Perl Success Story: The John Cabot University Professor Course/Evaluation System

This story came to me from Ettore Vecchione -- Computer Science Lecturer, IT Specialist, Director of the Computer Learning Center and Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Science of John Cabot University. Read on to find out how Perl, Apache and MySQL, this Open Source trio, is now playing a lovely tune to the ears of everyone at the University.

John Cabot University is a Liberal Arts College located in the heart of Rome (i.e. Trastevere). Given its increased enrollment in the past two years, the time required to process and prepare Professor/Course evaluations and evaluation results was no longer feasible based on a system of manually inputting data into Excel worksheets and Word files. Consequently, workflow for certain administrative staff had become inefficient. In addition, these individuals found it all the more taxing to carry out their day-to-day work along with fulfilling the demand for prompt evaluation results by Faculty, Dean and President during evaluation periods.

With Perl, Apache and MySQL, this Open Source trio is now playing a lovely tune to the ears of everyone at the University.

The Scenario (When In Rome Do As the Romans Do?)

Traditionally, Professor/Course evaluations at John Cabot University have been carried out with photocopied forms. In other words, students are given a copy of the evaluation during a scheduled class near the end of the semester and then complete it by checking an appropriate numeric value from a scale of 0 to 5 for each question (17 questions in total). In addition, any personal commentary is written out by hand on the same form.

From an administrative point of view, the process involved in tabulating numbers and preparing student comments is extremely inefficient and labor intensive and as a result prone to produce errors. First, any numeric data present on the evaluation are keyed into a Microsoft Excel worksheet, question by question (each professor has his or her own worksheet). Various formulas stored in the Excel template (i.e. Sum, Mean, Count, etc.) do the number crunching. Next, a global composite is set up based on all course and professor averages. Any written comments are typed into a Microsoft Word file (once again each professor has his or her own file) and then formatted accordingly (i.e. professor�s name, course, etc.).

There are roughly 105 to 115 courses scheduled per semester. 4 to 6 weeks of keying in data and formatting are required. The entire process is repeated 4 times a year (i.e. Fall, Spring, Summer I and II semesters). Roughly 2000 evaluations are keyed in every semester (Fall/Spring) except for the two Summer semesters wherein 200 to 300 evaluations are submitted per session. In total, source data for over 4600 evaluations are manually inputted per year.

Another factor to take into consideration, is the amount of time spent to set up the paper based evaluation. A tremendous amount of photocopies are required along with inserting evaluations in envelops which are then placed in Faculty mailboxes for distribution to students.

The Solution (�I came, I saw, I conquered!�)

In order to ease the burden on staff, fulfill the demand for prompt evaluation results, and above all to eliminate any possibility of human error in data collection and processing at the source, I decided to develop a system that would automate the process by letting students enter their evaluations via a password authenticated Perl/CGI application running on an Apache server. The data would be stored in a MySQL database to be later processed by way of two Perl shell scripts. These shell scripts would then output the respective Excel workbooks and Word files.

Open Source --�The Road [Not] Taken�

While sitting down at an outdoor caf� in Rome on a hot, lazy August summer day of 2001 thinking about which tools to use to develop an evaluation system that would be powerful, scalable and whose output would produce Word and Excel files, two roads came to mind: 1) Microsoft�as all of our IT resources and applications are Windows 2000 based yet proprietary in nature; and 2) Open Source�free, rather steep learning curve yet extremely flexible as it permits for seamless interfacing with proprietary applications such as Microsoft Word and Excel. As I am an individual who enjoys delving into the unknown, �I [too] took the one less traveled� so to speak and went Open Source � And that has made all the difference !�

Now, apart from the slight poetic digression, the decision to use Open Source tools, (i.e. Perl, Apache and MySQL) for the JCU Professor/Course Evaluation System was based on the following criteria:

�All system components would run in a Microsoft Windows environment;

�Source data would be entered via a Web based evaluation form interface as this would altogether eliminate the need for a paper based version thus making the system accessible throughout the University�s network at any time desired;

�Source data would reside in a RDBMS for easy manipulation of data and storage;

�Textual commentary should be easily parsed, filtered, formatted and outputted in Word;

�Numeric data should be automatically calculated, formatted and outputted in Excel;

�A heavy duty Web Server would be need to process numerous, concurrent calls to the evaluation form script; and

�Cost of development must be kept to a minimum.

