Chapter 1

Introduction

1.1

Background of the Study

The value of good examinations cannot be undermined. Any reputable
institutionpublic or private, business or educationalrequires all entrants to
pass a standard examination (Bermundo, 2007). However, there must also be
an effort to test for more complex levels of understanding, with care taken to
avoid over-sampling items that assess only basic levels of knowledge (Martin,
2011). After instructors have written a set of test items, following the rules, they
do not know if the items will show which students have mastered the topic of
instruction and which have not. The items must be tried out on the students
before the instructor can determine how well each item works (JacobChase,
2009). And so, these precondition shows that preparing good examination
questions requires a great deal of thinking and preparation on the part of the
an individual doing the task and there must be a match between what is being
taught and what is being assessed.
Thus, item analysis can be a powerful technique available to teaching
professionals and instructors for the guidance and improvement of instructions
that enables instructors to increase their test construction skills, identify
specific areas of course content which need greater emphasis or clarity, and
improve other classroom practices (Shakil, 2008). According to the Professional
Testing Incorporated (2006) that item analysis is an important phase in the
development of an exam program. In this phase statistical methods are used to
identify any test items that are not working well. If an item is too easy, too
difficult, failing to show a difference between skilled and unskilled examinees,
or even scored incorrectly, an item analysis will reveal it.

In addition item analysis serves to improve items to be used later in

other tests, to eliminate ambiguous or misleading items in a single test
administration, to increase instructors' skills in test construction, and to
identify specific areas of course content which need greater emphasis or clarity
(University of Washington, 2010).And also, item analysis is a method of gauging
the quality of an examination by looking at its constituent parts. It seeks to give
some idea of how well examination has performed relative to its purposes. The
primary purpose of most examination is that of a measurement tool, for
assessing the achievements of the examination candidates and thus how future
learning can be supported and directed. It is important for an educator to have
an understanding of item analysis its method, assumptions, uses and
limitations in order that examinations can be assessed and improved.
(McAlpine, 2010)
Furthermore, teacher gives test to the learners to determine if the level of
understanding achieved the specific learning task. Learners achievements or
performance can be determined through assessment of test results or when the
raw scores are evaluated with the use of statistical techniques to arrive at
meaningful results (Calmorin, 2011). In education, the use of statistics can
cover much of the whole process of teaching and learning. It is relevant to make
broad mention of the use of statistics, particularly in an inquiry-directed or
outcomes-based learning (Santos-Navarro, 2012)
On the other hand, multiple-choice test is regarded as one of the best
test forms in testing outcomes. This test form is most valuable and widely used
in standardized test due to its flexibility and objectivity in terms of scoring. This
test is made up of items which consists of three which or more plausible options
for each item. The choices are multiple so that examinees may choose only one
correct answer or best option for each item (Calmorin, 2011)

In Mindanao State University at Naawan and MSUN- IDS Naawan

Campus, the performance of item analysis is often ignored due to its difficulty
and complexity of the process. Basically, this project details the methods of item
analysis for this purpose, and also considers how they might be used for the
wider function in assessing the learning of every student and overcome the
difficulty or complexity of the task which burdens most teachers.

1.1.1

Narrative Listing of Existing System

The current examination system in performing item analysis is being
done manually. This system requires pen, paper and calculator. The teacher will
have to check the exam paper manually afterwards he/she has to create a
summarized table form score sheet for the tabulation of item analysis statistics
which are item difficulty and item discrimination. And also, it has to follow a
certain formula to get the precise results in which the teacher will recognize
questions that might be poor discriminators and test item difficulty of student
performance and carefully examine the questions that discriminate well
between high and low scoring students to fully understand the role of the
content leads to appropriate results and if possible, the questions and items for
the test should be prepared well in advance of time for testing, and reviewed
and edited before they are used in the test.
The teacher normally prepares a draft of the test. Such a draft is
subjected to item analysis and validation in order to ensure that the final
version of the test would be useful and functional. First, the teacher tries out
the draft test to a group of students of similar characteristics as the intended
test takers (try-out phase), from the try out group, each will be analyzed in
terms of its ability to discriminate between those who know and those who do
not know and also its level of difficulty(item analysis phase). The item analysis
will provide information that will allow the teacher to decide whether to revise or

replace an item (item revision phase). Then finally, the final draft of the test is
subjected to validation if the content is to make use of the test as a standard
test for the particular unit or grading period according to Rosita L. Navarro,
Ph.D. and Rosita G. Santos, Ph.D.

