frsi.al iiences, 15,2739(20A9)
: DESIGNAND IMPLEMENTATIONOF TH E COURSEUNIT BASED RESULTSANALYSIS SYSTEM
S. R. KODITUWAKKUAND P CHAMII'ARA I)epartntcntafStdtistks & comliute|s..irti(c,Lini|er.\!r'a/ Iterddent,d
-41tSTRACT nllh lhc int(xluf:j.n ofthe course rnit systen i. rhe slrlc unnersilie:, sludcnts.e\aluadon Fae:: has bc.D l.ansfomecl i.1! I highly corl1pli.r:rl rask. In ord.f ro evaluaresLudcnis. resuhs ir is required to check selrrnl rcquiremerussurh as numbel .,1 crcdirs, compllsory .ourses-prc'eqursitesar
ninrnndn grade point.vefage. Additunally this rast ne.ds ro be
.'!.'rdered qoickiy and elllricndy. lhis |;rFr prcsc.rs an idbmuftn s),stenrdevctopedto a.ltr.re rhis lark. Salient Ilalures of lhe system iichdc evalxarion of snrder$, resulls I ,l.cidc \.hciher stxdcntsare eli:jbl. for a pan;t|lrr.1egrcc, for sg:.rat dcgree pfogranncs .nd Ib. ho.ollrs. Addilionally. dre slst.nr t.ciiitates dt. ontife regisrarion of srrdents and auronulr. lunscripi gelleralion. lhe lreem dcv.loped {:rs tcsted \.ith r..ndonJy setecred nudenl rcsuiis.Tl1elest iesrn|Sindicaled lllr dre systed functionsaccuratrtf ard efiicienltyr
A'TRODUCTION rhe introductionofthe courscunit systemrstudentsilre provided with a lot offlexibility $lecting degreeprogrammes.The Faculty of Science,University ofperadeniya ollers 21 irl combinations.Each combination consistsof threc major subjccts and each subject ists of severalcourscunits. Studcntswho arc adnit|ed to the faculty enrol for a subjcct ination. Before commencingthe rcgular academicprogrammc, studentshave to enrol
tbreecompulsoryfoundationcounes.Duringthe first yeareachstudenlenrolsfor tbree a combination,and offers a minimum of 24 compulsorycredits. Duins the second gudents could emol for thee major subjectsor t\\'o major subjcctsal1doffer a tl1lmmum 2? credils. This includesboth compulsory and optional courses.At thc end of the second studentscoukl app11,lbr one or more special degreeprogrammes.Those who have Lfed 1he rcquirements of such prograi res arc selected to lbllotv spccial tlegrcc s- The othcrs continuetowards a gcnual degrec.The generaland specialdegree have to eam a minimurn of90 crcdits alld 120 creditsrespcctivelyto obtain their ding aulhor: E mail
[email protected]
2i
arc awardedhonoun degrees degrees. Thosewho havecompletedthcsecreditrequirements Therefore,it is essentialto analyse subjectto the fulfilment of additionalrequirements. studcnts'resultsto make surethat they have fuifilled eachand every rcquirementbefore awardingrespcctivedegreesandhonoursr.This is a tine consumingand resourcewasting stallmemberswork for aboutten daysto finaliseresults. task.Usuallytento fifleenacademic resultson time Therefore,an altemative As a resolt,the facultyfacesdifficultiesin releasil1g is requiredto expeditethisprocess. approach With the advancesin lnfonnalionand Communicationfechnology,aotomaticinlonnation processir'rg appearsto bc the best solrltion for such tasts2 This paperproposesa new informationsystem(CUBRAS)io haodlelhe cowsc unil basedinformalionprocessilgfor the Fac!dt)'-of Science,Universityof geradeniya.which ay be applicableto other |-:tiversiticsas\\,ell. 2. MATI]RIAI-S AND METHODOLOGY systemdesignpa{tem,modemsoftwareprocess'tools and In orderto developan automated descnbethcseaspects. areused.The followingsections programming languages 2.1 TheModel meroContrullerPattem pattcrnseparates an applicationinto three The Model-View-Controllq(MVC) architectural is shownin Figure The MVC architecture model,view, andcontroller3'4. main components: 1.
Controller
Fig. L Architecture of the Model-View'Control
patterr
In a MVC application, model rcpresentsthe data to be processed,contloller processesthe data in the model and view displays the informalion. For cxample, lnodel leprescnts a database,controller handlesquery-st.ingto relrieve data from the model and view displays the query reslrlts.
t8
Atifu
Prccess
lJnified Process(RLT) is a commonsrrategyutilised in the dcvelopmentof programs-This web,enabiedprocessprovides a numbcr'of differellt tools that assist
amner in fleshingout the basiccodefor a program,aswell ashelpingto detemine look ofthe products.
