AGENT BASED E·ASSESSMENT SYSTEM - ir.unimas.my based e-assessment 24pgs.pdf2. 1.4.1 Functional...
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AGENT BASED E·ASSESSMENT SYSTEM Lau Sia Ing Bachelor of Computer Science with Honours QA 76.9 (Software Engineering) 2006 S88 L366 2006
Transcript of AGENT BASED E·ASSESSMENT SYSTEM - ir.unimas.my based e-assessment 24pgs.pdf2. 1.4.1 Functional...
AGENT BASED EmiddotASSESSMENT SYSTEM
Lau Sia Ing
Bachelor of Computer Science with Honours QA 769 (Software Engineering)
2006S88 L366 2006
Iusa Khldmat ~I~klumat AKa(eml~ UNIVERSII1 MALAYSIA SARAWmiddotj(
(U (1Krna dmaraln
PKHIDMAT MAKLUMAT AKADEMIK UNIMAS
11111111 1111 1111111 III 1000165966
AGENT BA EIgt E-ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
LAU SIA ING (Softa re Engineering)
Thi s project is submitted in partial fultillment of the requirements fo r the degree of Bac helor of Computer Science with HOllours
Facu lty of Computer Sc ience and Information Technology UN IVERSITI MALA YS IA SA RA WAK
2006
DECLARAnON
No portion of the work referred to in thi s report has been submitted in support o f all
application for another degree or qu alifi cati on of thi s or any other uni versity or institulion
of hi gher learning
Lau Sia Ing Date
10295
II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost J would li ke to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mr
Cheah Wai Shiang in making thi s project a success I wis h to thank him for being ve ry
supporti ve and gu iding me patientl y throughout the development process of the system
Bes ides I also would like to thank all the lecturers and fe ll ow course mates or the Faculty
or Computer Sc ience and Information Techn o logy for neve r hesi tate to share their
knowledge with me durin g the development process of the system
Finally I wou ld like to express my special thanks to my famil y members and fri ends fo r
always give me great sUPPOl1 and encouragement to complete thi s project dekcm inedly
They are the insp irati on for me to compl ete my project
III
bull I
bull I bull
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARA TION II
ACKNOW LEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF FIGURES x
LI ST OF TABLES X II
ABSTRAK X III
AB ST RACT XIV
CIIAPTR I INTRODUCTION
10 Background
11 Problems Starement 2
12 Objec tives 2
13 Project Scope 2
14 0Methodology )
1 5 Expected Outcome ) 0
16 Significance of Project 4
17 Outline of Project 4
18 Summary 6
CIIAPTE R 2 BACKGROUND
bull 2 0 Int roduction 7
2 1 Review of the Ex isting Systems 7
IV
211 TOEFL Test 7
21 1 1 Fu nc tiol1alities 8
2 12 CADAL Qu iz 9
2 12 1 Func ti ona lities 9
2 13 WebM CQ 10
2131 Fu ncti on alities I I
214 Recommende r Agent for e-Learnin g System 12
2 14 1 Functiona l ities 12
215 Andes 13
2 15 1 Funct iona lit ies 13
22 Compari son o r the Features of Reviewed Systems 15
23 The Proposed System 16
24 Meth odology used
241 Introduction 17
242 Project Methodo logy 17
242 I Object-Oriented Analysis 18
24 22 Object-Oriented Design 18
2423 Prototyping 19
24 24 Objec t-Oriented Implemen tation 19
2425 Incre mel1tal Test ing 20
243 Summary 20
25 Conclusion 21
v
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
Iusa Khldmat ~I~klumat AKa(eml~ UNIVERSII1 MALAYSIA SARAWmiddotj(
(U (1Krna dmaraln
PKHIDMAT MAKLUMAT AKADEMIK UNIMAS
11111111 1111 1111111 III 1000165966
AGENT BA EIgt E-ASSESSMENT SYSTEM
LAU SIA ING (Softa re Engineering)
Thi s project is submitted in partial fultillment of the requirements fo r the degree of Bac helor of Computer Science with HOllours
Facu lty of Computer Sc ience and Information Technology UN IVERSITI MALA YS IA SA RA WAK
2006
DECLARAnON
No portion of the work referred to in thi s report has been submitted in support o f all
application for another degree or qu alifi cati on of thi s or any other uni versity or institulion
of hi gher learning
Lau Sia Ing Date
10295
II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost J would li ke to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mr
Cheah Wai Shiang in making thi s project a success I wis h to thank him for being ve ry
supporti ve and gu iding me patientl y throughout the development process of the system
Bes ides I also would like to thank all the lecturers and fe ll ow course mates or the Faculty
