This paper describes a template file for Integrated Records and Analysis for Attendance, Marks and Grading, and Final Exam, which is named IRnAfAtMaGaFEx, and how the template file (TF) can be utilised to help manage an academic course effectively, especially in keeping proper records for attendance, marks for course assessments and grading. The records are handy and stored in one place in softcopy. With the analysis provided, the TF also able to assist the lecturer in making appropriate decisions and taking appropriate actions based on latest available data and information in the file.
by: Jamaludin Omar
INTRODUCTION Relatively recently Outcome Based Education (OBE) is a new buzzword in Malaysia. All Institutes of Higher Learning (IHL) in Malaysia will eventually need to implement curriculum with emphasis on OBE, where clear program educational objectives and program outcomes are necessary, in order for their graduates to be recognized and accepted in global job market. A special division was set up in Ministry Of Higher Education to oversee and monitor the implementation of OBE. When implementing OBE, keeping proper records is very important. The records will become evident of teaching and learning processes, as well as evident of learning outcomes when the time comes for validation or accreditation of the program at the IHL by external evaluators or during accreditation process. With proper records and achievement of the outcomes at the end of every semester, the course can be evaluated and validated. Actions are taken to rectify shortcomings, and later the course contents and delivery are continuously improved from time to time, taking into account feedbacks from the assessment and validation processes. IRnAfAtMaGaFEx was developed to facilitate proper record keeping of student attendances to the class, marks for course works (CW) and marks for final exam (FE). The records are kept in softcopy using Microsoft Excel® file. With relevant data entered by the lecturer regularly, the TF will produce letter grades based on CW and FE marks. Altogether, the TF can handle up to 15 assessment categories (including the FE) for 4 classes of the same course (or subject), with records for up to 70 students per class. One crucial thing to be performed by the lecturer is to update the records regularly, especially the attendance records. The mark records should be entered after every assessment activity is over and marked. Finally, the scores for the FE are entered after the FE answer scripts are marked. With results from the analysis done using the TF lecturer can decide to do further action or adjustment necessary to curve the overall result or performance of the class or the course. Also, with current records on attendances, the lecturer can take appropriate actions to reduce truancy to the class. FEATURES OF IRnAfAtMaGaFEx The TF was developed using Microsoft Excel®. It consists of 14 worksheets. Basically 12 worksheets are used for keeping attendances data, marks for CW, and scores for the FE for a maximum of 4 classes with a maximum of 70 students in each class for the same course. 3 worksheets are used, 1 worksheet each for attendances records, marks for CW, and scores for FE for the 4 different classes or sections taught by the same lecturer. There are 2 more worksheets used to set required information (or parameters) about the course, the lecturer, how assessment is implemented, and setting the full marks and percentage for each assessment activity and the FE questions. Lecturer may also set criteria for grading. The following sections will describe each worksheet (WS) in sufficient details. In order to prevent lecturer from unintentionally entering wrong data at the wrong place which in turn may cause unexpected results, the worksheets are protected from this condition. Lecturer is allowed to enter data only at designated cells in the worksheets. These areas are marked with yellow color. Sufficient instructions are given on the worksheet to provide enough guides for the lecturer to use the TF correctly. WS for the Attendance Records Important data about students, especially their names and identification numbers are entered into the WS for the Attendance Records. This vital data will be copied to other worksheets, i.e. WS for Marks and Grading Records (refer to section for WS for the Marks and Grading (MaG) Records) and WS for Final Exam Marks Records (refer to section for WS for the Final Exam Marks (FEM) Records). With data for the attendance entered by the lecturer regularly, perhaps on weekly basis, the WS for the Attendance Records can show pattern of attendances by students to the class, for the whole class and individually, attendance statistics for each class session, percentage of attended and missed class for every student, missed class with medical reason and other allowed excuses for not attending the class, as shown in Figure 1. The lecturer can enter the data by simply copying and pasting certain symbols available on the worksheet. Different colors are used to differentiate different symbols. When the WS are filled with these symbols, the lecturer can easily observe the pattern. Combining the pattern with the statistics of percentages for attend and absent by every student, lecturer can take appropriate actions as recommended or allowed by the university. The WS also provides ability for the lecturer to “predict” the maximum possible percentage that every student would be able to attend the class for the whole semester. As the “predicted” maximum percentage for any student keep decreasing, the relevant cell in the WS changes its color automatically thus alerting the lecturer for taking necessary actions. As written in UNITEN (2000), UNITEN academic regulation stated that students can be barred from attending further classes, assessments, and the FE when their attendances are less than 80%. In practice, before the students are barred, enough warnings should be given so that they can take necessary