: DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF TH E COURSE UNIT BASED RESULTS ANALYSIS SYSTEM irl combinations. Each combination consists of threc major subjccts and each subject ists of several coursc units. Studcnts who arc adnit|ed to the faculty enrol for a subjcct frsi.al iiences, 15,27 39 (20A9) ination. Before commencing the rcgular academic programmc, students have to enrol tbree compulsory foundation counes. During the first year each studenl enrols for tbree have to eam a minimurn of90 crcdits alld 120 credits respcctively to obtain their S. R. KODITUWAKKU AND P CHAMII'ARA I)epartntcnt afStdtistk s & 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 evaluare sLudcnis. resuhs ir is required to check selrrnl rcquiremerus surh as numbel .,1 crcdirs, compllsory .ourses- prc'eqursites ar ninrnndn grade point.vefage. Additunally this rast ne.ds ro be .'!.'rdered qoickiy and elllricndy. lhis |;rFr prcsc.rs an idbmuftn s),stenr devctoped to a.ltr.re rhis lark. Salient Ilalures of lhe system iichdc evalxarion of snrder$, resulls I ,l.cidc \.hciher stxdcnts are 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. Tl1e lest iesrn|S indicaled lllr dre systed functions accuratrtf ard efiicienltyr A'TRODUCTION rhe introduction ofthe coursc unit systemr students ilre provided with a lot offlexibility $lecting degree programmes. The Faculty of Science, University ofperadeniya ollers 21 a combination, and offers a minimum of 24 compulsory credits. Duins the second gudents could emol for thee major subjects or t\\'o major subjccts al1d offer a tl1lmmum 2? credils. This includes both compulsory and optional courses. At thc end of the second students coukl app11, lbr one or more special degree programmes. Those who have Lfed 1he rcquirements of such prograi res arc selected to lbllotv spccial tlegrcc s- The othcrs continue towards a gcnual degrec. The general and special degree ding aulhor: E mail salukak@pdn.ac.lk 2 i degrees. Those who have completed thcse credit requirements arc awarded honoun degrees subject to the fulfilment of additional requirements. Therefore, it is essential to analyse studcnts' results to make sure that they have fuifilled each and every rcquirement before awarding respcctive degrees and honoursr. This is a tine consuming and resource wasting task. Usually ten to fifleen academic stallmembers work for about ten days to finalise results. As a resolt, the faculty faces difficulties in releasil1g results on time Therefore, an altemative approach is required to expedite this process. With the advances in lnfonnalion and Communication fechnology, aotomatic inlonnation processir'rg appears to bc the best solrltion for such tasts2 This paper proposes a new information system (CUBRAS) io haodle lhe cowsc unil based informalion processilg for the Fac!dt)'- of Science, University of geradeniya. which ay be applicable to other |-:tiversitics as \\,ell. 2. MATI]RIAI-S AND METHODOLOGY In order to develop an automated system design pa{tem, modem software process' tools and programming languages are used. The following sections descnbe thcse aspects. 2.1 The Model mero Contruller Pattem The Model-View-Controllq (MVC) architectural pattcrn separates an application into three main components: model, view, and controller3'4. The MVC architecture is shown in Figure 1 . Fig. L Architecture of the Model-View'Control patterr In a MVC application, model rcpresents the data to be processed, contloller processes the data in the model and view displays the informalion. For cxample, lnodel leprescnts a database, controller handles query-st.ing to relrieve data from the model and view displays the query reslrlts. Controller t8 Atifu Prccess lJnified Process (RLT) is a common srrategy utilised in the dcvelopment of programs- This web,enabied process provides a numbcr'of differellt tools that assist amner in fleshing out the basic code for a program, as well as helping to detemine look ofthe products. Unifed M od eling L atg uag e ified Modeling Languagc (LML) is a language for specifying, constructing, Lrtrg and documenting thc artifacts of a software-intensive system. Analogous to the of architectual blueprints in the conslruction industry, UML provides a common for describing soflware models, and it can be used iD conjunction with a wirlc range € lifecycles and devclopment processcs6 ,Iictosoft nsual Stt .lio Visual Studio is an Integated Developnent Envircnment (IDE). It cem be used to console and graphical user