LAB RECORD

MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

2015

REQUIREMENT ANALYSIS ELICITATION Group - 5

1

Table of Contents

Table of Contents ................................................................................... 1

Abstract .................................................................................................. 3

1. Overview ........................................................................................... 4

2. Methods, principles and research methodologies used.................... 5

3. Identifying the Stakeholders of the Project....................................... 6

3.1 Students ........................................................................................................ 6

3.2 Subject Coordinators .................................................................................... 7

3.3 Lab Administrators ........................................................................................ 7

3.4 Developer Team ............................................................................................ 8

4. Interaction with the Stakeholders ..................................................... 9

4.1 Student Questionnaire .................................................................................. 9

4.2 Questionnaire for teachers ......................................................................... 13

5. Current Problems Faced by the Stakeholders ................................. 18

5.1 Improper lab management of labs .............................................................. 18

5.2 Inefficient assignment evaluation and updation ......................................... 18

5.3 Inefficient and obsolete method for attendance management and updation19

5.4 No proper channel for communication between students and subject

coordinators regarding the subject information ............................................... 19

5.5 No proper facility for the students to gain access to subject notes and important

updates ............................................................................................................. 20

5.6 No proper way for students to know deadlines in the subjects .................. 20

6.Techniques & Tools to Counter the Problems Faced by Stakeholders21

6.1 Online Assignment Submission Portal ......................................................... 21

6.2 Online Quizzes ............................................................................................ 22

2

6.3 Attendance Issue ........................................................................................ 23

6.4 Online Surveys ............................................................................................ 24

6.5 Online Forums............................................................................................. 24

6.6 Online Notes ............................................................................................... 25

6.7 Notifications ............................................................................................... 25

7. Comparative Study of available softwares ...................................... 27

8. Limitations of Current Model .......................................................... 29

9. Conclusion ...................................................................................... 30

10. References ...................................................................................... 31

11. Contribution .................................................................................... 32

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Abstract

Requirement elicitation is the process of finding and elaborating the requirements for

any project. The need for the requirement elicitation arrives from the fact that the

elicitation is the foundation of any work. The process of requirement elicitation requires

the active participation of stakeholders.

The requirements and specifications cannot be just collected, they need to be perfectly

elicited. This implies that there are discoveries, emergence and uncovering of the defects

of the present technologies used for addressing the problem. Requirement elicitation is

a complex process involving many activities with a variety of available techniques,

approaches, and tools for performing them. The relative strengths and weaknesses of

these determine when each is appropriate depending on the context and situation.

This study presents an initial set of findings from an empirical study of lab management

techniques used in todays scenario in most of the laboratories around the country,

Technical system configurations, Organizational contexts, and Interrelationships that

give rise to more advanced lab management techniques .

The focus is directed at understanding the requirements for lab management software

development efforts, and how the development of these requirements differs from

those traditional to software engineering and requirements engineering to better

account for the requirements for developing lab management software systems.

4

1. Overview

The focus in this document is directed at understanding the requirements for more

advanced software technologies for managing laboratories.

It is not about hypothesis testing or testing the viabilities of current methodologies

used, instead it is about description and Implementation of more advanced

methods and practices that can be implemented to achieve and exploit our

capabilities to a best.

It is about expanding our notions of what requirements engineering processes and

process models need to address to account for advanced lab management

software development. But to set the stage for such an analysis, we first need to

characterize the research methods and principles employed in this study. This is

followed by the model of the processes and artifacts that give rise to the

requirements for developing advanced software systems.

The model and artifacts are the focus of the analysis and basis of the concluding

discussion.

This includes a discussion of what is new or different in the findings presented in

this report, as well as some of their implications for what can or should be

formalized when developing different kinds of lab management software systems.

5

2. Methods, principles and research methodologies used

The type of the system and the purpose of the Project significantly affects the way in

which requirements elicitation is conducted, for e.g. for a website, the elicitation can be

conducted online just through an online survey or feedback form.

The specific requirement elicitation techniques can also vary depending upon the time

and resources available to us. In this document the elicitation is done through direct and

extensive review of the current scenario.

The report is based on the ongoing practices used in labs in the institutions for the

management of student records. The data has been collected by using direct

methods i.e. Interaction with the stakeholders and listening to their problems and

then having a deep research on it to justify if there is such a case or not.

