Requirements

February 7, 2011

The Bookmark Brigadiers

Mackenzie Boyd

Justin Hill

Forrest Guice

Table of Contents

Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

Functional Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

Authentication and Authorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3

User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

White-listed Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

Non-Local Browser Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

URL Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

URL Notes, Tags, and Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Bibliography Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

Anti-Plagiarism Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Assignment / Notification System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

Performance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Authentication and Authorization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

User Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

White-list Browsing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Non-local Browser Profiles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

URL Library . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

URL Notes, Tags, and Comments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

Bibliography Generator . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

9Anti-Plagiarism Checker . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Assignment / Notification System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Other Requirements and Constraints . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

Project Plan and Milestones . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Introduction

Students today have access to the Internet and the plethora of information it has to offer. Unfortunately, the Internet also offers a lot that is useless in a school environment. Flash games, most YouTube videos, Facebook, to name a few of the more innocent distractions, all also exist. Within a school environment it is necessary to make sure students are very targeted when they use the Internet, because very easily, an hour can be used without anything accomplished towards a given assignment. Our application provides a solution to this difficulty of the breadth of the Internet by providing a limited list of available websites, all of which will contain educational, relevant content as vetted by a teacher. Another issue encountered is with sharing and saving websites. To facilitate simple and easy saving and sharing of websites, our application will provide a mechanism to save web pages along with notes, as well as share these bookmarks with other students. With this application we hope to create a educational tool which will enhance the efficiency and usefulness of the Internet, when used in the classroom by students.

Problem

School teachers for grades K-12 are frequently confronted with challenges associated with effectively using web resources as part of the educational process. Our client, Mr. Brad Budinger, is a school teacher for the Havasupai Tribe who desires an improved method of sharing the Internet with his students. While the learning environment at Havasupai is relatively small, with around half a dozen teachers and four computers per classroom, it is still difficult to effectively use computer and Internet resources to their potential. The school needs an educational software system that solves many diverse problems, making the use of the web as part of the regular curriculum a realistic option. Using the web to teach needs to be be easy.

Teachers often experience difficulty sharing web pages with students. They will typically resort to writing out URLs on a whiteboard, a slow process that is prone to error. It is also difficult to ensure that web access by students remains appropriate; a large majority of web content is not conducive to a safe and controlled learning environment. Teachers might try to patrol web access but constantly monitoring every student is not always possible or even desirable and so the Internet remains a potentially dangerous place in the classroom. Teachers need the ability to focus a student’s attention on specific resources, allowing good use of class time on the web.

It is difficult for students to use the web effectively toward their academic goals. Younger students have trouble using the increasingly sophisticated user interfaces of modern web-browsers. Students in the upper grade levels typically have trouble making effective use of the web for research purposes, especially when it comes to citing the source of material. Younger students would be helped by a simple, friendly, and approachable web-interface, and older students need a web-interface that makes collecting and using useful information a more manageable and less intimidating process.

Teachers have tried a variety of web solutions ranging from complex virtual classrooms to more easily utilized social bookmarking tools. Most simple tools must be used creatively to achieve teaching goals and are ultimately poorly suited for the intended activity. Teachers who want to share web pages and help their students perform research do not need a large virtual classroom suite, and their needs are not being met by current social bookmarking software.

A system designed specifically for allowing teachers to share web resources would simplify the teaching process and make learning using the Internet a less intimidating experience. A successful solution to this problem will affect the teachers, elementary, and upper grade levels at Havasupai. A successful solution will also be applicable to a wide-variety of school environments and might find a place in classrooms around the web.

Functional Requirements

Authentication and Authorization

This system need students and teachers to have accounts of their own to use. These accounts need to be able to be placed into groups of various structure. The accounts contain different information specific to the user that can be modified.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
1.0	User Authentication	Access to the system requires a valid user name and password.
1.1	Access Locations	The system can be accessed both locally (computer lab) and remotely (over the Internet).
1.2	Two-tiered Authorization	The system provides two-tiered authorization that includes student-level and teacher-level (administrative) access.
1.3	User Groups	User accounts can be added to groups, and groups can be added to other groups.
1.4	User/Group Configuration	Teachers are able to add, remove or modify the details of user accounts and groups using a graphical user interface.

User Interface

The user interface needs to be simple for use by various ages of students. There also needs to be differing functionality for students and teachers.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
2.0	Dual Interface	The system provides a user interface for students and an administrative interface for teachers.
2.1	Web Browser	The system provides a simplified web browser suitable for students in grade levels K-12.

