Lab 1 – littleLEARNERS Product Description

LAB 1 – LITTLELEARNERS PRODUCT DESCRIPTION 1

Lab 1 – littleLEARNERS Product Description

Markeil Blow

Old Dominion University

CS 411W

Professor Janet Brunelle

7 March 2021

Version 2


Table of Contents

1 Introduction .................................................................................................................................. 4

2 littleLEARNERS Product Description ....................................................................................... 5

2.1 Key Product Features and Capabilities ................................................................................. 6

2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software) ............................................................................. 8

3 Identification of Case Study ......................................................................................................... 9

4 Product Prototype Description ................................................................................................... 10

4.1 Prototype Architecture ........................................................................................................ 11

4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities .................................................................................... 12

4.3 Prototype Development Challenges .................................................................................... 15

5 Glossary ..................................................................................................................................... 15

6 References ................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

List of Figures

Figure 1: littleLEARNERS Major Functional Component Diagram ............................................. 8

Figure 2: littleLEARNERS Prototype Major Functional Component Diagram ........................... 12

List of Tables

Table 1: Mock Family Table ......................................................................................................... 10


Table 2: littleLEARNERS Real World Product vs Prototype Features ........................................ 13


1 Introduction

COVID-19 first arose in the fall of 2019 with the first domestic American case officially

detected in January of 2020 (Harcourt et al., 2020). By March of the same year, the virus had

spread to much of the rest of the United States of America. The United States entered into a

lockdown in March of 2020, with many aspects of everyday life closing to the public including

stores, restaurants, and most importantly, schools to limit the spread of the disease(Black et al.,

2020). This immediately shifted nearly all school divisions to an online format regardless of

whether the divisions had any existing infrastructures that could handle full-scale virtual

learning. Many did not and still do not. Virtual learning is designed to serve as a substitute for

traditional learning, but the systems in place are unable to handle simple feats such as tracking

attendance (Gould, 2020). For K-5 students, parents serve as a large source of assistance in the

physical absence of a teacher. However, with many schools yet to return to in-person learning,

many students suffer from the lack of an available parent. School divisions have yet to offer an

efficient solution to this problem that plagues many students (Heggeness et al., 2020).

When the effects of the pandemic forced school divisions to move to an online format,

the benefits that students, especially younger students with low digital literacy levels, received

from physically being in a classroom vanished (A day in the life of online students, 2020). The

shift entailed utilizing and relying on resources such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams for most

instruction. Communication between students and sources of help, such as a teacher or aide, is no

longer direct, which is essentially the basis for learning. The responsibility now falls on parents

with many unable to fulfill it due to their own busy lives (Black et al., 2020). With students using

so many different learning platforms, navigating between them often causes confusion and a loss

of learning time. Navigating online learning also comes with the common issues of being online


such as being given incorrect or broken links. Furthermore, with teachers using learning

platforms, most students do not have their daily agenda or schedule in a single, central place. All

of this greatly lowers a student’s performance levels from what it was in the physical learning

environment (Pianta et al., 2008). With the pandemic still ongoing, and no foreseeable end to

virtual learning, each of these problems needs to be addressed in order to lessen the negative

effects that shifting to online learning have caused.

A single comprehensive tool is needed to assist students with virtual learning so that the

gap between learning in the virtual classroom and the traditional classroom narrows. A tool that

provides a solution to the muddiness of online learning’s communication and navigation,

especially, is vital. Otherwise, younger students will continue to suffer from the effects of

unanswered questions and time lost to navigational issues. Additionally, a tool that addresses

students’ low performance in the virtual classroom would prevent students from falling behind

during the pandemic and any other situation that would require a move to virtual learning.

Lastly, students need a tool that will provide an accurate schedule as well as help them traverse

through the different learning platforms that their schedule takes them through. Else, potential

learning time will be loss while students try to move around. A comprehensive tool such as

littleLEARNERS would address all of these problems.

2 littleLEARNERS Product Description

littleLEARNERS is designed to address the primary issues that the COVID-19 pandemic

has brought to the education system—specifically in the K-5 area. The software is intended to

handle the trickiness of navigating between numerous learning resources and tools for students.

