ecourse.org provides premium web application services to students and instructors for them to conduct classes onsite or online. If you are a student, click here to see how ecourse.org may enrich your learning experience.  If you an instructor, check out what ecourse.org can re-engineer your teaching process.

1. ecourse.org can be used to track your up-to-date academic performance including itemized grades, verbal comments, and overall grade and performance index that are automatically calculated based the criteria set by your instructor. You can also compare your current standing with that of the whole class;

2. Instead of using floppy disks or public FTP folders, you can use ecourse.org to submit and track homework submissions. Your submission will be automatically stamped LATE if it is overdue.  Note that you can check the due dates for all assignments any time.  Your submission is accessible to your instructor and yourself but nobody else. If you have ever lost your original copy, you can download the submitted copy back.

3. You can use ecourse.org to view, download, or print any course materials uploaded by your professor. If another class gives you permission (see ecourse.org for Instructors below), you can also access their shared materials;

4. Instead of orally reporting attendance or signing paper attendance sheets, you can report attendance using ecourse.org. Of course, if the computer is not available during the class period, the instructor can still use the traditional ways to check attendance manually and enter attendance data into ecourse.org later.

5. You can use ecourse.org to send context dependent email to your instructor. Different from a regular message, the message sent using ecourse.org contains additional information to identify the message and yourself such as message category, your name, your performance records, and your attendance records. This feature reduce the load of the information research on your instructor and allows her to quickly understand your needs, your requests, or your questions.

6. Instead of reporting personal data such as email address and phone number to your instructor for each class you attend, you just need to create one account and then sign up all the classes you have registered with the university. Your public data such as address, student ID, and major stored in the ecourse.org database will be shared with all your instructors automatically. Note that your private data such as password and birth date are not accessible by your instructor.

7. You can use your profile with ecourse.org to build an online resume. You can choose whether or not to publish the resume to potential employers.

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1. ecourse.org allows you to set up a new class and then �relax� forever. There is no need to collect student contact data and then enter them into your address books. There is no need to update web pages because of new material posting. There is no need to manually check attendance and then frequently count the number of missing. There is no need to calculate student grades and then hide student identities to post them in the hallway or on the Internet.

2. Setting up a new class is clicks away. The whole process should not take more than 2 minutes. The only data you need to enter into the system is how to map numerical points to letter grades and how you credit attendances. The system even implemented an advanced copy-and-paste technology that allows you to copy the setting of a previous class. The data to be copied include the data on grades mapping and attendance handling.

3. ecourse.org uses advanced database technology to handle your course materials. The materials you posted for the class is only accessible to the students who take the class but nobody else. Each item uploaded will automatically show on the page for students to download or view.  When you upload an item, you can even choose whether or not to inform the students about the uploaded item using email.  Best of all, you can �teach� your classes while you are on vacation.

4. ecourse.org uses the same technology to handle student submissions. Students do not have to come to your office and turn in their homework in person. When students upload their file onto ecourse.org system, they can see them immediately on the web. The files are grouped by students and by assignments. You do not have to scan a long list of all submitted file to locate a particular one like what you would do if using public FTP folder. The files are stamped LATE if it is submitted after the due time. 

5. For best performance, ecourse.org stores data about course materials and student submissions in the central database while storing the actual files on file servers that are close to the students and professors.

6. As its basic function, ecourse.org allows you to enter and update assignment list, collect submissions for each assignment, and then enter grades into the system. The beautiful part of this function is that all the processes are integrated. When you enter a new grade, both students and yourself get an updated performance report immediately.

7. ecourse.org supports the three most commonly used formulas to calculate final grades:
   • a% (HOMEWORK) + b% (EXAM) + c% (PROJECT) + .... (leave out zero or more percentages for attendance)
   • a% (Homework 1) + b% (Homework 2) + c% (Test 1) + .... (leave out zero or more percentages for attendance)
   • a points (homework 1) + b points (Homework 2) + c points (Test 1) + .... (leave out zero or more points for attendance)

   Of course, you can specify which assignment category (such as EXAM, HOMEWORK, etc) and which assignment items (such Homework 1, Test 3, etc) to be used in your class. You can specify how many percents or points (the above parameters a, b, c, ...) that each category or item has.

8. If you are teaching multiple sections of the same course, or you coordinate multiple sections taught by different people, or you and your colleagues co-teach one section, ecourse.org allows you to share data and course materials with each other. For example students in another section can access your course materials if you give them permission to do so. For another example, your TA can use her own logon to enter grades on behalf of you and you do not need to compromise your privacy and password security.

9. ecourse.org allows you to send personalized batch email messages to a whole class. Student profiles are used to personalize the message to each student. When a message is received, the student feels that it was sent to him alone and he has personal attention from the professor. This feature brings the technique of relationship marketing in e-Commerce to class management and allows personalized instructions to take place outside classrooms. By the way, you do not need to collect and enter student email addresses. When they sign up your course, they give your access to their contact data automatically.

10. If you are teaching computer related classes and have to write custom commands to create student accounts for database servers or operations systems, ecourse.org allows you to generate customized scripts based on the student profiles stored in the system. For example, to create each Oracle user and allow him to access Designer and Developer repositories, 66 SQL custom statements must be edited and issued. That is equivalent to 20000 custom SQL statements for a class of 300 students course per semester. If this job is done manually, it can take a database administrator or an instructor a while to finish. However, ecourse.org performs this task in no time and sends you�re the script in a minute.

11. You can use your personal profile data to generate and/or publish your updated vita on the web. Note you have a choice whether or not to publish the vita on ecourse.org.

12. ecourse.org does all it can do to protect your class data and materials from malicious attacks and your own mistakes. For example, if you ever delete a student from your roster you do not mean to, you can simply ask the student to enroll again. His or her existing data and files will be recovered immediately. For another example, if you delete a course material by accident, you can email to our technical support immediately. We may be able to recover the file if it is not too late.

13. Comparing with other similar products such as WebCT, ecourse.org is n-times easier to use. First of all, you can set up your classes without asking your school instructional technology people to help. It means you are self-dependent. Second, there is no need to create a separate list of user accounts for each class. It means less work and trouble to you. Third, running ecourse.org is as simple as points and clicks. Based on our beta testing, no training for instructors and students is ever necessary for them to use the system. In addition, ecourse.org uses a relational database to store and manage data. It allows data integration with other systems. For example, we can export final grades to your registrar�s database and eliminate the need of manual data entry in both systems (not implemented yet). Fourth, ecourse.org is created for professors by professors. We understand your needs better than those commercial vendors. Finally, the best of all is that ecourse.org is free for all American universities and colleges.

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