SCHOLASTICUS: ONLINE GRADING SYSTEM MODULE

FOR PHILIPPINE SCIENCE HIGH SCHOOL

CENTRAL MINDANAO CAMPUS

A Research Paper

Presented to the Faculty

Philippine Science High School
Central Mindanao Campus
Balo-i, Lanao del Norte

In Partial Fulfilment of
the Requirements in
Research 1

ABE T. APAO

FEBRUARY 2017
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INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

A website is a place in the World Wide Web that contains information about

persons, organizations or institutions made available online. It can be very useful for

students like the scholars of Philippine Science High School Central Mindanao Campus

(PSHS CMC). They can use the web to look for information related to their

assignments and research in school. The aspect that could be very helpful to the scholars

of PSHS CMC is the online grading system.

The official website for PSHS - CMC is mainly used for posting National

Competitive Examination (NCE) results for incoming Grade 7, as well as for posting

requirements for lateral examination takers. The website is also accessed by the teachers,

when they access the reports that are posted on the website (on the Transparency tab

located at the upper right corner of the website). Other than these, enrolment-related

postings and report-assessments, the website is not likely used by the PSHS-CMC

Scholars anymore.

Online grading system modules have been used by some Philippine schools, such

as the Jose Rizal University (JRU), West Visayas State University (WVSU), Saint Louis

College (SLC), Father Saturnino Urios Univeristy (FSUU), and De La Salle University

(DLSU). Each school has their own online grading system module located in their own

respective websites. Students can access their grades by logging in their respective

schools grading system module, entering their own username/email address and

password.
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The nearest state university located in Iligan City, and where majority of the PSHS

CMC Scholars go to college, is Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of

Technology (MSU - IIT). The official website for MSU - IIT is not only used for posting

System Admission and Scholarship Examination (SASE) results, but is also accessed for

grade monitoring and for the institutes activities information. For the grade monitoring,

teachers would enter, edit, submit and/or lock the given grade/s of a student, while

students can check and see their grades (once theyre locked). As for the institutes

activities information, any student of the said school can see or read the news, get

updated about upcoming activities, check for job opportunities (for alumni students),

upload or read the public documents on the website (for teachers), and etc. Figures 1 4

in Appendix show the present home page, login page, sign up page and teacher profile

page.

Online grading system modules are useful for both students and teachers. Students

can check their grades online and no longer need to approach the teacher, and teachers

will only print the needed files when necessary. Therefore, there will be less number of

papers used which save more trees. In contrast, offline grading system modules are only

used by teachers, and therefore the students will have to approach the teachers to ask for

their grades. Teachers will definitely have to print the list of grades for each class,

because they need to show the grades to each student, resulting to more papers being

used.

Teachers in PSHS CMC today would manually pass the grades to the Registrar.

They would pass the final grades of their students of a particular subject to the

corresponding advisers. The advisers, in turn, would then compute for the General
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Weighted Average (GWA) for each student per quarter by doing the following

calculations:

( subject 1unit )+ ( subject 2unit ) +

First Quarter GWA=
total number of units

2 ( subject 1unit )+ ( subject 2unit )+ 1

Second Quarter =
3( total numb er of units )
+ ( Previous Quarter GWA )
3

... and so on for each additional Quarter. When the advisers finish computing the

grades of all the students per section, they would then pass this in an electronic copy, with

the file in Excel format, to the Registrar. Only then would the registrar print the grades in

a sheet of paper and give it back to the advisers, where the advisers would give the papers

to each student. The students would then show the paper to their parents. Each section has

approximately 30 students, and each grade has 3 sections. There are five different Grade

levels present in PSHS CMC, so 30 * 3 * 5 = there are 450 students in PSHS CMC.

Therefore, there are approximately 450 papers to be printed for the card distribution. The

problem for some scholars is that they cannot show the paper to their parents, since they

will be spending as a weekender. One of the reasons why they will be spending as a

weekender is that they cannot return to their hometown because of the limited time to

travel.

To maximize the use of the PSHS-CMC website, to minimize the use of papers, and

to allow the access of grades by all teachers, students and parents, this study aims to add

the online grading system module on the website. In this manner, the PSHS-CMC

website will not only be useful to the incoming Grade 7, lateral applicants and teachers,

but also to all the PSHS-CMC enrolled scholars, in all grade levels, and the parents.
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Objectives of the Study

The main objective of this study is to create a grading system module for the PSHS -

CMC official website, to be used by each scholar, teacher and parent. Specifically, it aims

to:

1. Design the grading system module using back-end and front-end

programming;

2. implement a web-based grading system tool; and

3. test the security and efficiency of the web-based tool on student, parent and

teacher profiles.