1.1.2

Issues and Problems

In Mindanao State University at Naawan and Integrated Developmental

School Naawan campus the need to item analyze the test questions is often
ignored due to the difficulty and complexity of the process, since it is done
manually it consumes a length of time to have the desired statistical result.
On the other hand, the teachers/instructors needs to calculate the item
analysis statistics hand on hand following its precise formulation and more
often the implication of item analysis on the examination is not possibly applied
and even the reliability of the test due to its complicated computation and
because it is done manually it is unavoidable to commit inaccuracy and
miscalculation of statistical reports for item analysis and reliability testing due
to the number papers to be checked and inaccessibility of students performance
and progress.

1.2

Statement of the Problem

Since the need to item analyze the test questions is often ignored
because of the difficulty and complexity of the process in Mindanao State
University at Naawan and Integrated Developmental School Naawan campus to
know students strengths and weakness by extracting their test results and have
it interpreted by means of is impossibly obtained. And for such problem, there
is no developed software for item analysis on the said campus that will analyze
the answers of the examinees of each item given accurately and efficiently and
to determine item difficulty and the power of discrimination on a given test.

1.3

Objectives of the Project

This section presents the goals of this project namely: the general and

specific objectives. Specific objectives presented in here will aid the proponents
of this project to attain its ultimate goal.

1.3.1

General Objective
The project aims it to develop an automated item analysis on an
examination basis that would enable the teachers/instructors to determine the
level of difficulty, the power of discrimination, and test reliability of a multiple
choice test items that will generate automated statistical reports by means of
tables and graph.

1.3.2

Specific Objective

a) To gather essential information about the process of performing item analysis

undertaken during the examination.
b) To determine the approaches do the teachers are working on to assess the
learning of the students in examination basis.
c) To analyse the techniques, formulas and algorithms in performing item analysis
addressing unto the specified problem.
d) To design the initial system that suit to the target user and environment.
e) To develop the prototype based on the constructive design.
f)

To evaluate the develop system through unit testing, integration testing, system
testing and acceptance testing.

g) To apply the changes and refine the prototype based on the conducted
evaluation.
h) To deploy the system in the examination period.

1.4

Scope and Limitations of the Project

This project focuses on performing item analysis on a multiple-choice
question examination to determine the level of difficulty, the power of
discrimination and reliability of the test. The system presumes that the
teacher/instructor had already validated the test before it entered in the
system. And also, the project is capable to generate a statistical report of item
analysis and test reliability basing on the exam results; it is represented by
graphs and tables for easy look up and for straightforward understanding on
the set of numbers.
The application of the proposed project is accessible through Local Area
Network (LAN) connection specifically located in the school campus that
connects to the three user roles which are Admin, Teacher and Student. Also, it
is an Offline Web Application. It is limited only for about maximum of fifty (50)
item questions; only four (4) options every item and one (1) answer per item. The
performance of Item Analysis will be generated right after the examination will
end.

1.5

Significance of the Project

The developed Examination System that specially performs item analysis
enables instructors/teachers to increase their test construction skills, identify
specific areas of course/subject content which need greater emphasis or clarity,
and improve test effectiveness and quality. This will help to improve test items
and identify unfair or biased items. This will be the avenue of the local
instructors/teachers to embrace the upgrading technology in this highly
intricate world in regard on the knowledge of the student in class and broadens
the horizons of many students as it exposes students towards innovative
teaching and learning as well as the educators. And also it provides substantial
savings of time and energy over conventional test development, measures the

effectiveness of the teaching learning progress, students present level of

achievements and one students progress against others through the automated
statistical reports of the item analysis.
On the other hand, the develop software system will lessen, if not
eliminate, the said difficulty or complexity of the examination. This project is a
response to this need, for it has developed software for item analysis that will
analyze the answers of the examinees of each item given accurately and
efficiently. It also provides an opportunity to identify and examine common
misconceptions among students about a particular concept in which it enable
the teachers to determine the level of difficulty and the power of discrimination
of the test item. And precisely, this will maximize the time of the teacher in
class preparation. In fact, it is absolutely important for the teachers to know the
performance of the student and even their performance towards the students in
engaging knowledge and learning for a rightful assessment.