actions not to miss further classes. By monitoring the pattern (of attend and absent) indicated in the WS for the Attendance Records, warnings can be sent to students when they are observed to be missing from the classes for 3 times or more without valid or acceptable reasons. The warnings help reduced students from not attending the classes, and at the same also sending the message to the students that the lecturer is serious about attendance to the class. Action to bar students may be taken when they keep missing from the classes after earlier warnings and at the same time the maximum possible percentage of their attendances are “predicted” to be far below the permitted level. The drastic action of barring the students, however, is not necessary when the reasons for not attending the classes are reasonable and acceptable. Figure 1: Worksheet for the attendance records All actions taken (such as to give warning to the students, or to bar them) can also be noted or recorded in the WS for the Attendance Records. Refer to Figure 2. As mentioned above, the WS for the Attendance Records also provides a facility to “predict” the maximum possible percentage that every student will be able to attend the whole sessions. The prediction is based on current number of attendances and the remaining number of classes still available (or in the schedule). The lecturer needs to update regularly the data for the remaining number of classes still available, in particular when the lecturer is updating the attendance records for the class. This data will keep decreasing each time updating is performed. With the ability to “predict” also, the TF can help the lecturer to decide earlier during the semester whether to take action to bar students, and not waiting until the FE is close or after the final exam tickets are already issued to the students (stating that they may take the FE for the course). Figure 2: Actions taken can also be recorded in the WS for the attendance records WS for the Marks and Grading (MaG) Records WS for the MaG Records, as shown in Fig. 3, is used to record marks for all assessment activities (usually called as CW) performed before the FE. The assessment activities are related to the course which may include quiz, test, assignment, project, term paper etc. Individual full mark and percentage for each type of assessment can be specified through a WS called Marks and Grading Analysis (refer to section for WS for the Marks and Grading Analysis (MaGA)) which are linked and reflected in each WS for the MaG records. After relevant data are entered after each assessment activity, the WS for the MaG Records will calculate and produce the latest total mark for CW. When scores for FE are entered in the WS for Final Exam Marks Records (refer to section for WS for the Final Exam Marks (FEM) Records), the WS for the MaG Records will calculate and also produce the overall total marks obtained by the students throughout the entire course duration. Based on grading criteria using letter grades, as specified in the WS for Marks and Grading Analysis, letter grades obtained by individual student are also produced, as shown in Figure 4. Figure 3: Worksheet for the marks and grading records. Figure 4: Letter grades produced by the WS for MaG Records. Although the letter grades are produced based on the overall total marks and the grading scale described, lecturer can still overwrite the letter grades to be awarded to students. Perhaps due to the overall total marks are very close to the next better letter grade and the attendance by the students were very good, the students can be considered the next better letter grades. Human touch is required here! This facility is provided basically for the lecturer to assign other letter grades which are used but seldom, such as letter grade BS (Incomplete), LU (Pass), GA (Fail) and TD (Drop) used at UNITEN. The lecturer can also let the TF to round up to next integer value of the total marks, which in turn may also help upgrade few letter grades for students whose marks are within 1% of the next better letter grades. WS for the Final Exam Marks (FEM) Records Detail marks for every question in the FE scored by every student during the FE are entered into the WS for the FEM Records. The WS will mainly provide a summary of the class average mark, the class maximum mark, the class minimum mark, the number of students scored same or above the class average mark, and the number of students scored below the class average mark. In conjunction with the WS for the Analysis of Final Exam Marks (refer to section for WS for the Analysis of Final Exam Marks (FExA)), the WS for the FEM Records will also displays the statistics from the same class who scored same or above the overall average mark as well as below the overall average mark. Figure 5 shows the WS for the FEM Records. Figure 5: WS for the FEM Records. WS for the Analysis of Final Exam Marks (FExA) Summaries of the class average mark, the class maximum mark, the class minimum mark, the number of students scored same or above the class average mark, the number of students scored below the class average mark from separate classes given by the WS for FEM Records are summarized in the WS for the Analysis of Final Exam Marks. From those data, the overall average mark, the overall maximum mark and the overall minimum mark for all classes in the course are calculated. The information is produced for each question in the final exam. Lecturer may then make decision whether to exclude particular question found, perhaps, to be tough for students to answer in the FE by observing the full marks for each question and comparing it with the overall average mark and/or the overall full mark for all the classes, as shown in Figure 6. The WS for the FExA also automatically calculates “adjusted full marks” based on the overall full mark, assigned minimum mark for letter grade “A” as set in the WS the Marks and Grading Analysis (refer to section for WS