or Computer Sc ience and Information Techn o logy for neve r hesi tate to share their
knowledge with me durin g the development process of the system
Finally I wou ld like to express my special thanks to my famil y members and fri ends fo r
always give me great sUPPOl1 and encouragement to complete thi s project dekcm inedly
They are the insp irati on for me to compl ete my project
III
bull I
bull I bull
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARA TION II
ACKNOW LEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF FIGURES x
LI ST OF TABLES X II
ABSTRAK X III
AB ST RACT XIV
CIIAPTR I INTRODUCTION
10 Background
11 Problems Starement 2
12 Objec tives 2
13 Project Scope 2
14 0Methodology )
1 5 Expected Outcome ) 0
16 Significance of Project 4
17 Outline of Project 4
18 Summary 6
CIIAPTE R 2 BACKGROUND
bull 2 0 Int roduction 7
2 1 Review of the Ex isting Systems 7
IV
211 TOEFL Test 7
21 1 1 Fu nc tiol1alities 8
2 12 CADAL Qu iz 9
2 12 1 Func ti ona lities 9
2 13 WebM CQ 10
2131 Fu ncti on alities I I
214 Recommende r Agent for e-Learnin g System 12
2 14 1 Functiona l ities 12
215 Andes 13
2 15 1 Funct iona lit ies 13
22 Compari son o r the Features of Reviewed Systems 15
23 The Proposed System 16
24 Meth odology used
241 Introduction 17
242 Project Methodo logy 17
242 I Object-Oriented Analysis 18
24 22 Object-Oriented Design 18
2423 Prototyping 19
24 24 Objec t-Oriented Implemen tation 19
2425 Incre mel1tal Test ing 20
243 Summary 20
25 Conclusion 21
v
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
DECLARAnON
No portion of the work referred to in thi s report has been submitted in support o f all
application for another degree or qu alifi cati on of thi s or any other uni versity or institulion
of hi gher learning
Lau Sia Ing Date
10295
II
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost J would li ke to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mr
Cheah Wai Shiang in making thi s project a success I wis h to thank him for being ve ry
supporti ve and gu iding me patientl y throughout the development process of the system
Bes ides I also would like to thank all the lecturers and fe ll ow course mates or the Faculty
or Computer Sc ience and Information Techn o logy for neve r hesi tate to share their
knowledge with me durin g the development process of the system
Finally I wou ld like to express my special thanks to my famil y members and fri ends fo r
always give me great sUPPOl1 and encouragement to complete thi s project dekcm inedly
They are the insp irati on for me to compl ete my project
III
bull I
bull I bull
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARA TION II
ACKNOW LEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF FIGURES x
LI ST OF TABLES X II
ABSTRAK X III
AB ST RACT XIV
CIIAPTR I INTRODUCTION
10 Background
11 Problems Starement 2
12 Objec tives 2
13 Project Scope 2
14 0Methodology )
1 5 Expected Outcome ) 0
16 Significance of Project 4
17 Outline of Project 4
18 Summary 6
CIIAPTE R 2 BACKGROUND
bull 2 0 Int roduction 7
2 1 Review of the Ex isting Systems 7
IV
211 TOEFL Test 7
21 1 1 Fu nc tiol1alities 8
2 12 CADAL Qu iz 9
2 12 1 Func ti ona lities 9
2 13 WebM CQ 10
2131 Fu ncti on alities I I
214 Recommende r Agent for e-Learnin g System 12
2 14 1 Functiona l ities 12
215 Andes 13
2 15 1 Funct iona lit ies 13
22 Compari son o r the Features of Reviewed Systems 15
23 The Proposed System 16
24 Meth odology used
241 Introduction 17
242 Project Methodo logy 17
242 I Object-Oriented Analysis 18
24 22 Object-Oriented Design 18
2423 Prototyping 19
24 24 Objec t-Oriented Implemen tation 19
2425 Incre mel1tal Test ing 20
243 Summary 20
25 Conclusion 21
v
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
First and foremost J would li ke to express my deepest gratitude to my supervisor Mr
Cheah Wai Shiang in making thi s project a success I wis h to thank him for being ve ry
supporti ve and gu iding me patientl y throughout the development process of the system
Bes ides I also would like to thank all the lecturers and fe ll ow course mates or the Faculty
or Computer Sc ience and Information Techn o logy for neve r hesi tate to share their
knowledge with me durin g the development process of the system
Finally I wou ld like to express my special thanks to my famil y members and fri ends fo r
