mis for blended moocs on iitbombayx...from traditional classroom learning to blended learning we...

MIS for Blended MOOCs onIITBombayX

Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements

of the degree of

Master of Technology

by

Rajeev Kumar Gautam

(Roll no. 13305R007)

Supervisor:

Prof. Deepak B. Phatak

Department of Computer Science and Engineering

Indian Institute of Technology Bombay

2016

Contents

List of Figures iv

Abstract 1

1 Introduction 1

1.1 Classroom Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.1 Conventional Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

1.1.2 Flipped Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.1.3 MOOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.1.4 Blended MOOCs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2

1.2 Need for a comprehensive information system . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

1.3 Problem statement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

2 Literature Survey 4

2.1 Open source LMS/CMSs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.2 LMS interoperability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

2.3 Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.3.1 Integration with Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.3.1.1 Data Integration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

2.4 Open edX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.4.1 Open edX LMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.4.2 Open edX CMS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.5 IITBombayX platform . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6

2.6 Current education system in India and how blended model will help . . . . 7

2.7 Blended MOOCs from IIT Bombay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

2.8 Assessing Effectiveness of MIS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7

i

Contents CONTENTS

2.9 System evaluation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8

3 Functional Requirements of Proposed System 9

3.1 Main objective . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.2 Consolidation of proposed functionality . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.2.1 Admin’s Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

3.2.2 Instructor’s Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

3.3 Integration with Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

3.4 Typical use cases . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.4.1 Admin Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.4.2 Teacher Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

4 System Design 14

4.1 System view and Data Flow Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.1.1 System view . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

4.1.2 Data Flow Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2 Modules and interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2.1 Admin Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.2.1.1 Department . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.2.1.2 Course . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.2.1.3 Register Session . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.2.1.4 Course Assignment in Current Session . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.2.2 Teacher Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.2.2.1 View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.2.2.2 Grade policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.3 User Interfaces . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.3.1 Admin UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.3.2 Teacher UI . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18

4.4 Design and implementation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.4.1 Database Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.4.2 Database Schema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.4.3 Technology Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24

4.4.4 MOOCs Assessment and Composite Mark sheet . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.4.4.1 MOOC grade policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

ii

List of Figures CONTENTS

4.4.4.2 All MOOC assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.4.4.3 Composite mark sheet with Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.4.4.4 Composite mark sheet without Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.5 Flow Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.6 Algorithm . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

5 System Testing 30

5.1 Unit Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5.1.1 Teacher Module (Local Evaluation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30

5.1.1.1 Create Grade Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31

5.1.1.2 Upload Local Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.1.1.3 Update Local Marks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33

5.1.2 Teacher Module (MOOCs Evaluation) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.1.2.1 Enter or update Blended MOOCs weight . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.1.2.2 Upload Blended MOOCs Grade Policy . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.1.2.3 Upload Blended MOOCs student’s marks . . . . . . . . . 35

5.1.2.4 Distribute Blended MOOCs Weightage . . . . . . . . . . . 35

5.1.3 Admin Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

5.1.3.1 Local System Set up . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

5.2 Load Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

5.2.1 Load Testing Tool Used . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

5.3 Installation Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38

5.4 Logging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

6 Future Work and Conclusion 40

6.1 Login- Module . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

6.2 Teacher- Module and Interface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

6.3 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

iii

List of Figures

3.1 Admin Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

3.2 Teacher Role . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

4.1 System View . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.2 Level 0 Data Flow Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15

4.3 Level 1 Data Flow Diagram (Part-1) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

4.4 Level 1 Data Flow Diagram (Part-2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

4.5 Admin Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.6 Teacher Dashboard . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

4.7 ER diagram part-1.1 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

4.8 ER diagram part-1.2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.9 MOOC grading policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

4.10 All MOOC assessment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.11 Composite Mark Sheet with Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

4.12 Composite Mark Sheet without Moodle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

4.13 Generate Composite Mark Sheet Flow Chart . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

5.1 Load Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

iv

Abstract

Multiple Institutes are partnering with IIT Bombay to offer blended MOOCs. Students

will study the online course on IITBombayX, and will also study the same course normally

in their Institute. Final grade will be based on the composite performance of students,

in the online assessment, and in the tests/exams at the Institute. This system will help

teachers of engineering colleges in India for assessment of blended MOOCs. The teachers

from various institutes participating in the blended MOOCs, will be able to generate

a composite mark sheet for the particular course by giving certain weightage to online

assessment along with their regular university assessment. For example, a certain portion

of online assessment, say 20% to 30% can get incorporated in final university exam grading.

This system can also be integrated with Moodle for generation of the grade report.

v

Chapter 1

Introduction

In the following section we will see that how teaching method change with time and

technology. From traditional classroom learning to blended learning we have developed a

new teaching style to smoothing the blended learning system came into existence.

1.1 Classroom Models

Classroom model can refer to an educational approach, or physical setting in which teach-

ing and learning occur. In the following section we will see different types of classroom

learning that evolve with time and technology, we will explain some of them further.

1.1.1 Conventional Classroom

Conventional Classroom is concerned with the teacher being the controller of the learning

environment. This provides face to face group interaction, permitting discussions, spon-

taneous questions, and synchronized attention of all students. This environment allows

the instructor to precisely determine the aims, content, organization, pace and direction

of a presentation. The instructor can arouse interest in a subject by giving some real life

examples. Today in engineering education, a course is typically taught in a semester long

duration, ending with a final examination. Scheme of marking/grading is predefined. En-

courages one-way communication, therefore, the lecturer must make a conscious effort to

become aware of student problems and student understanding of content without verbal

feedback.

