REGISTRATION

User creates an account with a username, email address, password, zip/state, avatar and they tag themselves by their interest declarations with regard to their subject, grade, and topic interests. Many social networks look empty because they don't default their users with a unique icon. MySyllabi gives the user a selection of avatars to choose from based on their subject/grade/topic interests as well as the ability to upload their own. Upon registration a user is automatically given an @mysyllabi.org email address automatically that they can send external emails from.

The registration process is made up of s steps. The first step is made up of the details mentioned above. The second step involves decorating the user's default classroom. The third step involves populating a teacher's calendar with resources every day of the school year. This involves ranking topics according to her custom calendar so that we can schedule the appropriate resources.The fourth step involves linking the user up with her school. This matching process is done using the email address of the user as well as their grade and state data. The fifth step involves creating an account for the teacher's students. The sixth step involves creating an account for the teacher's parents and linking those parents to their respective children. Upon completion of this last step an automatic email is sent out to these new users in order to invite them to participate. go to top

MY PROFILE/INBOX

The users inbox/profile is made up of the username, the user's avatar, the description of the user, a listing of her interest tags, all the public resources and messages she has created intermingled with resources and messages received in her inbox. Users can click on the calendar on the left in order to display a set of listings in the past or future. By toggling among the hyperlinks at the top of a user's Inbox, that user can see her subscriptions, her sent messages, and her private resources. She can also filter postings by category, subject, and grade. By toggling among the hyperlinks at the top of a user's Profile page, you can see her favorites folder of resources, her colleagues list, her classrooms list, her list of subscriptions, and statistics on how active the user is. These affiliations are also featured in boxes on the left sidebar along with additional boxes for her schools list and her sponsors list. If a teacher keeps her profile public then other teachers are free to browse through all the components of a user's profile. go to top

CLASSROOM PAGE

Teacher users are given a default classroom page upon registration. A classroom page is like a blog. It is a collection of resource contributions made on behalf of the classroom. A classroom page has a profile/description, an avatar, subscribers (teachers, parents, & students), permissions and user roles for those subscribers, a list of contributions made on behalf of the classroom, resources relaid to the page from other classrooms, a favorite folder and sub-folders therein, a calendar view of all resource associated with the classroom, privacy settings, category tags (subjects, grades, topics) so that similar teachers can find the classroom and subscriptions so that the classroom can be put on “auto-pilot” and thereafter dependent on the contributions of another classroom. A teacher can create and be administrator of as many classroom pages as she wishes. Administrators and those subscribers with privileges have the ability to re-order/reschedule contributions however they see fit. go to top

PRIVACY SETTINGS

Privacy is extremely important within the MySyllabi system. While we do want to encourage as much collaboration as possible, we do not want to force it upon our users. Users can opt-out of default privacy settings for each of the number of ways that users can privatize their identity and contributions on the site. A user can privatize her personal profile, she can privatize a classroom that she is an administrator of, and she can privatize resources that she creates.

Profiles set to private cannot be viewed by users that aren't affiliated as a my colleague. Profile privacy settings are toggled on the user's my account page. Browsing and searching users do see the listing of private users, however when they click to see the private users profile, the only information that is displayed is the private user's avatar, description, listed tags, and a button that allows outsiders to request to be a my colleague. Once a private user approves this request, the rest of the profile features of the private user are available to be seen.

Classrooms set to private cannot be viewed by users that aren't affiliated as subscribers. Classroom privacy settings are controlled by the administrators of the classroom and are accessed within the admin control menu bar. Browsing and searching users do see the listing of private classrooms, however when they click to see the private classroom's profile, the only information that is displayed is the private classroom's avatar, description, listed tags, and a button that allows outsiders to request to be a my subscriber. Classroom administrators have the ability set a less sensitive version of this by allowing the public community of users to view the classroom, but make them request to subscribe. If the admin wants to let them subscribe, but doesn't want them to contribute, then she can set her user roles accordingly. All of these requests are supported by email and message notification in the administrator and requester's inbox. MySyllabi greatly values the security of parent and student accounts, however our system is flexible enough to allow teachers to show off the contributions of their students and parents. If a teacher chooses so, then she has the option to make her parent and student contributions public for other members of the community to see on her classroom page. By default, this option is turned off and only the administrator(s) of the classroom can have access to see contributions made by parents and students.