As the whole elicitation process cannot just rely on the demands of the

stakeholders, we also conducted interviews, feedback and personal questionnaire,

and checking the success percentage of the current available steps taken in this

direction.

The purpose of this investigation is to arrive at best results that can be

implemented in the software to be developed such that it can be made user

friendly and very competitive as compared to the traditional methods and current

alternatives used. Also the project aims at an open source management system so

that it is a lot easier to add functionalities (if required at a later stage).

The model presents a contrasting account of how the needs are addressed in

present scenario, the requirement differences between current system and the

new approach to address the problem.

The model tries to address all the logical problems and the challenges that the

stakeholders are facing in the present.

6

3. Identifying the Stakeholders of the Project

The stakeholders for the project are identified by considering the following important

points

The teaching methodologies used by the modern institutes include extensive

laboratory assignments in addition to theoretical lectures.

The coursework may easily include 50% time allotted to practical and thus the

advancement in this field is self-evident.

The modern approaches can be applied to facilitate better communication and

protocols within the Laboratories making them more efficient and effective.

3.1 Students

The students are the front end of the project, the project aims at making some

better tool for the management of laboratories as the quality of laboratories and

their functional efficiency directly affects the students attending the laboratories.

The assignments performed in the labs provide practical knowledge and

implementation provides more intensive understanding of otherwise purely

conceptual subjects.

Thus, information regarding assignments, their timely completion and assessment

prove to be crucial aspects, and may ultimately become the decisive factors for

what and how much is learnt and absorbed by the students.

7

3.2 Subject Coordinators

The implementation of a centralized server based database management system

makes it possible for subject coordinators to easily keep a track of overall student

performances, and provides a channel for passing on important information easily

and effectively.

It reduces ambiguity caused by word-of-mouth transmission of information and

can be used as a portal for posting official updates.

3.3 Lab Administrators

Administrating the laboratory sessions can be made much easier if systematic

approaches are used, and students are well informed and prepared for them.

By use of this management system, the work of laboratory administrators is

reduced at large.

The administrators can focus more on solving problems faced by students, rather

than trying to figure out what assignments to give and how to perform

comparative assessment of such a large number of assignments.

8

3.4 Developer Team

An obvious stakeholder group is the group responsible for development of the

product, the entire development of the software provides direct implications on

the developing team, and the outcomes are shared by the entire team.

For the development of any project or accomplishment of any action there is

always a group that carries out all the pre-processing and development of the

model or the project that is to be used by the other stakeholders hence,

identification of Development team as the stakeholders.

From the beginning of the project development to the very existence of the

software in use, the developers play and important role as after development the

software requires to be up to date, bugs in the program need to be fixed and

advancements and up gradation of the software due to advancement in the

technical platforms.

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4. Interaction with the Stakeholders

4.1 Student Questionnaire

1. What is the mode of submission in your labs for submitting programming

questions?

a. Written

b. Printed

c. Online Submission

2. What is the mode of submission in your labs for submitting Theoretical

questions?

a) Written

b) Printed

c) Online Submission

30%

60%

10%

Mode of Submission for Programming Questions

Written Printed Online Submission

90%

10%0%

Mode of Submission for Theoretical Questions

Written Printed Online Submission

10

3. How much you are satisfied with current procedure?

a) < 25%

b) 25 50%

c) 50 75%

d) 75%

4. If you are satisfied for less than 75% then what is the reason (tick one or more

as you like)?

a) The evaluation process is not transparent

b) It takes lot of time to first write code on computer then write it down

c) Work remains scattered

d) All the above

20%

40%

20%

20%

Current Procedure Satisfaction - 1

< 25% 25 - 50% 50-75% > 75%

20%

20%

10%

50%

Current Procedure Satisfaction - 2

Option a Option b Option c Option d

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5. Do you get Notes and Notifications Timely?

a. Sometimes

b. Never

c. Always

d. Most of the time

6. How you get information about Notes and Notifications provided by teachers?

a. Social Media

b. By the other students

c. Notices and Circulars

d. By the Lab coordinators

40%

30%

20%

10%

Notes & Notifications - 1

Sometimes Never Always Most of the time

35%

30%

10%

25%

Notes & Notifications - 2

Social Media By other students Notices Lab Coordinatos

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7. Do you want any change in the present system?