Chapter 2
Review Related of Literature

2.1

Related Literature
This section presents the related literature of the project that is shown below.

2.1.1 Item Analysis

Item analysis is a process which examines student responses to
individual test items (questions) in order to assess the quality of those items
and of the test as a whole (University of Washington, 2010). Item analysis is a
general term that refers to the specific methods used in education to evaluate
test items, typically for the purpose of test construction and revision
(Education, 2009)
An item analysis admits two statistics that can help to analyze the
effectiveness of the test questions. First thing is question difficulty, it is the
percentage

of

students

who

selected

the

correct

response

and

then

the discrimination (item effectiveness) indicates how well the question separates
the students who know the material well from those who dont.( Schreyer
Institute, 2012)
According to Rosita L. Navarro, Ph.D. and Rosita G. Santos, Ph.D. that
after the test has been administered and scored, it is essential to determine the
effectiveness of the items. This is done by analyzing the learners responses to
each item. The procedure is known as item Analysis. Item analysis gives
information which are as follows:
1. The difficulty of the item.
2. The discriminating power of the item.
3. The effectiveness of each option.
Information from item analysis can access whether the item is too
easy or too difficult. It determines how well it discriminates between high
and low achievers on the test and tells whether all the options function well.
Item analysis data also help in determining specific technical defect.

Furthermore, it gives information on what improvements the test items

need.

2.1.1.1

Benefits derived from item Analysis (Navarro-Santos, 2012)

1) It provides useful information for class discussion of the test.

2) It provides data which helps students improve their learning.
3) It provides insights and skills that lead to the preparation of better
tests in the future.

2.1.1.2 Steps in a review of an item analysis report (Schreyer Institute

for teaching excellence, 2012 )
1) Review the difficulty and discrimination of each question.
2) For each question having low values of discrimination review the
distribution of responses along with the question text to determine
what might be causing a response pattern that suggests student
confusion.
3) If the text of the question is confusing, change the text or remove
the question from the course database. If the question text is not
confusing or faulty, then try to identify the instructional component
that may be leading to student confusion.
4) Carefully examine the questions that discriminate well between high
and low scoring students to fully understand the role that
instructional design played in leading to these results. Ask yourself
what aspects of the instructional process appear to be most
effective. (Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence, Tools of Item
Analysis, 2012)

2.1.2

Item Difficulty

The difficulty of an item or item difficulty is defined as the number

of students who are able to answer the item correctly divided by the total
number of students according to Rosita L. Navarro, Ph.D. and Rosita G.
Santos, Ph.D. Thus:

Index of Difficulty =

RU + RL
x 100
T

(2.1)

Where:
RU = the number in the upper group who answered the item correctly.
RL = the number in the lower group who answered the item correctly.
T = the total number of both upper and lower groups

Table 2.1

Arbitrary rule of Item Difficulty

Range of difficulty Index

0 0.25
0.26 0.75
0.76 above

Interpretation
Difficult
Right Difficulty
Easy

Action
Revise or Discard
Retain
Revise or Discard

The table 2.1 represents the arbitrary rule of item difficulty, so by looking
at the range of difficulty index which is obtain by the computing the Index of
Difficulty formula (2.1), there is a corresponding Interpretation and Action.

Very easy questions may not sufficiently challenge the most able
students. However, having a few relatively easy questions in a test may
be important to verify the mastery of some course objectives. Keep
tests balanced in terms of question difficulty.

Very difficult questions, if they form most of a test, may produce

frustration among students. Some very difficult questions are needed
to challenge the best students.

2.1.3

Item Discrimination
According to Rosita L. Navarro, Ph.D. and Rosita G. Santos, Ph.D.
that difficult items tend to discriminate between those who know and
those who do not know the answer. Conversely, easy items cannot
discriminate between these two groups of students. We are therefore
interested in deriving a measure that will tell us whether an item can
discriminate between these two groups of students. Such a measure is
called an index of discrimination.
In estimating the index of discriminating power, consider the
difference of the right response between the upper group (RU) and the
response from lower group (RL) divided by the number of students in
each group (NG. The formula is as follows:

Index Discrimination =

RU RL
NG

(2.2)

Where:
RU = the number in the upper group who answered the item correctly
RL = the number in the lower group who answered the item correctly
NG = the number of students in each group
The discriminating power of an item is reported as a decimal fraction;
maximum discriminating power in indicated by an index of 1.00. Maximum
discrimination is usually found at the 50 percent level of difficulty.