inteface applications along wilh Windows Forms ons, web sitcs, web applications, and web services in both native code toeether with code lbr all plalforms suppofied by Microsoft Windows, Windows Mobile, CE, .NET Framework, .NEI Compact Framework and Microsoft SilverlishtT. SQL Serrer Manageme t Studio Server Management Studio is a tool included with Microsoft SeL Scl1r'er 2005 and latcr ions for configuring, managing, and administering all componcnts within the Miclosoll - Server Thc tool includes both script editors and graphical tools which work with objecrs features of the ser-ver3. tlicrosofl LINQ osoft LINQ defines a set ofproprietary query operators that can be used to query, pro_ject filter data in .urays, enumerable classes, XML (XLtNe), relational database. 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 source does not nativelv store data as the data n'lust be mapped to the object clomain. eueries written using the qucry rs are executed either by the LINQ query processing engine or, via an extension Itanism. The results ofa query are retumed as a collection ofin mcmory objects that can qumeraled using a stalldar-d itcralor function']_ 29 2.7 Design of CUBMS CTIBRAS is designed as a thJee lier architecture- The user interlaoe ofthe system is desigred as the prcsentation tier This tier is dcsigned with web browsers such as Mozilla Fire Fox and Microsoft Intemct Explorcr. Business logic of the system is designed as the middle ticr It is developetl using Intemet Infonnation SeNice (1lS) along with the ASPNet platfom The bottom tier reprcsents the information storage. In other words bottom tier is the database componeit ol the system. lt is constmcted by using thc MSSQL Server 2005 Thrce-lier architectr.re of CLIBRAS is depicted in Figxre 2. Fig. 2. Tlfee iief architecturc olllre systcni 2-7.1 Datahase Design As the first stcp database is modcled into an equivalent rclalional model. shown in Figue J. as an enlity rclationshjp diagram and thcn transformed The relational diagram of the CUBRAS database is 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 request to CUBRAS web sile' the MVC Frrunelvork rLses its URL rcuting enginc to map the incomiog requcst onto an action ncthod of a controller class for processirlg. The Controller class prccesses the request, handles uscr inpui and interactions and exccutes the application logics such as retrieving and updating thc dalabase After completing thc processing the controller class intencts with thc view classes to rellLm thc output to users. The URL routing mechanism is dcpicted in Figure 4 Fot exantple' user requests for aLlding or deleting subject conbjnatiotls arc designed througl the CIIBRAS Controller, Modcl and Vic\ls. When the user requests to add' to delete or to edil by ente ng data into the usel interface, ihe irput is seit io the cortroller lbr plocessing Then the controller proccsscs the rcquesL by intcracling \i,ilh the rrodei. Finally. Proccsse(l data are seit to the Yie\\' for displaying. design of CUBRAS is designed to provide a simple and an attractive graphical lo lhe users. So the graphical user interface (GUI) is designed with tkee major Main interface, administrativc interface and view interface. The main iotclface to allow users to login and to make requests. Admiiistrativc interlace is dcsimed administrative facilities for secure system nranagement. Thl] view interface is Figue 3. Relatonal model l 1 CUBR-{S Conrroller CLIBRAS Model FiguPl. URI- Rouling ntcha sm designed to generate and to print fanscripts. The GUI is dcsigned so that the intcrfaces get dyranrically ch:rnged according to the user roles. ht other words, user acccss to the system resoulces is resticted according to the rolcs of users. Fo! examplc, facilities provided for stLdents arc different from that ofan administmtor or an acadcmic staffmember' 2.8 Functionnli! ofthe system The overall functionaljty ofthe system is shown in Figure 5. When a user rcquests for some information froru the CIJBRA.S, first it checks whether lhe requestcd information involves any analysis. If so, the controller porforms the analysis by intctacting wilh the model class and retums the results. Othorwise the infomation is retumcd by invoking ADO.NET data connection as shown in the flow chafl. Since ADO.NET is'used in the CUBRAS, the results are eithu processed directlt 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 database and they have to be maintained properly. Thjs tedious task is per{bnned