always give me great sUPPOl1 and encouragement to complete thi s project dekcm inedly
They are the insp irati on for me to compl ete my project
III
bull I
bull I bull
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARA TION II
ACKNOW LEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF FIGURES x
LI ST OF TABLES X II
ABSTRAK X III
AB ST RACT XIV
CIIAPTR I INTRODUCTION
10 Background
11 Problems Starement 2
12 Objec tives 2
13 Project Scope 2
14 0Methodology )
1 5 Expected Outcome ) 0
16 Significance of Project 4
17 Outline of Project 4
18 Summary 6
CIIAPTE R 2 BACKGROUND
bull 2 0 Int roduction 7
2 1 Review of the Ex isting Systems 7
IV
211 TOEFL Test 7
21 1 1 Fu nc tiol1alities 8
2 12 CADAL Qu iz 9
2 12 1 Func ti ona lities 9
2 13 WebM CQ 10
2131 Fu ncti on alities I I
214 Recommende r Agent for e-Learnin g System 12
2 14 1 Functiona l ities 12
215 Andes 13
2 15 1 Funct iona lit ies 13
22 Compari son o r the Features of Reviewed Systems 15
23 The Proposed System 16
24 Meth odology used
241 Introduction 17
242 Project Methodo logy 17
242 I Object-Oriented Analysis 18
24 22 Object-Oriented Design 18
2423 Prototyping 19
24 24 Objec t-Oriented Implemen tation 19
2425 Incre mel1tal Test ing 20
243 Summary 20
25 Conclusion 21
v
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
bull I
bull I bull
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DECLARA TION II
ACKNOW LEDGEMENTS TABLE OF CONTENTS v
LIST OF FIGURES x
LI ST OF TABLES X II
ABSTRAK X III
AB ST RACT XIV
CIIAPTR I INTRODUCTION
10 Background
11 Problems Starement 2
12 Objec tives 2
13 Project Scope 2
14 0Methodology )
1 5 Expected Outcome ) 0
16 Significance of Project 4
17 Outline of Project 4
18 Summary 6
CIIAPTE R 2 BACKGROUND
bull 2 0 Int roduction 7
2 1 Review of the Ex isting Systems 7
IV
211 TOEFL Test 7
21 1 1 Fu nc tiol1alities 8
2 12 CADAL Qu iz 9
2 12 1 Func ti ona lities 9
2 13 WebM CQ 10
2131 Fu ncti on alities I I
214 Recommende r Agent for e-Learnin g System 12
2 14 1 Functiona l ities 12
215 Andes 13
2 15 1 Funct iona lit ies 13
22 Compari son o r the Features of Reviewed Systems 15
23 The Proposed System 16
24 Meth odology used
241 Introduction 17
242 Project Methodo logy 17
242 I Object-Oriented Analysis 18
24 22 Object-Oriented Design 18
2423 Prototyping 19
24 24 Objec t-Oriented Implemen tation 19
2425 Incre mel1tal Test ing 20
243 Summary 20
25 Conclusion 21
v
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
211 TOEFL Test 7
21 1 1 Fu nc tiol1alities 8
2 12 CADAL Qu iz 9
2 12 1 Func ti ona lities 9
2 13 WebM CQ 10
2131 Fu ncti on alities I I
214 Recommende r Agent for e-Learnin g System 12
2 14 1 Functiona l ities 12
215 Andes 13
2 15 1 Funct iona lit ies 13
22 Compari son o r the Features of Reviewed Systems 15
23 The Proposed System 16
24 Meth odology used
241 Introduction 17
242 Project Methodo logy 17
242 I Object-Oriented Analysis 18
24 22 Object-Oriented Design 18
2423 Prototyping 19
24 24 Objec t-Oriented Implemen tation 19
2425 Incre mel1tal Test ing 20
243 Summary 20
25 Conclusion 21
v
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
CHAPTEll3 REQl I IREM I~NT ANALYSIS AND DESIGN
30 Introduction 22
31 Use r Requirements _1
3 11 Curren t Qui z Systems Finding 23
0 J 12 Lecturer Requiremen ts 24
3 13 Stud en t Requirements 24
32 System Requirements 25
33 Software Requirements 25
331 JADE (Java Agen t Development Framework) 25
332 Java 26
333 Microsoft Access 26
34 Use Case Diagram 27
35 Sequence Diagram 28
351 Seq uence Diagram for Logging Process 28
352 Sequence Diagram for Creating Question Process 29
353 Sequence Diagram for Updating and Deleting Question 30
354 Seq uence Diagram for Viewing Student Resul t Process 32
35 5 Seq uence Diagram for Printing Quest ion Sct 33
356 Sequence Diagram for Taking Quiz 34
357 Sequence Diagram for Generating Hint 34
358 Sequence Diagram for QuizAgcnt and StudentAgent 35
36 Agent Model Des ign 37
36 1 The Architec ture of Agent Based E-Assessment System 37
VI
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
38 362 Agent s Descript ion
37 C lass Diagram 39
37 1 C lass Diagram Log ical View that Show Relationship amo ng
The C lasses 39
3 8 State Transition Diagram 40
39 E ntity Re lati onship Diagram 40
3 10 Access Laye r )2
3 II View La yer 42
3 12 Summary 43