Significance of the Study

The students would be able to monitor their academic status online. Parents can

also monitor the academic status of their sons or daughters at home/work online. The

students would no longer need to contact and tell their parents about their current grades.

The input of grades could also be easier for the faculty, because they now only need to

input the grades on the online profile, thereby making the process paperless. The faculty

can input the grades both in the office and/or home, depending on their choice. The

printing of the grades would only be done when needed. Less paper works mean saving

some of the trees which are the common source of paper.

Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study is focused on the making of the online grading system module for PSHS

CMC only. This study will be conducted in Purok 3, Luinab, Iligan City in the
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residence of the researcher. Only the profiles of the students, teachers and parents in

Grade 10 - Neutron and their corresponding subjects will be done due to the inadequacy

of time. The said module will be posted on a cloud web hosting site.

Definition of Terms
CSS Cascading Style Sheets; style sheet language used for describing the presentation
of a document written in a markup language

HTML HyperText Markup Language; a computer language that is used to create

documents or Web sites on the Internet

JS JavaScript; a computer language that is used to animate objects on the HTML

Module a part of a computer or computer program that does a particular job

SQL Structured Query Language; a standard computer language for relational database
management and data manipulation; it is used to query, insert, update and modify
data

REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE

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Computerized grading systems are not new in the Philippines. They are already

used by many schools. One example is the computerized grading system of Metropolitan

Academy of Manila was created using an app called the Fourth Generation Technique

(4GT). The grading system is an offline grading system software, and the software is

used by teachers and students. However, parents cannot directly see the grades from the

said module (Abundo et.al, 2014).

Meanwhile, the schools Jose Rizal University and Western Visayas State University

have their grading system module powered by the Academic Institutions Management

Systems (AIMS) which is from the Pinnacle Technologies. Though online, these grading

system modules are made with the help of a software, and not using HTML, Javascript,

Python and PostgreSQL.

In the meantime, the systematized grading system of the High School Department

of Canossa School in Sta. Roza, Laguna is still a grading system module made with the

help of a software. The re-checking and re-encoding of grades takes some time. It also

uses another software, and therefore it is an offline grading system module. Meanwhile,

the computerized grading system for Binan National High School uses another software.

Therefore, it is still used by teachers, it is an offline grading system module, and parents

and students cannot directly see the grade from the said software (Paloguer & Valeros,

2013).

For the time being, the grading system module for the San Sebastian College is a

stand-alone program used by teachers. The said module is still an offline grading system

module, and therefore the grades cannot be directly seen by both students and teachers

(Canlubang & Recoletos, 2011).

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METHODOLOGY
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Gathering of Data
The students, their ID numbers, and their parents whom are to be used by the

researcher are all gathered for the Registrars Office. The students are from Neutron, the

teachers are only handling the subjects in Neutron, the parents of the students of Neutron

and the subjects in Neutron are used. The researcher herself is one of the students in

Neutron, and therefore has knowledge on who the teachers and students are, and what the

subjects are.

Creating the Sign in and Register Pages

The researcher created the sign in page in a way that when the module is opened,

the log-in page will be directly shown. The page will require a username and password,

and will ask whether the user is a student, parent or teacher. Below the form, the question

No account yet? and the link for creating a new account will be shown. If the user has

not yet registered, the user will just click the link below the form.

For registering, the page will show the form the user has to fill in to complete

his/her registration. Once completed, the page would then reveal if the signing up was

successful, and the user will then be asked to sign in with the correct details. Figure 3

shows the page to be displayed once the user has successfully registered.

Creating the Student Profile

The researcher created the student profile in a way that when the student is signed

in, he/she immediately sees the list of subjects in which he/she is under for the present

Grade. The grade will be seen at the right side, parallel to the said subject. At the left side

of the profile, the students details, such as the username, ID number, Grade and Section,

and School Year, will be displayed. Below the students details, a button for signing out

Figure 3. The Confirmed Account Page.

Figure 2. The Form for Creating an Account
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will be displayed. All of these will be done by the researcher using HTML, JS, CSS,

Python and PostgreSQL.

