Wednesday, July 14, 2010

More About Us

For Teachers
  1. All assignments (future, current, or past) are available anywhere, anytime, as are all student papers, discussion, messages. That’s cloud-based -- nothing is ever stranded on a hard disk.
  2. Assignments can be created with powerful html editor or uploaded or imported from Word docs.
  3. Tree-structure allows for multiple assignments under a single topic.
  4. A single switch to divide class into groups for specific assignments; that is, each assignment can have a different grouping of students or be class-based.
  5. A teacher-controlled switch allows students to embed comments directly in classmates’ (or groupmates’) papers--a must for writing-intensive courses.
  6. Any assignment can have an attached discussion, with same sub-set (group) of classmates; a single teacher-controlled switch sets papers in a read-only mode to facilitate a group or class discussion of students’ own responses.
For Students
  1. All their papers (future, current, or past) are available anywhere, anytime. Again, that’s cloud-based -- nothing is ever stranded on a hard disk.
  2. Tab-based interface; everything is easy to find. Plus, there’s a calendar to tell them when their work is due.
  3. Speedy browser-based (Ajax) application like Facebook, unlike the server-heavy Blackboard.
  4. Something to Think About (STTA) blog on homepage.