a. Surely

b. 75%

c. 50%

d. < 25%

8. If Online Assignment Portal be an alternative then what is your opinion regarding

it?

a. It is a good idea and will succeed

b. It is a good idea but cannot be implemented

c. It is a good idea and should be done

d. The idea is not very logical and it needs some improvement

50%

30%

10%

10%

Change in System

Surely 75% 50% < 25%

45%

20%

30%

5%

Notion About Online Assignment Portal

Option a Option b Option c Option d

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4.2 Questionnaire for teachers

1. What is the mode to manage student lab record as used by you?

a. Managing Records on Paper

b. Using some software Tool< 25%

2. How frequently you need to update the record?

a. On a daily Basis

b. Only once a week

c. Twice a week

d. Rarely

80%

20%

Mode of Management

On Paper Using Software

20%

30%40%

10%

Updation Frequency

Daily Once a week Twice a week Rarely

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3. How much time does it take to update the lab records of students of one lab?

a. 5-10 min

b. 1 hour

c. 2 hours

d. > 2 hours

4. Is there any method through which you can access all the data of various labs at

once?

a. Yes

b. No

c. Sometimes it is difficult

10%

40%40%

10%

Time to update record

5 - 10 min 1 hour 2 hours > 2 hours

10%

60%

30%

Existence of Method to Access all Data

Yes No Sometimes difficult

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5. Does the present system provides a way to work optimally or not?

a. No, the lab management techniques are obsolete

b. Yes, they are good and friendly

c. No, these are cumbersome

d. No, there is no proper means to carry out the Task

6. Are you satisfied with the current methods and methodologies used or you think

there can be improvement?

a. Yes, very satisfied

b. Partially, and it needs some improvement

c. Partially but it needs much improvement

d. Not at all, and the system needs to be rewired

30%

30%

30%

10%

Does system provide to work optimally

No, obsolete techniques Yes

No, Cumbersome No, absence of proper means

40%

30%

20%

10%

Satisfaction with Current Methods

Option a Option b Option c Option d

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7. Is there some place where you can keep all the records compiled if No, then do

you want?

a. Yes

b. No, no

c. No, yes

8. Do you need any tool to check the accuracy of the Programming Assignments in

the current system?

a. No, we check it manually

b. Yes

50%

20%

30%

Does system provide to work optimally

Yes No, no No, yes

30%

70%

Software Requirement for Programming Assignments

Yes No

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9. If there is some Software tool that helps you to manage records, will that be

useful?

a. No, not at all

b. Yes, to a great extent

c. I think it will not be feasible

d. Yes, It is really needed

10. If Software tool provides you with all the need facilities will you use it?

a. Yes

b. No, we do need

20%

40%10%

30%

Usefulness of Software

No, not at all Yes, to a great extent

I think it will not be useful Yes, it is rarely needed

70%

30%

Want Software Use

Yes No

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5. Current Problems Faced by the Stakeholders

5.1 Improper lab management of labs

The main cause for this problem is that there is no central regulatory facility which

can be used by the main subject coordinators to brief students about assignments

to be performed beforehand and thus provide them with an insight into which

practical will be performed when.

Without prior knowledge about what is to be done in future labs, students may

not be able to grasp technically challenging concepts within the laboratory's

allotted time period, and may require to work even more on their own, which

beats the purpose of having labs.

This hugely decreases productivity in the lab periods. In addition to this, students

may be accommodated in multiple labs, which makes communicating the

assignment topics even more problematic, and further, increases the possibility of

ambiguity.

Clear instructions are missing, and largely required for proper management of the

labs, which can only be achieved by a better, more effective way for notification.

5.2 Inefficient assignment evaluation and updation

Assignment evaluation is a major aspect of laboratories, manual assessment of

large number of assignments proves to be a challenge.

Organizing and storing files seems to be an obsolete method, and can easily be

replaced with electronic storage. Such assignment collection would be a time

consuming and ambiguity inducing method, chances of misplacing files are always

present, and accessing them would be a slow and cumbersome process.

Further, assessment can be done by multiple teachers, this provides a potential

loophole where assessment of students' work is not fair.

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There is no comparative scale or way to access already assessed assignments with

ease for comparison purposes.