Creating the Teacher Profile

The researcher created the teacher profile in a way that when the teacher is logged

in into his/her profile, the teacher immediately sees his/her list of subjects for the present

School Year. Once a subject is clicked, the page then shows the list of students who are

currently taking the subject. The grade will be seen at the right side, parallel to the said

student. Beside the grade, there will be three buttons: one for editing, one for saving the

grade temporarily, and one for locking the grade permanently, which will no longer allow

the teacher to correct the said grade, and for the saved grade to show up in the students

profile. When the edit button is selected, the details of the students grade (assignment,

quizzes, quarter exam, etc.) will be shown, and the teacher will be able to edit it. Once

finished, the save button should be clicked. This way, the teacher can save the grade

without showing it to the students profile. When the lock button is selected, the grade

will then be shown on the students profile and the teacher will no longer be able to edit

the said grade. At the left side of the profile, the teachers details, such as the username,

subject handled, and School Year will be shown. Below the teachers details, a button for

signing out will be displayed. All of these will be done by the researcher using HTML,

JS, CSS, Python and PostgreSQL.

Creating the Parent Profile

The researcher will create the parent profile in a way that when the parent is signed
 10

in, he/she immediately sees the list of subjects in which his/her child is currently taking.

The grade will be seen at the right side, parallel to the said subject. At the left side of the

profile, the parents details, such as the username, occupation, and School Year, will be

displayed. Below the parents details, a button for signing out will be displayed. All of

these will be done by the researcher using HTML, JS, CSS, Python and PostgreSQL.

Posting of the Grading System Module in a Cloud Web Hosting Site

The module will be posted on a cloud web hosting called OpenShift by Red Hat.

The said cloud web hosting server is actually free of charge unless the files uploaded to

the cloud exceed 1 GB, and there is a limit of creating up to 3 different applications in the

free version. All of the PostgreSQL files, Python files, HTML files, JavaScript files and

CSS files were uploaded to the cloud. After this, configuration settings were set and the

module is then launched.

Testing of the Grading System Module

Once the grading system module was completed, the researcher then asked 28

students, 12 teachers and 10 parents of Neutron to try out the said module, and rate it,

using a form provided by the researcher.

Table 1 below shows the form to be used in grading the said module.

Table 1. The Survey Form for Scholasticus.

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

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This chapter presents the testing and evaluation done on the said module, including

the test cases and the survey results for each profile; namely, the student, teacher and

parent profile.

Test Environment
The module was deployed in OpenShift (https://openshift.redhat.com), a cloud

server. The browser used is Mozilla Firefox version 51.0.1, having used a Globe

Broadband Internet connection. The module can be accessed online through this link:

scholasticus-mindblaze.rhcloud.com

Module System Details

In creating the said module, the HTML and CSS files were first made. The figures

below show the HTML pages that were made.

Figure 1. The Home Page of Scholasticus.

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Whenever a user clicks the above mentioned link, Figure 1 (as shown above) will

be directly displayed. If the user has not been registered yet, the link Create new

account should be selected. Figure 2 below shows the form for registering.

Figure 2. The Create Account Form of Scholasticus.

Once the user clicks the Create Account button, the fields containing the last and

first name will be checked whether it is present in the database. If the last and first name

of the user is not present in the database, the line All fields are required changes to

Name does not exist. If the user has already been registered, the same line changes to

Account already activated. If the user has not been registered and he/she has not yet

been registered, the module then adds the rest of the details to the database. Once it is

completed, the page as shown in Figure 3 is displayed.

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Figure 3. The Account Confirmed Page of Scholasticus.

Once the button is clicked, the user is then redirected back to the home page. When

the user signs in, the module then checks if the user is a student, teacher or parent. If the

user is a student, the page as shown in Figure 4 is displayed, together with the list of

subjects and grades of that user.

Figure 4. The IfTemporary

the user isStudent Home
a teacher, Page as
the page of shown
Scholasticus.
in Figure 5 is displayed, along with the
 15

list of students and their grades.

Figure 5. The Temporary Teacher Home Page of Scholasticus.

If the user is a parent, the page as shown in Figure 6 is displayed, along with the

users childs name and his/her subjects and grades.

After creating the said pages, the SQL files used for the module were made. The
Figure 6. The Temporary Parent Home Page of Scholasticus.
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application called pgAdmin III was used while creating and testing the SQL files, and

also for creating the database tables.

