CSC/ECE 517 Spring 2025 - E2536. Improve assessment360 controller

Project Overview

Project Title: Improve assessment360 Controller

Objective

The primary goal is to enhance the UI/UX and code quality of the assessment360 controller. This involves:

• Merging the two existing views (all_students_all_reviews and course_student_grade_summary) into a single unified view.
• Improving the presentation and clarity of data (student grades, peer reviews).
• Refactoring logic for better separation of concerns and maintainability.
• Implementing feedback from the previous team.

Current Implementation Summary

The assessment360 controller exposes two main methods:

• all_students_all_reviews: Displays peer review scores per student.
• course_student_grade_summary: Displays projects and grades for each student.

Limitations noted in previous feedback:

• Separate views instead of a unified dashboard.
• Excessive decimal precision in grade averages.
• Some layout/design issues (e.g., narrow name column).
• Business logic within controllers (should be moved to mixins).
• Sparse code comments.

Design Pattern Usage in Assessment360Controller

The Assessment360Controller implements multiple design patterns that improve clarity, modularity, and maintainability of the code.

1. Facade Pattern

The controller acts as a facade, hiding complex interactions between various models (Course, Assignment, Participant, Team, etc.) and exposing a simplified interface for the view. It aggregates data like grades, reviews, and penalties and prepares it in a structured format, simplifying the presentation layer.

2. Strategy Pattern

The use of helper modules such as:

• GradesHelper
• AuthorizationHelper
• Scoring
• PenaltyHelper

follows the Strategy Pattern. Each module encapsulates a specific piece of functionality, and the controller delegates responsibility to these interchangeable strategies, promoting clean separation of concerns and easier testing.

3. Template Method Pattern

The method action_allowed? is a hook method that overrides a predefined template method in ApplicationController. This allows customized access control behavior while maintaining a consistent interface across all controllers — an example of the Template Method Pattern in action.

4. Separation of Concerns

Responsibility is split between:

• Controller: Orchestrates data flow
• Models: Store and retrieve business data
• Helpers: Encapsulate computation and utility logic
• Views: Render formatted output

This adheres to the Separation of Concerns principle and keeps each layer clean and testable.

These design patterns contribute to the robustness and scalability of the 360-degree assessment feature, allowing future teams to maintain and extend it with ease.

Functional Changes

Feature	Description
Unified View	Combine both views into a single HTML page that includes both project grades and review scores.
Column Selection	Allow users to toggle visible columns using checkboxes.
Exclude Unreviewed Assignments	Retain the functionality to exclude unreviewed assignments from averages.
Averages Precision	Limit decimal precision to 2 points for clarity.
Wider Name Column	Adjust layout to prioritize readability (e.g., wider name column than username).

Code Refactor

Task	Reason
Move averaging logic to mixins or model concerns	Improve separation of concerns and reusability.
Commenting	Add meaningful comments for helper methods and business logic.
Query Optimization	Utilize the bullet gem to prevent N+1 queries where applicable.

UI/UX Design

The new unified view will feature:

• A tabular layout showing all relevant data.
• Sectioned headers for each student.
• Collapsible panels (if needed) for clarity.
• Visual cues for peer review vs. project grades.
• Responsive design for usability across devices.

Testing Plan

Test Type	Details
Unit Tests	For mixin methods and average calculations.
Functional Tests	Using RSpec + Capybara to validate UI behavior.
Manual Testing	Validate layout, toggle functionality, and performance.

Metrics for Success

• Unified view is fully integrated and intuitive.
• UI loads efficiently and scales with data.
• Code coverage is maintained or improved.
• Previous feedback points are addressed.
• PR receives clean review with minimal rework.

Team Information

Mentor: Mitesh Anil Agarwal

Team:

• Jap Ashokbhai Purohit - smomin@ncsu.edu
• Sharmeen Momin - smomin@ncsu.edu
• Prithish Samanta - psamant2@ncsu.edu

References

• Expertiza Codebase
• Rails View Helpers
• Bullet Gem Documentation