IM2801: Assessment

by Andres Baravalle

Outline

  • Your assessment
  • Coursework
    • The Quiz Game
    • What to submit
    • Further notes
  • The Coursework: some advice
  • TCA

Your assessment

Your assessment is split into two components:

  • Individual development of a multi-tier web application (105 hours): 75%
  • TCA (Time Constrained Assessment, 45 minutes): 25%

Coursework

Coursework

For this module you have to produce an "Individual development of a multi-tier web application".

Your work will demonstrate what you have learnt during this module.

As it is the first time that we are running the module, there are quite some elements of flexibility. Use them to your advantage.

 

Introduction

The aim of your assignment is for you to demonstrate what you have learnt about Web Applications Development.

You are not just expected to carry out some tasks but are also expected to provide arguments for what you have done and to contrast it with other options.

The Quiz Game

The main aim of the coursework is to develop an on-line Quiz Game.
You will have to produce and submit:

  • a Project report
  • a Project (source code)

This should be zipped and submitted through the online UEL submission system.

The Project Report

The Project report will consist of the following main sections (maximum 1000 words, excluding references and pictures):

  1. Problem analysis and requirements specification (including Architecture)
  2. Wireframes and application design (including class diagrams or alternative notations)
  3. Test plans
  4. Development process and critical issues encountered
  5. Appendix: Screenshots

The Project

The Project will include your PHP, HTML, CSS and all resources needed to install and run your application.

Basic requirements and features

The Quiz game will include the following roles:

  • The Quizmaster(s): s/he will set up the Quiz game and does not participate in the game
  • The Players: play the quiz, in practice mode or in tournament mode

Basic requirements and features (2)

Application features:

  1. Users can register on the system and as Players only
  2. The Quizmasters can set up a game, deciding the number of Players and setting questions and answers
    1. This can be done through the web interface (more advanced) or through configuration files (simpler)
  3. The Players will open the Quiz app to start a quiz game.
  4. The Players will receive quiz questions one after another.
    1. The results are shown at the end.

You can select the topic for your quiz.

Marking components: The Project Report

  • Problem analysis and requirements specification: 15%
  • Wireframes and application design: 10%
  • Test plans: 5%
  • Development process and critical issues encountered: 5%
  • Overall clarity, presentation, use of references and of external resources: 5%

Total: 40%

Marking components: The Project

  • Quality and complexity of the implementation of the requirements: 25%
  • Quality and complexity of the implementation of the extra functionalities: 20%
  • Integration of existing frameworks and/or libraries: 5%
  • Easiness of use: 5%
  • Code documentation: 5%

Total: 60%

Week 12

On week 12 you will have to show the draft prototype during the tutorial. 

This is to receive formative feedback and to ensure that you are progressing with your assignment.

Failing to demonstrate your work by your tutorial on week 12 will give you a penalisation in the final mark.

Further notes on the coursework

The following guidelines will help you to achieve a good mark for your assignment:

  • You must use the Harvard style for references.
  • You report must not include glossaries, an abstract or an executive summary. You should focus on strictly covering the marking components for this assignment.
  • Appendixes and references will not be included in your word count.
  • Read carefully the coursework description and the break-down of marks. You will not get any marks for code that you have not written yourself.
  • Your application must be both deployed on Mastodon and included in the Moodle submission.

What to submit: folder organisation

Your submission should be organized in these files and folders:

  • A folder named prototype, containing all the files that are used in your web application. Please structure folders of the application appropriately.
  • A folder named notes (if needed),  including any additional documentation that you may need to submit (e.g. disability documentation, notes for the marker).
  • A file named u1234567_report, containing the individual reports as a single file

Please compress your set of files into a single zip file for submission and name the file u1234567_IM2801.zip.

What to submit: file size

  • Do not include further compressed files inside your zip file unless strictly necessary.
  • Please keep the file size for your report below 20mb. If your file is bigger, it is likely due to unscaled images; please scale your images appropriately using photo editing software. Please keep the maximum file size for your submission to 40mb.

What to submit: corrupted files

  • Make sure that you submit the correct files, that they are complete and not corrupt. Test your submission by downloading your files to a new directory on your computer and make sure that everything will work as expected. Check that you can open all your files, and that the files are not corrupted.  Under no circumstances will markers attempt to restore files from defective/corrupted files. If any part of your assignment cannot be assessed because of file corruption you will score zero marks for that component.
  • Markers will not correct any errors occurring when accessing web pages for whatever reason. If your web page(s) fails to load or does not behave as you intended you will lose marks.