Unfair assessment due to such rudimentary methods leads to discouragement

among students, and also should be treated as an unacceptable practice in today's

day and age.

5.3 Inefficient and obsolete method for attendance management

and updation

Attendance is taken manually by the lab administrators and is required to be re-

entered by the subject coordinators upon receipt.

The method is obsolete to say the least, especially for computer science

laboratories, where better and more optimal approaches can be used in place of

redundant practices.

5.4 No proper channel for communication between students and

subject coordinators regarding the subject information

Teachers do not have a centralized and easy method to share important news with

the students. Word of mouth transmission is one of the usual ways to

communicate, but has obvious problems associated with it.

A better channel of communication with permanent records and easy access is

required. Improvement in the quality of this medium will provide students the

opportunity to learn more in a better and systematic way.

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5.5 No proper facility for the students to gain access to subject

notes and important updates

As a common practice, information is provided to a few students and they are

required to circulate the information to other students, and many a times this

leads to confusion and everyone isn't informed timely.

There is no official source for getting course material and notes, this deems it

possible to consider all sources to be unofficial.

Without a proper portal for providing students with notes and important updates,

many a times Xerox are provided to few students and they don't get circulated

properly.

Also there is no proper medium to which all the students have access so that a

teacher can upload all the notes there. Without any alternatives, teachers are thus

forced to use the same methods repeatedly.

5.6 No proper way for students to know deadlines in the subjects

The deadlines for a particular assignment and question vary so the students do not

get to know the hard deadline for a particular assignment submission, hence many

times students may miss the deadline, further causing disorganization for the

teachers and wastage of time.

There is no official source for concrete information regarding the deadlines.

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6. Techniques and Tools to Counter the Problems Faced by

Stakeholders

We discuss key features that can be implemented during later stages of software

development to address the problems faced by the stakeholders.

All the features are have been taken upon response by the stakeholders (i.e. Students

and Lab-Admins) during the interviews and personal questionnaires

6.1 Online Assignment Submission Portal

Most of the students have complained that there is no facility for them to submit

their assignments and also keep a record of their submissions.

Whereas the lab-admins have suggested that there is a need for some place

where they can have an organized, and compiled version of all the submitted

assignment of the students in a particular lab.

We propose the facility Online Assignment Submission Portal where both lab-

admins and the students can function alike.

Online submission of assignments can be the key feature of this product. It will

allow the students to directly submit any assignment for any lab remotely.

Also the lab-admins would be at much ease now in making the assignments live to

the whole class and this will decrease their problems.

This will increase the efficiency of the labs much more than current scenario as

this particular functionality will help them in various ways:

It will allow the lab-admins and the subject coordinator to have compiled

submissions for each lab.

This in turn will allow for better evaluation of assignments as now different lab-

admins can easily do a comparative evaluation for each assignment.

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Marking system will also be upgraded as now lab-admins would able to mark

the submissions on the go and this will lead to less problems at the semester

end as they will get automatically generated result for every lab that they take.

Hence this feature will be very useful to address the severity of assignment

submission in present scenario.

6.2 Online Quizzes

Most of the lab-admins have complained of lack any conclusive tool to test the

students after each lab and also lack of innovation in learning methodology used

currently.

In order to improve the learning process during the lab we propose the facility of

spontaneous quizzes after each lab to the lab-admin.

We intend to provide the lab-admin the choice to add quizzes for each lab in the

subject.

The quizzes will make the lab more engaging and interesting and the learning curve

will surely improve.

The quizzes can also be used to automatically mark the attendance of the class

based on the participation in the quiz.

Also the lab-admin will not be needed to grade any students response as his/her

response will be automatically graded according the initial key provided by the lab-

admin at the time of the creation of any particular quiz.

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6.3 Attendance Issue

As pointed out by the students and the lab-admins alike, there is a dire need for

some good method to automatically mark the attendance of the students during

each lab.

We propose a method to save the time and energy of both students and the lab-

admins alike by bringing forward the concept of attendance on the basis of

participation in the daily quizzes and survey after/before the lab.

The idea is to implement some database that will keep record of students

participation in each of the quiz in a particular lab and automatically mark the

corresponding students attendance.

This feature can drastically increase the performance of both student and lab-

admins.

Since each students attendance now depends on the response made by him,

it will lead to an increased attention in the lab.

