CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2024 - E2410 Reimplement View for results of bidding

Introduction

The Expertiza project is a dynamic collaboration between students and faculty at NC State University, built on the Ruby on Rails platform. It serves as a hub for fostering cooperative learning and academic collaboration, offering a suite of tools for efficient course and assignment management.

Expertiza empowers instructors with comprehensive control over the learning process, providing insights into various academic facets such as user profiles, courses, assignments, questionnaires, and reviews. With its user-friendly interface and innovative features, Expertiza revolutionizes collaborative learning, facilitating seamless topic creation, group formation, and peer review. Join us in embracing the transformative potential of digital collaboration to redefine the educational experience.

Problem Statement:

Current Problem

• Instructors using Expertiza lack comprehensive visibility into the bidding process, impeding their ability to discern the most sought-after topics by teams and the prioritization of choices, leading to inefficient allocation of projects.

Key Deficiencies

• The absence of essential details, such as which teams have bid on specific topics and the percentage of teams assigning their top-choice projects, results in instructors resorting to cumbersome workarounds, hindering effective management and allocation of projects.

Proposed Solution

• Enhancing Expertiza's interface with a dedicated view for instructors to access detailed statistics on topic bids, including priority rankings, team names, total bids, and the percentage of teams selecting each topic as their top choice. This solution aims to streamline workflow, empower instructors with valuable insights, and facilitate fair and efficient project allocation.

Previous Implementations

1. E2360 Github Repository
2. E2360 Pull Request
3. E2360 Wiki Page
4. Demo Video

E2410 Current Implementation

1. Github Repository
2. E2410 Pull Request
3. Demo Video

Issues With Previous Implementation

1. There's a risk of repeating logic related to bidding across different parts of the application.
2. UI elements and logic are intertwined within the controller, which is not ideal for MVC patterns.
3. CSS styles are hard-coded in views, which should be abstracted to CSS files.
4. Missing error handling could cause unhandled exceptions for nonexistent bids or topics.
5. The UI lacks dynamic feedback mechanisms like AJAX updates for user interactions.

Project Goal

The goal of this project is to enhance the Expertiza bidding system, making it more intuitive and efficient for both instructors and students. Our primary focus areas include:

• Clarity and Visibility: We aim to clearly present bidding results, featuring distinct columns for bid priorities and detailed team bid information.

• Separation of Concerns: Based on prior feedback, the bidding logic will be separated from the assignment controller to improve system maintainability and adhere to the Single Responsibility Principle.

• Enhanced Logic and Navigation: The project will introduce refined logic for calculating preferred choice percentages to ensure fairness in topic assignments. Additionally, bidding results will be moved to a dedicated page, improving the user experience by providing a focused and intuitive navigation by adding tooltip to show percentage calculation.

The UI/UX will be redesigned to minimize clutter, ensuring that information is visible only when necessary and enhancing the overall usability of the interface.

By achieving these objectives, we intend to significantly improve the bidding system in Expertiza, ensuring it is a more effective tool for educational environments.

Design

The enhanced workflow in Expertiza enables instructors to manage and review student topic bids efficiently. With the new implementation, instructors visit the Assignments page, select an assignment, and activate the Topics tab to manage topics and enable bidding. A newly added "Show bids by priority" button takes users to a comprehensive bidding summary view. This view categorizes and displays detailed bid information, such as the number and percentage of first-choice bids, offering a clear visualization of students' preferences and facilitating fairer topic assignments.

Sequence Diagram for Bidding Process

• Instructors can activate topic bidding with a single checkbox.
• The "Show bids by priority" button leads to a detailed summary view.
• Bids are categorized by priority, displaying #1, #2, and #3 bids.
• The percentage of first-choice bids is clearly presented.
• Bidding teams are listed for complete transparency.

Current Flow

• Go to the assignments section, we have created a dummy a assignment, "Test OODD", click edit icon next to it.

• Now make sure the "has topics" checkbox is selected.

• Now go to Topics section and click "Show bids by priority" button.

• Here you will be able to view various stats of the bidding,like the topics with their IDs, their respective topic names, number of teams that have put that specific topic as their 1st 2nd and 3rd priority bid, along with the names of those teams, the total number of bids and finally the percentage of teams that put the specific topic as their first bid. We can also see the tooltip for the calculation of the percentages when we hover over the percentages.