White-listed Browsing

The white-list is a list of web URLs which the students are allowed to visit using the web browser. Only sites on this list will be accessible by the students. These sites would focus on material the students are learning and keep them from straying too far from the task at hand.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
3.0	URLs	The white-list contains valid URLs and URL prefixed plus wild cards.
3.1	Browsing	Students are restricted to browsing entries contained within the white-list.
3.2	Statistics	The system maintains statistics on pages accessed within the white-list.
3.3	Editing	Teachers are able to view / sort / modify the white-list and its options using a graphical user interface.
3.4	Disabling (Optional)	Teachers can disable white-listed browsing on a temporary basis. (Future Possibility)
3.5	Student Submission (Optional)	Students can submit URLs to be added to the white-list, if white-list browsing is disabled and the URL is not already listed. (Future Possibility)

Non-Local Browser Profiles

User profiles will have profiles that need to be stored in a remote location to be accessed from any location. The profiles will save history, bookmarks, notes, and comments for the specific user to be loaded again when they return to the system.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
4.0	Profile Loading	Browser profiles are loaded when the user logs in and unloaded when the user logs out of the system.
4.1	History	Browser history is immutable, individual to each user, and stored in a remote location.
4.2	Bookmarks	Bookmarks are individual to each user and stored in a remote location.
4.3	Notes / Comments	Data associated with each URL (notes and comments) are individual to each user and stored in a remote location.
4.4	Last Location (Optional)	The last-accessed location is individual to each user and stored in a remote location.

URL Library

The URL library is a subset of the larger white-list. There are a few different sub-libraries for various grade levels in order to focus students on sites that would benefit them most. These lists are also controlled by teachers of those grade levels.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
5.0	Bookmark Library	Students are able to view an immutable ‘bookmark library’ that displays URL and supporting information (name, description, etc). The ‘bookmark library’ is provided in addition to personal bookmarks.
5.1	Modifying / Viewing	Teachers are able to view and modify the ‘bookmark library’ using a graphical user interface.

URL Notes, Tags, and Comments

The URLs contained in the white-list may have notes associated with them. These notes can have descriptive tags which allow them to be grouped. These notes may also have comments submitted by other students if the note is shared, or comments submitted by teachers if the note is private.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
6.0	Adding Public and Private Notes	Students are able to add notes to the URLs they view while browsing through the white-list. Notes are specific to the URL and can be set public or private.
6.1	Students Viewing Private Notes	Students are able to view their notes by listing (full list, filtered list), by context (currently opened URL), or by given tag. Changing to a different note will change to the corresponding URL and vice versa.
6.2	Students Viewing Public Notes	Students are able to view other student’s public notes but can not view private notes.
6.3	Teachers Viewing Notes	Teachers are able to view both public and private notes.
6.4	Student Adding Comments	Students are able to add comments to public notes.
6.5	Teachers Adding Comments	Teachers are able to add comments to public and private notes.
6.6	Attaching Files	Students and teachers are able to attach files to URL notes or comments. (do teachers really need to be able to attach files to other students notes? do we really want file submission associated with comments, in addition to notes? allow a single file or many files?).
6.7	Removing Files	Students are able to remove attached files from their notes. Teachers are able to remove attached files from both public and private student notes (and comments (potentially remove this part of req)).
6.8	Tags (Student)	Students are able to associate multiple tags with their notes, allowing notes belonging to different URLs to be grouped.
6.9	Tags (Teacher)	Teachers are able to add, remove, and view available tags using a graphical user interface.

Bibliography Generator

The system will have a bibliography generator built into it. It will be easy for students to add web pages they are viewing to the bibliography. The bibliography is global so that there will be one bibliography at a time with all pages that have been added.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
7.0	Global Bibliography	Students are able to work on a single bibliography that is global to the web browsing environment.
7.1	Adding Entries	Students are able to add entries to the bibliography using the URL Library, their notes, personal bookmarks, or the currently displayed URL.
7.2	Removing Entries	Students are able to remove entries from the bibliography.
7.3	Publishing	Students are able to publish their bibliography to a plain-text format which can be copy-and-pasted into text documents.
7.4	Importing	Students are able to import entries into the bibliography from a plain-text format (previously published bibliographies).
7.5	Links to URL	Students are able to select bibliography entries and access the associated URL (including notes and comments).