It is also intended to streamline the communication process when a student is in need of

assistance. littleLEARNERS makes it easier for a student to find the details of their schedule as


well as promotes involvement for busy parents. The main objective of littleLEARNERS is to

successfully meet these goals in order to increase student performance in virtual classrooms to a

level similar to that in traditional classrooms.

2.1 Key Product Features and Capabilities

littleLEARNERS is different from other tools and resources that school divisions are

using for two primary reasons. One is that it is solely intended to serve as an assistant to students

that can be used alongside other tools. The other, and most important, is that littleLEARNERS is

designed to auto navigate through a suite of tools based on a pre-defined scheduling and syncing

system. To do this as well as to address each of the primary issues presented by virtual learning,

littleLEARNERS has a specific feature that corresponds to each issue.

The first two features are the Hallway and the Agenda. The Hallway presents students

with their schedule in a visually appealing format. The feature appears as a physical hallway with

a different class on each door—the same as in a physical school building. Each door represents

one of the student’s classes in time-ascending order. The Hallway is primarily intended to help

with the issue of navigation as a student only needs to click the correct door in order to be

automatically taken to the correct class site. Students and parents can also toggle between the

hallway view and a more traditional view that lays their schedule out in a text-based format

which is the Agenda. A common issue that has risen is that teachers often have to send out

schedule updates last-minute. For K-5 students, these updates are often sent to their parents. Both

the Hallway and the Agenda are intended to provide students with their most current schedule as

parents are responsible for maintaining their student’s schedule in the application.

The next is the littleAssistant that is similar to Microsoft Office’s Office Assistant, or

Clippit. The littleAssistant is a graphically, kid-friendly avatar design to help students feel more


comfortable. The littleAssistant is intended to serve in a manner similar to a teacher’s aide.

Throughout a student’s school day, the littleAssistant provides prompts to the student regarding

class changes, lack of activity, and navigational issues that may arise. The littleAssistant is

primarily intended to use these prompt to ensure students are in the right place as using different

tools can cause students to become lost. Through all these sub-features, the littleAssistant is

intended to serve as a source of refocus and guidance.

Another key feature are easy buttons, which perform a common action with a single

click. The Raise Your Hand! feature allows a student to request help from parents of their

classmates who use the application and its message board feature. The student’s request is sent to

these parents rather than their own parents because another parent may already have the answer

or be available sooner than their own. The other easy button, Go to Class!, automatically

navigates to the class site a student should be at according to the schedule provided to the

application. To access the Raise Your Hand! or Go to Class! buttons, a student must click the

corresponding button that is located on their screen in a panel specifically for easy buttons.

The last feature is the accompanying mobile application. The mobile application is

intended to allow busy parents to continue to monitor and participate in their student’s school

day. The mobile application provides the ability to check a student’s activity, communicate with

a student, and to communicate with other parents who also use the application and have students

in the same classes. The mobile application is designed to alleviate the negative effects of parents

having other responsibilities that take away from their time to help their students throughout a

day.


2.2 Major Components (Hardware/Software)

The basic features of littleLEARNERS can be accessed with an internet connection and a

computer device. Figure 1 shows how these computer devices and the users of littleLEARNERS

interact when using the application.

Figure 1

littleLEARNERS Major Functional Component Diagram

The major components of littleLEARNERS run on hardware-based and software-based

tools. A remote database as well as instances of Amazon Comprehend and PyAutoGUI allow for

schedule data to be input and analyzed in order to utilize macros, which are a primary part of the

navigation assistant aspect of littleLEARNERS. Those components also support the

littleAssistant, which uses the data to provide prompts to students. A student uses their physical

computer to use features such as Raise Your Hand! to contact their parent on their device for

help. This feature in particular relies on software applications such as OpenTok, a video

conferencing software. A student and their parent are able to interact using a combination of


components that handle the more technical aspects of littleLEARNERS such as Amazon Web

Services and WebRTC.

Each component of littleLEARNERS is implemented using different tools. The desktop

application relies on Python and PyQt; and, the mobile application relies on JavaScript and React

Native. Although the two components rely on different tools, littleLEARNERS can be run on

Windows, macOS, Android, and iOS devices. As these are the most prevalent operating systems,

this gives most students the capability to use littleLEARNERS.

