1.

0 Research Description

1.1 Background of the Study

Malayan Colleges Laguna (informally known as MCL)

is a wholly owned subsidiary of the Mapúa Institute of
Technology established in the grounds of Laguna to extend
the quality of education Mapúa has been known for.
Groundwork started in late 2005, and on January of 2006,
MCL acquired its corporate personality after its registration
with the Securities and Exchange Commission. In
November of 2006, the institute received the approval
from Commission on Higher Education (CHED) to offer
programs of study in Engineering, Information Technology
(IT), and Business.

Since then, Malayan Colleges Laguna has been

composed of three colleges: the Mapúa Institute of
Technology at Laguna, E.T. Yuchengco College of Business
at Laguna, and the College of Information Technology
(CIT). This school year, the Mapúa–Philippine Transmarine
Carriers Inc. (Mapúa-PTC) College of Maritime Education
and Training (CMET) opened its doors to the second batch
of students as the newest and fourth College of MCL.

The College of Information Technology provides the

IT foundation courses to students taking programs from the
other three colleges, such as IT Fundamentals, aside from
the core courses of programs under its own umbrella.

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 An IT class has a minimum of 10 students and
maximum of 40. Again, the College of Information
Technology (CIT) provides the IT foundation courses for all
the students of the four colleges. Since MCL is at its fresh
start and with its increasing population, an average of 5 to
6 IT classes of 40 students are assigned to a single IT
faculty member. An account is assigned to the instructor
as well as to students. The instructor’s account can able to
see and access students’ folders: he/she can copy files
from and to the folders, as well as modify and delete them.
One of these files managed by the faculty is the
performance evaluation file which contains the student’s
record of his/her quizzes, practical learning exercises, and
laboratory exercises results. Problem occurs when the
instructor need to copy these files to students’ folders.
Also, if the instructor will check students’ individual work,
he has to open each and every folder to look for the file.
With a class ranging from twenty to a maximum of forty
students, it will take instructors some time managing the
said course-related files.

Another concern is the administration of tests to a

number of classes. The colleges require that for a one unit
course, the instructor should prepare and administer one
long test, for a 3-unit course, 3 long tests should be
administered, and so on. The instructor usually prepares
at least two (2) sets of tests or more, depending on the
number of common courses he/she handles. This need to
be done to avoid test leakage to other sections taking the
same course.

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 These are just some of the concerns of the
instructors in the course of devising tests questionnaires.
The proponent intend to address these along with other
problems by designing a system that will help them
administer tests using the resources of MCL’s computer
laboratories.

1.1.1 Overview of the Current State of Technology

In a typical IT course, a number of quizzes and long

tests are administered by the instructor per term. A policy
of one (1) long test per course unit is implemented; that is,
a 2-unit course requires having 2 long tests, a 3-unit
course requires 3 long tests, and so on. Short quizzes of
ten to twenty items are usually given in dictation.
Sometimes, instructors make use of a PowerPoint
presentation in administering short tests. Other instructors
make use of an exam viewer, a software application that
generates a test from a database. This option for some is
limited when it comes to the availability of the application,
since most of the instructors have limited rights when it
comes to installing software applications in the computer
laboratories. Furthermore, test items using this application
still need to be typed and saved into the database.

Long tests, on the other hand, are usually given in

printout and are composed of items from fifty to a
hundred. In preparing the long test, instructors usually
consider a number of test types: multiple choice, modified
true or false, identification, matching, and others.
Considering these types of tests at times gives the

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 instructors hard time devising the test the least possible
time.

The proposed system will help the instructor in

creating and designing an efficient and effective test in a
short time. The system intends to utilize the IT laboratory
rooms equipped with computer stations in the
administration of the tests for the IT courses.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

1.2.1 General Problem

How to design, develop and implement a web-
based exam administration system that will be
implemented through the institute’s intranet?

1.2.2 Specific Problems

1. How to administer a unique test to students?
2. How to generate a set of test questionnaire
randomly?
3. How to check tests and compute for test results?

1.3 Research Objectives

1.3.1 General Objective

The main objective of the study is to develop a
test administration system that will have elements of
a typical web-based application implemented in an
intranet.

1.3.2 Specific Objectives

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 1. To incorporate a module that will require a
student to create an account.
2. To assign a user-id and password which will
serve as the student’s log-in information to the
system
3. To authenticate the entered user-id and
password
4. To develop a facility that will allow the
professors save questions in the test questions
database and design a test questionnaire
5. To incorporate a process for retrieving test
items from the database
6. To include a procedure of arranging test items
randomly
7. To design a facility that will allow the students
to answer tests prescribed by the professor
8. To include a process that will save answers of a
student taking the test, match it against the
answer key and compute for the score

1.4 Significance of the Research

The proposed system will benefit the following:

IT Instructors

Instructors can create and design examination

questionnaires using their account in the least possible
time. They can also update the database of question items
for a more effective test design. It will be also easy for

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 instructors to see reports regarding students who took,
passed, and failed the tests.

The Students

Through the use of the system, the students have

ample time to manage the electronic questionnaire. The
students can read the instructions as often as he/she
wants. The students are assured that his/her test scores
will be recorded his/her account since the system is the
one responsible of saving his/her test scores to the
database.

The Institution

The system will create an impression both for the

MCL community and potential clients in terms of the use of
the system together with the institution’s advanced and
state-of-the-art facilities in its Computer Laboratories.

1.5 Scope and Limitation

The proposed system, Intranet-Base Test

Administration for IT Courses of MCL will cover the
following utilities and features:
• Registration of students
• Administration of tests
• Checking of tests
• Calculate test scores
• Recording test results

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 • Retrieval of test item at random order
• Formulating a multiple-choice type of exam
• Maintenance of Test Questions
• Displaying of the following reports:
o List of Students
o List of Passed Students
o List of Failed Students
o Ratio of Passed/Failed

However, the following limitations are noted:

• Adding of other types/categories of exam

• Automatic delivery of student’s test result through
electronic mail
• Managing of exams with time limit
• Designation of different point system for every test
item by category.
• Identifying the number of test items that will be
selected randomly from the database.
• Disabling of student’s user account.

1.6 Conceptual Framework

This part of the study described the input,

process and output diagrams for the fulfillment of the
innovative learning approach.
Through this model, the developer will be able
to design an Intranet-Base Test Administration for IT
Courses of MCL

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 INPUT
Knowledge Requirement
(Web-Based Application)

Software Requirement

Hardware Requirement

PROCESS
Designing the System
Development of the System
Installation of the System
Implementation of the EVALUATION
System

OUTPUT
Intranet-Base Test
Administration for IT Courses
of MCL

1.7 Terminologies

This part of the study is used for the better understanding

of the readers, the proponent defined the following terms in
relation to its usage. The terminologies were defined
operationally and theoretically.

Web – A term describing the changing trends in the use of

World Wide Web technology and web design that aims to
enhance creativity, secure information sharing, collaboration and
functionality of the web.

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 Intranet – A network based on the internet TCP/IP open
started. An intranet belongs to an organization, and is designed
to be accessible only by the organization’s members, employees,
or others with authorization Network.
Virus – A computer program that can copy itself and infect
a computer without permission or knowledge of the user.
Software – Computer instructions or data. Anything that
can be stored electronically.
Hardware – Refers to objects that you can actually touch,
like disks, disk drives, monitor, keyboards, printers, boards, and
chips. In contrast, software is untouchable.
Upload – To transmit data from a computer to a bulletin
board service, mainframe, or network.

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