Now the lab-admins can be free from the chores of the attendance and save

much more time spent in the attendance.

This will ensure mutual participation of both students and the lab-admins alike.

Such quizzes can also be used to divide gradation in each lab and hence can be

made more important.

Automatic gradation in the quiz section will make life much easier of the lab-

admin.

This type of gradation system can be easily developed by keeping a base

database of students responses and correct answers for each of the quizzes,

using the currently available techniques.

Automatic gradation will also lead to less clutter and more organized data

which the lab-admins can access anytime.

Moreover it will help both the student and lab-admins alike to analyze any

students growth and performance in real-time.

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6.4 Online Surveys

Most of the lab-admins have also requested for a feature that would allow them

to get the general consensus of the class regarding various issues at hand, for

example, survey regarding the course work, or regarding the teaching

methodology used.

We propose the feature of Online Surveys to tackle this problem and justify its

need in the following points:

It will help in checking the effectiveness of the working management and

keeping a check on the capabilities of the lab faculties.

It will also help to remove and loop holes and redundancies from the system

with the help of conducting surveys at a regular time period.

These surveys can also be helpful in knowing what improvement should be

incorporated for improving the department.

These surveys can also be used as a measure for automatic attendance marking

system.

6.5 Online Forums

Most of the students have also demanded for some feature where they can discuss

their daily issues regarding the subject/lab that they attend.

Most of the online submission portals for students at different universities have a

kind of Online Forum for each subject where they could discuss things of

importance and discuss with everybody else at the same time.

We also have suggested the feature of Online Forums for each of the lab.

We justify the need of this feature with following points:

It would provide a healthy interaction between students and teachers.

Teachers would be a part of the forum and hence will part of the community.

Their involvement will be crucial to the functionality of the forums.

25

Hence the need of the forums is justified.

6.6 Online Notes

Most of the students and the lab-admins have called for the need of Online

Notes.

Lab-Admins would like to be able to add notes online to student portal from where

every student would be able to get the notes and benefit.

This will surely help both the student community and the lab-admins.

Students will now be saved from the problems of getting the correct notes at the

required time.

Lab-Admins will be able to save their time and hence give more time to the

working of the lab

So we also propose the feature of Online Notes in our product to tackle the

current problem.

This feature will reduce the dependency of the students on the classroom notes

distribution, hence, it will increase the overall quality of the class or the lab alike.

6.7 Notifications

Most of the students and lab-admins have complained of lack of any facility to

properly issue a notice.

Students have complained that most of the time they do not get to know of any

particular notice issued by the lab-admins.

They also complained of too much dependence on the word of mouth method of

propagation of information.

26

Lab-Admins have complained that they need many a times they are not able to

convey any change of plans efficiently to the whole class.

Hence we propose the feature of Online Notifications.

This feature will help the lab-admin to convey any information or notice at a

moments notice to the whole class very efficiently and quickly.

Also this feature will save the students from depending on the word of mouth

method of propagation of information.

Any information regarding the labs will be very easily conveyed to whole class and

this will lead to a drastic reduction in the ambiguity that happens to lack of

information spread among the students and the lab-admins alike.

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7. Comparative Study of available softwares

Here we present the comparative study of available software like Edmodo and Black

Board

Feature Edmodo Blackboard

Assignments

Allows to post with a due date and a task sheet

Can easily see submission details

Grade assessment and immediate feedback

Admin can manage the progress of tracks & tasks

The tasks tool allow to mark when they've started and completed task

Quiz

Allows to create quick and simple quizzes

It shows statistics about the students answers

Allows to conduct an immediate exam and also pre planned exam, with test availability options

Grades Supports via Custom

Badges

Self-assessment tool is used and updated through

notification

Discussion Board Has forms with comments Open discussion form with

upload option

Polls It has an immediate

response feature

Feedback / Note Creates an exit slip for

students with comment and view options

Test result, feedback, presentation can be

viewed

28

Group Management Used as small groups Team work done using

roaster

Chat Has private talk with student option

Notes Folders, sub-folders, and

sharing options are provided.

Has helix media library for streaming and view option

Notifications Used as class

announcements

Push notification option and course message

notification

Figure 1. Market model of different Lab Management Systems

29

8. Limitations of Current Model

We have left out some features provided by other softwares in the market

LAN School by Intel Corporation (http://www.lanschool.com/) provides

advanced features of lab management like screen sharing, blanking student

screens, and remote control. But it can cost upto 800$.

