CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2022 - E2237: Grading audit trail

Topic Overview & Prior Work (E2158)

Feature Overview

E2158 contains detailed information on the previous team's work with this feature.

A summary of the desired functionality is presented below:

Any instructor can assign or edit a grade freely.

There should be a way to track which instructor assigned or edited a grade, along with any comments they wrote justifying that grade.

These things must be recorded in the grading audit trail any time an instructor assigns or edits a grade and its comments:

• id of the instructor
• timestamp

Additionally, any comments written by other instructors should be preserved.

Overview of Major Changes By Previous Team

• A new table was added to the database (grading_history), along with the corresponding model (grading_history.rb) and controller (grading_history_controller.rb).
  • Whenever an instructor submits a new grade, or edits an existing grade, the grading_history_controller saves a new history entry to the database.

• Two models for specific types of histories were added: review_grading_history.rb, and submission_grading_history.rb.

• A view for displaying the grading history of a particular assignment or review was added (grading_histories/index.html.erb).

Files Modified By Previous Team

• \app\controllers\grades_controller.rb
• \app\controllers\grading_histories_controller.rb
• \app\controllers\review_mapping_controller.rb
• \app\helpers\grading_histories_helper.rb
• \app\models\grading_history.rb
• \app\models\review_grading_history.rb
• \app\models\submission_grading_history.rb
• \app\views\assignments\list_submissions.html.erb
• \app\views\grading_histories\index.html.erb
• \app\views\reports\_review_report.html.erb
• \config\routes.rb
• \app\views\assignments\list_submissions.html.erb

Testing By Previous Team

Functional tests were added.

functional tests added to these files
: spec/controllers/review_mapping_controller_spec.rb
: spec/models/grading_history.rb
: spec/controllers/grading_history_controller.rb

A feature test ensuring that a submission's grading history is shown completely, and in chronological order, was added.

feature test handled by these two files
: spec/features/grade_histories_spec.rb
: spec/features/helpers/grade_histories_helper.rb

Issues with Existing Tests

Only review_mapping_controller_spec.rb runs successfully--every other spec file mentioned above crashes.

Problem Statement

There are three areas of focus for our team's project (E2237):

System Crashes and Object Creation

1. We must ensure that the unit tests no longer crash, and that they pass with appropriate coverage.
2. We must ensure that the creation of testing objects, namely Student Accounts, Assignments, and Project Bids, does not cause crashing.

Changes to Grading History View

The grading history table in the view is earmarked for certain changes:

1. Student ID is a redundant field--move it to the page header.
2. Assignment ID is a redundant field--move it to the page header.

Data Flow and Functionality

Old Data Flow

The existing data flow for the grading history feature for reviews is shown below:

The related table from the database is review_scores.

New Data Flow

The latest flow for the Grading History functionality is shown below:

The primary function of this change is to DRY out the current implementation. The flow shown below tracks the tables where grades and comments(that comprise grading history) are recorded into already existing tables:

The newly created table grading_history

Code and Documentation Goals

We must explain changes made to files with diagrams and justifications.

Explanations will be provided from these perspectives:

• data flow
• functions
• code comments

Planned and Completed Work

General Design Goals

Changes to the Grading History Table

The images below reference grading history view issues mentioned above in the Problem Statement.

To DRY the code, we will remove the redundant table data boxed below...

...and we'll move it to the page header:

System Stability: Strategies

The source of crashing issues is currently unknown. To debug this, we will pursue the following:

• Refactor the specs and controllers
  • Ensure DRY principle is followed
  • Improve readability and maintainability
  • Add code comments as needed
• Ensure testing objects do not cause crashes

Documentation

1. Changes to any files will be documented on this page; the programmatical reasoning behind the changes shall be explained, and will be in accordance with the DRY principle.
2. Any changes to the overall program logic and data flow will be illustrated with UML diagrams in this document, along with the reasoning for any such changes.
3. A pull request of the fixed code, fully commented, will be provided in this document.

Specific Tasks Completed

will be added for the final submission

Implementation

will be added for the final submission

Testing

Video Demonstration

will be added for the final submission

Testing Goals and Test Objects

Drawing from the project objectives:

1. Verify that Student Accounts can be created and are saved to the database.
2. Verify that Assignments can be created and are saved to the database.
3. Verify that Project Bids can be created and are saved to the database.
4. Ensure that Student ID is shown in the header, and verify via manual UI testing
5. Ensure that Assignment ID is shown in the header, and verify via manual UI testing
6. Finally, verify that tests can be run without crashing the system.

RSpec Unit Tests

Test cases provided here, will add RSpec code blocks for the final submission

• Student Account

Scenario: Account Creation with all fields 
 Given: Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  When: Create student account with all the necessary fields
   Then: Account is saved in the database

Scenario: Duplicate Account Creation with all fields 
 Given: Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  When: Create student accounts with all the necessary fields
   Then: Student already exists message is shown

Scenario: Account Creation without all fields 
 Given: Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  When: Create student accounts without all the necessary fields
   Then: Message to input fields is shown

• Assignments

Scenario: Assignment Creation with all fields 
 Given: Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  When: Create Assignment with all the necessary fields
   Then: Assignment is saved in the database

Scenario: Duplicate Assignment Creation with all fields 
 Given: Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  When: Create Assignment with all the necessary fields
   Then: Assignment already exists message is shown

Scenario: Assignment Creation without all fields 
 Given: Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  When: Create Assignment without all the necessary fields
   Then: Message to input fields is shown

• Project Bids

Scenario: Project Bid creation
 Given: Logged in as a Student
  When: Complete Project Bid for open Project
   Then: Project Bid is saved in the database

Scenario: Duplicate Project Bid  
 Given: Logged in as a Student
  When: Click on bid for open Project
   Then Message stating already selected shown

Manual UI Tests

Note: Discussion with mentor in progress to determine if UI Automation testing is in scope

• Student ID in header

Scenario: Student ID in grading history view 
Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  On Assignment page, click on Grading History
   Resulting Grading History Table is shown
    Student ID appears in the header, not in any table columns

• Assignment ID in header

Scenario: Assignment ID in grading history view 
Logged in as an Instructor/Admin
  On Assignment page, click on Grading History
   Resulting Grading History Table is shown
    Assignment ID appears in the header, not in any table columns

Regression Testing

In order to ensure complete coverage, testing of the changes done between the end of last semester and this project will be done to ensure that old test cases still pass.

1. Get the specific format requirement for the title, and assert that it's there. Ensure that this doesn't appear anywhere else (possible via ensuring count is 1)
2. Procure specific required column width, and assert that this is the value in the file (the constant)

Conclusions and Future Work

Comprehensive Testing and Scope

• Initial Thoughts: Current code coverage cannot be determined due to a combination of missing tests and simulation crashes. This will need to be fixed to enable monitoring of regular metrics, and adding comprehensive tests that target full code coverage.
• will be added for final submission

Conclusion

will be added for final submission

Useful Links

Previous team's Expertiza GitHub pull request

Previous team's wiki write-up

E1934 implementation video walkthrough

Contributors

Students

• Bhuwan Bhatt (brbhatt)
• Soumyadeep Chatterjee (schatte5)
• Kelly Fleming (kflemin3)
• Karthik Gopala Sundaresan (kgopala3)

Mentor

• Kai Xiao (yxiao28)