1

Chapter 1. Introduction 2

1.1.2 Flipped Classroom

Flipped classroom is an instructional strategy and a type of blended learning that re-

verses the traditional educational arrangement. The flipped classroom intentionally shifts

instruction to a learner-centered model in which class time explores topics in greater depth

and creates meaningful learning opportunities, while educational technologies such as on-

line videos are used to deliver content outside of the classroom. Problem solving happens

at in lecture hour inside class room. One of the most prominent issues is the necessity for

students to have access to a computer and Internet in order to view the lectures. This is

particularly hard on students from low-income districts who already have limited access

to resources.

1.1.3 MOOCs

MOOCs stand for massive open online courses which aim for large scale interactive learn-

ing that is equivalent to classroom learning providing all the resources related to the

classroom learning that includes videos,slides handouts and quizzes [1]. The MOOCs are

a good way to reach a huge number of students and help them in learning online through

a variety of interactive resources. It is aimed at open access and unlimited participation.

Some example of MOOCs are Coursera, edX, IITBombayX, etc.

1.1.4 Blended MOOCs

Blended MOOCs takes advantage of all the learning techniques mentioned above [2]. The

Blended MOOCs can be used in engineering level institutions in India, where the course

running in the institute will take some part of content and assessment of a parallel running

course on MOOCs. The teacher in an institute may ask student to view video lecture

on a specific topic in a syllabus and the institute will consider the marks of assessment

conducted by MOOCs, the teacher can also conduct the assessment for that particular

content cover on MOOCs.

2

Chapter 1. Introduction 3

1.2 Need for a comprehensive information system

Multiple Institutes are partnering with IIT Bombay to offer blended MOOCs. Students

will study the online course on IITBombayX, and will also study the same course normally

in their Institute. Final grade will be based on the composite performance of students, in

the online assessment, and in the tests/exams at the Institute.

Design and implement MIS to support teachers in participating institute:

• To maintain information of students, and synchronize it with IITBombayX.

• To define parameter and weightage of all assessment, and calculate final grades.

• To interface with Moodle, if used locally, to import and export relevant data.

1.3 Problem statement

Implementation of an automated system which keeps a record of students marks and

generate the grades of students and also generate the composite mark sheet of blended

MOOCs and of institute.

The goal of this thesis is to allow the participating institute faculty to access the

online assessment marks of their students, and to factor the portion /percentage of marks

in their regular university grades. Further, the system will allow the instructor to generate

composite mark sheet, based on uploaded local assessments and online MOOC assessment.

3

Chapter 2

Literature Survey

2.1 Open source LMS/CMSs

The improvement in information and communication technologies and in the use of inter-

net brought lots of opportunities in field of education. The conventional classroom has

taken many form with the help of these technologies like flipped classroom, MOOCs, etc.

To support these new methodology, Learning Management Systems (LMSs) came in to

existence. We will discuss few of open source LMS like Moodle, ATutor, etc.

These LMS provide creation of content in different ways like audio, video, pdf, csv,

etc. They also have multiple language support for the different group of people in world,

that facility extend the reach of LMS on the globe. These LMS support different kinds of

online exams for the evaluation of students, and also provide a space for student interaction

called chat tool in which they can interact one-to-one or by forming groups.

2.2 LMS interoperability

LMSs are built on extensible frameworks where it can modify according to suitability of

users [3]. LMS is the backbone of e-learning.

• First generation At this time LMS design platform concentrated on the delivery

and interoperability of content designed for a specific purpose, such as a particu-

lar course. At that time, a range of standards emerged one of the standards was

interoperability at content level.

4

Chapter 2. Literature Survey 5

• Second generation During this generation the architecture of LMS design became

modular, where it can share the content and also share with other tool or LMS.

• Next generation In coming generation, the service oriented LMS will be built.

Which will provide integration with other service tools, and various kinds of envi-

ronments to work with. The next generation will not be monolithic, it will provide

many solutions in one product.

2.3 Moodle

Moodle is a learning and course management system for online learning. The name Moodle

stands for Modular Object-Oriented Dynamic Learning Environment. Moodle is written

in PHP and runs on any OS like Unix, Windows, etc. It supports database like MySQL

and PostgreSQL, DB2, Microsoft SQL, etc. Moodle also supports Interoperability with

other web-based systems [4].

2.3.1 Integration with Moodle

Many institutes use Moodle internally to store academic records of students. Goal is to

integrate Moodle with our system, such that data import/export can be done through it.

For example, the student’s marks are stored in Moodle database, then system will import

marks of students from Moodle and generate a composite mark sheet of local assessment

and online MOOC assessment. In this way teachers won’t have to fill the marks again on

our system manually or create new CSV file for update. Moodle integration will provide

flexibility of data exchange.

2.3.1.1 Data Integration

Moodle and our system will share the common data format. Data will be given in form

of CSV file containing grade policy of course, marks of students, etc. Marks obtained by

students on MOOC can be downloaded by teacher from IITBpmbayX in form of CSV file.

Then, teacher will be able to upload these marks using our system to generate composite

mark sheet [5].

5


2.4 Open edX

According to definition in open edx documentation- ”The Open edX platform is a free–

and open source–course management system (CMS) that was originally developed by edX.