Flow of the Bidding Process

• The instructor logs in to Expertiza with instructor credentials.
• They navigate to the Assignments page.
• An assignment is selected from the list and opened for editing.
• The instructor checks the "Has Topics" checkbox to activate the Topics tab.
• The Topics tab is then accessed to add a new topic.
• A new topic is created by filling out the new topic form and submitting it.
• This action updates the topic list, and students can begin bidding, assigning their 1st, 2nd, and 3rd priorities to topics.
• To view the bidding details, the instructor clicks the "Show bids by priority" button on the topics page.

Implementation Details

Files Modified During the implementation

• assignments_controller.rb
• lottery_controller.rb
• assignment.rb
• bid.rb
• team.rb
• assignment_helper.rb
• _topics.html.erb
• bidding_details.html.erb
• _bid_summary_partial.html.erb

New functions that are implemented

Method for bidding analysis

File : app/controllers/lottery_controller.rb

Functionality:

• Added `calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority` method to `lottery_controller` for aggregating bid data per topic.
• Prepares data for displaying the bidding details for each topic within an assignment.
• It calculates the number of bids for each priority (1, 2, 3) per topic and also computes
• The overall percentages of teams that received their first, second, and third choice.
• This method is responsible for calculating the bidding table data for an assignment.
• Computes the count of assigned teams for each priority level (1, 2, 3) across all topics.
• It checks each team associated with a topic and determines if the team's bid matches

2. Background Color according to percentage

Method for background color

File : app/helpers/lottery_helper.rb

Functionality:

• Light red for low percentages
• Light orange for medium percentages
• Light green for high percentages
• No background if outside range

3. Button to show bids by priority

Button view

File : app/views/assignments/edit/_topics.html.erb

Functionality:

• ⁠Button to visit the seperate page to view the results of bidding

4. Bidding Summary Table

Summary Table

File : app/views/lottery/calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority.html.erb

Functionality:

• View topics with their IDs,
• View topic names
• View number of teams that have bid on that specific topic as their 1st 2nd and 3rd priority bid,
• View the names of those teams
• View the total number of bids and finally the percentage of teams that put the specific topic as their first bid.
• View the percentage of first bids with tooltip and custom background

Accomplishment

Our recent project milestones have successfully optimized the topic bidding system in Expertiza. These enhancements focus on improving the instructor's user experience and providing comprehensive insights into student preferences during the topic selection process. The new features not only simplify the instructors' interaction with the system but also bring to light the trending topics that resonate most with students.

In this updated interface, instructors now have the ability to enable topic bidding with a simple checkbox selection, adding efficiency to the setup process. The interface also introduces a new button, "Show bids by priority," which serves as a gateway to a more detailed bid analysis. This new feature simplifies the instructor's oversight of the bidding process, consolidating all the necessary information in one place and enabling quick adjustments to topics based on student interest.

Here, instructors can view the entire landscape of student bids in an organized and informative manner. The page lists topics alongside detailed bid data, such as the number of first, second, and third priority bids, total bids, and the teams that have placed those bids. It also features a calculated percentage of first-choice bids for each topic, providing immediate insight into student preferences. A tooltip offers a quick reference for understanding the calculation behind these percentages, ensuring transparency. This visualization tool allows instructors to discern which topics are trending and which may require additional promotion or reevaluation, streamlining the decision-making process without the need to switch between different views.

Test Plan

Manual Testing

Follow these instructions to manually test the below functionality:

• Navigate to the assignments page and click on the pencil icon next to the 'Test OODD' assignment.
• Confirm that the 'Has Topics' checkbox is selected on the general assignment settings page.
• Move to the 'Topics' tab and check the 'Enable bidding for topics' option.
• Add a new topic for students to bid on by clicking the 'New Topic' button and entering relevant details.
• Log in as a student and bid on the new topic, choosing the priority level for the bid.
• Return to the 'Topics' tab as an instructor to view the updated bidding table with bids and priorities listed.
• Confirm that the total number of bids and the number of #1, #2, and #3 bids are displayed correctly for each topic.
• Check the background color coding (green, yellow, red) in the bidding table that reflects the intensity of bids for visual verification.

