a level ict coursework

Sameer Choudhury, Candidate number, AS ICT INFO 1 Cambridge Heath Sixth Form

Contents1. Background.....................................................................................................................................1

2. Identification of the problem..........................................................................................................1

3. Identification of client, end user and audience..............................................................................2

4. Identification of training needs / skills and methods used.............................................................2

5. User requirements as I/P/O............................................................................................................3

6. Explanation of potential solution....................................................................................................4

7. Initial Test plan...............................................................................................................................4

8. Completed test plan and evidence of testing.................................................................................5

9. Evidence of corrective action........................................................................................................14

10. Explanation of why testing was done...........................................................................................15

11. Evaluation of solution...................................................................................................................15

Background London Islamic School is based in London, Tower hamlets. It is a secondary school which is not government funded and caters for students of Year 7, 8,9,10 and 11. There are currently 118 students on roll taught by 17 experienced teachers/staff who deliver national curriculum subjects to the students. The school delivers 13 subjects in KS3 and 10 subjects in KS4 (incl. optional Arabic and Urdu). Being a faith school, LIS (London Islamic School) has a motto that they follow which is to “Strive for excellence in education and piety”. LIS has recently been awarded ‘AMS-UK Head teacher of the year award’. LIS has an average score of 90% 5 A*-C in GCSE examinations. LIS also received a rating of ‘Good’ in both the OFSTED inspection and the BSI inspection. LIS secondary school uses a basic paper-based mark book to grade pupils work. The ‘mark-book’ was used to calculate the results a pupil gets after completing their homework and assignments and predict their grades for GCSE.

Identification of the problemI have identified that there is a huge problem with a paper-based mark-book. Handling test scores and assignment registers on a paper-based system is beyond suffering. Each teacher has to keep record of each student’s:

Current Grades Predicted Grades Homework/Assignments Attendance/Punctuality

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These are extremely hard data to record on paper as a paper-based system has no organisational structure. All the marks are calculated by a calculator and the grades are given by checking the grade boundaries. There are many instances were human error can take place e.g. calculation error, register record error etc. These are the main problems with a paper-based system.

The new system which is going to be computerised will make recording each data efficient and accurate. The system will be equipped with functions that will make for accurate data and narrow down the room for human error. The solution would also be safe and secured as in it would not get lost (back-ups can be made) and no-one can alter the data without the access password. The data also is organised which is very important, and will look presentable to parents and head teachers.

Identification of client, end user and audienceThe client for my solution is LIS, as the system I will create is going to be specifically made for them in substitute for the outdated paper-based system already in-place. The end user of my system will be the LIS teachers as they will be the ones using the new system instead of their old one and benefiting from the efficiency and accuracy it offers. The audience of my system will be parents (on parent’s evenings) and the head teacher/senior management team when they want to check the progress of each student.

Identification of training needs / skills and methods usedThe end user of my system needs to have a good foundation of basic ICT skills. This includes how to use a system and be familiar with the functions involved. The main reason behind this is if they are a new user to ICT, the computerised system will not be of any useful help to them. I have gathered information via interviews and questionnaires that my end user has a strong foundation of ICT skills. This is an advantage as the senior management team (SMT) do not need to waste time holding training sessions to familiarise staff with the software hence saves money and time.

User requirements as I/P/O

1. The system will be protected by a password so it will stop unauthorised users from accessing it.

Input: password entered into the system

Process: The spread sheet checks the password to authorise it

Output: Spread sheet gives access to the spread sheet if the password has been authorised, otherwise access will be denied

2. The colour arrangement of the whole system is based accordingly

Input: Identical colours, logos and fonts

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to the colours of the end user’s specification i.e. school.

Process: Make all the colours identical in each spread sheet

Output: Data and information displayed in correspondence to the colours of the school

3. My client requires a list of all the school’s tutor group.

Input:

Process:

Output: The student’s tutor group.4. The attendance and punctuality sections need to be colour-coded. My client wants to keep track on student’s overall attendance and punctuality.

Input: The attendance and punctuality score

Process: The spreadsheet will process the dat, and colour-code the cell depending on the conditional format set.

Output: The cell will be coloured Green for a good attendance and punctuality, and red for bad.

5. Using the student’s total results, the system should be able to display the overall grade for each student

Input: The total mark for the assignment

Process: IF statement processes the numbers and calculates it with its criteria

Output: The overall grade the student gets for their assignment

6. The system will need to be able to calculate and add up the individual results for each student.

Input: The formula of the SUM function for all the student’s assignment scores will be put in the SUM formula

Process: Processes the calculation given by user

Output: Displays the overall result (result of calculation) into selected cell.

7. The system should be able to display any of the student’s overall grades by using their Student. No

Input: Select the Student No. from the drop-down list

Process: Finds ‘Overall Grade’ from source using VLOOKUP

Output: Display’s the ‘Overall Grade’ of the student selected.

