System and Method for On-Line Academic Competition

Abstract

A web application facilitates live on-line academic competition between teams and individuals based on multiple choice or fill-in-the-blank questions and fosters academic competition between students and schools. Using the software application, a team's Coach may enter his/her team in a league of regular competition, schedule a single competition with another team, or organize a competition between the team's members by dividing the team into multiple teams. The test environment provides the experience of competing over test questions, including a scoreboard that keeps track of progress with respect to the test time and the opponent. Students of comparable abilities on competing teams are matched using a matching algorithm that matches the students based on past test performance and the like.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A system for on-line academic competition, comprising:
 a database that stores test questions, team and individual contestant profiles, and test response statistics for the team and individual contestants; and   a processor programmed to interact with the database and with individual contestant processing devices to perform the steps of:
 enabling the creation of teams of individual contestants; 
 matching teams together for participation in an academic competition; 
 presenting a series of test questions to the processing devices of the individual contestants of matched teams for response in a time frame allocated for the academic competition; 
 providing a scoreboard with time clock to each contestant processing device that displays in real time at least one of (1) the individual contestant's score, (2) the team score of the individual contestant's team, and (3) the team score of a matched team playing concurrently, where each test question correctly answered by the individual contestant contributes to at least one of (1) the individual score of the individual contestant and (2) the team score of the individual contestant's team; and 
 furnishing a final score between matched teams once each team has competed in the academic competition. 
   
     
     
         2 . The system as in  claim 1 , wherein the processor enables the display of a Schedule page containing the details of all future matches of the user. 
     
     
         3 . The system as in  claim 1 , wherein the processor enables the display of a Results page containing individual and team statistics of all previous matches of the user. 
     
     
         4 . The system as in  claim 1 , wherein the processor enables the selection of a lead individual contestant to input answers on behalf of the members of a team for collaborative play. 
     
     
         5 . A method for on-line academic competition, comprising:
 enabling, using a processing device, the creation of teams of individual contestants for participation in an academic competition;   presenting, using a processing device, a series of test questions to the processing devices of the individual contestants of competing teams for response in a time frame allocated for the academic competition;   providing a scoreboard with time clock to each contestant processing device that displays in real time at least one of (1) the individual contestant's score, (2) the team score of the individual contestant's team, and (3) the team score of a matched team playing concurrently, where each test question correctly answered by the individual contestant contributes to at least one of (1) the individual score of the individual contestant and (2) the team score of the individual contestant's team; and   furnishing a final score between matched teams to each contestant processing device once each team has competed in the academic competition.   
     
     
         6 . The method as in  claim 5 , further comprising the processing device enabling the display of a Schedule page containing the details of all future competitions of the user. 
     
     
         7 . The method as in  claim 5 , further comprising the processing device enabling the display of a Results page containing individual and team statistics of all previous competitions of the user. 
     
     
         8 . The method as in  claim 5 , further comprising the processing device enabling the selection of a lead individual contestant to input answers on behalf of the members of a team for collaborative play. 
     
     
         9 . A non-transitory computer readable storage device having instructions stored thereon that when executed by a processor cause the processor to provide an on-line academic competition including the steps of:
 enabling the creation of teams of individual contestants for participation in an academic competition;   presenting a series of test questions to the processing devices of the individual contestants of competing teams for response in a time frame allocated for the academic competition;   providing a scoreboard with time clock to each contestant processing device that displays in real time at least one of (1) the individual contestant's score, (2) the team score of the individual contestant's team, and (3) the team score of a matched team playing concurrently, where each test question correctly answered by the individual contestant contributes to at least one of (1) the individual score of the individual contestant and (2) the team score of the individual contestant's team; and   furnishing a final score between matched teams to each contestant processing device once each team has competed in the academic competition.   
     
     
         10 . The storage device as in  claim 9 , further comprising instructions for enabling the display of a Schedule page containing the details of all future competitions of the user. 
     
     
         11 . The storage device as in  claim 9 , further comprising instructions for enabling the display of a Results page containing individual and team statistics of all previous competitions of the user. 
     
     
         12 . The storage device as in  claim 9 , further comprising instructions for enabling the selection of a lead individual contestant to input answers on behalf of the members of a team for collaborative play.