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Introduction
These days there is a lot of discussion about the problems of the education system: who is to blame? The parents need to be more involved, teachers do not know their students, students are bored, and so forth. Our team recognizes that there is no single solution that will answer all the different complaints of parents, students, teachers, advisors and school faculty. In order to remain adaptable to the numerous styles of learning, we are developing the application by incorporating ideas from two open teaching practices: differentiating instruction and universal design for learning (UDL). Both of these methods maintain a philosophy that students have variations in the ways they learn, and to effectively teach each student without having to teach each one individually, it is best to focus on the goal while remaining flexible in the learning process. The Groupal application allows a teacher to mix and match students in ways that capitalize on their collective strengths. It also enables the teachers to maximize on the diversity of students attributes by bringing together groups of students that normally would not mix due to behavioral or societal pressures.

Solution section
Groupal allows teachers to view a list of students in a particular class and arrange them into groups manually as well as automatically. Once s/he logs into the app, the system automatically shows the current time of the class based on the teachers schedule. For example, if the teacher logs in at 10AM on Monday when s/he has a geometry class, the system loads data of the geometry class. Also, if the class schedule has to be changed, the teacher is able to find the page where s/he can choose the specific class. Depending on the teachers system settings in the app, Groupal shows either the list of students in the Geometry class where the teacher can create groups manually then see data of each group, or it shows the characteristics page where the system automatically creates groups based on the characteristics. Both ways allow the teacher to see the average of each group of students achievement, and data of each student within the groups. When the teacher sees the characteristics page, each characteristic has a bar next to the list that is supported by the SLC API (e.g. GPA, Math, Physics, English, gender balance, etc.). The teacher can adjust weights on the bar. For example, a math teacher would like to create groups where each member of the group has an approximately the same grades in math, the bar of performance criterion should be low. Instead, if she

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cares about the students gender equity but the gender equity is more weighted than students performance is, she can apply a less similarity scale. Once the teacher inputs the characteristics, the system automatically creates multiple groups and gives information of the groups in a simple manner. Under each circle that represents a group, the teacher can view all the data of the group. The teacher can view the students personal information within their group by tapping/clicking once on the element (each element represents one student) around the perimeter of the circle, so that the teacher understands the combination of each group of students. On the page of each students data, Groupal allows the teacher to move the student into another group if s/he thinks this creates a better learning environment. In this way, the system allows flexibility to the teacher even after s/he creates groups based on the desired characteristics. Grupal allows the teacher to create and edit groups in the most intuitive manner while the teacher can see all the information of each group and each student. It also displays the groups in the very visual fashion.

Case scenarios
Case 1
A high school science teacher has designed a lesson that integrates Physics with Math. To maximize contributions made by each individual, the teacher has decided to pair lowerclassmen with upperclassmen, and the teacher wants to have gender equity in each group. The teacher would also like to have the high performing reading students mixed with low achieving students to maximize student understanding of the material. The teacher knows who is strong in math because he has observed her students performance in the classroom over the school year, yet has no idea about their performance in other subjects. Next, he logs into Groupal and it shows him the list of students in his Physics class. On this page, he is able to access the data of each individual provided by the SLC API, and he can have a better understanding of the students right in the palm of his hand. It also allows him to see an automatic grouping page with the characteristics that include students interests, gender and performance where each charact eristic has a bar next to the list.

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After this, he drags the button on the bar next to gender characteristic all the way to the right so that he can have each group with the same gender. He also wants to have the groups with similar academic performance. Now he enters the number of groups that he wants to create, the app shows a students list in each group with average grades of the group members. The app also tells the percentage of similarities among the members. The group is viewed as a connection of little circles that represent each student.

Case 2
As the school year starts, a first year teacher has been assigned to teach Algebra II. Enrolled in this class are 10th, 11th and 12th grade students of various academic ability. Some students in this course have already completed Biology, Chemistry and/or AP Literature. Being a first year teacher and not knowing the students, she doesnt want to have the students to sit next to their friends because this will cause them to be distracted when she wants to have them in groups in the classroom. Groupal allows her to create groups in an easy manner when she first meets her students and doesnt know enough about them yet wants to have them fully engaged during classroom activities. Once she logs into the app, she has an option to choose from a range of diversity to similarity regarding students gender, performance, and interest. At the beginning of the school year, she wants to have them in mostly mixed groups so that she can observe the dynamic between the students and their interests. Not only does the app allow her to create groups that help the students to work in an effective way, but she can also keep track of the students performance with the app.

Details on the technologies that will be used

The Mobile App and Web app will be in Sync. App Integrates with Moodle (https://moodle.org/) an Open Course Management System and facilitates Moodle groups in the following situations: o You are a teacher in a course where you have several classes and you want to filter your activities and gradebook so you only see one class at a time. o You are a teacher sharing a course with other teachers and you want to filter your activities and gradebook so you dont see the students from your colleagues classes.

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o You want to allocate a particular activity or resource to just one class or set of users and you dont want others to see it. We will use Doxygen Documentation standards while writing the Drupal module and the Mobile App. Drupal module & Moodle integration module contribute to the developer community in addition to the App (Apache 2.0 license), so that others can leverage the full power of SLC.

Interface and process details

The Teacher can easily Logs into the App from SLI dashboard

The system automatically creates groups based on the characteristics selected by the teacher. the teacher has an option to choose from a range of diversity to similarity regarding students gender, performance, and interest

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Once the teacher inputs the characteristics, the system automatically creates multiple groups and gives information of the groups in a simple manner. Under each circle that represents a group, the teacher can view all the data of the group.

Groupal makes it quick to reach your group and exchange feedback and alerts. Its a fast, easyto-use and secure way to look out for each other

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On the page of each students data, Groupal allows the teacher to move the student into another group if s/he thinks this creates a better learning environment.

The system automatically shows the current time of the class based on the teachers schedule. Also, if the class schedule has to be changed, the teacher is able to find the page where s/he can choose the specific class.

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Team
Lucio Campanelli, Product designer Lucio is an information architect and senior project manager in the field of knowledge management, information technology and education. Lucio is currently the CEO and product designer at INPULSE, a software company that provides design services for universities and international development organizations including Harvard, MIT, and World Bank.. Sookyoung Lee, Educator Sook is a math educator and international trainer for Korean and American professionals and college students. She has also worked in education, research, and facilitation for the international communities in the US and Korea for nearly ten years. Sook holds a BS in Mathematics and Education from the University of Wisconsin, and an EdM in Educational Media and Technology from Boston University. Caleb Cliff, Strategist Caleb is a key strategist and project manager, assisting to the development and content creation for INPULSE's research and technology. Before joining INPULSE, at Warner Music Publishing, he was Manager, Strategic Marketing working on large scale branding campaigns with a diverse set of actors within the company and with major ad agencies around the world. Nikhil Dubbaka, Drupal Developer Nikhil is a senior developer and open source software expert at INPULSE. His work focuses on improving web development processes, backend implementation and maintenance. Nikhil makes sure our projects and products are designed to last, and in the spirit of the open source community. Also, as an Administrative Web Service consultant at Harvard University, he helps with a wide range of strategies toward the adoption of open source software for large academic institutions. Consultants: Samuel Odamah, Academic Affairs Coordinator (Harvard School of education) Jiani Wu, Educator (Phd at the School of Education, Boston University) Weishan Jiang, Educator (Phd, Harvard school of education fellow) Michele Coscia, Computer scientist (Harvard Kennedy School, Google fellow) Kathrin Hoeckel, Policy analyst (OECD staff, Harvard fellow)

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