The table 2.2 represents the rule of thumb of item difficulty, so by

looking at the range of difficulty index which is obtain by the computing the
Index of Difficulty formula (2.2), there is a corresponding Interpretation and
Action.
Table 2.2

Index Range
-1.0 -.50
-.55 0.45
0.46 1.0

Item Discrimination rule of thumb

Interpretation
Can discriminate but item is questionable
Non-discriminating
Discriminating item

Action
Discard
Revise
Include

If a question is very easy so that nearly all students answered correctly, the
questions discrimination will be near zero. Extremely easy questions cannot
distinguish among students in terms of their performance.

If a question is extremely difficult so that nearly all students answered

incorrectly, the discrimination will be near zero.

The most effective questions will have moderate difficulty and high
discrimination values. The higher the value of discrimination is, the more
effective it is in discriminating between students who perform well on the test
and those that dont.

Questions having low or negative values of discrimination need to be reviewed

very carefully for confusing language or an incorrect key. If no confusing
language is found then the course design for the topic of the question needs
to be critically reviewed.

A high level of student guessing on questions will result in a question

discrimination value near zero.

2.1.4 Distracter Analysis

In

multiple-choice

question,

the

incorrect

choices

are

called

distracters. When creating test questions, consider the following:

1) A percentage of students should select each distracter (in lieu of the correct
answer) nor is the distracter not effective.
2) If too great a percentage of students select a particular distracter, there might
be an ambiguity in the wording of the question or the wording of that
particular distracter.
3) A distracter has value if the percentage of students selecting it differed based
on their overall test performance. A good distracter is one that is selected by
few students who were in the top third of the class, but chosen by many
students in the bottom third.
The distractor should be considered an important part of the item.
Nearly 50 years of research shows that there is a relationship between the
distractors students choose and total exam score. The quality of the
distractors influences student performance on an exam item. Although the
correct answer must be truly correct, it is just as important that the
distractors be incorrect. Distractors should appeal to low scorers who have
not mastered the material whereas high scorers should infrequently select
the distractors. Reviewing the options can reveal potential errors of judgment
and inadequate performance of distractors. These poor distractors can be
revised, replaced, or removed. (University of Texas, 2011)

2.1.5 Cronbachs Alpha

Cronbachs alpha is the most commonly used measure of reliability
(Allen, 2010) Alpha was developed by Lee Cronbach in 195111 to provide
a measure of the internal consistency of a test or scale; it is expressed as
a number between 0 and 1. Internal consistency describes the extent to
which all the items in a test measure the same concept or construct and

hence it is connected to the inter-relatedness of the items within the test.

(Dennick et al., 2011).
Standardized Cronbachs Alpha formula, thus:

(2.3)
Where:
k Number of items or number of indicator
- Average correlation between items or mean inter indicator
correlation

2.1.6 Reliability and Validity Testing

Reliability is the degree to which an assessment tool produces stable and
consistent results and the extent to which measures learning consistently. On
the other hand, Validity refers to how well a test measures what it is purposed
to measure and the extent by which it measures what it was designed to
measure. (Max, 2011)
Why is it necessary? While reliability is necessary, it alone is not
sufficient. For a test to be reliable, it also needs to be valid. Here are some
examples that will help us to understand the reliability and validity of the test.
a) If the scale is reliable it tells you the same weight every time you step on it
as long as your weight has not actually changed.

However, if the scale is

not working properly, this number may not be your actual weight. If that
is the case, this is an example of a scale that is reliable, or consistent, but
not valid. For the scale to be valid and reliable, not only does it need to tell
you the same weight every time you step on the scale, but it also has to
measure your actual weight.
b) Switching back to testing, the situation is essentially the same. A test can
be reliable, meaning that the test-takers will get the same score no matter

when or where they take it, within reason of course. But that doesn't
mean that it is valid or measuring what it is supposed to measure. A test
can be reliable without being valid. However, a test cannot be valid unless
it is reliable.