ClIAPTER 4 SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION
4 1 Introd ucti on 44
42 System Con figuration 44
42 1 In stalling Java 44
4 22 In stalling JADE 44
43 System Decomposition 45
4 3 1 Lect urer Module 46
4 32 Stud ent Module 52
43J Admini strator Page 55
44 Summ ary 58
CHAPTER 5 SYSTEM TESTING amp EVAL UATION
5 1 Introdu c ti on 59
V II
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
52 Object ives 59
53 Funct ional Tes tin g 59
53 1 Functi onal Testing Result for Lecturer Modul e 60
532 Functi onal Testing Result for Student Modu le 62
54 Usabi lity Test ing 6
5Al Usability Test ing for Lec turer Modu le 63
542 Usab ility Testing fo r Student Module 64
543 Result fo r Usab ility Testing 64
55 In tegrati on Testing 64
55 1 Integration Testing Result 65
56 System Limitations 65
57 Summary 66
CHAPTER 6 CONCLUSION AND FUTURE WORKS
6 1 Introduc ti on 67
62 Achievements 67
63 Problems Faced 68
64 Fu ture Enhancements 69
64 1 Im plementati on on Other Faculti es 6lt)
642 Support Multi med ia Elements 70
6A 1 Support Rando m Ordering of Questi on s Op ti ons 70
644 Add the Mobility Features 70
65 Summary 7 1
V1l1
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
fHFE RFNCFS 72
AIPFND ICCS
APPEND IX A GA NTT CHART 73
APPENDIX B QUESTIONN AIRES 74
APPEND IX C bull ACCESS LA YER 78
APPENDIX D VIEW LA YER (Paper Prototype) 80
APPENDIX E FUNCTIONAL TEST ING 85
APPENDIX F USA BILITY TESTING 87
IX
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 2 The object-oriented system approach 18
Figure 3 Use case diagram for the agent based e-assessment system 28
Figure 32 Sequence diagram for logging process 29
Figure 33 Sequence diagram for creating question 30
Figure 34 Sequence diagram for updating questi on 3 1
Figure 35 Sequence diagram for deletin g question 3 1
Figure 36 Sequence diagram for viewing student result 32
Figure 37 Sequence diagram for printing questi on set 33
Figure 38 Sequence diagram for taking a quiz 34
Figure 39 Sequence diagram for generating hint 35
Figure 310 Sequence diagram for quizAgent and studentAgent 35
Figure 3 II The Architecture of Agent based E-Assessment System 37
Figure 3 12 Class diagram for the proposed system 39
Figure 3 13 State Transition diagram for the proposed system 40
Figure 3 14 Entity Re lationship diagram for the proposed system 41
Figure 4 I Screen shot for JA D E Remote Agent Management GU I 45
Figure 42 Login Page for lecturer 46
Figure 43 Change password module 47
Figure 44 Add question module 48
Figure 45 Modi Fyi delete question module 49
Figure 46 Generate question module 50
x
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
51 Figure 47 View student resu It modu Ie
Figure middot18 Student login modu le 52
Figure 49 Student menu page 51
Figure 410 Student perso nal profile interface 53
Figure 4 II Pre-Qui z Page 54
Figure 4 J2 Quiz Page 55
Figure 4 13 Lecturer Management Page 56
Figure 4 14 Student Management Page 57
X I
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2 1 Compar ison of Features of the Rev iewed System 15
Table 5 1 Func ti onal Testing for Lec ture r Module 60
Table 52 Functional Testing for Student Module 62
Table 53 Usab ility Testing for Lecturer Module 63
Table 54 Usab ility Testing for Student Module 64
Table 61 Summary of Objectives Achievements 68
X II
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
ABSTRAK
Sistem penilaian e lektronik berasaskan agen adalah satu applikasi yang bertujuan
membantu pensyarah dalam pembinaan soa lan untuk kuiz Di sampi ng itu la Juga
membantu pensyarah dalam pen ye makan pen yimpanan rekod dan mengesall prestasi
pe laja r dalam kuiz la juga membolehkan pelajar mengamb il kui z sama ada untuk tujuan
lat ihan alau ujian Sistem ini menyediakan dua jeni s kuiz kepada pe lajar pra-ku iz dan
kuiz Pra-kuiz adalah berorientasikan latihall mallakala kuiz berorientasikan ujian Sistcm
ini dibangunkan menggunakan pendekatan agen dan dibangunkan menggunakan java dan
JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE digunakan untuk membangunkan
age n-agen yang diperlukan dalam projek ini Pangkalan data untuk system ini dijalankan
menggunakan Microsoft Access 2003
XJll
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
ABSTRACT
The Agen t-Based E-A ssessment System is an appl icati on that aims for ass ist the lecturer