Unifed M odeling L atg uag e
ified Modeling Languagc(LML) is a languagefor specifying,constructing, Lrtrg and documenting thc artifactsof a software-intensive system.Analogousto the of architectualblueprintsin the conslructionindustry,UML providesa common for describingsoflware models,and it can be used iD conjunctionwith a wirlc range € lifecyclesand devclopmentprocesscs6
,Iictosoft
nsual Stt .lio
VisualStudiois an IntegatedDevelopnentEnvircnment(IDE). It cembe usedto console and graphical user inteface applications along wilh Windows Forms ons, web sitcs,web applications,and web servicesin both native code toeetherwith code lbr all plalforms suppofied by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, CE, .NET Framework, .NEI CompactFrameworkand Microsoft SilverlishtT.
SQL Serrer Manageme t Studio
ServerManagement Studiois a tool includedwith MicrosoftSeL Scl1r'er 2005andlatcr ions for configuring, managing,and administeringall componcntswithin the Miclosoll - Server Thc tool includesboth script editorsand graphicaltools which work with objecrs features of the ser-ver3.
tlicrosofl LINQ osoft LINQ definesa setofproprietaryqueryoperators thatcanbe usedto query,pro_ject filter datain .urays,enumerable classes, XML (XLtNe), relationaldatabase. and third data soulces. While it allows any data source to be queried, it requires that the data be encapsLllated as objects. Hcnce, if the data sourcedoes not nativelv store data as
the datan'lustbe mappedto the object clomain.eueries written using the qucry rs are executedeitherby the LINQ query processingengineor, via an extension
Itanism. The resultsofa query are retumedas a collection ofin mcmory objectsthat can qumeraled using a stalldar-ditcralor function']_
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2.7 Design of CUBMS Theuserinterlaoeofthe systemis desigred CTIBRASis designedasa thJeelier architecturetier This tier is dcsignedwith webbrowserssuchas Mozilla FireFox and astheprcsentation MicrosoftIntemctExplorcr.Businesslogic of the systemis designedasthe middleticr It is developetlusing IntemetInfonnationSeNice (1lS) along with the ASPNet platfom The the informationstorage.In other words bottomtier is the database bottomtier reprcsents componeitol the system.lt is constmctedby using thc MSSQLServer2005 Thrce-lier of CLIBRASis depictedin Figxre2. architectr.re
Fig. 2. Tlfee iief architecturcolllre systcni
2-7.1DatahaseDesign As the first stcp databaseis modcled as an enlity rclationshjpdiagram and thcn transformed into an equivalent rclalional model. The relational diagram of the CUBRAS databaseis shown in Figue J. 2.7.2 flse of MVC (Model-Weh,Contlol) pdttern In CUBRAS, the ASPNET MVC Framework is uscd to design lhe routing of lJRL Whcn a browser sends a HTTP requestto CUBRAS web sile' the MVC FrrunelvorkrLsesits URL rcuting enginc to map the incomiog requcst onto an action ncthod of a controller class for processirlg. The Controller class prccessesthe request,handlesuscr inpui and interactions and exccutes the application logics such as retrieving and updating thc dalabase After completing thc processingthe controller class intencts with thc view classesto rellLm thc output to users. The URL routing mechanism is dcpicted in Figure 4 Fot exantple' user requestsfor aLldingor deleting subject conbjnatiotls arc designedthrougl the CIIBRAS Controller,Modcl and Vic\ls. When the user requeststo add' to deleteor to edil by ente ng data into the usel interface, ihe irput is seit io the cortroller lbr plocessing Then the controller proccsscsthe rcquesLby intcracling \i,ilh the rrodei. Finally. Proccsse(ldata are seit to the Yie\\' for displaying.
design
of CUBRAS is designedto provide a simple and an attractivegraphical lo lhe users.So the graphicaluser interface(GUI) is designedwith tkee major Main interface,administrativcinterface and view interface.The main iotclface
to allow usersto login andto makerequests. Admiiistrativcinterlaceis dcsimed administrativefacilities for securesystemnranagement. Thl] view interfaceis
Figue 3. Relatonal model
l1
CUBR-{SConrroller
CLIBRASModel
FiguPl. URI- Rouling ntcha
sm
designedto generateand to print fanscripts. The GUI is dcsignedso that the intcrfacesget dyranrically ch:rngedaccordingto the user roles. ht other words, user acccssto the system resoulcesis resticted accordingto the rolcs of users.Fo! examplc, facilities provided for stLdentsarc different from that ofan administmtoror an acadcmicstaffmember'
2.8 Functionnli! ofthe system The overall functionaljty ofthe systemis shown in Figure 5. When a user rcquestsfor some information froru the CIJBRA.S, first it checks whether lhe requestcd information involves any analysis.If so, the controller porforms the analysisby intctacting wilh the model class and retums the results. Othorwise the infomation is retumcd by invoking ADO.NET data connectionas shown in the flow chafl. Since ADO.NET is'usedin the CUBRAS, the results are eithu processeddirectlt or placed in an ADO.NET Dataset objcct in order to expose them to users. Vast amount of static data should be filled to the CUBRA.S databaseand they have to be maintainedproperly.Thjs tedioustask is per{bnnedby a new actor called data opentor.
