Ecoinformatics site parent site of Partnership for Biodiversity Informatics site parent site of FIRST - Home


 

 

 



Use_case

This is version 106. It is not the current version, and thus it cannot be edited.
[Back to current version]   [Restore this version]


Use Case

Research Questions

Question #Question TextAnalysisData SourcesHow user might query
1Have my course grades declined over the years?ANOVA of course grades, individual exam gradesFaculty uploaded spreadsheet with records of student grades for each yearLog-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
2Why are my course grades declining? Are more students taking AP (bio) and placing out of this course?Relationship among ACT/SAT scores, AP bio scores, course gradesRegistrar demographic data: ACT/SAT scores, AP Bio scores; course grades; Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with records of student grades for each yearLog-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
3Has the use of clickers improved student learning in my course?Correlation (regression) between clicker use, clicker score(s) and exam scoresRegistrar demographic data; Faculty uploaded exams, tagged by topic; Faculty uploaded clicker questions, tagged by topic; Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with: Annual records of student grades, Student grades on individual assessment items, Student grades or responses on individual clicker itemsLog-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing. Within courses, I will mark assessment items of interest (clicker questions on topic a, assessment questions on topic a)
4What is the impact of multiple attempts at online homework on exam scores in my course?Correlation between number of tries and exam scores
Regression/partial regression using GPA or other control variables
Registrar demographic data
Registrar GPA data
Faculty uploaded exams, tagged by topic
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with:
Student exam scores
Student grades on individual items
Log-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
With-in each course, I will mark assessment items of interest (homework questions on topic a, assessment questions on topic a)
5How are my students performing on a particular topic?
Are they doing better on evolution this year (versus last year)?
Pre-test/post-test analysis
ANOVA of grades on specific assessment items
Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments and rubric for each year, tagged by topic
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with:
Student exam scores for each year, Student grades on individual assessment items for each year
Log-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
Within each course, I will mark assessment items of interest
6How are my students performing on questions that are of a higher Bloom’s level? Descriptive statistics on questions based on classifications – correlation
Cluster analysis (PCA) of outcomes based on classification, topic, and the interaction of those two
Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments and rubric, tagged with Bloom’s data
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with: Student exam scores for each year; Student grades on individual assessment items for each year
Log-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
Within each course, I will mark assessment items of interest to me, based on Bloom’s levels
7Does a particular teaching innovation (i.e. Avida-ED) impact student learning of a particular topic (i.e. Evolution) in my course?Correlation between innovation and exam score (or score on particular assessment items on exam) over timeRegistrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments and rubric for each year, tagged by topic
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with: Student exam scores for each year; Student grades on individual assessment items for each year
Log-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
Within each course, I will mark assessment items of interest to me, based on keywords or tags\Demographic data
Rubric for exam or assessment items
Student response data for exam or assessment items (at T0 and T1)
Student scores for exam or assessment items (at T0 and T1)
8Is there a difference in course grades between sections? (e.g. Different sections could be taught by different TAs, at different times, etc)Correlation between section and individual assessment (or assessment items)/course grades (or between TA and section grades)Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments and rubric for each year, tagged by topic
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with: Student exam scores; Student grades on individual assessment items
Log-in as myself, check-off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
9How do my students compare with students from another school on topic x?Correlation between institution and grade on topic x.Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments and rubrics, tagged by topic
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with: Student exam scores; Student grades on individual assessment items
Metadata linking course to a particular type/sized institution
Log-in as myself, check off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
Select my assessment items from topic x
Search database for additional school to analyze that are similar in Carnegie categorization, similar in course size, all schools
Search these assessments for items on topic x
10For accreditation, I would like to show that our students have learned y.Comparison of student performance at T0 and T1.Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments and rubric, tagged with topic and Bloom’s data
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with: Student exam scores for each year; Student grades on individual assessment items for each year
Log-in as myself, check off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
Select my assessment items from topic x
11What levels of understanding are typically targeted by assessments in introductory (or upper) level biology courses at my institution/at institutions similar to mine/at all institutions?Proportion of lower-level Bloom’s items to higher-level Bloom’s items
Histogram of data
Faculty uploaded assessments, tagged by Bloom’s data
Metadata form tagging course level, institution information (size, type)
Search for all assessment items in courses at the 100-level
12What misconceptions do students generally hold about topic d?Qualitative analysis of student responses and scores to parse out misconceptions Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments tagged with topic and Bloom’s data
Search for all assessment items on topic d
13What is the impact of course size on the assessments used?Correlation between course size and Bloom’s taxonomy level Registrar demographic data
Faculty uploaded assessments tagged with topic and Bloom’s data
Metadata form indicating course size
Search for courses of a particular size
14Are low performers in my course also struggling in other courses?Correlation between course grade or individual assessment grade and university GPA, major GPA Registrar demographic data
Registrar GPA data
Faculty uploaded spreadsheet with student course grades
Log-in as myself, check off my courses that I am interested in analyzing
15How reliable is my exam question taxonomy?
May 18, 2007What areas or concepts in biology/chemistry/physics are students having difficulty with?
May 18, 2007How did students do on all questions of a given topic?
-within a class
-within a course
-within an institution
-across the database
May 18, 2007How did students do on a question that required a certain level of thinking?
May 18, 2007I would like to find those questions on topic X where students did particularly well or poorly (depending on my own criteria of good and bad)
May 18, 2007Compare performance of two (or more) groups of students on an item or set of items
-over time (this year versus last year)
-gender or ethnic background
-majors or non-majors