for the Marks and Grading Analysis (MaGA)), and the allocated full mark for each question in the FE. The lecturer may decide to use the “adjusted full marks” if the performance of students (including the bright one) for many questions are far below the expected level. Figure 6: WS for the analysis of final exam marks. With both facilities, i.e. to exclude certain questions and to use “adjusted full marks”, a fair assessment may be provided to the students. They may had a tough time before the FE for this course, for example having other tough exams previously or had little time to recover from the previous exam to prepare for the FE of this course. So, these facilities may help students (a little bit) in providing a fair assessment to them. With the facilities, the actual total marks may not be as allocated in the question paper. The change in the actual total marks will be copied and used in the WS for the Marks and Grading Analysis, which in turn will be copied and used in all the WS for MaG Records. With the actual total marks for the FE is known, a correct letter grades will be produced in the WS for MaG Records, which later copied and analyzed in the WS for the Marks and Grading Analysis. WS for the Marks and Grading Analysis (MaGA) WS for the MaGA, as shown in Fig. 7, provides grade analysis for all classes in the same course. Up to 4 classes can be handled and analyzed by the WS. The WS shows percentages for each letter grade for every class and also summarized the performance for all classes. Lecturer may use this information to do further adjustment in order to produce the required or accepted result for grade distribution of the course. One way to do the adjustment is perhaps by setting cut-off marks for the letter grades to specific values. Lecturer can do this manually by entering the required cut-off marks in relevant cells in the WS. Lecturer may enter number for each cell, or enter a number on one particular cell and use formulas for other cells. With the WS for the MaGA also, the lecturer can enter full mark and percentage for every assessment method in the CW. Up to 14 assessment methods can be handled, which may include quiz, test, assignment, project, term paper etc. There are other information related to the course that the lecturer should enter in this WS, which are subject code, semester, academic session and name of the lecturer. Figure 7: WS for the Marks and Grading Analysis. FREQUENCY OF DATA ENTRY Any dedicated software developed for a specific application is useless unless it is used regularly and updated with current data. The same thing applies to this TF, where: a) Lecturer needs to enter data related to the course at least once in the WS for the MaGA, perhaps at the beginning of the semester. This data may be modified later. b) Lecturer needs to enter particulars of students at least once in the WS for Attendance Records for every class, as appropriate. These particulars will be copied to other worksheets for the same class as required. c) Lecturer needs to enter and update data about attendance in the WS for the Attendance Records perhaps once a week. With this updating, lecturer can monitor the pattern of attended and missed classes for every student in the class and take appropriate action, as required. d) Lecturer needs to enter and update data in the WS for the MaG Records after every assessment was over and marked. e) Lecturer needs to enter data in the WS for the FE Marks Records after the FE was over and marked. f) With the FE result analyzed in the WS for the Analysis of FE Marks, lecturer may need to tweak or use facilities in the WS for the MaG, the WS for the Analysis of FE Marks, and also the WS for the MaGA in order to obtain the best and acceptable result possible. ADVANTAGES OF IRnAfAtMaGaFEx Among advantages of the TF are: a) Lecturer can keep proper records for attendances, marks for CW, and scores for the FE in one place in softcopy. This is a very important task in OBE. The records are handy and can be easily accessed when required. b) Calculation of letter grades awarded to students at the end of the course is done automatically. However, the lecturer can interfere with the automatic production of letter grades and able to overwrite the grades awarded. c) By monitoring patterns of attendances by students regularly, lecturer can take earlier actions to warn students when their attendances are poor. Failing to rectify the situations, students may be barred after that from coming to further lectures, taking other assessment activities and sitting in the final exam. All actions can also be recorded in the TF. Warning actions help reduced truancy by students. d) The author had found (when testing the TF) that the WS for the FEM Records is useful for counterchecking “manual” addition of the total marks done in the answer scripts. Any error done using the manual addition can be corrected when the score for every question is entered into the WS for the FEM Records and calculated using Microsoft Excel®. e) Data in softcopy can be easily manipulated to produce reports in any form required, either by department or college. CONCLUSIONS The template file for IRnAfAtMaGaFEx was developed to facilitate proper record keeping of attendances, marks for CW, and marks for the final exam in softcopy. The TF is able to fulfill these tasks correctly and efficiently, and at the same time able to help lecturers make decisions and take appropriate actions as necessary. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The motivations for further development of IRnAfAtMaGaFEx were due to interests, constant feedbacks and suggestions from lecturers in the College of Engineering, UNITEN and their willingness to try and use the TF for managing their courses after the author had shared the early version of the template file with them. REFERENCES UNITEN. (2000). Peraturan Akademik Program Sarjana Muda. Universiti Tenaga Nasional. |
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