NetOP School from CrossTec Corporation (http://www.netop.com/classroom-

management-software/products/netop-school.htm) has the ability to

broadcast MPEG, videos or Flash animations on to student computers for

demonstration done by teacher. This has not been included in this model

We do not have chat ability as it is not required in the current scenario.

We do not have any concrete plagiarism detector. We plan to use MOSS (Measure

of Software Similarity) which can measure amount of similarity but it cannot check

whether a piece of code copied is intended like Hello World program done by all

persons is same. So somebody has to go and analyze the submissions.

30

9. Conclusion

The Aim of this project is to build a user friendly online portal that manages and helps

the lab administrators to asses and handle the assignments. The project tries to address

the problems faced by the stakeholders. Thus a careful implementation of the project

can help the stakeholders a lot.

The design requires minimal software and available hardware resources and hence it can

be successfully used on both present and future software machines.

The project considers all the important points that need the improvement and it has

addressed them in a perfect way. A future study after the implementation of this model

will help to overcome the shortcomings and will help to address future requirements.

The elicitation perfectly covers all the useful features and limitations of the project.

Hence by just going through the document one can easily figure out the areas which need

further assistance and improvement and thus the report can be considered while

developing the additional features at a later time.

31

10. References

Websites

WWW.WIKIPEDIA.COM

THEORY.STANFORD.EDU/~AIKEN/MOSS

WWW.LANSCHOOL.COM

WWW.NETOP.COM/CLASSROOM-MANAGEMENT-SOFTWARE/PRODUCTS/NETOP-SCHOOL.HTM

32

11. Contribution

The contribution of the Team members in carrying out the Systematic Elicitation for the

project is as follows:

Name Scholar Number Contribution

Bhavya Budania 131112089

Supervised all domains of the

elicitation report as the Team

Leader

Shobha Barupal 131112079 Techniques and tools to counter the

problems faced by stakeholders

Madhur Mishra 131112072

Designing Questionnaires for

evaluation of existing system

and checking the feasibility of

our product

Methods principles and

research methodologies

used.

Abstract

Umesh Bhoj 131112073 Solutions to the current problems

Amit Parihar 131112074 Solutions to the current problems

33

Mayur Mesharam 131112075 Solutions to the current Problems

Aditya Gaur 131112076

Identification of stakeholders

Discussion and expansion of

problems faced

Solutions to those issues

Deepak Verma 131112077

Limitations of the current

model

Total design of the elicitation

document

Generating pie charts from

the data collected from

Questionnaires

Ankur Ranjan 131112078 Plagiarism detection and

implementation of Moss

Gaveesh Gupta 131112080 Plagiarism detection and

implementation of Moss

Sarath Chandra 131112081 Comparative study of the models

V. R. G. Aditya Sharma 131112082 Comparative study of the models

Deepak Kumar Meena 131112083 Limitations of current model and

Conclusion

34

Akshay Aryan 131112084 Current problems faced by

stakeholders

Balram Kirar 131112085 Online quizzing and its advantages

and disadvantages

Rahul Parmar 131112088 Limitation of the current problem

CoverTable of ContentsAbstract1. Overview2. Methods, principles and research methodologies used3. Identifying the Stakeholders of the Project3.1 Students3.2 Subject Coordinators3.3 Lab Administrators3.4 Developer Team

4. Interaction with the Stakeholders4.1 Student Questionnaire4.2 Questionnaire for teachers

5. Current Problems Faced by the Stakeholders5.1 Improper lab management of labs5.2 Inefficient assignment evaluation and updation5.3 Inefficient and obsolete method for attendance managementand updation5.4 No proper channel for communication between students andsubject coordinators regarding the subject information5.5 No proper facility for the students to gain access to subjectnotes and important updates5.6 No proper way for students to know deadlines in the subjects

6. Techniques and Tools to Counter the Problems Faced byStakeholders6.1 Online Assignment Submission Portal6.2 Online Quizzes6.3 Attendance Issue6.4 Online Surveys6.5 Online Forums6.6 Online Notes6.7 Notifications

7. Comparative Study of available softwares8. Limitations of Current Model9. Conclusion10. References11. Contribution