We are excited to announce the launch of Project Buzz!
When school shutdowns went into effect across the country as a result of COVID-19, much of the information teachers need to support students in the new online-school model had become fragmented across multiple surveys and the Student Information System.
A group of Ed-Fi Community members quickly organized into a problem-solving, action-oriented group called Fix-It-Fridays, read all about that here. Once the group identified this issue, we went to work right away building a tool to solve it.
Project Buzz is a mobile tool that puts roster, contact information, and student survey results into the hands of teachers, just in time for back-to-school preparations.
Get it here https://github.com/Ed-Fi-Exchange-OSS/EdFi-Project-Buzz
School districts have been polling and surveying families to determine if students have access to devices, high-quality internet service, how they would like to start the school year, what families think about a hybrid approach to school, are families feeling supported with meals, and other services. There are a myriad of data points spread across a number of systems and survey tools, that are helping school districts make data-driven decisions and this information has never been more important as we grapple with the uncertainties of COVID-19 and its impact on students and learning.
Not surprisingly, teachers are on the front lines for collecting this data, with phone calls and even house visits. Teachers work tirelessly to support their students, which is why our community identified this issue and created Project Buzz to solve it.
Project Buzz can incorporate any survey topic like:
technology and internet availability,
wellness and participation, and
preparation for school openings.
The tool provides an educator with three views into their student’s data:
- Rostering. This shows teachers all their students along with contact information like school email, primary guardian contact information, and contact notes, and can be filtered by class or student name.
- Student Detail. This view contains an expanded contact section containing siblings and other guardians. The student detail view also shows teachers how their students answered each survey.
- Survey Results. This allows teachers to look into a survey and see how their students responded. The survey viewer provides a quick summary of the results and an easy navigation to the individual student’s responses.
Project Buzz also provides a way for teachers to add notes/feedback on their students. This functionality provides an important way for teachers to include commentary and updates in conjunction with the contact information and student responses they are already working with. The note function can flag outdated survey information or add additional insight into how to reach the student.
This tool (like the entire Ed-Fi Technology Suite) is free and open to use by anyone. It is available under the Apache 2.0 license. Get the code here https://github.com/Ed-Fi-Exchange-OSS/EdFi-Project-Buzz
Join us tomorrow, Friday, July 10 at 10am CT for a Live Demo of Project Buzz with instructions on how to start using the tool!