The following use cases and database requirements come from weekly meetings of the Database Development Team.
No.Meeting DateUse Case DescriptionDecision Made?dBase as Test BankUser training/
documentation
Content metadataCourse MetadataQuery relatedSystem RequirementMust/Should/Nice to have
1April 13, 2007
September 18, 2007
June 19, 2007
Tagging assessment items: with Blooms data, concept categories, learning objective, some other taxonomy
tag in multiple ways
tag with multiple raters
yes - will support x Must
2July 3, 2007Assessment items will be tagged according to a domain specific ontology
Biology ontology: NBII Biocomplexity Thesaurus
Ontologies must not be rigid -- must allow for additions.
yes - will supportx x x Must
3February 4, 2007
MU-L
JLM
Rubrics: database must support multiple rubrics for an assessment item
multiple scores for an assessment item
multiple raters of an assessment item
yes - will supportx x Must
4April 13, 2007Data storage: Must store raw response data for assessment items
point values for assessment items and assessments (i.e., entire exams)
student grade on assessment item
yes - will support x Must
5December 4, 2007Data return format: rectangularyes - will support xMust
6February 4, 2008Return of assessment items: Will users pick out one question at a time, or will they check off those questions they are interested in downloading? What format will questions be returned - xml, QTI, etc?pendingx x Must
7May 18, 2007
October 9, 2007
Data upload: non-MC exams and student responses.
Student responses are a scanned image -or- electronic.
yes - will support Must
8February 7, 2008Security: Faculty who upload data must agree that any identifying information in student responses has been removed
any identifying information in their syllabus that they do not wish to be published in the dBase has been removed.
yes - will support -- how? xMust
9April 13, 2007
May 4, 2007
Security: Student ids will be hashed with a unique identifier
Faculty and university ids could also be hashed.
data is returned completely anonymous
queries are constrained so as to not return a limited dataset that could identify a student.
yes - will support xxMust
10July 3, 2007
November 6, 2007
I have additional data/metadata I would like to upload. Where can I do that?yes - will supportxxxx Must
11February 18, 2008
MU-L
JLM
Editing environment for data: how can faculty fix errors in data they have uploaded?yes - will support xMust
12April 13, 2007
September 18, 2007
KBS
Minimum metadata requirements: We must define the minimum level of data/metadata included for a submission to be accepted into the database
Will uploading a syllabus (which is not searchable) meet metadata requirements?
Must define minimum metadata standards xMust
13May 4, 2007I would like to import student response data directly from my excel workbookyes - will support xMust
14June 19, 2007Demographic data will be available for all queries.
Faculty uploaded demographic data must be tagged with the date they were current.
yes - will support x Must
15August 30, 2007The database must handle multiple instructors for a class.no xx Must
16August 30, 2007Faculty members must be able to indicate pages on an exam that are blank, devoted to a figure, picture or formulayes - completed? xMust
17September 11, 2007Database will treat sections of a course as separate courses.
How can we alleviate work for a faculty member uploading the same assessment for 60 sections of a very large course?
yes xx Must