3 Identification of Case Study

littleLEARNERS was envisioned with the intention of being used by elementary

students and parents who struggle with digital literacy. Students of other ages may also benefit

from the use of littleLEARNERS—especially those who partake in some form of virtual

learning. Even students who have average or above average digital literacy skill levels may enjoy

the organization the application presents and the time it saves on navigation. It can also continue

to be used if and when students return to in-person learning as new digital elements continue to

be incorporated into the school day. For both the prototype and real world product,

littleLEARNERS aims to help those students and parents who struggle with digital literacy to

navigate through the world of virtual learning.

[This space intentionally left blank]


Table 1

littleLEARNERS Mock Family Table

Name User Role

Description

Karen Smith

Parent • Karen is a parent who does her work from home • She wants to be involved and help her child with school • Because of work, she does not have time during the day to

help as much as she would like • She is friends with John Doe

Timmy Smith

Student • Timmy is Karen’s son • He is a first-grade student attending class from home • He has three different classes he must attend every weekday • He has an average reading level for his grade • He has trouble navigating the various online spaces needed

for class • He has trouble adhering to his schedule and is often late to

class

John Doe Parent • John works outside of the home • John is friends with Karen

Erin Doe Student • Erin is John’s son • He is in first grade and attends the same classes as Timmy • He has a below-average reading level for his grade • He also has trouble navigating online spaces • He has trouble adhering to his schedule • During the instructional day, Erin is in childcare where direct

help is sporadic

The littleLEARNERS prototype’s case study will be centered around two families. Both

families include a single, working parent and a single child. Both the similarities and differences

between the two students are important. The two students struggle similarly with navigating

between classes and adhering to their daily schedule. They also share classes which means that

one parent has the ability to potentially provide assistance to both students when the Raise Your

Hand button is used. However, one student has a more constant source of help in a parent who,

although busy, works from home while the other receives more sporadic help while in childcare


as their parent works outside the home. These two families are the prime customers for

littleLEARNERS.

4 Product Prototype Description

The prototype of littleLEARNERS essentially includes all of the features of the real-

world product barring those that center solely around an enhanced experience. Features such as

the easy buttons and schedule manipulation are present and fully functional in the prototype.

Other features including those that rely on macros are present but are not fully functional as they

rely upon test data, which may not cover issues that could potentially arise when using live data.

However, the features of the real-world product that are included in the prototype of

littleLEARNERS all address the primary issues that virtual learning presents to students and

parents.

4.1 Prototype Architecture

The prototype of littleLEARNERS functions similarly to the real world product but at a

scaled-back level. The MFCD of the prototype differs from the MFCD of the real-world product

in that the students have been replaced with case study participants and that Amazon

Comprehend and its ability to scan documents are not being used.



Figure 1

littleLEARNERS Prototype Major Functional Component Diagram

Although some features of the real-world product will not be included in the prototype of

littleLEARNERS, the prototype will incorporate enough features to determine its success of

meeting the set goals and objectives.

4.2 Prototype Features and Capabilities

The prototype for littleLEARNERS will have slight differences from the real-world

design in that some features will be fully functional while others will be partially or even

completely non-functional. Table 2 lists these differences.



Table 2

littleLEARNERS RWP v. Prototype Table


The features that are fully functional in the littleLEARNERS prototype do not rely on

whether data is test data or live data. A feature such as the Raise Your Hand easy button does not

rely on schedule data or other user data. On the other hand, the prototype is able to display a

student’s schedule for the day but the feature is only partially functional as it relies on schedule

data. Features such as displaying a student’s schedule for the entire week are not functional as

they enhance the basic functionality of the application; but, their exclusion does not hamper its

performance. Additionally, mock features such as the mock schedule and classroom are present

in the prototype and not the real-world product as all testing will be finished when the real-world

product is live.

The prototype of littleLEARNERS minimizes certain risks associated with the program.

The program periodically asks the parent for schedule updates which minimizes the risk that a

student is given an incorrect schedule item. The risk of a student missing a class, an activity, or a

prompt from the littleAssistant is minimized by the parent feedback feature. This feature


provides the parent with a history of their student’s activity, which will allow the parent to

address issues such as their student missing a class.