Resources have a series of option with regard to privatization. The final step of authoring allows the user to control these privacy settings and they can be edited throughout the life-span of the resource. The original author can allow the resource to be indexed, can allow it to be viewed, allow it to be edited as a wiki, and allow for other teachers to customize on their own; or each of these options can not be allowed – its up to the original author to determine. Private resources can only be seen by the original author and subscribers of the classroom that she posted it on. This information is featured on the permissions toggle of the opened resource underneath. Unlike private profiles and classrooms, private resources are not indexed and available through search or browsing. Private messages can only be seen by the sender, the receiver, and possibly the school administer who oversees her teachers' accounts. go to top

RESOURCE CREATION

Users can create resources that are stored within particular classroom pages. The authoring template to create resources is dynamic and dependent on the type of resource the user wants to create. These types include weblink, folder, video, chat, slideshow, image, learning game, assessment, or audio. Authors can also attach files or url address to a resource. Resources can be kept private, permissions can be set so that only a particular group of users can see the resource (like a classroom), or they can be made public so that they can be seen by the entire MySyllabi community through search, what's new, or inbox feeds. If a resource is made public, it must be tagged by subject, grade and topic so that it can be displayed to the right users in the MySyllabi community. A user can only author resources on behalf of the classroom page, not on behalf of herself (her profile). go to top

MESSAGE CREATION

Individual messages and group messages can be sent, delivered and received on MySyllabi. Message authoring can be initiated by going to someone 's profile page and clicking the "send message" button or the user can click the create tab and select "message" in order to create. A message has a title, body and attachments. It has a list of recipients that the user can select from her contacts list (made from her classroom subscription affiliations or from her colleague list). You cannot send unsolicited messages to someone within the MySyllabi community. You must be affiliated by classroom or colleague list in order to send a message to someone within the MySyllabi community. A messages are created on behalf of a user, not on behalf of a classroom or school. Messages can be sent to outside email address using the MySyllabi tool. Emails from outside address can also be received within the MySyllabi tool if the user either configures their primary email address or the school administrator purchases the MySyllabi tool for the primary email for his faculty. go to top

MY COLLEAGUES

My Colleagues is a quick list of “friends” mainly used as a My Contacts – type tool. To add someone to your colleagues, a user visits that user's profile and clicks the “add to colleagues” button. That potential colleague must confirm the request in order for the two user's to be colleagues. Benefits of my colleagues is message control against spam and convenient access within the colleagues box on the left sidebar in order to forward listings. You must be affiliated by classroom or colleague list in order to send a message to someone within the MySyllabi community. go to top

WHAT'S NEW

Upon sign-in, a user is presented with a view of the most popular resources scheduled today on classroom pages throughout the entire MySyllabi site. The list of resources that the users sees is filtered by the same subject, grade, and topic interest tags as the user originally declared upon registration. The list includes all types of resources. The order for which the resources are ranked is dependent on how many classroom pages a particular resource is scheduled on. The algorithm takes into consideration how many classroom pages the resource is scheduled on today as well as how many classroom pages the resources is scheduled for any date. Users can click on calendar days on the box on the left in order to view a set of listings from the past or future. User can filter the list of resources by subject/grade/topic tags or by state standards. If she does so wish, the user can click on the customize hyperlink and further filter the daily output she sees under her default what's new tab. On this what's new customization page, the user can map out what topics she is teaching throughout the calendar of the year. By sequencing & scheduling these topics, the user is qualifying what topical resources she sees over various time segments throughout the year on her what's new tab. Technically speaking, this page controls the default topic filter of the resource feed and changes it accordingly by date. The user can also toggle to see the most recent teachers to join the community, the most recent classrooms created within the community, and the most recent schools to sign up for the community; all relative to the users subject, grade, and topic interests declared upon registration. These additional queues are ranked chronologically. go to top

BROWSING WITH TABS

A teacher user's display is made of a series of tabs on the right, “body”, portion of the screen. These tabs include the the What's New, Inbox, and Creation tabs mentioned above as well as a Classrooms, Colleague, and Resources tab where users can browse through the MySyllabi community.

