Database Design

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• FIRST Assessment Data System
• The FIRST database
• A data system that stores assessment data and relevant metadata about the context in which the assessment occurred: courses, institutions, assessment questions, and responses. This system utilizes existing software (Metacat) for metadata and data storage systems, extending the system for educational asssessment purposes.
• Assess (an adapted version of Morpho)
• Desktop software to collect and document assessment data for faculty. The Assess system includes an efficient Assessment import tool that will read test documents in PDF format and extract the relevant questions from the text for direct insertion into the data system, without manually retyping the questions or laborious cut and paste operations. The import tool will also read student response data from common data systems like spreadsheets and common education course management systems like Moodle, Blackboard, and WebCT.
• The FIRST Web Portal
• A searchable, web-based applicaiton for locating assessment data and seeing useful data summaries from the system
• EdML
• An exchange schema for assesment data and metadata for passing information among components of the FIRST system and to external applications. EdML builds on the LOM standards and supplements it with metadata from Ecological Metadata Language and other standards.

The components of the FIRST Data System are shown in Figure 1, which shows the use of the Assess tool by a faculty member to import assessment data into the FIRST database. Once a collection of assessment data are available, faculty can look at their assessment data to evaluate historical trends, analyze the effectiveness of techniques, or compare the performance of different teaching and assessment techniques. These analyses are enabled through a web-based portal that allows researchers to discover and download assessment data from their own courses as well as from those of other courses in their own university and across institutions.

• Block diagram or some other image of the database structure.
• Link to Ben's work on searching the database
• Link to Ryan's screencast and/or screenshots

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