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User Manual for CO & PO Attainment Macro

User Manual for CO & PO Attainment Macro

Step-by-step procedure

1. Download the OBE raw data for each course from Contineo-software. Copy all the raw data files into a folder (Say D:/ NBA-Criteria3/Attainment/Rawdata)

 

2. Download the CO-PO mapping report from HoD login of contineo. Note: The report (excel format) should have the CO-PO mappings of all the courses for which OBE raw data is downloaded.

3. Download “Batch_Attainment_Template.xlsx” from this link. The CO-PO mappings should be pasted in the sheet “Co-Relation REPORT” of “Batch_Attainment_Template.xlsx”
4. Download the macro using the following Link. It requires SIT email
5. Unblock the macro by right clicking the downloaded file

6. Open the excel file and update the (i) paths to the OBE raw data (say D:/ NBA-Criteria3/Attainment/Rawdata ) (ii) path for the output files (iii) path for CO-PO mapping file (iv) path for the summary file-

7. Also Download the “AttainmentData_Template” from the following link. Save it in the same folder as the Raw Data
8. Execute “Process Workbooks” macro using Command button in RawData2Attainment.xlsm

 

Weighted average method for CO Attainment and PO Attainment

Sample calculation for CO attainment using Average Student Attainment Level

1. Importance of an objective definition of CO attainment

An objective method for assessment of COs is essential to implement the OBE for continuous quality improvement. The method proposed, and used herein, is an improved form of setting the threshold and targets. Instead of defining the attainment levels in terms of thresholds and targets, a more objective definition of attainment is adopted based on Weighted Average of Student Attainment Levels (SAL). While the threshold-target method involves placing the students’ performance in two bands (below the threshold and above the threshold), the present method of using SAL uses five bands (0-20%, 20-40%, 40-60%, 60-80%,80-100%). The former method is subjective due to the arbitrariness in selecting the threshold and target, while the latter method is objective. In addition, the method is precise, simple-to-understand, and aminable to adopting a continuous improvement strategy.

2. Mathematical formulation

For the proposed objective measure of CO attainment, the average of the student attainment levels is taken as the CO attainment, where student attainment level in a CO-i will be, 3 if it is between 80-100%, 2 if it is between 60-80%, 1 if it is between 40-60%, 0.5 if it is between 20-40% and 0 if is between 0-20% .

Mathematically

Table 1 Student attainment level (SAL) or weightage

Student Performance Levels (j)	(SAL) Student attainment level wj
0-20%	0
20-40%	0.5
40-60%	1.0
60-80%	2.0
80-100%	3.0

As per this definition of CO attainment, if all the students get an attainment level of 3.0 (i.e all the students perform at 80-100% level) in questions of a CO-i, then the CO-i attainment will be 3. So, an attainment of 3 is very high. Similarily, an attainment value of 2 means that all the students performed above 60%. It can also be obtained when some students may perform below 60%, but that number is compensated by those who have overperformed (beyond 80%). For example, a CO attainment of 2 can be obtained when 50% students get 40-60% marks in that CO, but remaining 50% have performed in 80-100% range.

Fig.  2.1 CO Attainment by averaging student attainment levels

3. Comparison with Threshold-Target method

The principal features and advantages of the method are summarised below

·         It is based on the % of students in various levels of performance (0-20%-40%-60%-80%-100%) in a given CO

·         Based on the number of students in each attainment level, a decimal number is generated. 

·         This CO attainment value is precise

·         This CO attainment value is a function of attainment levels which will remain same across all COs, courses and programmes

·         The attainment value has an absolute meaning. For example a value of 2.2 means that  most of the students crossed the 60% mark and very few crossed the 80% mark

·         The target for the next AY can be set based on previous years CO attainment value

·         In the threshold-target method, highest CO attainment is obtained when the percentage of students crossing the ‘set threshold’ value is equal to or more than the ‘set target’ value. In the modified or improved method, the highest CO attainment value of 3 can only be achieved when 100% of the students cross 80% marks in the CO under consideration. This being a very high performance level, can give a long-term target, and a clear scope for continuous improvement.

