Online Courseware Manager for Computer Science

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CS.UNR e-Learning
Online Courseware Manager for Computer Science
Kishor K. Waikul
MS Computer Science, May 2003. Department of
Computer Science, University of Nevada, Reno.
03.27.2003
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Outline

• Introduction
• Highlights of the similar courseware systems
• Need for yet another courseware manager
• Benefits of ASP.NET
• CS.UNR e-learning features
• Future work

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Introduction
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What is courseware ?

• Definition of the courseware

Content-specific instructional software, which
functions to generate instruction with the
support of instructional delivery systems

• Five elements of courseware
• Content
• Learning/Pedagogical method
• Learning objective
• Medium
• Architecture

- Z. Zhiting
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Why go online ?

• Influence of rising enrollments
• Challenges faced by evaluation and feedback
  methods
• Greater demand for asynchronous learning and
  Distance Learning
• Innovations in web development technology
• Exciting advances in communication tools and
  multimedia

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Need integrated ?

• Diverse but related modules
• Ease of use
• Data sharing and integrity
• Content organization
• One login session management

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CDM ltCourseware Development Methodologygt

• Definition of CDM

A collection of procedures, techniques and
tools, and documentation aids, which will help
the courseware developers in their efforts to
implement a new courseware.

• Standards for CDM
• Usability
• Aesthetics
• Educational efficiency

- S. Retalis
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CAA ltComputer Assisted Assessmentgt

• Planning and design
• Pedagogic considerations
• Feedback plan
• Development
• Creation of resources
• Execution of plan
• Performance and evaluation
• Evaluate feedback
• Improve student experience

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Highlights of the
existing systems
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WebCT Campus Edition
Course Utilities
Course Components
Course Builder Designer Map Content Assistant My
WebCT
Course Tools
Course Homepage Content Modules Syllabus
Calendar Grade Book Whiteboard Chat Discussion
Forum
http//www.webct.com
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Blackboard 5
Content Management
Calendar Grade book Personal organizer Course
cartridges Website builder Custom workspace
Communication
Discussion board Virtual Classroom Messenger Colla
borative browse Shared whiteboard
Assessment
Multimedia QA Tests and Quizzes Automated release
and recall Instant feedback
http//www.blackboard.com
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Centra Symposium
Live Interaction
Asynchronous Learning
Virtual classroom IP AV Conference Live labs
Shared whiteboard Text chat
Learning objects Save, Replay events Access
events before and after live session
Rich Content
Shared desktop Sync. Web tours Agenda
builder 28.8 kbps support Satellite servers
http//www.centraone.com
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eMind
Platform
Knowledge Objects
No installation Corporate IMS Calendar Reporting
tools Import/Export tools
Reorganize course Per-Client editing Searchable
library Linking objects
Offline training
Manage events Combined results Tracking
tools Event emails
Live Instructor
Remote classrooms Streaming AV Virtual
Classroom Interactivity
http//www.emind.com
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Macromedia Web Learning Studio
Authorware 5.2 Flash 5 Dreamweaver 4
e-learning authoring tools
Engaging Features
Rich multimedia support Built-in
interactivity Powerful navigation tools Streaming
mp3, video Low bandwidth support Seamless product
integration
Instructional Features
Instructional templates Built-in data
tracking AICC Compliance Quiz framework
AICC Aviation Industry CBT Committee
http//www.macromedia.com
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Motivation
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Motivation

• Rising population of the computer science courses
• Grading delays and overlapping assignments
• Need for automatic grading
• Online feedback on programming assignments
• Anytime and anywhere accessibility
• Miscellaneous tools
• Calendar
• Automated email sorting
• Class agenda
• Grade book
• QA and assignment tools

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Benefits of
ASP.NET
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Benefits of ASP.NET

• Object-oriented compiled code versus interpreted
  scripts
• Managed code with Common Language Runtime (CLR)
• Event-driven programming model
• Rich .NET base class library
• Scalable architecture with extensive caching
• Advanced session management
• Isolation of unsafe code
• Intelligent server side controls mapping into
  HTML
• Easy deployment with assembly model

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CS.UNR e-Learning
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Role-based workspaces

• Instructor workspace
• Student workspace
• Teaching assistant workspace
• Administrator workspace