18October 9, 2007Query: track students over time.yes - will support xx Must
19May 18, 2007
June 19, 2007
Metadata query: Query for common misconceptionsyes - will supportx x Must
20July 31, 2007Non-traditional assessments: Scientific reasoning instruments, concept inventories, published assessment
Assessment items will not fit a discipline-based ontology
yesxxx x Must
21June 12, 2007I would like to query across data levels (i.e. query for particular assessment items at an institution over time and coursesyes - will support xxx Must
22August 30, 2007Who can access the database? -- One solution: Two levels of data: Personal data (visible only to the individual who uploaded) and Public (visible to everyone)pendingxx Should
23November 6, 2007Multiple taxonomies: What is the scope? Who can use a particular taxonomy -- public (i.e., Blooms) and private taxonomies (i.e., professional society tags on 'good' assessment items)?yes - will supportx x x Should
24December 4, 2007Query: Search database on a paticular type of institution, based on the Carnegie classification system.pending x Should
25December 4, 2007Save search history syntax in order to repeat search at some point in the future.
Alternatively, return search syntax with query results.
pending xxShould
26KBSI would like to filter out low-level Bloom questions, multiple choice questions, essay questions, etc.pending x x Should
27KBSFostering collaboration: will faculty information be available? Can faculty decide whether to make their contact information available?pending xxx Should
28KBSUnconventional assessment items: database will store the item
Student response data (excel, word files, etc) will also be stored.
yes - will supportx xNice
29November 6, 2007I have no idea how to classify my assessment items.no x Nice
30May 18, 2007Query: Find questions based on format (clicker, mc, short answer, etc)
Find questions that include a particular format element (graph, image, model)
pending -- can this information be gleaned from the parsing software?x x x Nice
31June 19, 2007Query: What conceptsare considered difficult across disciplines. Will the database compute dynamic metadata such as the difficulty of an item? Such data would change based on the data from the students. Difficulty and other performance metrics should be dynamic, rather than asking faculty to upload them.pending - will we provide simple analysis?x x x Nice
32December 4, 2007Data analysis: simple analysis of change over time returned with the data.pending xx Nice
33January 10, 2008Syllabus: Will it be query-able? Probably not.
Will it be anonymized on upload? Probably not. Faculty will take responsibility for anonymization.
pending x Nice
34PurdueWho can access data across courses/faculty members? Adiminstrator use to demonstrate compliance of accreditation standards.pending Nice
35November 27, 2007User will be able to search nbii thesaurus and with a mouse click, add that concept tag to their assessment item(s).yes?x x Nice
36April 13, 2007I would like to import data directly from my course management software (e.g. Angel, Blackboard, WebCT, etc)outside current scope xNice


How will users query?
  • Assessment item (individual question)
  • Student responses
    • On individual items
    • On a group of items (i.e. an exam or user-defined number of questions)
  • Concept category


Functional requirements (based on use cases) can be found on the Functional_requirements page



Go to top   More info...   Attach file...
This particular version was published on 20-Feb-2008 12:44:27 PST by uid=momsenj,o=MSU.