The Open edX platform is used all over the world to host Massive Open Online Courses

(MOOCs) as well as smaller classes and training modules” [6]

2.4.1 Open edX LMS

Open edx LMS is a place where learners can view course contents like video, quizzes,

slides, handouts, etc. On the other hand instructor can view the progress of students. In

this part students in interacts with the system and view the content, quizzes, etc. It also

has a discussion forum where students discuss on some topic.

2.4.2 Open edX CMS

”This is course authoring tool and studio authoring system. This is the system that an

instructor uses to build an online course. EdX studio is a CMS. A Django application

that uses MongoDB for content and MySQL/SQLite for other contents [6].”

2.5 IITBombayX platform

IITBombayX is built on the top of open edX to provide blended MOOCs, Where other

engineering colleges can participate in the blended MOOCs offered on the platform.The

feature that will content by well known professor online discussion groups, regular as-

sessment of learning as a learner progresses through a course, and online laboratories [7].

IITBombayX has been created for learners and institutions that that do not have quality

resource like teacher, environment, etc. The goal of of IITBombayX to provide quality

education, advance teaching and learning and expand access to education in engineering

institute in India [8]. IITBombayX will offer MOOCs through online medium.

6


2.6 Current education system in India and how blended

model will help

In recent years, the number of engineering colleges in India is increasing with very high

rate. But, the quality of education is missing due to some constraints like a fixed syl-

labus of course by the university. Due to a fixed syllabus, teacher is bound to teach

predefined topics and conduct predefined set of internal exams. Another reason may be

lack of academic exposure to the students due to not having a quality teacher or may

be technological hindrance. The quality of exams conducted by the university is also not

efficient, the majority of students mug up and write the exam and get marks without

understanding concepts.

2.7 Blended MOOCs from IIT Bombay

Providing the quality education in engineering colleges in India, IIT Bombay proposed a

blended MOOCs model where student will be part of their regular university course as well

as the blended MOOC. Practical sessions, exams, etc. will be conducted under supervision

of local teacher. Students will also complete the same course offered on IITBombayX [2].

The blended MOOCs also provides quizzes, programming assignments, etc. Teachers in

institutes will have freedom to include marks of these online quizzes, assignments, etc. in

their final grade sheet by giving some weightage [9].

2.8 Assessing Effectiveness of MIS

One of the main goals of the MIS is to develop information systems that will increase

efficiency to achieve this, MIS eases the process of any tedious task, and development

takes hierarchical approach to determine effectiveness of system.

• Level 0: This level deals with initial phase of development, for example complains

in database design, documentation quality, programming standards, etc. [10]

• Level 1: This level deals with resource allocation to project, for example time

difference, budget difference, etc.

7


• Level 2: This level deals with production capability of human resource assigns to

MIS development.

2.9 System evaluation

In blended model, teachers will have to combine marks of students for both class room

and MOOC. Currently they use Excel sheets to do this, which is not an efficient method.

To ease this process, an efficient system is needed which can generate composite mark

sheet by taking grades from both modes in some predefined format. This system should

run locally. In addition to that, integration with Moodle is also required. So, teachers

who already have local marks on Moodle, can directly enter them on new system. Our

goal is to build a system to cater above needs.

8

Chapter 3

Functional Requirements of

Proposed System

Functional requirement will describe a particular behaviour of the function of the system

when certain conditions are met. Functional requirements may be calculations, data

manipulation and processing and other specific functionality that defines what a system

is supposed to achieve.

3.1 Main objective

The main objective of this system to smoothing the process of maintaining the marks of

students and generate a composite mark sheet. This system can be used with blended

leaning or local storage of marks. Given the course marks of students, the system will

generate an automated grade sheet based on the course policy. Along with this, it has

the option of integrating Blended MOOCs marks based on instructor’s choice.

3.2 Consolidation of proposed functionality

In the system we have two kind of key role who will use this system. Responsibility of

these two role given below. one role will maintain the system and others will use it.

3.2.1 Admin’s Role

• Admin will be created at the time of system installation.

9

Chapter 3. Functional Requirements of Proposed System 10

• There will be only one Admin credential.

• It can add various department in system.

• Admin can deactivate/reactivate department.

• It can add courses in the department.

• It can also deactivate/reactivate courses.

• Admin will do mapping of various courses to various instructors at the beginning of

each semester.

• Admin can add/remove instructor.

3.2.2 Instructor’s Role

• Instructor Registration: The instructor need to register to use the system. The

registration link is provided on the system’s login page.

• Instructor can view all the courses registered against his/her name in current semester

as well as past semesters.

• Instructor will insert course grading policy of his/her registered course at the be-

ginning of current semester.

• System will import marks of students from LMS like-Moodle or it can browse marks

in the form of a CSV file from the local machine for specific locally conducted

assignments.

• Upload Blended MOOCs Grade Policy: The instructor will download blended MOOCs

grade policy in CSV format from the blended MOOCs website and will upload this

grade policy for the corresponding course.

• Upload Blended MOOCs Mark Sheet: The instructor will download blended MOOCs

mark sheet in CSV format from the blended MOOCs website and will upload this

grade policy for the corresponding course.

• Instructor has choice to incorporate Blended MOOCs weightage for final composite

mark sheet.

10


• Upload Institute Mark Sheet: The Instructor can upload the maximum marks for

assignment and marks obtained by students in the CSV file.

• Update Institute Mark Sheet: In case of any discrepancy, instructor can update the

marks of students.

• Instructor can give priority to some assignment conducted on Blended MOOCs.

• Generate Final Mark Sheet: If the instructor chooses to include blended MOOCs

marks, then the final mark sheet will be a composite of local institute marks and

blended MOOCs marks otherwise final mark sheet will consist only of institute

marks.