Access to the workspace through login terminal on
the home page

• Session established through separate login
• Link for registration into the system
• Encrypted irreversible passwords

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Instructor
workspace
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Course tools
Add course

• Required fields shown in red title
• Date fields are read-only
• Initiates a transaction consisting
• Course entry into course list
• Creation of course table
• Creation of class schedule
• Course available at next sign-in
• in a drop-down list of courses

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Course tools
Edit course information

• Edits active course
• Syllabus file overwritten if new file
• uploaded
• Course delete option
• Course deletion cascaded by deletion of dependent
  records

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Course tools
Events manager add event

• Add events for selected date
• Hide events from students or TA
• Personal organizer

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Course tools
Events manager show week

• Display events in the week of selected date
• Only one event in the detail view
• Events can be edited or deleted
• Color coded calendar

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Course tools
Events manager show today

• Displays events for current date
• Events can be edited or deleted
• This module to appear on the welcome screen for
  instructor

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Course tools
Resource manager add resource

• Resource categories
• Presentation
• Other files (PDF, multimedia)
• Hyperlinks to resources
• Descriptive notes
• Dynamic input controls
• Configurable maximum file upload size

File type presentation
Text type descriptive notes
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Course tools
Resource manager show resources

• Browse resources for all the courses
• Sorting by title, course name, type, and date
  posted
• Filter by course
• Search for a particular resource
• Option for deleting resource
• Preview resource

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Course tools
Class organizer

• Different from events
• Class plan in-advance
• Helps student prepare before class
• Tasks can be added to selected class
• Attach resource
• Add or delete class
• Automatic sequencing of classes

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Student tools
Show students

• List of students registered for the active course
• Email address
• Sorting by first name, last name, and email
  address
• Option to remove student from course
• 20 students shown per page

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Student tools
Course registration switch

• Turn on/off course self-registration
• Avoids the task of manually adding students to
  the course
• When registration is turned on, the course
  appears in the list of open courses

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Student tools
Grade book grade formula

• Assign percentage grade to each course component
• Sum is verified against 100 on update
• Percentiles used for calculation of final grade
  and current position of the student in the class

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Student tools
Grade book edit grades

• Select course component and update points
• Points verified against maximum points if
  available
• Sorting by students name and points
• Required by manually graded course components

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Assignment tools
QA bank add question
Multiple choice question

• Question types
• Multiple choice
• Fill in blanks or short answer
• True/false
• Categories of questions
• Quiz
• Self-test
• Assignment
• Difficulty levels
• Feedback on answers
• Negative scoring allowed

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Assignment tools
QA bank edit question

• Displays list of questions
• Form used for adding question is loaded with
  current values
• Search list for specific text in the question
  title
• Question type cannot be modified

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Assignment tools
Manage files
Assignment status icons

• Files stored in the database
• Update grades for programming assignments
• Grading status icons
• List of files for each student and file
  information
• Date submission decided by last submitted file
• Search students by name
• Links for file comment and preview

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Assignment tools
Feedback on files

• Select line of code and post comments
• List of previously posted distinct comments from
  all the graders for the same assignment
• Already commented lines shown in red font.
• Module available to the instructors and TAs

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Assignment tools
Preview files

• Preview commented files as seen by the students
• Commented lines shown in different font and
  background
• File information shown on the top
• Link to download original code file

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Student
workspace
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Course tools
Course registration
Course information module

• List of courses open for registration
• Link for detailed course information
• Registers student for the course
• Course added to the list of the courses taken by
  student

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Assignment tools
File upload

• Enter number of files to upload
• Select target assignment
• Status message displayed reflecting success of
  the upload process
• Files can be later added for an assignment

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Future work
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Instructor workspace

• Create assignments
• Grading daemon
• Integrated email
• Discussion board
• Course website manager
• Help topics

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Student workspace

• Grade book
• Previous assignments and quizzes
• Answer quiz
• Manage files
• Test run programming assignments
• Discussion board
• Help topics

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Teaching Assistant workspace

• Subset of tools from instructor workspace
• Grading and feedback tools
• Access to course email
• Discussion board
• Help topics

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Administrator workspace

• Database administration
• Password renewals
• Remove users
• Cleanup during semester breaks
• Help topics
• More tools will be added as required

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Thank you
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Q A