Under the Colleagues tab, the user can view an output of teacher profile listings. At the default screen, three folders are featured at the top of the list allowing the user to browse within the top three teacher categories. Underneath is a list of the top, most active teachers across the nation according to the user's subject/grade/topic interests. The user can filter by subject and grade, state or by category. These categories include teachers, administrators, librarians, professors, curriculum coordinators, tech coordinators, and educational publishers. Users can toggle to see the most active, “top”, colleagues or toggle to view a list of my colleagues.

Under the resources tab, the user can browse through terrific resources stored in our database. At the default screen, three folders are featured at the top of the list allowing the user to browse within the top three resource categories. Underneath is a list of the top, most active resources according to the algorithm mentioned above and the user's subject/grade/topic interests. The user can filter by subject and grade, state standard or by category. Users can toggle to see new resources or toggle to view a list of my resources.

Under the classrooms tab, the user can browse through terrific classrooms active within our community. At the default screen, three folders are featured at the top of the list allowing the user to browse within the top three classroom categories. Underneath is a list of the top, most active classrooms according to the algorithm mentioned above and the user's subject/grade/topic interests. The user can filter by subject and grade, state or by category. These categories include educational publishers, pre-schools, middle schools, high schools, colleges & universities, schools of education, private schools, home schools, charter schools, department of education, professional development, teacher associations, technology groups, and vendors/sponsors. Users can toggle to create a new classroom or toggle to view a list of my classrooms.

Similar functionality surrounds the experience when a user clicks on the browse schools hyperlink featured in the schools box on the left sidebar. Here, the user can browse through terrific schools active within our community. At the default screen, three folders are featured at the top of the list allowing the user to browse within the top three school categories. Underneath is a list of the top, most active schools. The user can filter by subject and grade, state or by category. These categories include pre-schools, elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, charter schools, private schools, secondary schools, grad schools, colleges, universities, training schools, and summer schools. Users can toggle to see the most active “top” schools, toggle to see new schools, or toggle to view a list of my schools.

Similar functionality also surrounds the experience when a user clicks on the "Merit-Based Pay Raises" hyperlink featured in the sponsors box on the left sidebar. Under the sponsors screen, the user can browse through terrific sponsors active within our community. At the default screen, the most active sponsors are featured according to the amount of dollars donated to teachers. Users can toggle to see new sponsors according to category: entertainment, clothes, equipment, food, travel, & misc. Each listed sponsor offers a merit based pay raise opportunity for a teacher as well as a promotional discount/give-away. Sponsors on these toggle pages are ranked by the amount of available sponsorship opportunities. go to top

SEARCH

All public resources, teacher profiles, classroom profiles, and school profiles are crawlable, ranked, and they must be tagged. Messages are not crawlable. Through keyword input, a user is returned a queue of listings ranked by either the amount of activity within the classroom, the amount of calendars/classroom posting pages a resource is posted on, or the amount of activity a teacher or school is involved in. This output can be refined by category, state standard or by subject/grade. It can also be refined spefically to listings within a user's schools or affiliated classrooms. go to top

RELAYING

Every listing in MySyllabi is mobile, meaning that it can be forwarded to the inbox of either a classroom or the inbox of a user. To relay a listing in MySyllabi, a user can drag and drop the icon to its left towards each of the boxes featured on the left. Users can also relay resources, by opening them up and clicking on the hyperlinks featured at the bottom of the hover box (which opens a according menu). Listings relaid to an inbox go to the top of the inbox's stack for the day. Listings relaid to a calendar day on the left go to the top of the inbox for the according day selected. If a resource is relaid, then a duplicate copy of the record is stored on the classroom page or inbox and "parent" data is stored within the new record. Users are free to delete the new record if they wish but if they choose to edit the listing, then the original "parent" data is retained. If a classroom, user profile, or school is relaid to a classroom or user inbox, then an agent record is stored on the classroom page or inbox, which points to the particular profile. go to top

