A2Virtual+ Online Registration System

Abstract

A2 Virtual+ is the online branch of the Ann Arbor Public School district. Ever since the pandemic forced individuals online, A2 Virtual+ has had to quickly adapt a new solution for online registration. Currently, they deploy over 6 different Google forms that their students must fill out during class registration, leading to a desire for a better registration system. Our objective is to create an online registration system that allows A2 Virtual+ students to register online for each of their terms, allow counselors to edit and approve student classes, and school administrators to export the data necessary for class registration into their internal system. The scope of the project solely focuses on the registration process and not the class enrollment process. We also restrict our scope to middle school and high school students (which is who A2 Virtual+ is geared towards). Our solution strategy involves using a multitude of modern web framework technologies to quickly expedite the development and deployment of the registration framework. Our frontend designs were developed in Adobe XD. User testing with these designs was conducted over Zoom meetings. The registration platform frontend itself is being developed in Angular with a Firebase backend (this houses the database and handles authentication). Email notifications are sent via Twilio SendGrid. Finally, our data exporting is done through Python and deployed into the Cloud via Google Cloud Run. To manage tasks, we utilize Asana and the Agile Sprint approach for task development. As a result of our project, students, parents, and A2 Virtual+ staff can be more efficient with course registration. Students and parents can register in a much more efficient manner. Counsellors can easily review the registration requests of their students, while administrators can manage course registration in one place and export corresponding data.