 

Fig.  3.1 Comparision of the Attainment measures

4. Implementation of the method

For computing the attainment of course outcomes using direct attainment method, the following steps are followed through institute OBE software (Contineo)

4.1 Setting of question paper pattern:

This involves describing each question and its sub-questions. The description involves the setting the ‘Label’ of the question, its maximum marks, its (Bloom’s) Taxonomy Level, the COs mapped to that question, and the POs mapped to that question. The CO-mapping of each question is, thus, collected. A question can be mapped to multiple COs also.

Fig.  4.1 Setting of question paper pattern and mappings to outcomes

4.2 Student performance:

After the evaluation of the students’ answer scripts, the question-wise marks obtained by each student is entered through the software user interface. This is done for each assessment separately.

4.3 Data Summary:

After the entire CIE & SEE assessments are completed, the following information is downloaded from the software for each course

o   CO-PO mapping

o   Question-CO mapping

o   Question wise marks of each student

          The data is downloaded in the following form

Fig.  4.2 Assessment data collected from software for one course (Geotechnical Engineering-2, 6RCV02- AY 2012-22)

4.4 Data transformation:

The data is transformed into a Quadrant format that is easy for attainment calculation. This transformed format is given in Table 2. This data contains the CO-PO mapping in the first quadrant (top-right corner), the question-CO mapping in the second quadrant (top-left corner) and the questionwise marks of each student in the third quadrant (i.t bottom-left corner)

Table 2 Transformed data for outcome calculation

4.5 Question-wise performance:

The question-wise performance of ten students is shown in Table 3. The question-CO mapping is also shown in the same table.

Table 3 Question-wise performance of ten students in 6RCV02

4.6 CO-wise performance of a student:

For getting the performance in a CO, the questionwise performance in each type of assessment is multiplied with the question-CO mapping of that CO.  The marks obtained by each student in CO-x is obtained which is referred to as MO. Similarly, the maximum marks for CO-x questions is added to get the maximum known as MM. The ratio of MO to MM is referred to as GP or Grade Point. Based on the GP, the SAL is determined using Table 1. A sample calculation for transforming question wise performance into CO-5 performance is shown Table 4.

Table 4 Performance in questions mapped to CO-5(Note: Q. No 1 is from CIE and Q. No 7,8 are from SEE)

Ten students and their performance in three questions (shown as 1,7,8) are shown in the table. These are the three questions which are mapped to CO-5, as per Table 3. Student with USN 1SI21CV403, got 4 marks in Q1, 14 marks in Q7, and 0 marks in Q8. So, marks obtained (MO) in Q1 is 4, and maximum marks (MM) of this question is 4. This makes the GP in Q1 as 4/4=1.0. Similarily, the ratio of MO/MM in Q7 is 14/ 20=0.7. From the question paper pattern (top portion of Table 3), it can be seen that there is an internal choice between Q7 and Q8 . Q7 & Q8 fall under same Group2 ( SEE, Group1=1, Group2=4). Here nQC=1, which means  that the number of questions that are compulsory is only ONE. So, the MM for this question group is 20. Thus, the GP for this question group is 0.7. So, this students (1SI21CV403) got GP of 1.0 in CIE and 0.7 in SEE. The Aggregate GP is obtained by taking simple average of these two attainments, which will be 0.85=86%. Since, this performance is in the band of 80-100%, the attainmen level of this student is 3. Note that if the weighted average of the student performance were to be taken, we get (4+14)/(4+20)=0.75=75%. This gives an attainment level of 2 for the same student. As per the policy, equal weigtage is awarded to performance in CIE and SEE.

