Topic outline

  • General

    •  KICTCFT Competency

      The teacher can use appropriate tools to manage student and school records.

      Specific Objectives: On completion of this unit you will be able to:

      1. Discuss the benefits of managing students’ educational development
      2. Identify ways to monitor students' progress
      3. Select the most effective tool/system to use for managing record keeping

  • Information Management in Schools

    •  Recommended time: 30 minutes

    •  Sub-unit Competency

      In this sub-unit we will learn about Information Management and School Management Systems and how they can impact on school administration.

    •  Activity 1: Information Management Systems

      1. Study the introductory reading entitled, 'Introduction to Information Management' below.
      1. How can a school management system help support a school and class administration? Think of your school as a case study. Use the forum below to express your opinions and make sure you comment on your colleagues' posts.

  • Benefits of Management Information System for Educational Development

    •  Recommended time: 210 minutes

    •  Sub-unit Competency

      In this sub-unit we will discuss other advantages of management information systems, these benefits often considered 'intangible'.

    •  Activity 2: Intangible Benefits

      Study the introductory reading entitled, 'Intangible Benefits of Information Management' that outlines some additional benefits.

    •  Activity 3: Using OpenSIS to Generate Class Lists and Reports

      There are many companies competing for a slice of the pie in the Kenya school management system market! Some are propriety, others open but for the purposes of this unit we will investigate OpenSIS for no other reason than the community edition is free. They claim;

      "OpenSIS is a free student information system for public and non-public schools built by education professionals. OpenSIS is web-based, open source, and comes packed with features that include student demographic info, scheduling, grade book, attendance, report cards, eligibility, transcripts, parent portal, student portal and more."

      Let us put them to the test and see if we can insert some working data and extract some interesting information from this school management system. We are going to access an installation of OpenSIS installed on the KICTCFT server. As the whole class will be in the system be careful to log in using the correct login and password details.

      1. Access the KICTCFT OpenSIS installation using the link below.
      1. Use the OpenSIS username and password created during the Orientation Workshop so that you can access your School's records inside the KICTCFT Open SIS management system.
      2. Follow the video tutorials below and start adding in the required data.
      1. Make sure you have uploaded sufficient data into your OpenSIS platform. Then generate a MS Excel class list of one of your classes showing each student's details and the results from two tests.

    • Alternate OpenSIS Activity
      If you were unable to create your school instance inside the KICTCFT OpenSIS during the orientation, or you do not have a login and username, then use the online demo site below to investigate the platform. Unlike your own version of the program you will not be able to insert your own data but you can investigate a demonstration version that contains 'dummy' data.

      1. Navigate online to http://demo.openSIS.com
      2. Log in as Jennifer Lawrence, a teacher at Peach State High (Username: teacher, Password: teacher)
      3. See if you can access: 
        1. Her attendance register
        2. Her 12 tenth grade students
        3. The contact details for the student, Stella Dawson
        4. Her teaching timetable (schedule)
      4. Log out.
      5. Log in as the administrator (Username: admin, Password: admin)
      6. Investigate what additional functionality is available to the administrator.

    • Activity 4: Workable Solution?

      How can a school management system be of benefit to education stakeholders in your school?.Discuss using this chat forum.

    •  Portfolio Assignment: School Management System Recommendations

      1. After your experimentation do you think a School Management System at your school could deliver an advantage? Could it add value to your school's operations? ... or not! Write a 1 page motivation for either implementing a new system or upgrading the one you already have aimed at the senior management at your school. If you want to use the following structure:
        • Introduction (What is a School Management System?);
        • Potential benefits of using such a system;
        • Issues that need to be in place before the system would be useful;
        • Cost implications;
        • Conclusion (State your position clearly.
      2. Should you be against using a School Management System at your school write an argument explaining why you think it would not work in your context.
      3. Use the assignment upload tool below, entitled 'Portfolio Item #9: School Management System Recommendations', to submit your assignment.

  • Conclusion and Summary

    •  Facilitator's Feedback

      Once you have completed the readings, tutorials and assignments above access the facilitator's audio feedback file below to hear a summary of the salient points covered in this unit. Then test yourself in the self evaluation quiz.

  • Attribution

    • Open Education Resources

      The following Open Education Resource (OER) has been adapted to create this unit on School Record Keeping:

      1. Inoorero University. (2014). ICT Based Teaching and Information Management Certificate Course. Module 2 pp45-71.  - Available here

      Images have been adapted from:

      1. Ipapun. (2014). Devine Icons. Free for non commercial use - Available online here

      Software:

      1. OS4ED. (2015). OpenSIS Community Edition. Freeware - Available here

  • Credits and License

    • This unit was adapted from OER and developed further by Richard Sakari. The unit was revised by Charles Maina Mwangi and Andrew Moore.

      Creative Commons License

      All material in this Kenya ICT CFT Course unit is licensed by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology, Kenya under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. All content not licensed under a Creative Commons license is all rights reserved, and you must request permission from the copyright owner to use this material.

  • Pilot Feedback

    • The KICTCFT Course is in its pilot phase. Please provide feedback on your experience with this unit so to help us improving it.