by a new actor called data opentor. -12 Crc Studem lnformation i 1. Request for details i 2. Retfieve details i Information is analysed inside the i a ' . nh , r l lP r 3. Request for nformation 'LTS AND DISCUSSION developed lvas tested wilh a sample of actual students'g1.ades. The sample grades from students who successfully completed the respective progranmes and who f complete the rcquirements of the respective programmes. First the lfades wcrc i rbe database component of the system and then various result validation actlvities According to the test results, student rcgistration and ente ng ofresults were Eror messages were retumed whcn users fail 10 input valid data. 4. Respond for the request Fig. 5. Workflow ofthe CUBRAS to the students'subject combinations, students may be eligible to apply for +ecial degree programmes. Thereforc the cligibility of each sludent for special \a.as tesled at the end ofthc second year Fi.st the rcquirencnts for 100 were validated. The 100 level and 200 lelel validation results are shown200 level (User Intedace) 6, and 7. i l ;;x}, i* r'"*.i"'pra.a ir'.;'*tv...dhimiir'v eutied socc"'sr''v Y.. hM .drrtd.d |n. nrd Y.a' coflre' scitft .urjfd s!'Eddv y*r;it&-"iia.d$"h.n ;.'udri"*d""" "d"a;ls***frq lig. 6. 100 lcael results validat'on Students who fulfil the 100 level and 200 level requirements can apply for special degrecs' Then thc system reports the eligible spccial degree prcgrammes for a given studcnl and the student is allowed to apply for eligible programmes only Result of an eligibility checking for special degrec progmmmes is depicted in Figurc 8. Fig. 7. 200 level results validation ia lCou Fig. 8. Eligibility check for special degrces G!!,tiitl . l 5 Once th€ students complete the duration oftheir study programme, results were validated in several phases. For each general degee student, level-wise validation was perfomed to check whether he/she has fulfilled the required credit requirement, and the compulsory and prerequisite requircments- Each student's results were analysed fioln 100 level io 300 level 400 lcvel validation was performed only for special degree students Students who have fulfrlled all the requirements at each level were reported to be eligible for awarding the respcctive degrees. A result ofa 400 level validation is shown in Flgure 9. . Fig. 9. ,100levcl resulis validation After lhe level-wise validation, each student's overall GPA was calculated The result of a GPA calculation is shown in Figure 10. The systcm also facilitates the automatic llanscnpt gencration for students who have completed as well as for those who have partially completed. Figure 11 depicts a sample transcript. After that, eligibility for honourc was also tested to detormine the respective classes: first class, second class upper and second class lowcr. Finally the test results werc compared with the manually tcsted results to check tl'le accuracy of the automated systcm. The tesl results illdicated thal the analysis of results is accuratc' cffi cient and consistent. i 6 Fihal GPA Fig. 10. Calculation ofGPA RXCIS TR-ATION NO. NAME ACADXMIC RNCORD : slt5213 AcailedrY.d: ?006,€007 Inal GlA Y.,..ssulh !E nol yer been tua&e d Fig. 11. System generared academic hanscnpt l 8 usto\s clile information system developed can be used to replace the current inefficlent and rodtsrrming manual system_ The system developetl a[alyses studcnts, rcsu]ts efficiently -Eu|-alel),. Since the new system is an online system it provides flexibility to both the membe.s and students. The fast analysis and validation of resulls enablcs the rclease of'results quickly. Tl]e systen dcveloped can be customised to analysc course unit aesults at any state university. RENCES L Faculty of Science handbook, 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). a Rohnert H., Sommerland p and Michaci 5., pattem_Oriented Softwdrc Architedure: A Ststem afPatter s, Wiley, Nc$, york, USA(1996). MVC pattem (http://weblogs.asp.net/scottgu/ ), Accossed in June 200g_ Cruchten P, The Rationut Llnilied process: An Introductior, 3',redition, Addison_Wesley, Nerv York, USA (2002). Timothy L., Robert L., and Laganiere R, Practical Software Dewlopment using LIML York, USA, (2002) Ol)ject-Oriented Software Engineering: and Java, 1" Edirion, Mccraw-Hill New $hlter S.,ls?)r'tf Ul?beshed (2nd Edition). Sams.pqblicarion, USA, (2001), MSSQL (hte://msdn.microsoft.com ) , Accessed in July 2008. 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