Sections Table
Relevant Topics
The Studia Nova Business Model is unique in the industry in that it encourages third parties to set up physical classroom locations for students to gather while Studia Nova, the private school of record, provides the virtual curriculum and record keeping. At these different locations, students can be any grade level and a single teacher can be trained to manage a mixed group of various grade levels. However, each location can be a separate client, and so it is essential that each location only see the student information pertaining to its own students.
In real life, Sections are a set of students taking a particular class. In a standard brick and mortar school, a sections are like the physical classroom. There may be multiple teachers teaching English 9 in a school, each with their own physical classroom number. There are no traditional sections in the PEMS universe since there is no needs to physically separate students into various classrooms. However, students from multiple learning locations can all be enrolled in the same Moodle Course, and only their own teacher should see their work. So PEMS uses the term groups to refer to a set of students assigned to a specific teacher. In Summary: 1) PEMS does not use the term sections. 2) Instead Moodle uses the term (virtual) groups.
Curriculum generally refers to the books and exercises used by the teacher to further the student's knowledge. In Moodle, the curriculum is a Moodle Course. Any class may be taught with multiple curriculum, or different text books, and so there are multiple Moodle courses that may be used to teach a Class.
The Teacher of Record is the 'official teacher' of the student for a specific class, or for multiple classes. Various regulatory agencies require the teach of record to be in possession of certifications and credentials. PEMS is designed for virtual schools and so all Teachers of Record are virtual teachers. The teacher of record is legally responsible to give the student their grades.
Where teachers are the qualified and certificated individuals that overlook many virtual students, PEMS allows proctors to supervise students and review their work in Moodle, helping to keep students on track. Proctors are not allowed any access to the SIS, but they are provided limited access to Moodle, and in this way, only see the work of their own group of students. Proctors may be volunteers working in a tutoring club setting, or may simple be a home school parent managing their own student's progress. A homeroom can have multiple proctors, but a proctors may only be assigned to one homeroom.
Where teachers are the qualified and certificated individuals that overlook many virtual students, PEMS allows proctors to supervise students and review their work in Moodle, helping to keep students on track. Proctors are not allowed any access to the SIS, but they are provided limited access to Moodle, and in this way, only see the work of their own group of students. Proctors may be volunteers working in a tutoring club setting, or may simple be a home school parent managing their own student's progress. A homeroom can have multiple proctors, but a proctors may only be assigned to one homeroom.
Sections Overview
Sections are used to manage two important aspects of a virtual school. In a virtual school, an unlimited number of students may take any online course at anytime. However, the teacher of records is still responsible to grade student work and assign final grades. To many students in a course can overwhelm any online teacher, especially as some organizations have a requirement for the student to have virtual, synchronous lessons or for the teacher to hold office hours.