Started to go thru the system, and so far, seems very impressive.
I started a new database to understand the system better. Structuring the academic years for a class-based school.
The first stage, Elementary Education: 6 academic years.
The second stage, Intermediate School: 3 academic years.
The General Secondary School: 3 academic years.
I am trying to structure it as follows: 3 learning departments (representing the 3 stages), then academic years of each department, then courses of each academic year, then linking students to classes and teachers to courses.
But I am stuck in the system how to link that chain (ex: linking academic years to departments). Any recommendations?
Sorry for the delay, I was busy, deciphering the system
Go to: Admin>School admin, then set up the following (at the bottom of the sidebar) :
Manage Days of the Week
Manage School Years
Manage Special Days
Manage Terms
Go to: Manage Year Groups (in the grouping section of the same sidebar). That is where you break down the academic level. Meaning, let’s say from the day students get to your school (first class) till they graduate from it they study 12 years, then for each year you create a year group and give it the proper name.
Go to manage departments, and there you can split the learning area to different channels. (Not sure how necessary that step is in the overall structure).
Of course, in case your DB is empty, make sure to add students and teachers as system users thru “users admin”, then go to people>Staff to add the new teachers (users) to the academic body, and People>Students to add newly added students(users) to the students’ pool.
Go to: Admin>Time table admin, and in the sidebar choose: “Manage Courses & Classes”. Another way: Type “Manage Courses & Classes” in Search and you get there.
There, you do things the opposite of how it normally works (Or so how it worked for me). Usually, you create a class then you create the courses taught in that class. Here, go to “add” above the courses list, and you create a new course filling the descriptions (make sure you tick the year groups this course will be studied in)
Go back to “Manage Courses & Classes” and your new course will be in that list. Click edit (The pen icon in the course row), scroll down to “Edit classes” section, and add the class this course will be taught in (Based on the structure of your school classes).
Back to the new course edit, scroll down to the same “edit classes” section, and you will find the new class that course is included in there. In that row, click on the “enrollment” icon, and there you can add the students and teacher(S) for that course in that class.
You can add as many courses as you want and link them to that class. When you are done, you will have all your classes, linked to the courses taught in each, and linked to the academic group in your class based system.
Go to School Admin > Manage Facilities: There you can add classrooms, library, offices, etc… that resembles your school physical structure. (What matters for us in this task is that you create classrooms)
Now if your school (like the one I am setting up the system for) dedicate a specific room for each class all year, then you need to go to:
Timetable > Manage Facility Changes > Add Facility Change: Choose the new class (NOT CLASSROOM) that you created in “Manage Courses & Classes” from the list, click “proceed”
There you can choose the classroom each class will be located at.
As a general note, as powerful as the system seems to be, its killing weakness is how complicated it is. Still diving in, trying to figure out what to do where. You think you got it, then opps, it didn’t work, try again
But it seems once one gets it right, the product is really good.
Hi ram, I appreciate your pain. As always there is a trade-off between ease of use and flexibility. More documentation would help (we need more volunteers to make this dream come true). Gibbon does a huge amount, and with that comes a steep learning curve : ( Let us know how we can help. Perhaps once you master it, you can help us help others : )
@admin
Thanks for the top work. Documentation can definitely help. I am working on my own documentation for the product, as soon as I start getting it right, and I will definitely share it when it is ready. Though, it seems that will take some time
The “nightmare” for me right now it the timeline/calendar-planner thing. That’s where I spent most time to figure out so far and yet to get it right. It feels like I am missing something very simple to get not right, yet, it is not happening. I will probably have to post that in a new post here.
Awesome! The docs on https://docs.gibbonedu.org are community editable too, so feel free to submit any changes or new docs. It works through GitHub, so if you have an account (or create one), look for the Edit Page link in the top-right of the docs.
The docs on