SUBSCRIBING TO A CLASSROOM

Classroom administrators can set permissions determining who can view affiliated items. One of those permissions is the right to subscribe to a classroom. Classroom subscriptions allow users to receive an automatic feed to their inbox every time a new contribution is added to a classroom. Similar to a relay, this feed automatically creates a new record in the receiving user's inbox. Users are free to delete the new record if they wish but if they choose to edit the listing, then the original "parent" data is retained. Depending on the permissions of the classroom, subscribers may be able to contribute collaboratively to the classroom as well. Notification feeds consolidate records stored in a user's personal inbox when the user contributes to a classroom that they subscribe to. When viewing the classroom page queue, the user can see who authored each contribution, while non-subscribers only see the classroom avatar. Resources relaid to the classroom page feature the avatar of the originating classroom. To subscribe to a classroom, a users visits the profile page of the classroom and clicks on the "subscribe" link featured within the classroom description. Private classrooms require a request and approval by the classroom administrator. All classroom affiliations are featured as a thumbnail in the classrooms box featured in the left sidebar. go to top

DIGITAL SYLLABUS

If a user likes the entire contents of a particular classroom page but wants to customize it to her own classroom calendar, she has a unique tool called a digital syllabus. A digital syllabus is sequence of classroom postings that a teacher can insert into her calendar, starting on the day of her choosing. The contents of the blog are then-after dripped to the subscriber at the pace for which they are originally authored/scheduled (with weekends taken into consideration). Teachers can edit digital syllabi before they insert them into their calendar. This is valuable not only for curriculum spanning an entire year but also in smaller spitz such as a few weeks covering a unit or a few days covering a lesson. A teacher can create new digital syllabi by clicking from a classroom posting page that she has created or one made by other permitting teachers in the community. Digital syllabi can also be converted from filled folders or from classroom pages. They can also be created from a blank slate by dragging resources from the resource box on the right to the calendar days featured on the right. After opening A digital syllabus up to see in month calendar view, the teacher can also rearrange and delete resources scheduled. go to top

SCHOOL AFFILIATION

There is a “Request to Join School” button on each school profile. Teachers can request to join the school with this button and the administrator is sent a message with this request. By joining a school, a teacher's profile (and the profiles of her parents and students) contributions, classrooms and messages can be monitored, edited, and deleted by the administrator of a school. School affiliations are featured in a thumbnail in the school box on the left sidebar. go to top

VENDOR SPONSORSHIP

A teacher user can browse through opportunities to have her classrooms sponsored. Underneath the Main Classrooms tab is a folder full of class sponsorship opportunities. A teacher can visit the classroom profile page of these sponsors and click on the "sponsorship request" button. That vendor is then represented as a sponsor for each classroom that the teacher is an administrator of. By selecting a sponsorship, a teacher is eligible for rewards provided by the sponsor depending on the listed requirements associated with the particular sponsorship program she selects. These requirements are tied to the statistics of the classroom which focus on consumption rates of subscribers. Classroom sponsorships are brought to light with a banner ad featured in a box on the left sidebar. Classroom sponsorship is also highlighted with a thumbnail next to every resource sent home from that classroom. Clicking this thumbnail travels the user to sponsor's classroom page. Teachers may opt-out of sponsorship for any of their classrooms, but they only receive reward from the sponsor if they fulfill the listed statistical requirements. go to top

