eKool is a school management system used in

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

covering 90% of the nation's school network connecting all the pupils, parents and teachers involved. It is estimated that this application is used by 28-30% of Estonians in total. The name eKool means eSchool in

Estonian Estonian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Estonia, a country in the Baltic region in northern Europe * Estonians, people from Estonia, or of Estonian descent * Estonian language * Estonian cuisine * Estonian culture See also

...

. The system is usable for teachers, pupils and parents to exchange information about time tables, grades, homework assignments and other similar features. eKool was created in 2002 by Look@World foundation in cooperation with companies from the private sector. It was originally designed to meet the requirements of four test schools: Rocca Al Mare School, Jüri Gymnasium, Kuressaare Gymnasium and Tallinn Arte Gymnasium. Since then it has grown to cover 90% of Estonian school network.

History

eKool started in 2002 to replace printed school diaries by digital journals which would enable parents and students to see their grades and homework assignments online. The pilot project was launched by the specifications of 4 schools: Rocca Al Mare School, Jüri Gymnasium, Kuressaare Gymnaasium and Tallinn Arte Gymnasium. The initial Look@World program ended in 2005 after which it was turned into a private company: Koolitööde AS. In the next few years the eKool mostly expanded over the Estonian school system reaching over 420 schools by 2012. Since 2014 eKool is also supported by

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

lication which allows students and parents to access their information from mobile phones. However schools and teachers still need to use a computer.

Functionalities

eKool can be accessed by combination of user-name and password, Estonian ID-card, Estonian Mobile-ID,

Smart-ID Smart-ID is an electronic authentication tool developed by SK ID Solutions, an Estonian company. Users can log in to various electronic services and sign documents with an electronic signature. Smart-ID meets the European Union's eIDAS Regulati ...

or through online bank identification. eKool can be used by various interest groups: school personnel, students, parents and to some extent the local government overseeing their own school's. With one user account a person can access functionalities for different user groups where the user belongs to. The schools personnel carries out most of the data entry process to eKool which latter can be used by all parties that have right to access the information. Among the information schools provide are: * E-Journal *

Timetable A schedule (, ) or a timetable, as a basic time-management tool, consists of a list of times at which possible tasks, events, or actions are intended to take place, or of a sequence of events in the chronological order in which such things ...

* Lesson topics and

homework Homework is a set of tasks assigned to students by their teachers to be completed at home. Common homework assignments may include required reading, a writing or typing project, Exercise (mathematics), math problems to be completed, informatio ...

Grades Grade most commonly refers to: * Grading in education, a measurement of a student's performance by educational assessment (e.g. A, pass, etc.) * A designation for students, classes and curricula indicating the number of the year a student has reach ...

* Absences of students * Notifications of school events and news The parents and the students can access the information and keep themselves up to date. From their own side they make it easy for the school to collect contact information because parents and students enter it themselves and keep eKool updated by using it.

References

External links

* {{Official website Cloud applications Education in Estonia Communications in Estonia Internet in Estonia