4.7 CO-attainment:

The attainment of the CO-x is the weighted average of the performance levels of students on scale-3, or the average of the Student Attainment Values (SAL In Fig.  4.4, the CO attainment values of seven COs of a course are shown. It can be observed that for CO1, the attainment value is 0.89 because there are 3 students who got GP between 0 to 20% (0.2), 31 students who got between 20%-40%, 23 students who got between 40%-60%, 7 students who got between 60%-80% and 2 students who got GP value between 80%-100%. The formula is as follows

Fig.  4.5 CO-attainment values for seven COs of 6RCV02 during AY 2021-22

The above procedure is for calculating the CO attainment from all assessments.The same procedure is followed for measuring the attainment of Course outcomes in each assessment separately (i.e CIE and SEE). It can be noted that the weigtages for CO attainment through CIE and CO attainment through SEE are taken equal. 

Auto-Analysis of CIE and attendance Shortage

Auto-Analysis of CIE and attendance Shortage

    for Eligibility for SEE 

This blog describes the simple steps involved in the automatic generation of analysis results of CIE and attendance shortage. The Excel macro also generates a Word document notifying the subject-wise NOT ELIGIBLE students for SEE. Also, the student-wise analysis is given for NE and condonation

Download the macro from the link here. After unblocking and enabling the macros, open the Excel file containing the macro. Also, open the downloaded "eligibility" document from contineo (see figure below). Press Cntrl + Shift + G to run the macro on eligibility report 

.

Auto-Analysis of CIE and attendance Shortage

   for Remedial classes ( After Test-1)

 This blog describes the simple steps involved in Auto-generation of analysis results of CIE and attendance shortage. The excel macro also generates a word document notifying the Remedial classes.

Steps to use the macro

1. Download the macro from this link.

2. Right click on the downloaded excel file "CIE_Attendance_Shortage_Remedialclasses.xlsm", and open the Properties, and check UNBLOCK at the bottom as shown below

3. Open the downloaded .xlsm file and "Enable Content" at the top message ribbon. 

4. Now, download the "Eligibility Report" from contineo as shown below (from HoD Login)

5. Open the excel report downloaded as above, and "Enable Editing". 

6. Press Ctrl+SHift+G to generate the report of the attendance shortage

The following are assumed

• The column with Test(34) contains the average marks in Tests
• The column with Quiz(8) contains the average marks in Quiz
• The column "Attendance" contains the attendance of the students
• The column "Eligibility" exists under each course
• The eligibility will be "Yes" if the test marks are more than or equal to 14 out of 34, AND, the quiz marks are more than or equal to 3 (if quiz column exists)

Using formula type questions in Moodle

 Using FORMULA-type questions in Moodle

Importance: This feature helps the faculty by reducing the evaluation time and inspires students to learn the concept thoroughly. The faculty can use Moodle to evaluate every step of the student's solution. The students come to know exactly at what step they went wrong, that too, instantly. They can be given multiple attempts to encourage them to rectify their mistakes. This inspires real learning. For example, see the evaluation results of a single student below

This level of evaluation can be done almost instantly and the error tolerance can be adjusted retrospectively and regraded in negligible time. 

If you wish to try the above problem, download "Formula Question on Centroid" of the following .xml file and import into your moodle question bank. 

1. Formula question on VolumetricStrain
2. Formula question on Centroid
3. Formula question on Beam Reactions

How it works?  The software gives the same question but with different input values (random numbers) for each student. So, each student has to solve a different problem. The random numbers can be selected to be within the range set by the examiner (faculty). The answer entered by each student will be auto-evaluated by comparing it with the program-generated solution. The figures below show the view of two different students

 

For student #1

For student #2

How to create this type of question in moodle? 

Warning: Moodle formula type question involves some simple programming

Moodle is an open source LMS (Learning Management System). You can access it from here.
After using the login button in the top right corner, you can login to the Moodle LMS. If your Moodle coordinator has created courses in which you are enrolled as a Teacher, you can start setting the FORMULA-type question.

