The primary objective for the Ann Arbor Virtual+ Academy is to provide students in the Ann Arbor Public School System access to online and extended learning options that will help them to develop a personalized learning path.Students on the A2 Virtual+ team will create a standalone web application that will streamline and simplify the class registration process for students, parents, and staff.
Abstract:
The primary objective for the Ann Arbor Virtual+ Academy is to provide students in the Ann Arbor Public School System access to online and extended learning options that will help them to develop a personalized learning path. A2 Virtual+ Academy offers over 250 different course offerings, allowing students to schedule the class that they want and study at their own pace. There are classes at the foundational level and courses at the Advanced Placement level, as well as everything in between. Students can take classes both during the school year and during the summer. In the summer of 2019, 463 students took online classes from A2 Virtual+, and in the summer of 2020, with many other opportunities cancelled due to the pandemic, over 1048students registered for online classes.
The current process for registering all of these students for class is cumbersome and inefficient. Students and parents must complete a series of Google forms collecting various student information. If students want to take more than one class, the forms need to be filled out each time. Once the student forms are filled out, A2 Virtual+ staff need to find an efficient way to document parental and counselor agreement to the course selection(s). Once the agreement is documented, A2 Virtual+ staff need to be able to use the collected data to make schedule adjustments, create accounts, and develop online learning spaces for each request. Students on the A2 Virtual+ team will create a standalone web application that will streamline and simplify the class registration process for students, parents, and staff.
More Information
General Programming (3 – 4 Students)
Specific Skills: General interest and skills in programming. EECS 281
Likely Majors: CS (All)
Education (1 Student)
Specific Skills: General interest in secondary education. Interest in online learning desirable. Students must have introductory computer coding or website knowledge (any language/any platform)
Likely Majors: Education, Other relevant experience
User Needs Assessment / User Interface Design (2 Students)
Specific Skills: UI/UX Design, usability studies, graphic design experience/interest desirable. Students must have basic computer coding knowledge (any language)
Likely Majors: SI (GRAD), ARTDES
Sponsor Mentor
Anthony Lauer
Anthony has been teaching in the Ann Arbor Public Schools since 2000. He has taught high school mathematics at Pioneer, Huron and Skyline during his career. He started teaching online mathematics in the summer of 2007. In his current position as Online Learning Coordinator, he develops online curriculum, trains teachers that use online spaces, and supports students that work in those spaces. He is also responsible for the systems and supports that are necessary to support online learning. He is always looking for ways to use technology to improve student learning and overall experiences.
Faculty Mentor
Martin Strauss
Professor of Mathematics, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts
Prof. Strauss’ interests include randomized approximation algorithms for massive data sets, including, specifically, sublinear-time algorithms for sparse recovery in the Fourier and other domains. Other interests include data privacy, including privacy of energy usage data. From 1997 to 2004, he was a member of technical staff at AT&T Labs-Research in Florham Park, NJ and is interested in K-12 outreach and in using physical manipulatives and kinesthetics to teach math and theoretical computer science for K-12 and university.
Course Substitutions: Honors, ChE Elective, CS MDE/Capstone, CE MDE, EE MDE, IOE Senior Design
Internship/Summer Opportunity: No summer activity will take place on the project.
Citizenship Requirements: This project is open to all students.
IP/NDA: The project will be open source and all students must sign an open source agreement.