We love digital tools that make life easier for students – and if we find something new, we hurry to tell you ASAP because sharing is caring. Yet today, we have something different. Meet Open School – a digital toolkit embodying the idea that education is a teamwork of students, teachers, and parents towards a common goal – not a tug of war.
As a rule, we side with you, the students. Still, this time we would like to shine a spotlight on education in all its complexity of planning, tracking, and administration. Perhaps, this will give you some idea of why deadlines are important and why your instructors demand punctuality. Spoiler: not because they want to be mean, but because it is tough on them as well. Luckily, things like Open School exist to rectify the situation on both ends.
What is Open School?
Open School is a comprehensive school management system serving administrators, teachers, parents, and students by uniting them into a close-knit community. Open School creates an ecosystem where information flows freely for better education and organized life. It eliminates the divides, promotes better understanding, and helps to agree on and meet expectations.
Open School is multifaceted and versatile. It comprises apps, control panels, calendars, databases, and task managers. Yet, it functions as a whole, seamlessly taking care of all the aspects of learning, teaching, and supervising.
For students
Open School helps you organize your studying: from timetables to book return dates to room and board. Here are just some of the features you will love:
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Online learning
Stay on top of the curriculum without hassle with online access to course materials. Revise for tests and exams with video, audio, images, and cliff notes. Train with automatically graded quizzes and receive immediate feedback on your responses. Catch up after sick leave and cope with challenging assignments with essay writing service and tutorials.
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Assignment management
No more forgetting about that lab report that was due Tuesday. The app will remind you about unchecked tasks when the deadline is approaching. Keep all your assignments with hand-in dates where you can always see them.
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Time management
Your timetables, holidays, and transportation schedules are in one place. The busing feature includes desired stops on the route, pick-up and drop-off times that you can reserve to be sure there will always be a place for you.
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Residence management
For college students, there is a customized campus map, dorm application based on residence preferences, easy payment, late fee management, etc.
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Keeping in touch
Stay connected even after graduation and remain a part of the community. Stay updated on school news, and participate in your school's events, reunions, and fundraisers.
For parents
Open School works for colleges and for K12 alike. As a parent of a school kid, you will appreciate the following:
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Progress tracking
No more report cards that were supposedly eaten by a dog or missing homework assignments. Know where your child is in their learning journey. See the list of classes, curricula, and program requirements. Make sure your kid stays on top of school work with access to grades and assignment plans.
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Attendance tracking
Keep tabs on your child's attendance and commitments, request sick days remotely, sign permission slips, volunteer for events, manage their schedule, extracurriculars, commute, etc.
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Health tracking
Insurance data, immunization records, health care providers' details, emergency contacts, scheduled and unscheduled nurse visits, medication dispensation – everything is kept safely in one place with strictly private access to sensitive information.
For teachers
Open School takes the load of routine tasks off your shoulders and gives you powerful tools to make learning more engaging for your students.
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Goal setting and progress tracking
Set performance objectives based on national and state educational standards, your own vision and values, and goals you've formulated together with the parents. Map those goals to courses, set milestones, and track the progress of your class and each individual student.
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Communication with parents
Send comments to parents, notify them of any discipline and attendance issues, congratulate them on successes, explain the curriculum, and specify the assignment's weight towards the final grade – all with a click of a button.
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Easy assignment and grading
Create and assign individual and group tasks online, track the progress, explain instructions in detail via blogs and get feedback from students on discussion boards. Outline grading methods; create rubrics and scales: numeric, letter, or codes and symbols.
For administrators
School officers will find managing their many responsibilities easy with a high level of automation and built-in templates for daily tasks like report card generation, creating conflict-free schedules, etc.
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Application management
Application process enabled via the school's website makes it easy for you to review and accept candidates, attach notes with additional info gathered from interviews, keep a bird-eye view of the student body, register students for clubs, competitions, and other events, keep in touch with alumni, etc.
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Financial management
Employee payroll, tuition fees, budget management, purchases, stock, and inventory are easily accessible in your online dashboard.
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Academic management
Create timetables and lesson plans, assign teachers to classes, view attendance and examination scores, and track academic progress – individual and overall statistics. Create, store, and organize test and exam questions by subject area, topic, keywords, and descriptions. Cross-reference and analyze data based on grade, particular students, section, question, etc.
This is just the tip of the iceberg! Email, instant messages, discussion boards, and blogs create an ecosystem where the school community exchanges ideas and solves problems together. User-friendly interface, privacy setting, moderator authority – Open School communication tools come with all the bells and whistles one expects from a modern platform.
We only endorse things we believe bring value to students and the educator community, and we absolutely recommend Open School. If your college hasn't adopted an online administration system yet, get in touch with the officials and drop a hint!