in creating the questions for the quil Besides it also help lec turer in markin g record ing
and keep track the student performance in the quiz It also enables th e studen ts to take
qui z for ei ther examination purpose or practica l purpose This system provi des two type
o r quiz for student pre-quiz and qui z The pre-q ui z is practica l ori ented whi le the quiz is
exam ori ented Thi s system is developed using the agent approach and it is implemented
usi ng Java and JADE (Java Agent Development Framework) JADE is used for
developing the agen ts tha t required in thi s project The database fo r thi s system runs
usin g Microsoft Access 2003
X IV
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION
10 Background
In the era of knowled ge awareness Malaysia has allocated millions amount of money to
build the ed ucati on infrastructure in order to he lp its peop le get adequate ed ucation
Ma lays ia has encouraged loca l uni versities to offer di stance learn ing or e-Learning in
their education system [I] E-Iea rning is about learning through computer It provides
oPPo1un ity for student to learn almost anytime and anywhere E-Iearnin g components
consist of learner regi strati on and managem ent course management e-tutoring eshy
assessment and open forum co mponent
Thi s projec t focuses on automated e-assessment sys tem using agent approac h Eshy
assessment also known as online assessmcnt computer-based assessment or comp uter
ass isted assessment It is used to measure student understanding on certain course and can
he lp students to improve the ir lea rning performance
Softwa re age nt is software app li cati on that can take independent action on behalf of use r
E-Ieaming can be made more powerful and dynam ic with the help of age nts vh ich are
intelligent autonomous mobile reac ti ve pe rs istent and proacti ve [2] It is because
agents support active interacti on between system and environment
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
11 Problem Statement
Presently most of the quizzes for the courses in FSCIT are done manually There are
several drawbacks of the quiz system that used by lecturer
I Lecture rs need spend time to prepare quizzes and conduct the quizzes during c lass
time even thou gh lecturers need to fini sh the class sy llabus at the same time
2 Alter conducting the quiz in the c lass lecturers spend a lot of tim e to mark and
record the students result to keep track their learning progress
3 There exists no facility to eva luate the students preparation for the quiz
12 Objectives
The objective of this project is to design and develop the quiz system by using the agent
approach that able
1 To prepare a platform that can store the classified questions and generate tests
randoml y
2 To facilitate the automatic marking and keep track the stu dent performance during
the qui z
3 To prepare the platform where the student can make preparation for the qui z
13 Project Scope
Th is project aim is to c reate a partial agent system that helps the lecturer and student in eshy
assessment system The Agent based E-Assessment System will be developed for Faculty
of Compute r Science and Information Technology (FCSIT) It will be implemented under
the course of Communicat ions and Computer Netwo rk A lthough the project is focus on
2
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
one subject it can be used to apply in ot her subject In thi s project the system can
generate tests and mark automaticall y T his system is focus ing on multiple choice type
questions which consists only one correct answer for each question After finish
answering the qu est ions the qui z result w ill be calculated and displayed auto maticall y
Bes ides that for the lecturer they are able to add delete and modify questi ons A lso the
lecturer can view stud ent result
14 Methodology
The meth odology that will be used in this project is the object-oriented system
development methodology This methodology is based on the concept of us ing model to
organize the real world co ncepts The object-oriented methodology cons ists of phases
such as object-ori ented analysis object-oriented desi gn object-orien ted implemen tation
prototyping and testin g Several diagrams were dra wn during each phase All the
processes invo lved will be explained in more detai l in Chapte r 2