3.3 Integration with Moodle

Till now we have seen that the system will store local and blended marks of students

in systems own database and finally produce composite mark sheet. It might pos-

sible that any institute store local marks of students in any Learning Management

System (LMS) like Moodle. For now I will consider that an institute store local

marks of students in Moodle. If this is the case then the system will able to store

blended MOOCs marks in the system’s local database and retrieve students local

marks from Moodle database and finally generate composite mark sheet.

For example, I will consider an institute use open source LMS like Moodle this sys-

tem will integrate with Moodle and will get the student marks from Moodle and gen-

erates grade sheet. I have installed and configure Moodle. Moodle database store, in

MySQL database. At the time of configuration I have created 4 courses, 4 teachers

and 15 students. The teacher is assigned some courses to teach in current semester.

I have examined database schema of Moodle where it stores marks of students.

Moodle store total marks of students in relation named mdl course completions.

Accessing Moodle marks of students from the system and generate a final mark

sheet.

11


3.4 Typical use cases

In the system mainly we have two types of use cases teacher and admin where both of

them have its own access and responsibility. Each of role activities is shown in following

diagrams.

3.4.1 Admin Role

The admin will be responsible for maintaining the system within the institute after instal-

lation. Figure 3.1 shows the responsibility of the admin. For example, admin will register

the session and also assign semester course for teacher.

Figure 3.1: Admin Role

3.4.2 Teacher Role

The teacher will maintain local marks of students in the system and download MOOC

marks in the form of CSV from IITBombayX and generate a composite mark sheet of

12


local marks and MOOC marks.

Figure 3.2: Teacher Role

13

Chapter 4

System Design

4.1 System view and Data Flow Diagram

In figure 4.1 we can see that system will stand alone runs in institute and will import/ex-

port data if necessary from Moodle. The user of this system may be part of of iitbombayX

where they can import MOOCs grading criteria along with marks of students, who have

registered for MOOCs course. Later teachers can use both local and MOOCs mark sheets

to generate composite mark sheet.

4.1.1 System view

System will be installed locally with in the institute and teacher will use it for recording

and generating marks of students as shown in figure 4.1.

14

Chapter 4. System Design 15

Figure 4.1: System View

4.1.2 Data Flow Diagram

Teacher has a facility to upload local assessment and generate compositr mark sheet

comprises of local marks as well as online MOOC marks.

Figure 4.2: Level 0 Data Flow Diagram

4.2 Modules and interfaces

We have designed module and interfaces that interact with the external environment.

Here we have designed interfaces for teacher and admin such that they can easily perform

the required operation.

15


Figure 4.3: Level 1 Data Flow Diagram (Part-1)

4.2.1 Admin Interfaces

The admin interfaces deals with all the activity performed by admin. These interfaces

include setting up the local environment, creating department, course, etc.

4.2.1.1 Department

• Add Department: Add department in the system.

• Deactivate Department: Deactivate department in the system, if necessary.

• Reactivate Department: Reactivate the deactivated departments in the system, if

necessary.

• View Department: View current department in the system.

16


Figure 4.4: Level 1 Data Flow Diagram (Part-2)

4.2.1.2 Course

• Add Courses: Add courses in department in the system.

• Deactivate Course: Deactivate course in the system, if necessary.

• Reactivate Course: Reactivate the deactivated course in the system, if necessary.

• View Course: View all the course or department wise in the system.

4.2.1.3 Register Session

• Register current session at beginning of each semester in the system.

• Can view all the registered session in the system.

4.2.1.4 Course Assignment in Current Session

• Do the mapping of course to Instructor at the beginning of each semester.

17


4.2.2 Teacher Interfaces

The teacher interfaces deals with all the activity performed by teacher, for example,

view assign course, upload the marks of student, update the marks of students, generate

composite mark sheet.

4.2.2.1 View

• Can view all the assigned courses in current semester.

• Can view all the assigned courses.

4.2.2.2 Grade policy

• Create: Create grade policy for each assigned course at beginning of each semester.

• View: Can view the created grade policy.

4.3 User Interfaces

In the we have mainly two types of dashboard one is for teacher other for admin. Through

these interfaces teacher and admin perform some kind of operation that ease the process

of setting up a system in an institute and store marks of students in the system and finally

generate a composite mark sheet for some course.

4.3.1 Admin UI

After login the admin will see the dashboard where admin can perform some kind of

operation like manage department, course, etc.,

4.3.2 Teacher UI

The teacher in his/her dashboard will be able to see assigned courses for the current

semester and also all the previous courses, if any. As shown in the Figure 4.5, for mark

sheet generation module, teacher will be able to see create and view grade policy, give

weightage to blended MOOC, etc.

18


Figure 4.5: Admin Dashboard

Figure 4.6: Teacher Dashboard

19


4.4 Design and implementation

While developing the system I have taken help from the Django documentation[11] with

MySQL as back end database and develop front page using technology HTML, CSS, etc.

4.4.1 Database Design

We use Django authentication tables to authenticate user. We are storing grade policy

for the current semester in grade policy table. To store blended MOOCs grade policy, we

have created a separate table, that table is used to populate all the evaluation of blended

MOOCs. We are also storing blended MOOCs weightage to be included. To store blended

MOOCs marks of students, we have created a different table that will be used to generate

final mark sheet.

Figure 4.7: ER diagram part-1.1

20


Figure 4.8: ER diagram part-1.2

4.4.2 Database Schema

We have created number of relation that is used to store data.

