Abstract
The purpose of this project is to develop a data analysis tool for assessment. There are three tiers of users: public, data entry, and faculty. The public can view non-sensitive assessment information. In addition to accessing public information, the data entry tier has the ability to insert, delete, or modify information. This includes preparing rubric forms and entering the raw data associated with those forms. The faculty tier can access not only public information but also any sensitive information. This includes interviews, evaluations, surveys, industrial visits, and other forms of raw data. In addition, the faculty will have access to a menu of available analytical methods. These methods will be used to analyze the data resulting from implementation of a specified rubric and provide associated reports. This project is designed as a web-based application. This application provides an efficient and flexible environment for entering data and utilizing the data analysis tool. In addition, it will provide a means to effectively reach a large audience. This project uses a three-tier web application architecture. The presentation layer is the user interface available via the internet. The business layer is the PHP processing that is done in the background. This is the layer that sends and receives requests between the presentation layer and the third layer, the data layer. The data layer is a MySQL database. Overall, it utilizes a LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) open source web platform. As a measure of security, only the owner and web daemon have access to the files that comprise this project.