15 Expected Outcome
The system should be ab le to do the following
I Ass is t the lecturer in c reat ing the questi on in th e question bank
2 Assist the lecturer in marking recordin g and keep track the stud en t perfo rm ance
in the quiz
3 Generate questi on dyn am ica ll y based on student performance during the quiz
4 Prov ide fac ilities where student can practice and take th e quiz
3
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
5 Security checking by having login access for different users and at the same time
protects the question bank from being assessed by unauthorized user
16 Significance of Project
This project hopes will bring benefit to various parties involved 111 the teaching and
learning process It produces a computer adaptive system that can generate assessment
questions automatically depending on the student performance during the quiz So a
unique set of questions will be generated for each student The automatic marking and
recording the student result will cut down the marking and evaluation process time
Besides the immediate feedback during the quiz will motivate and improve the student
learning process The pre-quiz can act as a practice for preparing student for the quiz
Furthermore the lecturer can conduct and measure the students progress and
understanding toward the course easily
17 Outline of Project
Chapter 1 Introduction
This chapter introduces the problems of the current manual quiz system the objectives of
developing the proposed system the project scope and the methodology used in brief
The proposed system is also determined In addition to that a project schedule is planned
and shown in Appendix A
4
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
Chapter 2 Background
This chapter contains the review of ex isting system or simi lar system to identify and
compare their functionality The object-ori ented methodology used to develop the system
is di scussed
Chapter 3 Requirement Analysis and Design
This chapter contains th e requirement specifications for the user functions hardware and
software and the system design Issues such as designing the use case diagram sequence
diagram class diagram database design and user interfaces for the system is discussed
Chapter 4 System Implementa tion
This chapter discusses the system implementation of the system
Chapter 5 System Testing
This chapter reports on the kind of testing and evaluation of the system
Chapter 6 Conclusion and Future work
This chapter explains the ac hievements and probable future enhancements for the agent
based e-assessment system
5
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
18 Summary
The proposed system enab le lecture r to create modify and del ete the quest ion in th e
question bank The system can autom aticall y marks and stores the student result Bes ides
that the proposed system enab le student to take the qu iz and display feedback
im med iatel y T here are three agent used In this proposed system Sludent Agent
QuizAgent and StudentProfileAgent The StudentAgent serve as a GU I agent for the
student that resides in the cli ent s ide Q ui zAgent which resides in the server side is used
to generate qu est ion dynamically by analyzing the student perform ance durin g the qui z
T he StudentPro file Agent whi ch a lso resides in the database is used to interact w ith the
StudentAgent and access to student profi le information
6
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
Chapter 2 Background
20 Introduction
In this chapte r similar system and assessment too ls w ill be ana lyzed to collect the
rel evant functionalities Compari son of the similar systems is done to have a bas ic idea
on des igni ng the functi ona lities for e-assessmenl system The object-oriented
methodology used to develop the proposed system will be explained in this chapter
21 Review of Existing systems
The systems reviewed in this chapter are TOEFL test CADAL Quiz WebMCQ
Recommender agent and Andes The TOEFL test is an Exam based assessment system
w hil e CADAL Quiz and WebMCQ are an online based assessment A recommender
agent is used in e-learning that w ill help students in online learni ng process Andes is
inte lli gent tutoring system that teaches student to so lve prob lems on physics
211 Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) Test
