The proposed software solution aims to address the difficulties faced by students in Victoria when trying to access textbooks online. The software would provide a free online platform for students, teachers, tutors and academics to access purpose-designed textbooks for VCE. All textbooks would be available under an open license, meaning that they are able to be updated and collaborated on by the community to ensure up-to-date content. The proposed solution would include options to export textbooks to PDF and other formats, as well as interactivity in the form of content questions and embedded videos. Textbook edits would be moderated and formatted by a textbook engine to ensure consistency between books. The textbook engine will be built on top of GitHub as a textbook file datastore service, so contributions will be made using pull requests. Administrators will have the ability to manage the entire system, including the approval of pull requests for textbook contributions.
| User class | Frequency of use | Product functions used | Technical expertise | Security level/privileges | Education level | Experience/skills |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Students | Every school day | Textbook reader, questions | General ability to navigate the website | Standard user privileges: only access to textbooks | Studying high school | |
| Teachers | Every school day | Textbook reader | General ability to navigate the website | Elevated user privileges: access to textbooks and student management | Graduate degree | |
| Tutors | A couple times a week | Textbook reader, questions | General ability to navigate the website | Elevated user privileges: access to textbooks and student management | Any | |
| Academics | A couple times a week | Textbook reader, questions, textbook editing | General ability to navigate the website and understanding of Git to contribute to textbooks | Standard user privileges: only access to textbooks | Graduate degree | Ability to use Git and contribute to textbook repositories hosted on GitHub |
| Administrator | A couple times a month | Manage full system | Understanding of the whole system | Full administrative privileges | Any | Able to manage the system and database |
The solution ultimately must include the capability for digital textbooks to be published, edited, and read by users. The solution should be accessible by using a modern web browser on any commonly used device (laptops, tablets, phones, desktops). It should also be highlighted that the solution must meet the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (https://www.w3.org/WAI/standards-guidelines/wcag/) to ensure it is accessible by people of all abilities. The solution should be responsive in nature and feature a responsive content layout. The solution will not feature the capability to read any external documents.
The development of the solution will be restricted by a number of economic, legal, technical and usability constraints.
The solution must be delivered within the timeframe allocated for the SAT outcomes. This means that it may be necessary to compromise on certain functionality in order to deliver the solution in time. Another time restriction is the time allocated to build the solution. Apart from class time, a significant portion of the project must be completed in whatever free time is available.
The solution must be built without cost, meaning that budget is a major restriction on the tools available to complete the project.
The solution must comply with the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) including the Australian Privacy Principles, as well as the Privacy and Data Protection Act 2014 (Vic). This may limit some functionality regarding the management of user data.
The development of the solution will be restricted by the limitations of the technology used. The framework and language used to deliver the solution will influence the functionality of the software overall. Due to the textbook system being built on top of GitHub repositories, there is a reliance on Git and GitHub to function as expected in order to deliver the solution. The function of the solution will also be influenced by the capabilities of the browser used to access it.
The solution delivered must comply with the WAI Web Content Accessibility Guidelines, meaning that accessibility is a major constraint for the project. The user interface must be intuitive and easy to navigate.