1.1. Problem Statement

The general problems solved by the Grader Tool are the following:

  1. To provide a reliable easy-to-use tool that manages grades for an academic classroom environment for professors and students.
  2. To create a configurable and intuitive spreadsheet-like interface with focused grade management functionality.
  3. To provide a secure platform that will enable convenient access to grades by people who are supposed to see them, while preventing tampering of grades by people without the appropriate permissions
  4. To provide a centralized host repository where instructors post grades and students view them.
  5. To create an alternative to the web-based blackboard grading system currently available to professors and students at Cal Poly.
While these problems have been solved by a number of commercially available and public domain products, the Grader tool provides a solution with improvements over other tools. In addition, the Grader Tool focuses on two other specific problems not addressed in commercial tools:
  1. To interface with Cal Poly's SIS student database to enable automatic class grading configurations based on official Cal Poly records.
  2. To have additional student enrollment configuration controls and comparison tools for special exceptions such as extended education which are not managed by SIS.
  3. To allow students to do grade prediction by entering various assignment and exam scores. Students will be able to enter the final grade they want to receive, and example scores that will earn the desired grade will be presented to the student.
  4. A grade repository will also be maintained to ensure that corrupted grade data can always be recovered by reversing changes to the information.




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