4.3 Prototype Development Challenges

The primary challenge that the littleLEARNERS will face while developing the prototype

will be the lack of actual data and the lack of students and parents. The lack of actual student

schedules will prevent the application from mimicking the schedule-related issues that may occur

such as expired links, moved assignments, or updates made by teachers. The lack of students and

parents will limit littleLEARNERS as the users may bring real-world situations that the use of

test data may not be able to mimic.


5 Glossary

About screen: a GUI screen that provides information about littleLEARNERS as well as an

email to contact technical support.

Administrator: a member of the littleLEARNERS development team.

Amazon Comprehend: a natural language processing (NLP) service used to extract the

student’s schedule information from a document.

AWS (Amazon Web Services): Amazon’s complete cloud computing platform that provides

remote computing power and storage options.

Amazon RDS (Relational Database System): Amazon’s cloud relational database system.

Asynchronous activity: assignments to be completed by the student without the virtual presence

of an educator.

Broken Link: an Easy Button that allows the student to report a link that is broken with a single

click. The parent is immediately informed of the problem allowing for remote correction.

Caregiver: an adult other than the parent who is responsible for the supervision of a student.

Connector/Python: a Python extension for MySQL database connections.

Data management: collection, storage, and dissemination of information.

Docker: an open-source project for automating the deployment of applications as portable, self-

sufficient containers that can run on the cloud or on-premises.

Easy Button: a button that can be clicked to automatically carry out a set of tasks.

Firebase: a cloud database system used for remote storage of application information for mobile

applications.

Git: a version control system used to coordinate work and track changes throughout the

development of littleLEARNERS.


Go to Class: an Easy Button which facilitates immediate navigation to a scheduled class which

is already in session

GUI (Graphical User Interface): the visual interface users interact with to input and receive

information.

Help system: the system used by a child user to notify and receive assistance from a parent or

designated parent

Hallway: littleLEARNERS interface that provides access to the student’s schedule information.

IDE (Integrated Development Environment): an application that provides a complete set of

development tools in a single convenient environment.

LMS (Learning Management System): software that is designed specifically to create,

distribute, and manage the delivery of educational content either in a stand-alone product or via

the internet.

littleAssistant: littleLEARNERS desktop avatar that is designed to appeal to elementary aged

children whose purpose is to present navigation links and schedule reminder prompts.

Java: a high-level programming language used to create stand-alone, handheld, and web

applications.

K-5: elementary school students from kindergarten to fifth grade.

Macro: a single instruction that expands automatically into a set of instructions to perform a

particular task.

Message Board: a discussion board for parents to share information regarding their children’s

schedule and navigation data.

MySQL: a database management system that manages the creation and maintenance of

information within an application.


Navigation: as it pertains to the internet, destinations include Zoom meetings and asynchronous

assignments.

OpenTok: online video conferencing software.

Parental Feedback: real-time notification and logging system to a child’s navigational history

and alert the parent when navigation fails.

PyAutoGUI: a third-party library that allows Python scripts to control mouse and keyboard

input. It is used to automatically carry out web navigation.

PyQt: a Python binding of the cross-platform GUI(graphical user interface) toolkit Qt,

implemented as a Python plug-in.

Python: an interpreted programming language used to create stand-alone, handheld, and web

applications.

Raise Hand: littleLEARNERS help system that facilitates transmission of help request and

response messages between students and parents.

React Native framework: an open-source application that is used to easily develop cross-

platform mobile applications.

Schedule: a listing of daily virtual class times.

SQLite: database management system for mobile devices to work with React Native framework.

Synchronous learning: instruction and activities completed by the student with the virtual

presence of an educator.

Tkinter: a Python binding to the Tk GUI toolkit. It is the standard Python interface to the Tk

GUI toolkit and is Python’s de facto standard GUI.

Virtual Machine: a program that runs a second isolated operating system as if it were a separate

computing system.


Visual Studio: an integrated development environment (IDE) from Microsoft. It is used to

develop computer programs as well as websites, web apps, web services, and mobile apps.

WebRTC: an open framework for the web that enables real-time Communications (RTC)

capabilities in the browser.


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Documents

Lab 1 – littleLEARNERS Product Description