2.1.5 Item Statistics

Statistics is a scientific discipline. It is a branch of Mathematics that
deals with the collection, organization, presentation, computation and
interpretation of data which are the outcomes of learning (Santos et al, 2010).
Item statistics are used to assess the performance of individual test items
on the assumption that the overall quality of a test derives from the quality of
its items (University of Washington, 2009). Item statistics is a way to get
information from data in the test item. It is a tool for creating an understanding
from a set of numbers (Opre, 2010)

Figure 2.1 Statistical process

Here is some sample Item Statics that shows information statistical reports of
item analysis. Refer to table 2.4, table 2.5 and table 2.6:

Table 2.3 Item statistics Sample 1

By referring to table 2.3 it shows the analysis of mean, standard

deviation, difficulty index and discrimination index as well as the weigths,
means , frequencies and distribution of each item in a midterm examination.

Table 2.4 Item Statistics Sample

Basing on table 2.4 it shows the distinction of the score by the upper and
lower group specifically for item no. 18

Table 2.5 Item Statistics Sample 3

Referring to table 2.5, it shows the difficulty index with its corresponding
remarks and item discrimination remark on its specific item.
There are two general types of statistical analysis:

2.1.4.1

Descriptive statistics
Descriptive statistics uses methods to summarize a collection of

data by describing what was observed using numbers or graphs (Santos

et al, 2009)

2.1.4.2

Inferential statistics
Inferential statistics, also called predictive statistics, uses methods

to draw patterns in the collected data and then make conclusions,

predictions or forecasts about the group or about process being studied

(Santos et al, 2009)

2.1.5 Multiple-Choice Test

The multiple-choice test is regarded as one of the best test forms in
testing outcomes. This test form is most valuable and widely used in
standardized test due to its flexibility and objectivity in terms of scoring. This
test is made up of items which consists of three which or more plausible options
for each item. The choices are multiple so that examinees may choose only one
correct answer or best option for each item (Calmorin, 2011)

2.1.6

Blooms Taxonomy
Questions (items) on quizzes and exams can demand different levels of
thinking skills. For example, some questions might be simple memorization of
facts, and others might require the ability to synthesize information from
several sources to select or construct a response. Benjamin Bloom created a
hierarchy of cognitive skills (called Bloom's

taxonomy) that is often used to

categorize the levels of cognitive involvement (thinking skills) in educational

settings. The taxonomy provides a good structure to assist teachers in writing
objectives and assessments. It can be divided into two levels -- Level I (the lower
level) contains knowledge, comprehension and application; Level II (the higher
level) includes application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation refer to figure 2.7

Figure 2.2 Blooms Taxonomy

Sometimes objective tests (such as multiple choice) are criticized because the
questions emphasize only lower-level thinking skills (such as knowledge and
comprehension). However, it is possible to address higher level thinking skills via
objective assessments by including items that focus on genuine understanding -"how" and "why" questions. Multiple choice items that involve scenarios, case studies,
and analogies are also effective for requiring students to apply, analyze, synthesize,
and evaluate information. (Classroom Assessment, 2009)

2.2 Related Existing System

In this section will present the existing studies the will relate to the project with
its characteristic that is shown below.

2.2.1 Statistical Product and Service Solutions (SPSS) Item Analysis Software
SPSS has an item analysis that has useful set of procedures available for
teaching profession especially in assessing the students performance. SPSS uses
statistical tools for measuring item analysis and an ideal way for teachers to evaluate
their students performance specially when we based it on exams scores. In SPSS the
main function of item analysis is for teachers or instructors to enhance their
examinations on how they create it. SPSS is also an ideal tool in accurate item

analysis. In a basic explanation the main function of the SSPSs item analysis is to
improve teachers or instructors way of creating a test or exam. (SPSS INC, 2008)
SPSS item analysis gives test creators of test developers mostly teachers and
instructors a means of measuring consistency. SPSS provide a measurement of
internal reliability (consistency) of the test item they called it as Cronbachs Alpha.
That means that the higher the correlation among the items, the greater the alpha.
High correlation implies that high (or low) scores on question are associated with high
(or low) scores on the other questions. Alpha can vary from 0 to 1, with e that the test
is perfectly reliable. Furthermore, the computation of Cronbach s Alpha when a
particular item is removed from consideration is a good measure of that items
contribution to the entire tests assessment performance. In the SPSS output below ,
these and the other statistics are automatically generated using a procedure called
Realibity ( in the output, the term scale refers to the collection of all test items).

