Course+Cracker

[|COURSECRACKER.COM]

From the developer:

CourseCracker is a free online platform that allows students, teachers, and parents to connect and collaborate to enhance learning and the school experience. Teachers can more effectively organize and exchange information with their students and parents. Students will have better access to class information and resources. Parents will have a portal into their child’s classroom and better access to teachers.

1. Free  2. FERPA Compliant  3. Includes a private discussion forum, calendar, announcement page, document sharing, and a photo/video portal  4. The developer is currently producing a video tutorial suite for teachers
 * Strengths **

1. Design aesthetics are somewhat elementary  2. Coursecracker’s authors may seek to monetize the product by charging a fee for usage or by selling to a competitor in the future
 * Weaknesses **

1. Free social network/education website provider that possesses most of the same tools of similar paid services  2. Parents will appreciate the suite of tools in Coursecracker designed with teacher-parent communication in mind
 * Opportunities **

1. Some educators may prefer to use a more established social networking platform such as Facebook or Ning
 * Threats **

This tool would see the most utility in a K-5 classroom where parent-teacher communication is inhibited by students failing to share announcements, reports, etc. Teachers could use the integrated bulletin board feature and e-mailing list utility to share announcements with parents.
 * Ideas for Classroom **