[Image]            [Image]

     Introduction
                          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.

                                                   * * *

                               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;

                                  + Course Manipulations; add,update,delete, and
                                    surveys.
                                  + Student Records Manipulations
                                  + Assignment Records Manipulations
                                  + Customizing Grading
                                  + Preparing surveys
                                  + Grading and Statistics
                                  + System User Records; defining new users,
                                    manipulating user accesses
                                  + System Services like backups, and class list
                                    construction
                                  + 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.

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
   [home]   [back]