The usual procedure is to create a question in the question bank, and then add that question to a quiz or assignment, etc. So, we will go to the question bank to add this question

 

Then we need to create the question as shown below

Then select the FORMULA-type question, and ADD to the question bank as shown below

Give a suitable name to the question, so that you can find the question among the hundreds of questions (that you might be having in your question bank). You can also create categories and add questions within the category, instead of creating the question in the default category. 

Then you need to create the variables that need to change from student to student. These variables and  their name & range are to be defined under variables as shown below. Note that, the range of variable P is from 100 to 200 at an interval of 10. Similarly, the range of variable w varies from 10 to 30 at an interval of 5. 

Now the variables are to be used to calculate the correct solutions. This can be done using Moodle functions and operators as shown below. These calculations are to be written under Global Variables. For more functions and operators refer to this link. The list is also given at the end of this post.

After calculating the correct answers for various stages of the solution, we need to describe the question to the students as shown below. Note that we should enclose the variables in curly braces {}, so that the software replaces that field with random values from that variable range

The intermediate parts of the answer can be described in CLEAR manner along with units and sign (+ or -) as shown below. A tabular format is not always needed. Note that the positions where the solution is to be entered is written as {#1}, {#2}, and so on. At these locations, text box(es) will be displayed for the students to enter their answers.

Then we need to set the marks for each answer, the variable that gives the correct answer and the tolerance for the accuracy of the answer. In the figure below, the marks for Part 1 of the answer is assigned '1'. Usually for Part 1 the placeholder name will be #1. The part's text is left blank, as there is no need (in this case) to describe the part further. Click on the '?' mark to know more about each feature. You can also request the student for two or more numbers in a single part!!. The answer type is selected as a numerical formula. The (global) variable giving the CORRECT answer is M1 for this part of the question. This is given as Answer. The grading criteria is set to Absolute error less than 1. You can also give relative error tolerance. 

In similar manner, other parts of the solution are described. You will have to use 'Blanks for 2 more parts' button at the bottom to add more parts to the solution.

If you wish to give some credit (say 80% marks) to answers which differ from correct answers ONLY in the sign, then do as follows. 

In the above example, the correct answer is dV and the student response is _0. (Note that the student response is always denoted by _0). The relative error is abs(dV - _0)/abs(dV). If the relative error is less than 0.05, then the student should get full ONE mark. If the relative error between the correct answer (dV) and the negative of student response (-_0) is less than 0.05, then the student's answer is correct within the limit, but the sign is wrong. Such student should get ,say, 80% of the marks. So, the grading criteria is written as max(myerr1, 0.8*,myerr2) 

Finally, save changes to go back to the question bank. If you press, 'Save changes and continue editing', you will stay in the edit-question mode, and will not go back to question bank. If you press cancel, all changes will remain UNSAVED. You can also see the PREVIEW of the question. This gives a view of how the question will be displayed to the student. 

Previewing the question

The preview of the above question is as follows

You can use the "Fill in correct responses" button below to see the correct responses. You have to check those responses thoroughly. 

Close the preview, save the question and go back to the question bank. Preview of the question can be accessed from the question bank also.  You can also edit the question, duplicate the question, etc 

In case of corrections after the students' attempt...

• Go to the question bank and click Edit question (which needs correction)
• Revise the global variables 
• Add the revised global variables under Local Variables of the parts of the questions which need revision
• Save the question
• Regrade all attempts of the quiz. 

Conclusion:

Hope you find the post helpful. Please leave comments for my inspiration and for improvement of the blog post. 

For more information and advanced settings check the following links

1.     https://www.mem50212.com/MDME/Moodle/plugins/moodle-coordinate-question/formulas-1.1/formulas/lang/en_utf8/help/formulas/formulas.html#Grading_variables

2.  https://uo.unisa.edu.au/course/view.php?id=600&sectionid=256715

List of operators that can be used in MOODLE