Yes, it’s obviously this time of year – all the children kind of nervous and agitated. The end of the first school semester and the beginning of the second one. Many of the pupils begin it with new commitments – a lot of students declare they`ll be more clever, conscientious and sedulous in their work during the next half of the year. That`s nice. But most of the measuretheweb.com readers, some of whom are parents themselves, are rather interested in the children marks and successes. What to do when you are not sure about the marks you see in your child’s notebook or marks register? The solutions that kids use for ‘improving’ their notes are numerous. From tearing out a page in the notebook, trying to overwrite the mark, even to copying a parent’s` signature. In the times when the pupils spend a lot of their time on the Web, even the school marks register can be accessible online, what is proved by the first example of ‘E-class’ (E-klase) project in CEE.
To make life easier for parents, students and teachers this electronic school management system has been created in Latvia. With E-class it`s possible to monitor students` marks, homeworks, stay in touch with the class teacher, send him/her a message, and, furthermore, check the child’s successes among his/her classmates and receive the marks via SMS. And all this is available no matter where you are. All you need is access to the internet and an account in the E-class e-school management system. E-class was introduced in Latvia five years ago, but only now it became an indispensable part of students, parents and teachers life.
There are 3 methods to function e-way there: first, you use it as a teacher to put the marks into the electronic system, write home tasks, send a note to parents etc. Second, you can log in as a parent, to see your children marks, given home tasks and send and receive messages from teachers. Finally, as a student you can see your marks, be informed about home tasks, follow comments which are given by the teacher and communicate with him or her.
The rankings show the visible popularity of this project – according to Gemius data, e-class is already so popular that it takes 9th place in the Latvian ranking by the number of page views (27 million page views per month). The audience of this website is inherently dominated by women – 64%, with men constituting only 36% of the audience. (based on gemiusAudience data from October 2011). This result may stem from the fact that most of teachers in Latvia are female, and may also show significant mothers’ interest in their children’s marks.
Figure 1. Number of e-klase.lv’s Real Users by hours, Source: Gemius, gemiusAudience, 01.2011-11.2011
Results of E-class also show the certain seasonality of the project. For example, in summer, during school holidays, the number of visitors decreases rapidly, but in September when school starts, it grows once again. There is also a visible increase in the number of visitors just before the end of the year – perhaps this because it is the time when transcripts of marks and diaries are compared with the real situation in e-class? To be e-way means to be sure!
Figure 2. Page views generated on e-klase.lv by hours, Source: Source: Gemius, gemiusTraffic, 1 December 2011
The E-class is visited mostly in the evenings, around 8 PM. That`s usually when whole families are at home and they are preparing for next day – students doing their homework, parents checking the marks. Meanwhile, the most of page views are generated around noon – as that’s the time when teachers put the marks into the system, writing down home tasks and sending direct messages to parents, if necessary.
Figure 3. Number of visitors (cookies) to e-klase.lv by hours, Source: Gemius, gemiusTraffic, 1 December 2011
Latvian system proved to be successful and effective. There are less surprises for parents, fewer ‘forgotten’ home assignments and it seems like the tutors and pupils communicate more easily. Increasing popularity of the E-class project does not mean that the ‘good, old ways’ are entirely over. The printed versions of class marks registers and marks written down in notebooks are not forgotten and the traditional way is still practiced. But, the fact is, the e-way of life is mirrored in the functioning of one of the most important institutions in the life of every human being – at school. And that seems like not only a modern, but also very good idea 