10 different tables were made for the database tables of Scholasticus. The diagram

below shows the relationships of the said tables for Scholasticus.

Diagram 1. The Relationships of the Database Tables

USERS TEACHER STUDENT

user_id primary key teacher_id primary student_id primary
username key key
password departmentid_fk sectionid_fk
email_add userid_fk userid_fk
first_name name name
last_name idnumber
home_address
cellphone_number
user_activated TEACHES
(boolean) teaches_id primary TAKES
user_type key takes_id primary key
teacherid_fk studentid_fk
subjectid_fk subjectid_fk
gradesid_fk
PARENT grade_isLocked
parent_id primary (boolean)
key
GRADES
userid_fk
grades_id primary
name
key
studentid_fk SUBJECT
grades
subject_id primary
key
subject_name
DEPARTMENT
department_id SECTION
primary key section_id primary
departmenttype key
sections
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Test Case 1: Student Profiles

The researcher asked the 28 students in Neutron to rate the said module with the

given survey form. The table below shows the total results of the test cases of student

profiles.

Table 2. The Test Case Results of the Student Profiles.

NUMBER OF STUDENTS WHO RATED THESE ASPECTS WITH

THE SAID RATE NUMBER
RATE User Clarity/Color
Page Design User Friendly
NUMBER Register/Forms Contrast
5 18 17 20 23
4 10 10 7 4
3 0 1 1 1

On rating the said module concerning its page design, 18 students or 64.29% rated

it with an Excellent score (or with a score of 5), while the remaining 10 students or

35.71% rated it with a Very Good score, or with a score of 4.

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Page Design - Student Test Case

Very Good; 36%

Excellent; 64%

Figure 7. The Pie Chart of the Page Design Rating of the Students Test Case.
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User Register/Forms - Student Test Case

Good; 4%

Very Good; 36%

Excellent; 61%

Concerning the modules user register/forms, 17 students or 60.71% rated it with an

Excellent score, 10 students or 35.71% rated it with a Very Good score, and the

remaining 1 student rated it with a Good score, or with a score of 3.

Figure 8. The Pie Chart of the User Register/Forms Rating of the Students Test Case.
Concerning the modules clarity/color contrast, 20 students or 71.43% rated it with
 20

an Excellent score, 7 students or 25.00% rated it with a Very Good score, and the

remaining student rated it with a Good score.

Clarity/Color Contrast - Student Test Case

Good; 4%

Very Good; 25%

Excellent; 71%

Figure 9. The Pie Chart of the Clarity/Color Contrast Rating of the Students Test Case.
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User Friendly - Student Test Case

Good; 3%
Very Good; 23%

Excellent; 74%

For the user friendliness of the said module, 23 students or 82.14% rated it with an

Excellent score, 4 students or 14.29% rated it with a Very Good score, while the

remaining student rated it with a Good score.

Generally, the students rated the module from scores 3 5. There is no student who

rated the module with a score below 3. There were only a few students who rated the

module
Figurewith a score
10. The of 3. Most
Pie Chart of theofUser
themFriendliness
rated the module
Ratingwith a score
of the of 5. Test Case.
Students

There were problems encountered while testing the said module. The first problem

encountered was when the first name of a student in the database table was misspelled.
 22

The second problem encountered was when the lines No account yet? and Create new

account were not seen when accessed. This is because the browser type which the user

had used was Google Chrome, and the user had to use the Mozilla Firefox browser in

order to find the two lines (see Figure 5 in the Appendix).

The third problem encountered was when the user logged in and there were no

subjects and grades displayed. This was solved by refreshing the said server where the

Scholasticus was saved, and the user was able to see the subjects and grades.

Test Case 2: Teacher Profiles

The researcher asked the 10 teachers in Neutron to rate the said module with the

given survey form. The table below shows the total results of the test cases of teacher

profiles.

Table 3. The Test Case Results of the Teacher Profiles.

NUMBER OF TEACHERS WHO RATED THESE ASPECTS WITH

THE SAID RATE NUMBER
RATE User Clarity/Color
Page Design User Friendly
NUMBER Register/Forms Contrast
5 9 6 9 10
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4 0 4 0 0
3 1 0 1 0
On rating the said module concerning its page design, 9 teachers or 90.00% rated it

with an Excellent score, while the remaining teacher rated it with a Good score.

