Introduction:

New School Interactive (NSI) is a data driven web based application based on SIRS and created by youreDATA for the New School of Northern Virginia. NSI will be used for student, class, teacher, and registration information management. It will streamline the registration process by utilizing advanced web based application designs and simplify the access and manipulation of any information used for The New School's day to day operations.


Technology Used:

The system utilizes open source software and scripting languages. Postgresql is the database used and PHP is used as the server-side scripting language (similar to Microsoft's Active Server Pages or Allaire's Cold Fusion). The web and database servers are administered locally by The New School's Technology Director. All data is stored on the New School's server in a Postgresql database. PHP is used to translate the data from the Postgresql database into HTML that can be viewed, modified, and so forth from any web browser capable computer. This allows The New School to utilize otherwise limited use hardware and make platform incompatibilities (Mac, PC, or Linux) a thing of the past.


Registration Functionality:

The registration process will consist of a class registration form that will automatically display all the available classes organized by modules. If a class is full, then it will not appear to be selected. Once the classes are posted, they are inserted into a table under the student username and year of registration. After submitting the registration information, a printable html class schedule for the student will be created. Or to save trees, students may access their schedules online.


Additional Functionality:

There is a lot more functionality besides the registration capabilities:

1. An online course catalog is automatically generated on the fly by a PHP script based on the class information in The New School's database.
   
   
2. Each faculty member has their very own page to access information on their classes and to communicate with their students via a customized version of youreDATA's web based calendar application.
   
   
3. Students will also have their own page and it will include their class schedule, youreDATA's web based calendar applicationand links to their classes (and they will be able to post their ownevents).
   
   
4. The individual faculty pages will allow teachers to automatically post homework assignments and announcements to the individual student page of each student in that class or for a specific student, all via the class calendar. This gives parents the ability to check up on their children online!
   
   
5. Additional functionality or modification may be easily added in the future...