• All deprtment (CharField department name, CharField department abb, Boolean-

Field is active): This relation is used to store all the registered department in the

system. The department name column is primary key and also have unique values

in the department abbreviation column.

• All course (CharField course code, CharField course name, ForeignKey dp-

name, BooleanField is active): This relation is used to store all the registered

course, in the corresponding department in the system. The course code column is

primary key and also have unique values in the course name column. The dpname

column represents course associate to the corresponding department.

• Academic session (CharField year, IntegerField semester, BooleanField is active):

21


This relation is used to store current academic semester. In current running semester

is active value will be true for others will be false.

• Moodle (BooleanField is active): Boolean field in this relation indicates that

Moodle is used to store local marks or not.

• Course mapping (CharField mdl cid, ForeignKey cid , BooleanField is active):

This relation is used to store mappings of Moodle course id and course id in the

system. The mdl cid column represents course id from Moodle database and did

represent course id from the system database. The mdl cid and side column is a

unique pair in the database.

• Userlogin (OneToOneField user, IntegerField usertypeid, BooleanField sta-

tus, DateTimeField last login, IntegerField nooflogins): This relation is used to

store details of the user at login time. The user column field defines which user, user-

typeid define which type of user, status define user is active or not, DateTimeField

define at what time, nooflogins define how many times user login.

• Personinformation (EmailField email, IntegerField titleid, CharField first-

name, CharField lastname, IntegerField designation, CharField gender, For-

eignKey departmentid, CharField experience, CharField telephone, DateField

createdondate, BooleanField is active): This relation is used to store personal in-

formation of the user, at the time of user registration. details of the user at login

time. User fields defines which user, usertypeid define which type of user, status

define user is active or not, DateTimeField define at what time, nooflogins define

how many times user login. The email id column is the primary key for this relation.

• Courseallotment (ForeignKey personid, ForeignKey courseid, ForeignKey sessionid ,

BooleanField is active): This relation is used to store mappings of teacher to some

course in a current academic semester. Pair of teacher id and course id will be unique.

Once the semester will over mapping will be deactivated.

• Evaluation table (CharField eval name, CharField eval no, FloatField max marks,

ForeignKey courseallotid, BooleanField is active): This relation is used to store

details of local evaluations. The eval name column store name of evaluation for ex-

ample: quiz, mid sem, etc. The eval no column store number if multiple evaluations

22


occur of the same type. The max marks field store maximum marks for particular

evaluation. The courseallotid store object of Courseallotment relation.

• Evaluation marks (CharField roll no, FloatField marks, ForeignKey evalid,

BooleanField is active): This relation is used to store local marks of students in

a particular course. The roll no column store roll number of students. The marks

column store marks obtain by students in some evaluation. The evalid store object

of Evaluation table.

• Grade policy (CharField gp id, CharField abbreviation, CharField assign-

ment, IntegerField total, IntegerField mandatory): This relation is used to

store details of local grade policy for some course. The gp id column store store

unique grade policy id, which is generated by a combination of the course code,

current academic session and semester number. The abbreviation column is used to

store abbreviation for evaluation. assignment column is used to store the name of

evaluation. The total column is used to store the total number of evaluations. The

mandatory column is used to store mandatory evaluation out of the total evaluation.

• CourseGrade (ForeignKey gp id, CharField course code, ForeignKey per-

sonid, ForeignKey sessionid): This relation is used to store grade policy created

by teacher for some course.

• Bm max marks (CharField course name, CharField all eval, ForeignKey

personid, ForeignKey sessionid, IntegerField max marks): This relation is

used to store details of blended MOOCs evaluation conducted on IITBombayX.

max marks column store maximum marks for that particular evaluation. all eval

store name of evaluation.

• Bm student marks (CharField roll no, CharField course name, ForeignKey

personid, ForeignKey sessionid, TextField marks): This relation is used to store

MOOCs marks of students for some course.

• Bm weight ( CharField course name, ForeignKey personid, ForeignKey

sessionid, IntegerField bmoocs weight ): This relation is used to store MOOCs

weightage some course. MOOCs weightage can be 0 to 100%.

23


• Bm grade policy ( CharField course name, ForeignKey personid, ForeignKey

sessionid, IntegerField min count, FloatField weight, CharField examtype,

IntegerField drop count, CharField short label): This relation is used to store

MOOC’s grade policy. The min count column defines the minimum number of eval-

uations of the same type. The eighth column defines the total weight for evaluations.

The drop count is used to to store drop able evaluations. The short label for exam

type.

• Bm policy weight (CharField course name, ForeignKey personid, ForeignKey

sessionid, TextField pweight): This relation is used to store MOOCs weight distri-

bution among different evaluations. The pweight column store a vector of distributed

value.

Other then above relational schema I have also used some of the relation from Moodle

database. For example mdl user enrolments, mdl enrol, mdl course, mdl course completions,

etc.

4.4.3 Technology Used

• HTML: It is the main mark-up language for displaying web pages and other infor-

mation that can be displayed in a web browser.

• CSS: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a style sheet language used for describing the

presentation of a document written in a markup language.

• JavaScript: It is a prototype-based scripting language that is dynamic, weakly typed

and has first-class functions and is mainly used for client side validation etc.

• AJAX: AJAX is the art of exchanging data with a server, and updating parts of a

web page - without reloading the whole page.

• MySQL: It is the world’s most used open source relational database management

that runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases.

