Thanks, Yaw. It looks like custom Access databases are the viable solution for both problems, since all of the student information systems I can find are web-based, which won't quite work for an NGO without reliable connectivity (not to mention the tech infrastructure to manage a server). Anyone else, please pipe in with ideas if you've got them. Regards, Sunil Yaw Anokwa wrote:

sunil,

i can't recommend anything specific because it really depends on your budget and capacity.

in africa, most ngos with your set of problems would use paper forms to collect the data, then have a data entry team enter it into a custom access database. reports can be generated there or the data can be exported into excel for some analysis. access is primarily chosen for it's relative portability and maintainability through existing developers in those regions. there are no good open source alternatives. whether or not this is the "best" solution is very dependent on your goals and constraints.

i haven't looked hard, but i don't think there are any open source student tracking systems. i just spoke to an ngo here in tanzania that wanted something similar and i think they are either going with something custom and likely access based. again, really depends on how many people you want to track.

you've hit on one of the big problems in this space and the solution for most people seems to be paying folks to build systems access.

hope that helps,

yaw

On Sat, Apr 19, 2008 at 1:23 PM, Sunil Garg <skgarg@cs.washington.edu> wrote:

...

Hi all,

I'm currently studying abroad in India, where we're working closely with a development organization called Chirag (www.chirag.org). They've asked me to look into solving the following two issues -- if any of you have ideas or know of relevant software packages, preferably open source, please let me know.

1. Collection, management, and analysis of area reports: each area team would periodically fill out a template, which would then be sent to organization leaders who want to compare any given template field across different areas or over time. Data is generally qualitative and input needs to be in Hindi.

2. Tracking student progress over time. If there are any open source packages available that allow schools to manage and track student information and progress (like the medical records package described in last quarter's talk), that would be really helpful. Data is generally quantitative, so Hindi support isn't necessary but would be nice.

Thanks, Sunil

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