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Introduction |
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Abstract
NPAC Grading System is for registering,
evaluating and observing students to the courses offered by NPAC. Because
of its exposure to the public,system includes some security issues both
on accessing to it and on transferring the data between database
and its web interface. System is designed in a way that everything
can be managed from the Web browsers. The coming new standards on grading,
PAPI, are also considered in the design.
Technologies
The grading system is implemented
using HTML, JavaScript, PL/SQL, Oracle SQL. The secure communication technologies,
SSL Servers, are used in communication on the networks.
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The courses offered by NPAC has a potential
to enlarge its range out of Syracuse University Campus, where NPAC is located.
By using collaboration and web tools developed at NPAC, Jackson
State University students at Mississippi took CSC 499 from
NPAC at fall 97. The virtual university project of NPAC includes further
goals to extend the web based education between various universities all
over the world, e.g., at China.
Web based education definitely brings new
needs together to be used. NPAC Grading System is one of the applications
to fulfill a requirement of Web Based Education. For a class offered off-campus,
students need to see their grades online. Although any communication tool
could be used to submit basic numeric grades to the students, NPAC Grading
System provides much more sophisticated system based on the spirit of the
Web Education. In a distributed environment, the system provides
accesses from different locations through a complete security mechanism
and user authentication interface. The student records and their performance
records are planned to be kept in a database, the Oracle Database, continuously
that provides a base for a virtual university student services. A student
can access his performance page at any time, or can include his resume
for the applications, which causes more reliable evaluations.
Besides convenience at submitting the grades
to the students, NPAC grading system helps to instructors as an assessment
tool. The graders can see various statistics about the students at any
time while grading from a web browser. Preparing class surveys through
the Grading System provides keep tracking of the student performances,
understanding course quality, and increased adaptability to the student
needs. Possible customizations at the grading brings more flexibilities
at the grading. In the system, additional to seing a simple grade, students
themselves are able to see their performance, like average or expected
grade, grader comments, and suggestions, etc., through the semester .
The features of NPAC Grading System make
it necessary for local courses in the university also. A primitive version
is already used for NPAC courses. This new version provides much more functionality
to its users. The main functionalities of the system in the collaboration
of instructor, co-instructors, TA, and students through the Web Browsers;
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Course Manipulations; add,update,delete, and
surveys.
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Student Records Manipulations
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Assignment Records Manipulations
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Customizing Grading
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Preparing surveys
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Grading and Statistics
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System User Records; defining new users, manipulating
user accesses
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System Services like backups, and class list
construction
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Students' Access Menu, personal information
and grades
One issue is kept in mind at the development
of the NPAC Grading System, which a new standard, Personal and Performance
Information (PAPI), are coming into the Web based education. Although it
is not completely possible to obey to future standards, the current PAPI
specifications are considered in the internal structure of the system.
PAPI standards will provide portable student records, which provides integration
of several applications by using the web technologies. The NPAC Grading
System is one of the candidates to obey these standards by the time.
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