• Django/Python: Django is a free and open source web application framework, writ-

ten in Python, which follows the model-view-controller (MVC) architectural pattern.

24


• Bootstrap: Bootstrap is the most popular HTML, CSS and JavaScript framework

for developing responsive, mobile-first web sites.

• The Operating System used primarily in this project is Ubuntu 14.04.

4.4.4 MOOCs Assessment and Composite Mark sheet

4.4.4.1 MOOC grade policy

Figuere 4.8 shows the grading policy for a MOOC. It is a CSV file in which the first column

is the number of evaluations of an assignment, and the second column is weightage of an

assignment, and the third column is name of an exam, and the forth column contains the

number of droppable evaluations of an assignment, and fifth column contains short label

for a respective assignment.

Figure 4.9: MOOC grading policy

4.4.4.2 All MOOC assessment

Figuere 4.9 shows the MOOC marks of all the students, who are registered for MOOC

course with IITBombayX and regular university course. The first line in the Figure shows

the maximum marks for the evaluation, second line contains the list of MOOC evaluations,

and from third line onwards contain marks obtained by each student in corresponding

evaluation.

4.4.4.3 Composite mark sheet with Moodle

Figuere 4.12 shows the composite mark sheet of local marks and MOOC marks of all the

students, who are registered for blended MOOC course with IITBombayX along with their

regular university course. Local marks of students are stored in Moodle database. Figure

25


Figure 4.10: All MOOC assessment

shows the blended MOOC weight in this case it is 25(shown in figure). It also shows

weight distribution and maximum marks for each of the blended MOOC evaluation.

Figure 4.11: Composite Mark Sheet with Moodle

4.4.4.4 Composite mark sheet without Moodle

Figuere 4.13 shows the composite mark sheet of local marks and MOOC marks of all

the students, who are registered for blended MOOC course with IITBombayX along with

26


their regular university course. Local marks of students are stored in system database.

Figure 4.12: Composite Mark Sheet without Moodle

4.5 Flow Chart

Teacher will login in system and upload grade policy and blended MOOC assessments in

system. Teacher will select weightage of MOOC and also select MOOC evaluations to be

included in composite mark sheet.

27


Figure 4.13: Generate Composite Mark Sheet Flow Chart28


4.6 Algorithm

I have designed a following algorithm to a generate composite mark sheet of MOOC

evaluations and local evaluations. I assume that teacher has downloaded MOOCs grading

policy and mark sheet of students for the corresponding course.

Step 1: Start

Step 2: Teacher login into the system.

Step 3: Teacher selects weightage of MOOC

Step 4: If weightage > 0

Upload MOOC grade policy

Generate template for some course

Fill template with MOOCs marks of students

Upload filled template with marks of students

Select MOOC evaluations to be included in final mark sheet

Step 5: If Moodle used for local storage

Read MOOC assessments from system

Read local assessments from Moodle database

Output a composite mark sheet in a form of CSV file

Step 6: Else

Read MOOC assessments from system

Read local assessments from system database

Output a composite mark sheet in a form of CSV file

Step 7: Stop

29

Chapter 5

System Testing

System testing of software testing is conducted on a complete, integrated system to evalu-

ate the system’s acceptance with its defined requirements. System testing falls within the

scope of black-box testing. Unit testing is also performed to evaluate each independent

module.

5.1 Unit Testing

A unit is the smallest testable part of the software. A unit could be an entire module, but

it is more often an independent function or procedure. Unit Testing is a level of software

testing where individual units/ components of a software are tested. The goal is to ratify

that each unit of the software performs as designed. It normally has one or a few inputs

and usually a single output. In procedural programming a unit may be an individual

program, function, procedure, etc. Unit Testing is performed by using the White Box

Testing method.

5.1.1 Teacher Module (Local Evaluation)

The teacher has to perform some kind of operation to store local marks of students. To

effectively run whole process, we need to test that function or module producing valid

output on valid input data. So, in following section we have created some test cases that

validate function or module’s effectiveness.

30

Chapter 5. System Testing 31

5.1.1.1 Create Grade Policy

This module creates grade policy for a course in current semester that later use to compute

total marks on the basis of evaluation’s weightage criteria defined in grade policy and

finally generate composite mark sheet. The following value in the table shows valid and

invalid values for creating grading policy.

31


Step Test Steps Test Data Expected Result Status

1Enter value of abbr

columnEX, QZ Successfully created Pass

2Enter value of abbr

column2, E1

*ERROR-Abbreviation

column should contain

ONLY uppercase alphabets

of Maximum length 4

Fail

3Enter value of assign-

ment column

Mid Sem, End

SemSuccessfully created Pass

4Enter value of assign-

ment columnMid-Sem, End1 Do not use hyphen (-) Fail

5Enter value of No. of

assignment column1 to 99 Successfully created Pass


assignment column-1, 0, 101, 500

*ERROR- No.of Assign-

ments field value should be

greater then ZERO and less

then 100.

Fail


Best Score column

<= No. of

assignment col-

umn

Successfully created Pass


Best Score column

>No. of assign-

ment column

*ERROR- No.of Assign-

ments field value can not be

less then No. of Best Score

field value.

Fail


assignment column-1, 0, 101, 500, kl

*ERROR- No. of Best

Score column value should

be only positive INTEGER

greater then zero.