What to submit: file format

  • At the present time we are accepting only Microsoft Word DOC/DOCX or RTF formats for report. Most modern text editors will be able to export to those formats.
  • Markers will correct your report using either Microsoft Office or LibreOffice. No attempts will be made to mark reports submitted in formats other than the ones indicated.

What to submit: files

Please do not submit files that are not part of your assignment (e.g. extra files in your prototype folder or different copies of your assignment)

How much work is required?

  • Each 10% of the marks should reflect about 14 hours of work
  • 5 marks mean that you should put in 7 hours of work

How much work is required?!

This module builds heavily on top of what you have been studying during your year 1.

You will be already familiar with HTML, CSS, the general principles of Object Oriented Programming and the basics of computer networks.

When and how to submit

  • You must submit your assignment by 23:55 p.m. on the cut-off date; your cut-off date is on Moodle.
  • You are advised to show early versions of your work to your tutorial lecturer (who may or may not be the module leader) so that you will be able to have early feedback.
  • You must submit your report to Turnitin.

Weighting

Remember: your project's weight is 75%.

The Coursework: some advice

How will you be supported?

The module team will support you in class and review your assignment in class, on a week by week bases. The module team will NOT review your assignment after the last lab.

Be wise, and start your assignment as soon as possible.

Mind the deadline!

Remember the deadlines: 1 minute late, is too late.

There is nothing that we can do to help you, even if you are just one minute late. You will have to submit extenuating circumstances.

References

No unproved statement should EVER be in your assignments. Every single statement in your assignments has to be either:

  • Proved by yourself in the assignment itself
  • Proved by yourself or someone else BEFORE and in such case you need to provide a CORRECT reference

Reference styles

A number of different references style are in use in the academic community.

UEL is using the Harvard style.

References: labelling example

The Free Software movement advocates the development and use of software that is free to use, free to modify and free to redistribute, on both pragmatic (Stallman, 2002) and philosophical (Stallman, 2004) grounds. The Free Software movement shares many points of contact with the Open Source movement (Perence, 1999), and they are often commonly referred together, as FLOSS (Free/Libre and Open Source Software) (FLOSS project, 2002), FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) (Bollinger, 2003) or F/OSS (MIT Open Source Group, 2002). [...]

References: listing example

Stallman, R. (2004) The Free Software Definition, Free Software Foundation. Available from  http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/free-sw.html (Accessed 1 September 2009)

References: where to find more

  • Available in the library: Cite them right: The essential referencing guide
  • On line (UEL Harvard style reference): http://www.uel.ac.uk/lls/support/harvard.htm

Media resources

Feel free to incorporate pictures and graphics and media in general into your work, but make sure that you understand the copyright implications.

  • Any original work of authorship fixed on any medium of expression is covered by copyright protection
  • The owner of the artwork can give it away, sell it or license it
  • The owner is the only one who has the prerogative to make copies of it

Media resources: licenses

Creative Commons licenses have been created ad hoc for content. There are six major Creative Commons licenses:

  • Attribution (CC-BY) (similar to BSD licenses)
  • Attribution Share Alike (CC-BY-SA) (similar to the GPL license)
  • Attribution No Derivatives (CC-BY-ND) (similar to freeware)
  • Attribution Non-Commercial (CC-BY-NC)
  • Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike (CC-BY-NC-SA)
  • Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND)

Media resources: where to start

Want to use images for your web site/application? Here are some starting points:

Media resources: legal aspects

In some cases there are copyright exceptions for academic use. The breath of these exceptions is questionable and untested in trial.

For this module, you will have to work within the same legal context of a IT professional - without any of the academic exceptions.

Libraries

You are encouraged to use Open Source third-party libraries.

Use what you need. Some examples include:

  • CodeIgniter
  • CakePHP
  • Zend Framework
  • PEAR classes

List of resources

If you have any resources (code or images) that you have not created yourself, you must include an appendix labelled "List of resources".

It will list all the resources that you have not developped, their name, authors, original URL and where did you use them in your application.

You can include Open Source or public domain resources only, and you cannot include anything without a URL.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is using someone else’s material without attribution and is dealt with through a “Breach of Regulations” hearing.

Repeated Breach of Regulations are grounds for expulsion.

If you do not write any original content, but just “reference” external material, you will not pass this module.

Plagiarism: your code

Plagiarism applies both to text and code; any code that you have not produced (e.g. from software or books) but that features in your work without attribution constitutes plagiarism.