8. User Friendly:The system needs to be user-friendly as the end user might be new to ICT.

Input:

Process:

Output:

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Explanation of potential solutionMy solution for this problem is a spread sheet-based system run on Excel. This system includes an assortment of formulas and IF statements and Validation rule which will allow the teachers of LIS to organise their student’s homework and set the grade boundaries in a formula so the system can automatically give the students grades on each of their assignments. There will also be a register system so teachers can keep track of attendance and punctuality. There will also be a password set for the spread sheet to access and change data hence protecting all the data and preventing it from falling into unauthorised access. I have decided to use a spreadsheet system as it is cost-effective and is efficient for the user and meets their requirement. The spreadsheet was used in replacement to a website or a database. A website is expensive to keep up doe to the fees involved and it is hassle to update the website every so often. I also have no experience in creating a website. A database is not required as it is quite a complicated system and is more suitable for a library system etc.

Explanation of why testing was doneThe testing plan was carried out for many reasons. The spread sheet I am creating is a product for an end user. This ‘end user’ will use this spread sheet for a purpose and if I provide my end user with a product which defies the purpose it was created for then it is of no use. Hence, before I send the spread sheet to my end user, I must carry out some test which confirm the spread sheet and all its functions and formulae are working. There are some requirements my end user had given me before I initially creating the spread sheet. These requirements are key as they are required to befit the purpose of the end user. Due to this, I have to carry out a test plan which test each of these requirements and make sure they carry out their ‘job’s efficiently so that the end user may be satisfied.

Initial Test planTest No. Purpose Type of test Test data/value Expected

outcomeActual result

1 Check the system password

Normal data password123 Spread sheet access granted

As expected

Erroneous data lolpoioiuhugu Error message displays and spread sheet denies access

As expected

2 House style Matches the school colour scheme

As expected

3 Data Validation (List)

Normal Data AR Accepted As expected

Erroneous Data ZX Error message As expected

4 Conditional Formatting

Normal Data 95%

96%

If attendance and punctuality is equal to or more than 96%, the cell

95% = Red

96% = Green

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97%will be coloured greenIf the attendance and punctuality is less than 96%, the cell will be coloured red

97% = Green

As expected

Boundary Data Values between 0 and 100

The spreadsheet colour-coded the cell according to the values set.

As Expected

5 IF function Normal Data 550+ A* As expected

Erroneous Data 1536 N/A As expected

Boundary Data Values between 0 and 600

The result calculated will be displayed

As expected

6 SUM function (Total result)

Normal Data =SUM(D1:D10) 500 As expected

Erroneous Data =SUM(D1:186) Error message As expected

Boundary Data Entering values 0, and then 100.

The SUM function will calculate the total results

As expected

7 VLOOKUP Normal Data Select a student no. form list e.g. 5

The right overall grade should shown

As expected

Erroneous Data Type a letter instead of a number

Error message As expected

8 User friendly Easy to use for any type of user

As expected

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r.uddin, 18/12/13,

Make sure you have one test result that fails, so in the exam you can talk about how you would rectify that mistake.


Completed test plan and evidence of testing

1.

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This is the password needed to access the spread sheet. If the password is right, the user will have

full access to the spread sheet.

Since the password was right, the spread sheet allows the user full access to the spread sheet and all its information and functions.


2.

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This is the password needed to access the spread sheet. If the password is incorrect, the user will

have been denied access to the spread sheet

As the password was wrong, the spread sheet denies access to its information and functions.

As shown, the colour scheme of the school is a light and dark green. The spread sheet also follows the colour scheme of the


3.

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These cells have been validated to only accept numbers between 7-11 as they are the only year groups in a secondary

school.

As I have entered a number out of the range 7-11 i.e. 14, the cell will not accept the data and reject it.


4.

5.

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This is testing my boundary data’s for my conditional formatting.

As shown, the colour coding works and the cell is colour formatted depending on what condition it

meets.

This is the IF statement that will help me calculate the grades for each student.


6.

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This is the SUM functions used in my spread sheet. As you can see all the formulas are

entered right, and the range of the formula is correct so the formula knows what top add

up and what not to.

As shown above, all the assignments/homework has been given a mark out of 100. They are then added altogether to show the total result of all the assignments in term which is out of 600. Then using the IF statement, the total result will be checked against the IF statement criteria, and a result is given as the end result of the IF statement. You can see that the overall grades are different for each student; this is due to the fact that, according to the total result they scored in the term, the overall grade is given

The above two screenshots show the testing of boundary data on my IF statement


7.

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As shown below, the formula is entered wrong as the range of the function is wrong hence an error message is

shown.


Evidence of corrective action

6.

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To fix the error of the range of cells to be added, I will enter into the cell the formula ‘=SUM’ the highlight the cells that I want in the

equation (as shown above), hence removing any error that can be made when typing the formula and its range manually.

a level ict coursework

Documents

outdated paperbased

new system

paperbased markbook

lis secondary school

lis london islamic school

lis teachers

basic paperbased mark

faith school