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Updated version of Requirements and Design Documents
Updated Feb 4, 2010 by akf.flo...@gmail.com

Requirements Document

Introduction

Brainiac consists of a series of games and quizzes aimed for young children in the first grade. Its goal is to enhance the learning of fundamental skills such as math, spelling and grammar through a study buddy system. Each study buddy will have a game or quiz associated with an educational subject. Study buddies are designed to be fun and adaptive, as the quiz progresses, the level of difficulty will then increase. Once a study buddy is completed, students' scores will then recorded. Users will then be able to view their statistics of each study buddy and they will be able to see what subject areas which need improvement on. A leaderboard system will be implemented to display the highest scores overall and the highest scores for each study buddy. Not only that, Brainiac will contain a multitude of secret, unlockable features aimed to encourage users to continue playing until they have a solid grasp of all subject areas that are presented in the Brainiac system.

Intended Audience

Elementary Grade Students

Brainiac's primary users will be elementary grade students. We expect that they will have basic knowledge of how to use a computer. This includes turning the computer on/off, opening and closing applications, as well as beginning typing skills and mouse control. Any previous experience with other educational software is beneficial but not necessary. The elementary students who use our software should aim to improve their vocabulary and mathematics. The majority of the exercises should run in parralel to their current curriculum.

Elementary Teachers

When teaching young children it's important to hold their attention. A common strategy to accomplish this is to provide several activities to the students. Brainiac can be incorporated as an activity for students to learn from. Or can be used as a supplement to the curriculum. Using Brainiac will provide elementary school teachers statistics on their students' academic performance within the software. We expect that the teachers will have basic computer skills. They should be familiar with how to turn on/off computers, and opening or closing applications.

Parents

Some parents are keen on being up to date with their children's performance in school. Aside from parent teacher conferences, tutoring, or helping their kids with homework; Brainiac can provide a window for parents to see how their child is performing academically. Parents should have basic understanding on how to operate a computer, and opening and closing applications.

Plug-in Developers

Brainiac's plug-in system will allow developers to write custom educational lessons. It is expected that the developer will have sufficient knowledge of Java, object oriented programing, and have read documentation covering Brainiac's API.

Features

Non-functional requirements

Speed

Loading time will should be kept at a minimum. Sounds, images, and user account profiles will need to be loaded at start up of the application.

Size

File size should be kept below 30MB. This includes images, sounds, and user account data. This does not include any content generated by 3rd party plug-in developers. Users should be able to download Brainiac from some type of network. Therefore, 30MB is a reasonable file size, as it would not take too long to download.

Ease of Use

Brainiac should be easy to use by elementary students who have basic computer skills. It is expected that student users will be initially aided with the setup of their account by an adult. The interface should be simple and intuitive. When logged in as an administrator it should be easy to browse and manage multiple accounts.

Reliability

The probability of an application failure is low. We can guarantee this through our test cases in both Version One and Version Two releases. Brainiac is hosted on Google Code. Availability should not be an issue, as long as users have an internet connection. Due to the size of our application we recommend users have a high speed internet connection.

Robustness

No changes should be made to user profile data unless all alterations are 100% completed. Therefore, in an event of a application crash the user will only require to restart the application. Data corruption should also be avoided, as long as users do not manipulate any of the user profiles or application source code.

Portability

Brainiac is to be run on Windows operating systems.

Example Tutorials

Glossary

  • Account: A record that is associated with only one user. An account is uniquely identified by the owner's username and a valid password.
  • Export: To save a user's account on a storage device in order to transfer and play it on another computer that has Brainiac installed.
  • Import: To retrieve a user's account from a storage device in order play it on another computer that has Brainiac installed.
  • Leader Board: A ranking system showing the top 10 scores, and the corresponding users, for each quiz or game
  • Load: To load a user's account from a storage device to a computer. This feature allows a user to play Brainiac on a different computer with his/her account.
  • Log-in: Entering a valid username and password in order to access an account.
  • Profile: A record showing information about the user, such as name, age, and grade. In addition, users will also be able to see their performance summary for each Study Buddy, as well as any rewards and points they have collected.
  • Ranking: A position on the Leader Board. The highest rank represents the highest achievement in terms of scores or points.
  • Rewards: Trophies or awards that are given for certain accomplishments, such as achieving a perfect score for a game or quiz
  • Save: Records information about the current user's account on the computer in use. Saving an accounts records all changes to the user's statistics, progress, profile, and rewards.
  • Score: The total number of questions that are answered correctly in a quiz
  • Statistics: A summary of a user's scores for each quiz or game
  • Study Buddy: A game or quiz that promotes a fun learning experience
  • Username: A set of characters that uniquely identifies a user. A username and password are required to play with any of the Study Buddies.

Design Document

Guidelines

Technical Guidelines

  • All code will be developed using the NetBeans IDE.
  • The software will be developed using the Java programming language.
  • All code and versions of Brainiac will be released into the team's Subversion repository, which can be accessed here
  • The MARY Text-to-Speech System will be used to create sound files.

Ethical and Legal Issues

  • Information about users will be kept confidential. The only information that will be released to the public are users' statistics and usernames. Other information such as name, age, grade, gender, and passwords may be accessed only by an account's owner and administrators.
  • The software will make use of libraries created by third-party developers. However, to respect intellectual property rights, Brainiac will be developed using libraries under open source licenses.

System Diagrams

UML Diagram

Sequence Diagram

Data Flow Diagram for a Study Buddy

Data Requirements

File Formats

  • .jpeg and .png - A combination of jpeg and png files will be used for images in Brainiac. Jpeg files to help keep our application file size to a minimum. Png files to utilize the transparency layer.
  • .wav and .au- For sound files
  • .buf (Braniac User File) - We will be using our own private extension for Brainiac. The format will be nearly identical to a text file other than the extension. Example
  • .sbc (Study Buddy File) - This format will be the standard format for every studdy buddy, both original and additional study buddies.

Inputs

Brainiac will only be utilizing keyboard and mouse inputs. We do not wish to discourage potential users from using Brainiac because they do not own other input peripherals.

Feature Priority

Version 1

  • Math Buddy

Version 2

  • Spelling Buddy

  • Time-Telling Buddy

Version 3

  • Connect-the-Dots Buddy
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