Figure 2.3 Output for the SPSS Reliability program

Note the column Corrected Item-Total Correlation. This column displays

the corrected point biserial correlation. You can see that question three seems
to correlate well with overall test performance. On the other hand, students who
tend to do poorly on the test overall tend to answer question eight correctly. This
is not a desired outcome. Notice also the Alpha in the lower left-hand corner
and the column titled Alpha if Item Deleted. If question eight is deleted from
the scale, the Alpha statistic climbs to .68. With this perspective, question eight
needs to be critically examined and perhaps rewritten. Refer to 2.4

2.2.2

E-Learning System Of Liceo de Cagayan University-Grade School

Department
This system study mainly focused on developing an e-learning system that
provides different levels of task performed by the administrator teacher, students, and
parents. And, also system developed to handle and control the delivery of instructorled online course. The system can also perform item analysis in which the Admin has
the right to do it . (Tagupa, et.al, 2012)

Figure 2.4 -Learning System Of Liceo de Cagayan University-Grade School

Department

Item Analysis Chart

By referring the figure 2.9 it shows the graphical representation of Item analysis
given by legends that corresponds to each color; blue represents the pupil who got
correct answer and red for the pupil who got the wrong answer. This quiz online will be
taken via online on which the administrator can only perform item analysis.

Figure 2.5 -Learning System Of Liceo de Cagayan University-Grade School

Department

Index of Effectiveness of options or distractors.

Basing on figure 2.10 it shows the Index of Effectiveness of options or

distracters. It shows the item number with its corresponding key answer. Also
display the upper and lower group with its discriminating power results on
every option.

Figure 2.11 -Learning System Of Liceo de Cagayan University-Grade School

Department Question Bank

The figure 2.11 shows the item bank of the system, wherein the teacher
can perform such feature. It enables the teacher to store the pervious test
wherein he/she may be able to use it to another test or may even make some
revision basing on the difficulty and discriminating power of the test item.
2.2.2.1 Technology Used:
Front-end: HTML, CSS, Javascript, JQuery, Ajax and PHP
Back-end: MySQL
Programming Environment: Notepad++
Utilized Software: Adobe Photoshop CS3 for web and graphic design

Chapter 3
Methodology

This section discusses the methodology used in making the project as shown in
Figure 3.1 shown below:

Figure 3.1 Project Methodology Model (Modified Waterfall)

As shown in Figure 3.1, the requirements analysis stage, this is the first phase.
On the other hand, database and architectural Design will be point out in the design
phase. For the development phase wherein the construction and coding of the project
is contrive. Unit and Usability testing will also be discuss for the testing phase in the
making the project. For the deployment of the project is deliberated in implementation
phase. Lastly the maintenance phase is conferring on the compassed of the project.

3.1

Requirement Analysis
In this phase,

Here are the methods to initiate the development of the proposed system by the
researchers.
Define the research problem

To gathered data upon which the system was based. The

researchers conducted series of interviews with teachers and
instructors to know the specific problem they had obtained in
handling the current system that they were using and also to
know the existing system that theyd used.

Data preparation and implement a sampling plan

To determine the requirements that will be covered in developing

the proposed system. This concerned about establishing what the
ideal system has to perform and generate reports. Meanwhile, it
does not determine how the software will be designed or built.

Develop a design structure

To conceptualize, operationalize and test the measures of the

proposed system. And also, developing and documenting a
database structure that integrates the various measures and
simple graphics analysis to describe the basic features of the
develop system. This will describe what is, what the system shows.

3.1.2 Conceptual Analysis

The idea of this project is simply to create a quick and easy way in taking the
examination. The project consists of three users: the student, teacher and the system
administrator. The student will answer the examination through electronic process.
The teacher is the one responsible for the creation of the questions as well as the
performance of item analysis. And the system administrator is the one responsible for
the overall examination reports.

Figure 3.2 Hierarchical Framework of the Project

By referring to table 3.2 it shows the supervisions of every module in the system.
First thing is that Admin supervises the teacher level; the teacher supervises the
student level. The develop project has three modules which are the following:

Admin module which has the right for creating space for new accounts that

can access the entire system, activating and deactivating accounts.

Teacher module: which has it has the right of the performance of item
analysis, making and monitoring the exam and generates statistical

reports.
Student module: is the one who will take the exam.

3.2 Design
Design is very important aspect need to be emphasized in any application
development process. Design determines the success of an end product

3.3

Design
Design is very important aspect need to be emphasized in any application

development process. Design determines the success of an end product.

Refer to

figure 3.2 for the Architectural Design of the Project.

