7 Open-source School Management Solutions with Virtual Classroom Support

It's still uncertain for many countries if the school will reopen for the current season. COVID-19 cases are increasing in several countries like Japan, some countries at the European Union and Turkey.

However, remote education has proven to be the current valid alternative for education in such an uncertain state. But in Turkey as an example, they have called-in the teachers to schools for planning and organizing the educational season.

Therefore, we decided to write this article to offer an open-source solution for school and virtual classroom management.

Importance of remote education systems during the epidemic

1. Limit direct interaction/ contact and personal interactions
2. Remote distance is better than the social distance
3. Provide useful management tools like reporting and personal management
4. Support remote students management
5. Virtual and online classroom management support

Here in Medevel.com we published few open-source software listings to support remote learning and tele-education during the epidemic, here is our list:

1. 14 Open-source Self-hosted Learning Management Systems (LMS)
2. Top 6 Free and Open Source Video Conferencing Solutions for Education
3. Top 15 Open source Video conference and Team Communication Solutions for Windows, Linux, Mac OSX and Phones
4. Revolutionize your Virtual Classrooms with BigBlueButton
5. OpenBoard: The Ultimate Open-source Free Whiteboard Solution for Classrooms

Why using an open-source system?

1. Cost-efficient (Open-source)
2. Community support
3. Better control over the system in terms of data and system security
4. Self-hosted systems help the facility to avoid vendor lock-in and ensure privacy.

In this article, we will focus on open-source school management solutions with the aim to make the list available for everyone. We will select only the complete open-source ones with the solid feature list.

Note that we will not list the web-based limited edition or commercial solution on this list. Also, we will focus here on the school management systems not specialized virtual classroom management solutions as that's totally another story.

Open-source school management system with remote education support

1-  openSIS

The openSIS e-Learning System is our top pick as a school management system because it has everything: custom-builds fr K-12 schools, custom solution for trade and high schools, and online virtual school setup with advanced virtual classroom management.

openSIS offers a custom version for healthcare facilities aiming for patient education.

It is a completely free and open-source self-hosted cloud solution. It offers a community edition, “openSIS CE” a lightweight version that contains all the functionalities and “openSIS Pro” an extended version built on top of the community edition.

openSIS is suitable for:

1. Formal schools
2. Informal schools
3. Private schools
4. Online schools
5. K-12 schools
6. Patient's education
7. Trade schools

Features:

1. Student and parent portal
2. Teacher portal
3. Self-hosted
4. Student and Staff Demographics
5. Multiple language support
6. Reporting
7. Email messaging
8. Scheduling
9. Transcripts manager
10. Virtual classroom
11. Report card
12. Transcripts
13. Parents portal
14. Grade-book management
15. Health records
16. School Calendars
17. Built-in messaging system

We didn't list all of the features so make sure you check them all at openSIS official website.

Download openSIS Community Edition.

openSIS Community Edition

Download openSIS Community Edition for free. Open Source Student Information System / School Management Software. This openSIS Community Edition is the official openSIS edition supported by Open Solutions for Education, Inc., the publisher of openSIS application. This edition is worked on by the OS4…

SourceForgeklmartinson

2- Fenda

Fenda is a popular free and open-source school management package. It provides complete management and educational workflows. Currently, Fenda runs in 15000+ schools and services 7 million+ students.

The current version of Fenda is bundled with GPA/ CWA and CCE grading systems as it offers many useful features with multilingual support which makes it fit to manage schools in the EU and USA.

Fenda is a self-hosted cloud system, it's easy to install and configure as it also does not require a steep learning curve to get it ready to manage the facility.

It's also a modular system with a plugin architecture and a rich plugin directory. It offers free and pro paid modules that extend its functionality.

Fenda is suitable for:

1. Schools with GPA/ CWA or CCE systems
2. Online schools
3. Formal and informal schools

Features:

1. Open-source
2. Self-hosted
3. Multiple language supported
4. Multiple grading system options (GPA/CWA/CCE)
5. Many plugins to extend its functionalities
6. Student records manager
7. Educational workflow management
8. Students portal
9. Admission management
10. Exams management
11. Timetable management
12. Attendance manager
13. Parents portal
14. Online and virtual classroom support
15. Customized dashboard
16. Library management system
17. Google documents integration
18. Google SSO "Single Sign-On"
19. Discipline manager

GitHub - projectfedena/fedena: Fedena SIS

Fedena SIS. Contribute to projectfedena/fedena development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubprojectfedena

3- RosarioSIS

RosarioSIS is a student information system that backed with a powerful school management solution. It's a web-based with a responsive design that works on mobile and tablets.

The system supports many languages like French, German, Khmer, and Bulgarian. It also supports RTL languages like Arabic and Persian languages.

