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General features
Here the features are described in ggeneral. See also the list of
features for all Modules
- Site@School comes with a comprehensive manual with over 290
screenshots, describing every operation in detail. The manual can be
installed in S@S, enabling easy consulting while you are working.
- Managing S@S is extremely easy. Within an hour you know the basic
operations. A guided tour is available in the manual.
- Simple installation. We tried to make the installation as easy as
possible by supplying a GUI (Graphical User Interface). All available
modules are installed. In the GUI you fill in some text boxes and you
have
the choice of:
1. Installation with demonstration
data: This means all modules are functional. A test teacher and
a
test pupil are in the system and 'everything' is functioning. The demo
installation is useful to see a lot of the possiblilities of S@S. 2.
Basic installation: Here you have to do everything
yourself. Ideal when you build your site from scratch or start with your
own template. Whatever you choose, you do not have to edit complex
configuration files. And if this is still too complicated, help is
available. The installation is done only once and help can be found in
Linux and Windows newsgroups or local user groups and, when you take our
limited time in consideration, sometimes with us at our S@S4US Forum.
- S@S is Open Source Software licensed under the General Public
License.
- S@S is LAMP and WAMP compatible. It runs under Linux with Apache,
MySQL and PHP and also under Windows with the same software. S@S also
runs
on Windows 2003 server with IIS 6.0, PHP 4.3.1., Mysql 3.23.49.
- S@S runs fine on old hardware. We use the system with Linux on
servers of 133 - 200 Mhz and 64 Mb RAM for schools of 2-300 pupils.
- S@S code, variable names, etc. and comments in the code
are in English. This makes further development in other countries
possible
and easy. We assume that most people who write code in PHP know English.
- S@S can be coupled to an existing website-design. For the
coupling
of our CMS to your site you must have a fair knowledge of HTML and know
how
to integrate PHP code into HTML. The standard template is your example.
However, we might be able to help you when you take our limited time in
consideration. See the 'Creating
templates' chapter of the manual. In case of problems, use the S@S4US Forum.
- A S@S site can be easily reorganized, i.e. change locations of
sections and pages.
- S@S is multi-lingual with an easy user interface. This feature
enables translatiing S@S 'on the fly'. Adapting linguistic elements of
S@S
to your school habits is simple. All textual elements in S@S are in
separate language files thant can be translated via a translte interface.
- S@S is modular: When a school needs a facility (a chat, a
newsletter, etc) you have the choice to add functionality of a module to
your schoolsite. The modular design makes future modules easy to develop
and integrate into your CMS.
- S@S is managed via your browser, and can be managed everywhere
when an Internet connection and a browser are available.
- A 'Tips &
Tricks' section. Here you find useful modifications to further
customize your S@S with very simple means. This section is continually
expanded by the users of S@S.
- Easy backup facilities: With a few mouseclicks you can make a
local backup of your MySQL database. This feature is extremely useful for
safety, because you have a local copy of your database. And it's also
very
useful when you migrate your schoolsite, for example to another ISP.
- Extensive E-mail alterts functionality throughout the site and in
the modules. For site maintainers and and visitors interested in a
particular item this means: notifications by E-mail when something
changes
on the site. This feature also greatly reduces management time.
- When users (teacher, pupils or other users) login to S@S a PHP
session is used, for this reason cookies must be accepted on their client
PC's.
- Pupils can publish their personal pages. The total number of
pages
a pupil can have is 99. When a pupil makes or modifies her/his personal
page an e-mail message is sent to the teacher. The teacher can check the
page and approve, disaprove, delete, or make the page visible.This
feature
can be enabled/disabled for every individual pupil.
- Projects. A group of pupils can have a project with pages that
are
accessible and editable by all group members. When a page, in use by a
group member, is accessed by another member, a warning message is given.
When the page is 'released', another group member can edit that page. In
conjunction with the chat, collaborative, or project based learning
becomes available.
- A teacher does not need to enter the Site@School Managemant
system
to manage the pupils pages of her/his group. This makes managing pupils
pages by teachers a simple job done in minutes. Multiple teachers can
manage a class. Adding pupils to a class can also be performed from the
site.
- Teachers can also have their own webpages, together with the
class
and/or together with other teachers.
- An intranet for teachers. This is the 'Protected Area' in
Site@School, where only teachers have access to. The Protected Area can
have its own theme (site design). Giving the 'Protected area' a different
design prevents errors like putting 'teachers only' material on the
publicly accessible part of the schoolsite.
- Easy management of classes: it's possible to move all pupils in a
class to a new year.
- The possibility to couple teachers and pupils to modules. This
feature is used for example in the Forum module where teachers and pupils
have a closed forum that's password protected and not accessible to the
public. The general forums are public-access. This feature can also be
used in the development of future modules.
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