AUTO-EMAIL FREQUENCY

While the user is able to use MySyllabi completely and disband their current email system, they may want to take the whole experience slowly and have it work alongside their current email system. This is done through email updates sent from MySyllabi to the user's previous email inbox (hotmail, yahoo, gmail, ect...) or if they have them, social network notifications (MySpace, Facebook). As you may have read so far, there are many updates that may be associated with a particular user. The system defaults with one email sent out a day, which is a mirror listing of a user's inbox. In addition, any subscription requests or colleague requests are sent immediately. The user is free to change these settings so that they receive an email once a week, or immediately for each update, or one per classroom subscription. go to top

CONTEXTUAL SIDE BAR

To the left of all output is a contextual side bar that facilitates easy navigation and organization around the MySyllabi website. The different types of affiliation boxes include Classrooms, Calendar, Teachers, Resources, Parents, Students, Schools, and Sponsors. The thumbnails featured in these boxes are in the same order as the user defines them on their full blown sisters (tabs). There is an additional vertical scroll bar positioned to the left of the window as well. This scroll bar allows the user to vertically scroll and position the boxes for optimum drag n' drop efficiency. Ideally, we will be make this scrolling action a cycled loop so that when the user navigates to the bottom of the scroll bar, it automatically restarts from the top. All listing featured throughout the site can be dragged and dropped into the thumbnails of these boxes. By simply rolling over the thumbnails within each box, the title of the thumbnail's destination is interchanged with the caption of the box. The sidebar does not reload when the user navigates from the right side and takes advantage of framing technology. The sidebar also takes advantage of variable window size among different monitors and screen resolutions. Users can expand the sidebar horizontally and expand the horizontal length of each box. Each box can also be expanded vertically. In both cases more thumbnails are possibly displayed and any spill over is compensated with a mini scroll bar positioned on the right of each box.

While the sidebar does not reload when the user navigates from the right side of the page, it does take cues upon these hyperlink clicks commissioned on the right side of the page. These cues send reload instructions to particular boxes within the scroll bar, allowing them to reload individually with ajax technology. These boxes are dynamic depending on where the user has found herself navigated on the site. If a user is browsing or situated in front of My Profile content, then the content featured within the boxes is relative to my affiliations. However, if I am viewing the profile of a particular classroom, teachers, parents, student, school, or sponsor/vendor, then the contents in each of these boxes is relative to the affiliation of that particular profile. What is unique about these boxes is that they serve for ample navigation on their own. By clicking on the caption of each box, the user is able to toggle between particular affiliations that are relevant at the time/location. For example. If I am on a school profile, then I can click on the caption of the calendar box to toggle between sets of calendars representing each of the classrooms of the school. Same true if I am on a my profile, and I click on the caption of the teachers box. I default with thumbnail content relative to my colleagues, but if I click on the caption, I can toggle through teacher subscriber collections for each of the classrooms I am affiliated to. This tool is extremely useful when relaying great listings, especially when I want to relay a listing to a particular day in the future on the calendar of one of the classrooms I am either administrator or subscriber of. go to top

OPENED RESOURCES

Resources can be opened from a numerous locations throughout the site. To open a resource, a user can simply click on the title. By doing so a hover over box opens and resizes according the containing content. The rest of the screen grays out when a resource is open and it can be closed by either clicking the “close” hyperlink in the menu at the top of the hover over or by clicking anywhere in the gray area. The layout of the resource hover over is made up of a menu of hyperlinks at the top and bottom as well as content located in the middle. Controls to navigate the content is featured within the content itself and depend on the type the resource represents (eg. Play button within a video). The hyperlinks in the bottom menu allow for relay without having to drag and drop. These controls include adding the resource to a classroom calendar, directly forward a resource directly to the top of a classroom stack, and forwarding a resource to a colleague. In addition, controls here include the ability open the resource in a new tab, the ability to flag the content as inappropriate, and the ability to edit or delete the resource. Hyperlinks belonging to the menu at the top of the hover-over window include controls featuring information about the resource. These include a toggle to see usage and consumption statistics of the resource itself, a toggle to see who has viewed the resource and when they viewed it, a toggle listing the permissions set by the original author, a toggle listing all comments left from consuming users, a toggle featuring tags set by the original author, and a toggle featuring all the classrooms that the resource has been scheduled on. go to top