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1.Request for details Crc Studemlnformation i i
2. Retfieve details
i
Informationis analysed insidethe
i
a'.nh,rllPr
3. Requestfor nformation
4. Respondfor the request
(User Intedace)
Fig. 5. Workflow ofthe CUBRAS
'LTS AND DISCUSSION developedlvas testedwilh a sampleof actualstudents'g1.ades. The samplegrades
from students who successfully completedthe respective progranmesandwho f
complete the rcquirementsof the respectiveprogrammes.First the lfades wcrc
i rbe database component of the systemand thenvariousresultvalidationactlvities Accordingto thetestresults,studentrcgistrationandente ng ofresultswere Eror messages wereretumedwhcnusersfail 10inputvaliddata. to the students'subject combinations, studentsmay be eligible to apply for +ecial degree programmes.Thereforc the cligibility of each sludent for special \a.astesled at the end ofthc secondyear Fi.st the rcquirencnts for 100 200 levelwere validated.The 100 level and 200 lelel validation resultsare shown 6, and 7.
il
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i* r'"*.i"'pra.a
ir'.;'*tv...dhimiir'v
eutied socc"'sr''v
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|n. nrd Y.a' coflre'
scitft
.drrtd.d
y*r;it&-"iia.d$"h.n
;.'udri"*d"""
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s!'Eddv
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lig. 6. 100 lcael resultsvalidat'on
can applyfor specialdegrecs' who fulfil the 100 level and200 level requirements Students for a givenstudcnland the Thenthc systemreportsthe eligiblespccialdegreeprcgrammes only Resultof an eligibility checking studentis allowedto applyfor eligibleprogrammes is depictedin Figurc8. for specialdegrecprogmmmes
Fig. 7. 200levelresultsvalidation
ialCou
G!!,tiitl .
Fig. 8. Eligibility check for specialdegrces
l5
resultswere validatedin Onceth€ studentscompletethe durationoftheir studyprogramme, severalphases.For each generaldegee student,level-wisevalidationwas perfomed to andthe compulsoryand checkwhetherhe/shehas fulfilled the requiredcreditrequirement, Eachstudent'sresultswere analysedfioln 100level io 300 level prerequisite requircments400 lcvel validationwas performedonly for specialdegreestudentsStudentswho have at each level were reportedto be eligible for awardingthe fulfrlled all the requirements degrees. A resultofa 400levelvalidationis shownin Flgure9. respcctive
.
Fig. 9. ,100levcl resulisvalidation
After lhe level-wise validation, each student'soverall GPA was calculated The result of a GPA calculationis shown in Figure 10. The systcm also facilitatesthe automaticllanscnpt gencration for students who have completed as well as for those who have partially completed.Figure 11 depicts a sampletranscript.After that, eligibility for honourcwas also testedto detorminethe respectiveclasses:first class, secondclass upper and secondclass lowcr. Finally the test resultswerc comparedwith the manually tcstedresultsto check tl'le accuracy of the automatedsystcm. The tesl resultsilldicated thal the analysisof results is accuratc' cffi cient and consistent.
i6
Fihal GPA
Fig. 10. CalculationofGPA
ACADXMIC RNCORD
RXCISTR-ATIONNO. : slt5213 NAME ?006,€007
AcailedrY.d:
Inal GlA
Y.,..ssulh !E nol yer beentua&e d
Fig. 11. Systemgeneraredacademichanscnpt
l8
usto\s clile
information system developedcan be used to replace the current inefficlent and
rodtsrrmingmanualsystem_ The systemdevelopetla[alysesstudcnts,rcsu]tsefficiently -Eu|-alel),.Sincethe new systemis an onlinesystemit providesflexibility to both the membe.sand students.The fast analysisand validation of resullsenablcsthe rclease of 'results
quickly. Tl]e systen dcvelopedcan be customisedto analysccourseunit aesults at anystateuniversity.
RENCES L
Faculty of Sciencehandbook,Faculty of Science,University of peradeniya, Sd Lanta (2009).
2
Henry C. L- The Analysis, Design afi.j Implementation af Inlormatiotr Systems, Vc-Graw Hill, 3'd Editions,New york, USA (1982). RohnertH., Sommerlandp and Michaci 5., pattem_OrientedSoftwdrcArchitedure: A StstemafPatter s, Wiley, Nc$, york, USA(1996). MVC pattem (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/ ), Accossedin June200g_ CruchtenP, TheRationut Llnilied process:An Introductior, 3',redition,Addison_Wesley, NervYork, USA (2002).
a
Timothy L., Robert L., and LaganiereR, Ol)ject-Oriented Software Engineering: Practical SoftwareDewlopment using LIML and Java, 1" Edirion, Mccraw-Hill New York,USA, (2002) $hlter S.,ls?)r'tf Ul?beshed (2ndEdition).Sams.pqblicarion, USA, (2001), MSSQL(hte://msdn.microsoft.com Accessed in July 2008. , ) ItS LINQ @tS://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/200g/e us/iinq.aspx),Accessed in July 2008.