Page Design - Teacher Test Case

Excellent; 90%

Figure 11. The Pie Chart of the Page Design Rating of the Teachers Test Case.

Concerning the modules user register/forms, 6 teachers or 60.00% rated it with an

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Excellent score, while the remaining 4 teachers or 40.00% rated it with a Very Good

score.

User Register/Forms - Teacher Test Case

Very Good; 40%

Excellent; 60%

Figure 12. The Pie Chart of the User Register/Forms Rating of the Teachers Test Case.

Concerning the modules clarity/color contrast, 9 teachers or 90.00% rated it with

an Excellent score, while the remaining teacher rated it with a Good score.
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Clarity/Color Contrast- Teacher Test Case

Excellent; 90%

Figure 13. The Pie Chart of the Clarity/Color Contrast Rating of the Teachers Test Case.
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User Friendly - Teacher Test Case

Excellent; 100%

For the user friendliness of the said module, all of the teachers or 100.00% rated it with

an Excellent score.

Figure 14. The Pie Chart of the User Friendliness Rating of the Teachers Test Case.

Generally, the teachers rated the module from scores 3 5. There is no teacher who
 27

rated the module with a score below 3. There were only a few teachers who rated the

module with a score of 3. Most of them rated the module with a score of 5.

There were 12 teachers who actually handled the subjects in Neutron, but the

remaining 2 teachers were absent during the testing, and were not included in the data.

There was a problem encountered while testing the said module. This was when the

first name of a teacher in the database table was misspelled.

Test Case 3: Parent Profiles

The researcher asked 10 different parents to rate the said module, but only 4 of

them were able to, because the others were busy with their work. All of them rated the

modules page design with a Very Good score. Concerning the modules user

register/forms, 2 parents rated it with an Excellent score, while the remaining 2 parents

rated it with a Very Good score. For the modules clarity/color contrast, 3 of them rated

it with a Very Good score, while the remaining parent rated it with a Good score. For

the user friendliness of the module, 3 of them rated it with an Excellent score, while the

remaining parent rated it with a Good score.

Generally, the parents rated the module from scores 3 5. There is no parent who

rated the module with a score below 3. There were only a few parents who rated the

module with a score of 3. Most of them rated the module with a score of 5.

No problems were encountered during the said testing of the module.

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CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

The researcher was able to implement and present the online grading system

module. The said module was successfully designed using the programming languages,

namely: HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Python and PostgreSQL and was successfully

implemented on a cloud web hosting server. The module allows the student to browse

their own grades while enabling parents to view their childs grades. On the other hand,

teachers can be able to input the grades of each student, be able to edit and lock the final

grade online. Each user has their own accounts which are accessed through their own

unique username and password. Upon testing the said module, results show that no

student, teacher or parent rated a score below the average which is three. This indicates

that the users are generally satisfied with the said module.

The online grading system module can be of great help to teachers, especially to

advisers. Teachers can enter the grades through online access while, both students and
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parents can view their grades online. Parents do not have to go to school when it concerns

to knowing the academic status of their child.

As far as this online grading system module is concerned, there are still many

things to be done for improvement, such as:

1. Sending a confirmation code to the said email address of a user;

2. Including the other sections to the database table;
3. Addition of character rating and attendance on the module;
4. Making the said website mobile-friendly; and
5. Lastly, making the said module into a mobile application.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Abundo, et al. (2014, March 26). Computerized Grading System for Metropolitan
Academy of Manila. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from Term Paper Warehouse:
http://www.termpaperwarehouse.com/essay-on/Grading-System/424164

Canlubang, & Recoletos. (2011, February 24). Computerized Grading System for San
Sebastian College. Retrieved January 29, 2017, from Documents:
http://documents.mx/documents/chapter-1-55844e38aa3cf.html

Paloguer, & Valeros. (2013, December 12). Computerized Grading System Thesis.
Retrieved January 29, 2017, from Study Mode:
http://www.studymode.com/essays/Grading-System-781589.html
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APPENDIX

Figure 1. MSU IIT Home Page.

Figure 2. MSU IIT Login Page.

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Figure 4. MSU IIT Teacher Profile Page.

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Figure 3. MSU IIT Sign Up Page.

Figure 5. The Second Problem Encountered During Testing.

(Note that the bottom two lines of the page were missing.)