RSpec Testing

The lottery_controller_spec.rb has existing automated rspec tests in place. Furthermore following tests were added to the code to ensure the functionality is working as expected and thereby increasing code coverage:-

• Test for the method calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority in lottery_controller:

The test verifies that the calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority method accurately computes and returns a structured summary of bids for topics within an assignment, detailing the number of first, second, and third priority bids, total bids, the percentage of first priority bids, and the teams bidding on each topic.

describe '#calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority' do
    it 'calculates and returns bidding summary data for topics' do
      # Setup test data
      assignment = create(:assignment)
      topic = create(:topic, assignment: assignment)
      team = create(:team, assignment: assignment)
      bid = create(:bid, topic: topic, team: team, priority: 1)
      team_name = create(:team_name, team: team)

      allow(Assignment).to receive(:find).with(assignment.id).and_return(assignment)
      allow(assignment).to receive(:sign_up_topics).and_return([topic])
      allow(topic).to receive_message_chain(:bids, :includes).and_return([bid])
      allow(bid).to receive_message_chain(:team, :name).and_return(team_name)

      # Mock params
      params = { id: assignment.id }
      allow(controller).to receive(:params).and_return(params)

      # Expected data structure from calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority
      expected_topic_data = [
        {
          id: topic.id,
          name: topic.topic_name,
          first_bids: 1,
          second_bids: 0,
          third_bids: 0,
          total_bids: 1,
          percentage_first: 100.0,
          bidding_teams: [team_name]
        }
      ]

      # Call the method
      controller.instance_variable_set(:@assignment, assignment)
      expect(controller.calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority).to eq(expected_topic_data)
    end
  end

The given test case, #calculate_bidding_summary_based_on_priority, is designed to verify the correct calculation and return of bidding summary data for topics within an assignment. It tests the scenario where a team has placed a bid with the highest priority on a topic. The setup involves creating mock instances of an assignment, a topic under that assignment, a team assigned to the topic, and a bid indicating the team's priority. The test confirms that the method accurately computes the total number of bids and the percentage of first-choice bids, and it ensures that the team's name is correctly associated with the bid in the summary. This case is crucial for the test plan as it ensures that the bidding summary accurately reflects student preferences and priorities in the bidding process, which is integral to the fair assignment of topics.

• Test for background color helper method:

The test suite for LotteryHelper#background_color_by_percentage method checks that it returns appropriate CSS background colors for low, medium, and high percentage values, and defaults to no background when the percentage is out of the 0-100% range.

  # Assuming your helper module is in the helpers folder
  RSpec.describe LotteryHelper, type: :helper do
  # Test for low percentage range
  describe '#background_color_by_percentage' do
    it 'returns light red for low percentages' do
      expect(helper.background_color_by_percentage(10)).to eq('background-color: #ffcccc;')
    end

    # Test for medium percentage range
    it 'returns light orange for medium percentages' do
      expect(helper.background_color_by_percentage(50)).to eq('background-color: #ffcc99;')
    end

    # Test for high percentage range
    it 'returns light green for high percentages' do
      expect(helper.background_color_by_percentage(80)).to eq('background-color: #ccffcc;')
    end

    # Test for percentage out of range
    it 'returns no background for percentages out of range' do
      expect(helper.background_color_by_percentage(101)).to eq('background-color: none;')
      expect(helper.background_color_by_percentage(-1)).to eq('background-color: none;')
    end
  end
end

The test suite for the `LotteryHelper` module’s `#background_color_by_percentage` method ensures that the UI consistently displays the correct color codes for varying percentage ranges. It confirms that percentages within defined thresholds are mapped to specific background colors: light red for low, light orange for medium, and light green for high values. Additionally, it tests the method's response to percentages outside the 0-100% range, expecting no background color to be applied, thereby validating the method’s reliability in handling edge cases. This is a critical part of our test plan to ensure visual consistency and user-friendly feedback within the application.

Demo Video

You can watch this Demonstration Videofor a detailed demonstration of the project.

Team

Mentor:

• Anvitha Reddy Gutha (agutha@ncsu.edu)

Members:

• Shiva Vara Prasad Kandhagatla (skandha@ncsu.edu)
• Sai Santhosh Garlapati (sgarlap@ncsu.edu)
• Chinmay Walinjkar (cpwalinj@ncsu.edu)

References

• https://github.com/expertiza/expertiza
• http://expertiza.ncsu.edu/
• http://wiki.expertiza.ncsu.edu/index.php/Expertiza_documentation