Fail

10Enter value of Weight

column

Weight column

Sum = 100Successfully created Pass

11Enter value of Weight

column

Weight column

Sum != 100

*ERROR-: Weight column

SUM should be exactly 100.Fail

32


5.1.1.2 Upload Local Marks

To upload marks of students we need to verify that maximum marks for any evaluation

should be greater/equal than the marks obtain by the students. Maximum marks and

marks obtain should be greater than zero.


1 Upload File Correct fileYou have successfully up-

loaded marksPass

2 Upload File Not .CSV file*ERROR-: Uploaded file is

not .CSV file.Fail

3 Upload FileFile already Up-

loaded

*ERROR-: Marks for this

evaluation is already Up-

loaded !!!

Fail

4 Upload File

Max marks <

marks obtain <

0

*ERROR-: Uploaded file

contain maximum marks

less the obtain marks or ob-

tain marks less then zero at

given line no

Fail

5.1.1.3 Update Local Marks

In case of any discrepancy in the marks of students due to any human, teacher can update

marks of students we need to verify that maximum marks for any evaluation should be

greater/equal than the marks obtain by the students. Maximum marks and marks obtain

should be greater than zero.


1 Update student marks 10,5You have successfully up-

date the marksPass

2 Update student marks -5, > Max marks

*ERROR-: Update marks

is greater then Max marks

or less then zero for evalua-

tion.

Fail

33


5.1.2 Teacher Module (MOOCs Evaluation)

The teacher has to perform some kind of operation to store MOOCs marks of students.

To effectively run whole process, we need to test that function or module producing valid

output on valid input data. So, in following section we have created some test cases that

validate function or module’s effectiveness.

5.1.2.1 Enter or update Blended MOOCs weight

To test the weightage of MOOCs to be included to generate final composite mark sheet,

weightage of MOOCs should be entered from 0 to 100 both included. Other values should

not be entered.


1

Enter or update

Blended MOOCs

marks

0 to 100

You have successfully se-

lected or update weight of

Blended MOOC

Pass

2

Enter or update

Blended MOOCs

marks

other values

*ERROR-: Number range

should be between 0 and

100 both inclusive.

Fail

5.1.2.2 Upload Blended MOOCs Grade Policy

Blended MOOCs grade policy should be a .CSV that has been downloaded from bmw.iitbombayX.

This file has some specific format previously shown in figure 4.10.


1Upload Blended

MOOCs grade policyValid .CSV file

You have successfully sub-

mitted blended MOOCs

grading policy for given

course.

Pass

2Upload Blended

MOOCs grade policyNot .CSV file

*ERROR-: Uploaded file is

not .CSV file.Fail

34


5.1.2.3 Upload Blended MOOCs student’s marks

To upload Blended MOOCs marks of students, teacher have to fill the marks downloaded

marks from bmw.iitbombayX in a template, which can be generated from the system.

The upload file should be.CSV format.


1Upload Blended

MOOCs mark sheetValid .CSV file

You have successfully sub-

mitted blended MOOCs

student’s marks for given

course.

Pass

2Upload Blended

MOOCs mark sheetNot .CSV file

*ERROR-: Uploaded file is

not .CSV file.Fail

3Upload Blended

MOOCs mark sheetf4,th

*ERROR-: Students marks

can not be other then Num-

ber and NA for given Roll

number.

Fail

3Upload Blended

MOOCs mark sheet<0


can not be less then zero for

given Roll number.

Fail

4Upload Blended

MOOCs mark sheet< Max marks


can not be more then max

marks for given Roll num-

ber.

Fail

5.1.2.4 Distribute Blended MOOCs Weightage

To distribute Blended MOOCs weightage in preferred evaluations. The evaluation sum

equals to selected weightage. Negative and empty values are not allowed.

35



1Distribute Blended

MOOCs Weightage

Distribute

weight sum =

submit weight

You have successfully

submitted weight of your

blended MOOCs grading

policy.

Pass

2Distribute Blended

MOOCs WeightageEmpty value

**ERROR-: Enter valid

number greater then zero

!!!!!

Fail

3Distribute Blended

MOOCs Weightage

Distribute

weight sum !=

submit weight

*ERROR-: Your dis-

tributed weight sum should

be equal to given some. It

is now some value

Fail

5.1.3 Admin Module

At the time of system installation admin has to create department, course, register aca-

demic session, etc. To smoothly run whole process, we need to test that function or mod-

ule producing valid output or enter into a database on valid input data. So, in following

section we have created some test cases that validate function or module’s effectiveness.

5.1.3.1 Local System Set up

To set up a local system in an institution admin has to create some department as well

as a course for corresponding department. admin also maps the teacher to some course

in the current semester.

• Create Department: Department name should start from alphabet other values

will be invalid values. Department abbreviation should also follow above criteria.

36



1Create Department

Name

Computer

Science and

Engineering,

Mechanical

Engineering

You have successfully added

some department.Pass

2Create Department

Name2cse

*ERROR-: Department

name should start from

character only

Fail

3Create Department

AbbreviationCSE, ME


some department.Pass

4Create Department

Abbreviation2cse, −ME

*ERROR-: Department ab-

breviation should start from

character only

Fail

• Create Course: Course name should start from alphabet other values will be

invalid values. Course code should also follow above criteria. Duplicate course can

not be registered.


1 Create Course Name

Data Structure,

Thermodynam-

ics


some course.Pass

2 Create Course Name −data structure

*ERROR-: Course name

should start from character

only

Fail

3 Create Course Code CS101, ME209You have successfully added

some course code.Pass

4 Create Course Name already register*ERROR-: Course name al-

ready registerFail

5 Create Course Code already register*ERROR-: Course code al-

ready registerFail

37


• Semester Course Allocation: Course allocation for teacher in current semester

will be unique. Duplicate entry can not be registered.