RosarioSIS offers a full Moodle integration, accounting and billing system and advanced reporting tools.

Features:

1. Multi-device support
2. Multi-languages support
3. RTL-languages support
4. Reports generation
5. Full Moodle integration
6. Add-ons support
7. Accounting management
8. Scheduling management
9. Grades management
10. Attendance
11. Student activities
12. Food service management
13. Data Import/ Export that supports multiple formats

RosarioSIS | Free Student Information System for school management

Free web based Student Information System designed for school administration. Features a multilingual interface and connectivity with Moodle.

Free Student Information System for school managementRosarioSIS Student Information System

4- Gibbon

Gibbon is a completely free student information system with a student-centered approach.  It provides complete classes and student management system.

Gibbon focuses on student privacy and records management as it also offers many discipline and activity tools to improve the educational process.

Virtual classroom management is an essential part of Gibbon which makes it the best option for remote classroom management.

Features:

1. Complete (Libre) open-source
2. Virtual classroom manager
3. Student records management
4. Multiple languages support
5. Multiple assessment options
6. Extensible
7. Developer-friendly
8. Students profiling

Gibbon - The Flexible School Platform

Created by teachers, Gibbon is the school platform which solves real problems encountered by educators every day.Being free, open source and flexible Gibbon can morph to meet the needs of a huge range of schools.

Gibbon

5- Unifiedtransform

Unifiedtransform is a fairly new school management system built on modern web technologies and frameworks. It supports payment through Stripe which makes it suitable for private schools or academies in the US and the EU.

Unlike most of the solutions on this list, It only supports two languages: English and Spanish.

Features:

1. Open-source
2. Actively developed
3. Notice and Syllabus management
4. Library management
5. Accounting
6. Student discipline tools
7. Grade management
8. Import/ Export options
9. Payment management (Stripe)
10. Messaging
11. Complete student profiling

GitHub - changeweb/Unifiedtransform: A school management Software

A school management Software. Contribute to changeweb/Unifiedtransform development by creating an account on GitHub.

GitHubchangeweb

6- Open School Community Edition (PHP OpenSchool)

The Open-school system is an enterprise feature-rich web-based school management solution. It offers two editions, an enterprise commercial edition and a free open-source community edition.

With a fancy user-interface and set of management and system tools, Open School Community edition proven to be a good option for formal schools and small academic institutions.

Features:

1. Students management
2. Teachers management
3. Parents information system
4. Courses management
5. Semesters manager
6. Academic promotion system
7. Grading manager
8. Students and teachers logs
9. School events manager
10. Students and teacher attendance tracker  
11. Employees manager
12. Reports and statistics
13. Examination manager
14. Import and export manager
15. Student transport management
16. Library manager
17. Hostel management

GitHub - traprajith/open-school-CE: Open-School is an integrated school management system which focuses on excellence and evolution in the field of Education. To achieve this O-S is flexible and innovates the new trends in education management. Open-School is a diverse, demanding, and high quality educational management system where every user can discover and realize their potential to achieve overall development.

Open-School is an integrated school management system which focuses on excellence and evolution in the field of Education. To achieve this O-S is flexible and innovates the new trends in education…

GitHubtraprajith

7- openEduCat: A School ERP System

OpenEduCat is a comprehensive school/ student management system, or you may call it the school ERP "Enterprise Resource Planning" system. It's considered an ERP because it's based on Odoo ERP.

OpenEduCat is available to download for Windows, Linux (Debian and Red Hat Linux).

While it's rich in plugins and extensions, it's not really cheap when it comes to using it commercially or use non-free extensions. In fact, it may cost thousands of dollars to get it up and running with the necessary modules even though it's an open-source system. However, it's a suitable solution for private schools.

Features

1. School Management
2. Accounting management
3. Payroll management
4. Students management
5. Courses manager
6. Enrollment
7. Exams
8. Virtual Classroom manager
9. Library manager
10. School events manager
11. Reports manager
12. Messaging portal
13. News portal
14. Poll and survey manager
15. Expanses manager
16. Integration with Zoom, BigBlueButton, Jitsi and Skype Meet.
17. Data import and export
18. Complete integration with Google Apps
19. Campus management
20. Canteen manager
21. Students transportation manager
22. Homework and assignment manager

GitHub - openeducat/openeducat_erp: Comprehensive Open Source ERP for Educational Institutes

Comprehensive Open Source ERP for Educational Institutes - GitHub - openeducat/openeducat_erp: Comprehensive Open Source ERP for Educational Institutes

GitHubopeneducat

Conclusion

Here ends our list. Though we choose the best performing and features packed open-source free systems, we believe there are other alternatives out there. So if you think any of them deserve to go on this list, please drop us a message.