Hector Pro
Login: hpro
February 7, 2003

SPECIFICATIONS DOCUMENT

Title: Interactive Classroom

1) description of the project (from requirements)

The project consists on creating a networked forum where a designated
teacher can prepare a class through slides and teach it using a live
chat.  Users will be able to communicate through instant messaging, 
a public chat, and a newsgroup.  The forum should enable the 
ability to upload and download assignments, the exclusive sending
of assignments between a student user and the teacher user, and having
practice questions and timed tests during class.

The forum will have one designated teacher and a number of students.
The teacher will be designated first, and then students can enroll
to the class.

The teacher user will have the access to a text box where he can type
the description of the slides given to its students.  Additionally, 
the teacher will have the following privileges:
* Save slides for a specific date;
* Check attendance;
* See the messages that are sent between students.

Students will have the following privileges:
* Send instant messages to other students or the teacher (can be 
viewed by the teacher);
* Check their grades;
* Access slides and comments for a class.


2) system model diagram

     Network ----> Teacher-Base ----> Teacher-GUI
       |
       |
       ----------> Student-Base----> Student-Gui
       |
       |
       ----------> Student-Base----> Student-Gui
       ......................
       ...................
       .......

3) annotations describing each component of the system model

The network will be the base for the interaction between all the users.
Since the features of a teacher user and a student user are different,
there will be different applications.  Each will appropriately access
its corresponding GUI.

4) user interface diagrams and descriptions; 

   (for both teachers and students)

    ---------------------------------------
    |                      |              |
    |                      | teacher      |
    |                      |     chat     |
    |      slides          |              |
    |                      |              |
    |                      |--------------|
    |                      |              |
    |----------------------|  public      |
    |    students          |     chat     |
    |                      |              |
    |-------------------------------------|


    ---------------------------------------
    |                                     |
    |  assignments       past             |
    |                       lectures      |
    |  * blah             * 5/18          |
    |  * blah             * 5/21          |
    |  * blah                             |
    |                                     |
    |                                     |
    |           NEWGROUP !                |
    |                                     |
    |-------------------------------------|

   (for teacher user only)

    ---------------------------------------
    |                                     |
    |   upload slides                     |
    |   make quiz                         |
    |   make test                         |
    |                                     |
    |                                     |
    |                                     |
    |                                     |
    |                                     |
    |                                     |
    |-------------------------------------|


5) written description of the above

The first slide is the interactive panel where teacher and student users
can communicate.
The second slide is what both types of users can access to upload and
download assignments and receive them there, and access past lecture.
Teachers will be able to access the third panel where they can upload
slides and prepare practice questions and tets.

6) non-functional requirements (performance, testing, reliability, 
ease of use, portability, documentation, dependencies on other systems)

I think one of the main features of this project is that it is very
straight forward and is completely in the scope of the class and the 
available facilities.  In terms of performance, it might not be the
most cut-out technology, but it will be a good project to work on.  
Testing should be very straightforward, and once the main coding is
done there are few parts were it could go wrong.  Reliability, 
Portability and ease to use shouldn't be a problem due to the straight
-forwardness of the project.  Documentation and dependencies on other
systems shouldn't be a problem either because it does not depend on 
any present applications.

7) updated requirements (with priorities, etc.); 

There was talk about adding sound to the lectures so the teacher could
communicate by voice.

8) any risky parts

Not really, only that the project might not be ambitious enough for
the class to have fun with it.