, cancelling hours, etc Link to the forum. The forum could be general for all the users of the platform and include discussion topics concerning the different schools that rent the platform or it might have a different forum for each school that rents the platform (it will depend on the technical possibilities of that and the cost that it might have for the project) Link to profile. In order to modify password, photograph, personal details and preferred days and hours Search engine: that shows which teachers are available at certain range of hours and days for a concrete language and level. Shows results concerning only the main Virtual School or the school that has rented the platform. By clicking in a certain name the teachers calendar appears showing the preferred hours in green and the busy hours in red. Clicking in the red hours will not give any information and in the green hours it will open the process of booking. The student cannot introduce changes in the teachers calendar

The teachers profile

There will be no registration form for the teacher. The acceptance of a teacher will depend on the decision of the didactic manager in this case and in the case that the virtual school platform is rented to other schools the administrator will create the login names and passwords of the teachers. The accepted teacher will then be able to modify his/her profile but not the login name. Nickname: not modifiable Name(s) Surname(s) Age Gender Nationality Language taught and Levels

Preferred days and hours Calendar: the teacher calendar will be open to changes so the teacher can always decide which hours within the preferred ones are not available or which hours out of the preferred can be booked by the students.

Teacher logs in
Welcome window: with links to the calendar, to a search engine and to students forum. Link to the next previewed lesson (with a text containing name of student, hours and minutes left for the lesson) that will open by clicking on it to be prepared or to take place.

Search engine: look for possible students for a certain hour range, Day, language and level range

Calendar

Select a student: Open dialog box with students profile, contact him/her through Message board

Mark hours as busy: Free sample lessons , lessons given to students that have cancelled in the period of 5 hours before the lesson or without relation to booked lessons. (red color). The percent of those free lessons will be monitored in order to avoid fraud.

Mark hours as available out of the range of preferred hours and days. (green color)

Cancel lesson

Plan a lesson: The window of the lesson will open without contacting the student, and the teacher will select the didactic materials to use

The lesson should take place In less than 5 hours Yes No

The teacher will give back the money plus transference costs and will contact the didactic manager that will send a formulary with a petition to the student for a change of hour or teacher and a notification of not having lost the money invested even if refuses. The money paid by the cancelling teacher will be be used to pay another teacher and the surplus accounted as a penalty fare.

Send a formulary with a petition to the student for a change of hour or teacher. The formulary will include a proposed teacher (the cancelling teacher will have to find it) or a proposed hour. If the teacher doesnt find a substitute or the student refuses, the teacher will give back the money plus transference costs.

The teachers welcome page

New messages in message board: This will be a way to communicate between teachers and students Teachers will be able to search for students interested in having lessons in certain hours and if those are not booked they will be able to send a message proposing lessons.

Calendar (showing the booked lessons): open to modifications like marking certain hours as available or not available. The teacher will be able to mark free hours out of the range of preferred hours. Link to the forum. The teacher will have the possibility of reading the posts but it wont be allowed to write. Link to profile. In order to modify password, photograph, personal details and preferred days and hours Search engine: That shows which students are available at certain range of hours and days for a concrete language and level range. Shows results concerning only the main Virtual School or the school that has rented the platform. By clicking in a certain name the students calendar and a message board appears with a message ready to be written addressed to that concrete student. The teacher cannot introduce changes in the students calendar