1 Allocate Courseunique course,

teacher pair

You have successfully allo-

cate course to the teacher.Pass

2 Allocate Courseunique course,

teacher pair

*ERROR- Pair of selected

course and teacher for this

semester is already allo-

cated.

Fail

5.2 Load Testing

”Load testing is the process of putting demand on a software system or computing device

and measuring its response. Load testing is performed to determine a system’s behaviour

under both normal and anticipated peak load conditions.”

I have done load testing of the system using an open source load testing tool Locust. I

have applied load on the system from 0 to 1500 users, the response time shown in the

graph. I have tested all the interfaces of a system that interacts concurrently with the

database. As shown in the graph, as number of user increases response time also increases.

5.2.1 Load Testing Tool Used

Locust [12]:- An open source load testing tool

Locust is an easy-to-use, distributed, user load testing tool. Intended for load testing

web systems and figuring out how many concurrent users a system can handle. Locust

is completely event based, and therefore it’s possible to support thousands of concurrent

users on a single machine.

5.3 Installation Testing

Installation testing is examines that the software system is successfully installed and it

is working as anticipated after installation. I have done installation testing on a testing

38


0

100

200

300

400

500

600

700

800

0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400

Response T

ime(m

s)

Number of Users

MedianAverage

Min

Figure 5.1: Load Testing

machine where I have installed all the required software package, database, dump file into

a database, etc. To smoothly install the system I have created Makefile.

5.4 Logging

Logging module is also created where all the error and exception log generated by the

system will be recorded. This will help to debug the problem if there any problem occurs

in the system. To implement logging facility I have used Django’s logger module.

39

Chapter 6

Future Work and Conclusion

6.1 Login- Module

• Send confirmation link when instructor register first time.

• A module for forgot password will be integrated with a valid register email id.

6.2 Teacher- Module and Interface

• Re-use Grade Policy if Instructor wants to continue with any one of previously

generated grade policy, then the instructor can forward one of defined grade policy.

• Grade Generation Once the final mark sheet is generated, instructor will enter a

range of marks for specific grades and will get a final grade sheet.

6.3 Conclusion

The blended MOOCs requires the composition of institute marks and MOOCs marks.

So, to make this process easy and efficient for the blended MOOCs partner teachers. We

have built a system which stores marks of institute evaluations and takes MOOCs marks

in the form of CSV file and generate a composite mark sheet. The teachers, who are not

the part of blended MOOCs can also use this system to keep records of students marks.

The system will install and runs locally in engineering colleges in India.

40

Chapter 6. Future Work and Conclusion 41

Blended MOOCs require the composite nature of in-classroom learning and online

participation. To this effect, both evaluation i.e. classroom as well as online evaluation,

are necessary for the complete assessment of students. Regular assessments in different

forms (online quizes, in-classs exams) make the teacher aware of the current subject

understanding of students in a class.

41

References

[1] Massive open online course, . URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_

open_online_course. Retrieved on 2015-9-20.

[2] Deepak B Phatak. Adopting moocs for quality engineering education in india. In

Proceedings of the International Conference on Transformations in Engineering Ed-

ucation, pages 11–23. Springer, 2015.

[3] Declan Dagger, Alexander O’Connor, Seamus Lawless, Eddie Walsh, and Vincent P

Wade. Service-oriented e-learning platforms: From monolithic systems to flexible

services. Internet Computing, IEEE, 11(3):28–35, 2007.

[4] Moodle, . URL https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle. Retrieved on 2015-9-15.

[5] Ricardo Queiros, Lino Oliveira, Jose Paulo Leal, and Fernando Moreira. Integration

of eportfolios in learning management systems. In Computational Science and Its

Applications-ICCSA 2011, pages 500–510. Springer, 2011.

[6] About open edx, . URL https://open.edx.org/about-open-edx. Retrieved on

2015-10-8.

[7] Definition iitbombatx. URL https://www.iitbombayx.in/. Retrieved on 2015-10-7.

[8] About iitbombatx, . URL https://www.iitbombayx.in/about. Retrieved on 2015-

10-7.

[9] Consultation conclave on blended moocs. URL http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/frg/

wiki/images/9/9a/Minutes_Consultation_Conclave_on_Blended_MOOCs.pdf.

Retrieved on 2015-9-23.

42

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massive_open_online_course

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moodle

https://open.edx.org/about-open-edx

https://www.iitbombayx.in/

https://www.iitbombayx.in/about

http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/frg/wiki/images/9/9a/Minutes_Consultation_Conclave_on_Blended_MOOCs.pdf

http://www.it.iitb.ac.in/frg/wiki/images/9/9a/Minutes_Consultation_Conclave_on_Blended_MOOCs.pdf

Bibliography 43

[10] Scott Hamilton and Norman L Chervany. Evaluating information system

effectiveness-part i: Comparing evaluation approaches. MIS quarterly, pages 55–69,

1981.

[11] Django documentation. URL http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/django/1.8.

x/django.pdf. Retrieved on 2015-8-30.

[12] Locust documentation. URL http://locust.io/. Retrieved on 2016-5-20.

43

http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/django/1.8.x/django.pdf

http://media.readthedocs.org/pdf/django/1.8.x/django.pdf

http://locust.io/

mis for blended moocs on iitbombayx...from traditional classroom learning to blended learning we...

Documents