TO EFL test is designed to meas ure the English proficiency of people whose native
language is not Engli sh [3] In Jul y 1998 ETS introduced the computer-based TOEFL
test in many area of the world The computer-based TOEFL test is offered at Prometric
testing centers selected coll eges and universit ies and se lected US Sta te Department
advi sing centers overseas
7
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
2111 Functionalities
The TOEFL test consists of 4 sections Listening Structure Read ing and Writing This is
a time limited test where the te st takes about 4 hours to com plete all the four sections
Most of the questi ons are mu ltiple choice questions Examinee was examined according
to sections Scores are calcu lated after the allocated time for the section was expired or
when the examinees chose to end the section When time expires for each sect ion
examinee will be g iven an option to retake that section or to proceed to next section
Once the exam inee chose to proceed to the next section he cannot return to the previous
secti on that has already been completed The time remaining for each section wi ll be
displayed on a c lock that can be turned on or off However during the last five minutes of
each section the time wi ll al ways be displa yed Examinees are presented with an
interactive tutorial at the beginning of test sess ion This tuto rial includes instructions and
practices to use a mouse scrolling text and answeri ng the various types of questions in
the test sections Multimedia elements such as grap hic audio and video are attached in
the li stening section The Listening and Structure section are computer adaptive section
where the questions are generated dependi ng on the examinees performance 0 11 previous
questions [4] In thi s section exami nee wi ll only sees one question at a time because the
compu ter scores each question before se lecting the next one The examinee al so not
allowed returning to the previous questi on The scores for the computer-adaptive sections
are based on the difficulty level of the questions answered correct ly as we ll as the nu mber
of questions answered The reading section is linear not com puter adaptive For thi s
reason examinee can return to previous questions [n w riting section the essay can be
hand-written or typed on the computer The score of th e essay w ill be assessed by two
8
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
human e leva lors [5] The score from the essay is included in the Structure score and is
graded on a sca le sco re of 0 to 6 Al the end o f the test the uno ffi cial score wi ll appear
on the screen The score only inc lude Li stening Structure and Reading section The sco re
for the essay writing are omitted as it requ ires grading by the human elevators
212 Computer-Aided Dynamic Assessment and Learning Quiz (CADAL Quiz)
CA DAL Qu iz is a web based multipl e choice qui z generator and assessment to ol
developed by An ge la Carbone and Peter Schendzie lorz CADAL has been incorporated
into the Monash university which invol ves two first year computer programming subjects
in two departments Department of Computer Sc ience and Electri ca l and Computer
Systems Engineer ing in 1997[6] They are inte rested in using thi s tool because it has the
capability to ge nerate rand om sets of questions and record students resul t automatica ll y
T he CADAL Quiz has bee n used to conduct th e weekl y laboratory quizzes and mid-
semester test
2121 Functionalities
Every week tutors devises and submits a set of mUltiple choice questions that was related
to the currenl week s laboratory task into CADAL Quiz database Students login the
system using their ID and password To take th e qui z students can use any computer
w ith internet connectio n The qui z usually takes 10-15 minutes with a set of 10 questions
chosen from a large set o f database The feed back was rece ived by st udent automatica ll y
after he or she completes the quiz The feedback consists of the date when the qui z was
taken the questio ns answered and a SCOre o ut of ten The result of the qui z is
9
![[Robert B. Ash] Measure, Integration and Functiona(BookFi.org)](https://static.fdocuments.in/doc/165x107/544ce976b1af9f2a198b45b1/robert-b-ash-measure-integration-and-functionabookfiorg.jpg)