3.4

Development
In this phase is recommended for developing code as well as for builds of

hardware and software components. The process of creating interim builds allows a
team to find issues early in the development process, which shortens the

development cycle and lowers the cost of the project. Daily builds are the practice
of assembling all the components working toward the final goal of a solution. This
enables the team to determine earlier rather than later that all components will
work together. This method also allows the team to add functionality onto a stable
build. The idea is to have a shippable product ready at any point in time. In this
way, the stability of the total solution is well understood and has ample test data
prior to being released into production.
Table 3.2 Software Specification

3.5

Front End
Back End
Database
Programming Environment

JavaScript, HTML and CSS

PHP
Firebird SQL
Notepad++

Operating System

Windows XP or Higher

Testing
It is very important to have decent quality softwares. Having this means the

quality should match many requirements such as keeping the easy use of GUIs, as
well as containing faults and failures and many more. A lot of effort is required to
keep this quality to a reasonable standard. Testing is one of the most important parts
in quality assurance especially in the development stages. As the development of the
program comes to an end it becomes harder to fix errors, in fact becomes harder to
spot errors. This would mean, perhaps, to check each section during the development
so that the errors can be spotted and fixed before progressing to the next stages.
Testing should be done during the development stages and if it is not done during the
development stages then it is more than likely that there will be a lot of bugs and
errors. Some problems which may not have been seen during the development stages,
without testing at the end, could be something like a function being used whilst the
stack is empty. This could lead to a system crashing. However, if testing is done this
could be spotted before proceeding to the next stage. (Higgins, 2010)

3.5.1. Unit Testing

This is the software used for verification and validation. Its a method in which
the programmer can test all the separate code and see if it is viable to use. This type of
testing is based on a small scale and uses small units of the program. When looking at
procedural programming the unit can be any individual function or a procedure which
is written in the same language as the production code. Testing is a way to increase
confidence that the project meets its requirements.
To Ensure that the Project Meets Its Requirements:

Making sure the program does what it's supposed to do

Making sure that to know what it's supposed to do!
Testing ensures that the software solution is among those that meet the
requirements.

3.5.2 Integration testing

In this phase, individual modules are combined and tested as a group. Data
transfer between the modules is tested thoroughly.
Integration testing is a logical extension of unit testing. In its simplest form, two units
that have already been tested are combined into a component and the interface
between them is tested. A component, in this sense, refers to an integrated aggregate
of more than one unit. In a realistic scenario, many units are combined into
components, which are in turn aggregated into even larger parts of the program. The
idea is to test combinations of pieces and eventually expand the process to test your
modules with those of other groups. Eventually all the modules making up a process
are tested together. Beyond that, if the program is composed of more than one process,
they should be tested in pairs rather than all at once.

Integration testing identifies problems that occur when units are combined. By using a
test plan that requires you to test each unit and ensure the viability of each before
combining units, you know that any errors discovered when combining units are likely
related to the interface between units. This method reduces the number of possibilities
to a far simpler level of analysis.
3.5.3

System Testing
System is concerned with the behavior of the system.

3.5.4

3.6

Acceptance Testing

Implementation
To introduce a capstone project to a course this will provide students with an

opportunity to demonstrate their cumulative learning at the end of the course/project.

The activities will be in a project team environment, guided by the engineering design
process and culminating in the communication and demonstration of a uniquely
designed operational product or system.
To lend an air of authenticity to the project, a community sponsor or mentor
will help provide context and guidance to the students. This person, along with other
potential outside industry reps, will participate in the judging of the project outcomes.

Helps form the scope of the project

Helps put the project in context

Provides student mentoring (schedule permitting)

Participates in project evaluation

May provide logistical support

In this phase, the production system is installed, initial user training is

completed, user documentation is delivered, and the post implementation review
meeting is held. When this phase is completed, the application is in steady-state
production. Once the system is in steady-state production, it is reviewed to ensure that
we met all of the goals in the project plan for a satisfactory result. During
this phase you create the documentation and tools the customer uses to make
informed decisions about how to deploy your software securely.

3.7

Maintenance
The maintenance phase involves making changes to hardware, software, and

documentation to support its operational effectiveness. It includes making changes to

improve a system's performance, correct problems, enhance security, or address user
requirements. To ensure modifications do not disrupt operations or degrade a system's
performance

or

security,

organizations

management standards and procedures

should

establish

appropriate

change