Anti-Plagiarism Checker

An anti-plagiarism checker will be added to the system. This functionality will check a student’s document against the pages that are in their history to see if there are matches between any of the pages and the document submitted.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
8.0	Primary Source	Anti-plagiarism’s primary source is from the user’s browser history.
8.1	Student Note Checking	Students are able to check their notes and the files they attach to those notes for plagiarism against their browser history.
8.2	Teacher Note Checking	Teachers are able to check student notes and the files attached to those notes for plagiarism against the student’s browser history.
8.3	Teacher File Checking	Teachers are able to check local files for plagiarism against a specific student’s browser history.
8.4	Options	The plagiarism checker provides a variety of filter options including number of adjacent words, excluding quotations, etc.
8.5	Feedback Mechanism (Optional)	The plagiarism checker provides a feedback mechanism based on the degree of plagiarism (percentage-based or red, orange, yellow, and green readout).

Assignment / Notification System

The system will have simple functionality to send messages from teachers to students. These can vary between a static message on log in or a single message at anytime.

	Functionality	Customer Requirement
9.0	Message of the Day	Teachers are able to add a message of the day that will display to students when they log into the system.
9.1	Pop-up Messages	Teachers are able to send a message to an individual student or group of students. (for how long is the message displayed? one time, or it hangs around until after some expiration, or maybe there is list that contains the last n messages.. this also needs corresponding “students can view pop-up messages” req.)

Performance Requirements

Requirements for the usability and performance of the application.

Authentication and Authorization

1.0	Logging In	Logging in to the system will take at most 30 seconds after on training session.
1.0.1	Logging In	Logging in will take a user name with any combination of letters and numbers greater than 3 and a password with any combination of letters and numbers greater than 6..

User Interface

2.0

General use of most core functionality

Young users, the group we a most likely to have difficulty with, will be able to navigate the link library with one five minute lesson.

White-list Browsing

3.0

Modifying

Adding or removing a listing from the white-list will take less than a minute after two training sessions.

Non-local Browser Profiles

4.0

Modifying

Modifying an entry in a user’s profiles will take less than three minutes after two training sessions.

URL Library

5.0

Page Previews

Preview images of pages in the URL library will load in under 30 seconds.

URL Notes, Tags, and Comments

6.0	Saving	Any saved notes, tags, or comments will be displayed to the user and others, if applicable, in under a minute.
6.1	Loading	Loading any saved notes, tags, or comments will be done in under a minute.

Bibliography Generator

7.0	Export	Writing a bibliography to a plain-text format will take less than 30 seconds.
7.1	Import	Adding to a bibliography from a plain-text file will take less than 30 seconds.

Anti-Plagiarism Checker

8.0	Checking	A document will be checked for plagiarism in under two minutes.
8.1	Options	Users will be able to set up the options for what to check in the plagiarism checker in under a minute after two training sessions.

Assignment / Notification System

9.0	Sending	Sending an assignment or notification will take under a minute plus time taken to write the message.
9.1	Receiving	Recipients of the notification or assignment will receive the message in under two minutes.

Other Requirements and Constraints

We are relatively free in how we implement our system and don’t have any legal requirements bounding us. So long as our application fills the requirements laid out above, it can be implemented any way we want, so long as it runs on Windows.

● Our implementation must be for Windows systems

● The server available to use is a Windows system

● Our database will be running on a server with limited storage space, our database will need to manage itself such that it doesn’t overrun this space.

Project Plan and Milestones

For the sake of brevity, the dates which already exist in the Capstone schedule have be left out of this schedule, they are deliverable and presentations which are set in stone. That leaves only our projected dates for the development and deployment of our application.

● February 10th

Alpha prototype 1.0: working database, interaction between application and database, demonstration of white list capabilities.

● February 24th

Alpha prototype 1.5: Persistent user account, demonstrating log in, saving and retrieving information. Significant additions to UI, library is viewable.

● March 10th

Alpha prototype 2.0: Deliver prototype to client for feedback. Functionality not included: Plagiarism checker, limited sharing capabilities, GUI not in final iteration.

● March 24th

Beta prototype: Fully featured, all requirements implemented, ready for usability testing

● March 28th

Begin usability testing, location, testers unknown.

● April 14th

Final iteration of revision, installer implemented for simple installing.

● April 19th

Deployment

February

		1	2	3	4	5
6	7	8	9	10 Alpha 1.0	11	12
13	14	15	16	17	18	19
20	21	22	23	24 Alpha 1.5	25	26
27	28

March

		1	2	3	4	5
s6	7	8	9	10 Alpha 2.0	11	12
13	14	15	16	1	7	18
19	20	21	22	23 Beta	24	25
26	27 Usability testing	28	29	30	31

April

					1	2
3	4	5	6	7	8	9
10	11	12	13	14 Final Revisions	15	16
17	18	19 Deployment	20	21	22	23
24	25	26	27	28	29	30