SWAD (originally stood for "Sistema Web de Apoyo a la Docencia" in Spanish or "Web System for Education Support", currently stands for "Shared Workspace At a Distance") is a

web application A web application (or web app) is application software that is accessed using a web browser. Web applications are delivered on the World Wide Web to users with an active network connection. History In earlier computing models like client-serve ...

to manage the courses, students and teachers of one or more educational institutions.

History

The first version of SWAD appeared in September 1999. In 2005 its use was extended to the

University of Granada The University of Granada ( es, Universidad de Granada, UGR) is a public university located in the city of Granada, Spain, and founded in 1531 by Emperor Charles V. With more than 60,000 students, it is the fourth largest university in Spain. Apar ...

. The application was released as free software in January 2010 under Affero General Public License, version 3. In 2010 the system was used by 1,100 professors and 35,000 students. In 2011 it was used by 2,000 professors and 60,000 students in 2,800 courses. SWAD is currently available in 9 languages and used in the University of Granada and the portal OpenSWAD.org. In November 2019 SWAD installation at the University of Granada housed 488 degrees (including undergraduate and graduate) with 7496 courses, 126,060 students and 3514 teachers. The objectives addressed in the development of the platform SWAD can be specified depending on its potential beneficiaries: CC BY-SA icon

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license. * For teachers and other administrators of the platform, the objectives were carrying through internet the management tasks related to a course and its students, and improved mentoring and general communication with them. * For students, the objectives have been improved access to materials and information of the courses, the possibility of self-assessment at a distance, and the improvement of the communication both student-student and student-teacher. A fundamental criterion at the development of the platform has been to facilitate its use by users, emphasizing both the ease of learning and use for students and teachers (usability), and the time saving and quality improvement in various tasks related to teaching. For the institution or company, SWAD has the additional advantage of being fast and efficient, consuming very little computer resources, so being suitable for low-cost installations. Compared to other tools used for the same purpose, since its implementation in C language, SWAD does not require a big hardware and software infrastructure, even in large universities, being sufficient a single server.

Technical specifications

Server

SWAD core is a CGI programmed in C comprising almost all the functionality of the platform. The core is supplemented with some external programs like photo processing module and

chat Chat or chats may refer to: Communication * Conversation, particularly casual * Online chat, text message communication over the Internet in real-time * Synchronous conferencing, a formal term for online chat * SMS chat, a form of text messagin ...

module. The server runs on a

Linux Linux ( or ) is a family of open-source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991, by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged as a Linux distribution, which ...

system with

Apache The Apache () are a group of culturally related Native American tribes in the Southwestern United States, which include the Chiricahua, Jicarilla, Lipan, Mescalero, Mimbreño, Ndendahe (Bedonkohe or Mogollon and Nednhi or Carrizaleño an ...

and a

MySQL MySQL () is an open-source relational database management system (RDBMS). Its name is a combination of "My", the name of co-founder Michael Widenius's daughter My, and "SQL", the acronym for Structured Query Language. A relational database o ...

or MariaDB database.

Clients

Being a web application, the client can be any modern

web browser A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...

. To use the chat you must have

Java Java (; id, Jawa, ; jv, ꦗꦮ; su, ) is one of the Greater Sunda Islands in Indonesia. It is bordered by the Indian Ocean to the south and the Java Sea to the north. With a population of 151.6 million people, Java is the world's List ...

runtime environment. Besides the web client, there is an M-learning application for

Android Android may refer to: Science and technology * Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), Google's mobile operating system ** Bugdroid, a Google mascot sometimes referred to ...

devices called SWADroid, which implements some of the most used features in the web version.

Hierarchy and roles

Hierarchical organization

SWAD can accommodate in a single platform one or multiple educational organizations. It uses the following hierarchical structure: * Countries * Institutions (

universities A university () is an institution of higher (or tertiary) education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. Universities typically offer both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. In the United States, t ...

, academies,

organization An organization or organisation (Commonwealth English; see spelling differences), is an entity—such as a company, an institution, or an association—comprising one or more people and having a particular purpose. The word is derived from ...

s, companies,...) * Centres ( faculties,

building A building, or edifice, is an enclosed structure with a roof and walls standing more or less permanently in one place, such as a house or factory (although there's also portable buildings). Buildings come in a variety of sizes, shapes, and fun ...

s,...) * Degrees ( degrees,

master's A master's degree (from Latin ) is an academic degree awarded by universities or colleges upon completion of a course of study demonstrating mastery or a high-order overview of a specific field of study or area of professional practice.

,...) *

Courses Course may refer to: Directions or navigation * Course (navigation), the path of travel * Course (orienteering), a series of control points visited by orienteers during a competition, marked with red/white flags in the terrain, and corresponding ...

* Group types (lectures, practicals, seminars,...) * Groups (A, B, morning, afternoon,...) The central element of this hierarchy is the course, which can register several teachers and students.

Roles

Each user has a role of student, non-editing teacher or teacher at each of the course in which he/she is enrolled. In addition, some users may be administrators of one or more degrees, centres or institutions, as well as global administrators of the platform.

References

{{Reflist

External links

SWAD website
C (programming language) software Spanish educational websites Free educational software Free learning management systems Free learning support software Free software programmed in C Learning management systems School-administration software Virtual learning environments Software using the GNU AGPL license