A tall order you say? Well, not so as Perl, Apache and MySQL all Open Source tools, let me design and develop an evaluation system on the par with various commercially available systems going for $15,000,000 except that my system was developed at a cost of less than $500.

System Components

The Professor/Course Evaluation is a complete Open Source software solution that lets students complete their evaluations via Web, preview it and finally submit it to a MySQL database for later processing. The various components described in more detail below are what make up the guts of the system.

1)The evaluation.cgi script (a multi-state cgi application). In terms of security, it will only accept evaluations that match the Course ID password stored in the MySQL database system. If the Course ID password is correct, the data are stored for processing or else the system blocks the submission process. Moreover, as to the correct Course ID password, it is deleted from the database when the evaluation is submitted. What this means and ensures, is that students can only submit one evaluation for that course. The following Perl modules were used in developing the script: CGI.pm and DBI.pm. CSS was added for presentational effects. Lines of code: 1300.

2)The password.pl script randomly generates and stores all passwords in the MySQL database. In fact, students do not have to worry about being tracked as course passwords are given to them by way of a small slip of paper from passwords previously generated by the system and outputted in Word format. Course ID passwords are not generated based on a student�s name but rather on the total number of students registered in a particular course. Therefore, a student�s identity remains strictly anonymous. This script was developed with DBI.pm and Win32::OLE.pm. Lines of code: 1500.

3)The excel_workbook.pl script outputs a workbook containing individual worksheets for each professor as well as a composite table. As a command line program, it lets the administrative staff select the database to output from. The Excel workbook contains separate worksheets containing the numeric results for each professors. The script also numbers all worksheets and sorts them from highest to lowest score based on one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) equation. Upon completion, the workbook is automatically emailed and zipped to destination. It was developed using the following Perl modules: DBI.pm and Spreadsheet::WriteExcel.pm. Lines of code: 5000.

4)The word_comments.pl script generates the professor comments in Microsoft Word format. It too is a command line program with the same functionality as the excel_workbook.pl script. The DBI.pm and Win32::OLE.pm modules were used here. Lines of code: 1500.

5)The statistics_tables.pl and the comments_tables.pl scripts help automate the creation of all professor tables in the MySQL databases. These two scripts rely exclusively on the DBI.pm module. Lines of code: 150.

6)There are two Perl libraries (.pl files), namely, Calculate.pl and Word.pl. These libraries contain both the math based Perl subroutines and text formatting routines used by the Excel and Word scripts. Lines of code: 800.

7)The database that house each professor�s tables, along with the password tables were developed using the MySQL 4.0 database server. There are two databases, one that houses the numerics and the other the text. Two new databases are generated every semester.

8)The Web based evaluation.cgi script runs on an Apache 2.04 server.

Processing Time with the Perl, Apache and MySQL

Once online evaluations are complete, any one who is trained in using the system can easily and quickly generate both numeric statistics and textual commentary in under 20 minutes. (Of course, the data are now inputted by the students using the CGI application, accessible from any workstation in the university, running on the Apache server). All evaluations are completed within 3 to 4 days.

I have clocked the amount of time it takes to output an Excel workbook (roughly 56,000 cells) containing approximately 105 worksheets containing professor statistics and a composite at less than 11 minutes using a Pentium II 700Mhz Compaq DeskPro with 128 mbs of RAM. In addition, the Word files (roughly 24,000 words) containing student commentaries takes about 9 minutes. Compare this to 4 to 6 weeks of manual inputting and formatting for each semester. Wow, if only other things in life were just as easy!

Cheers to �Laziness, Patience and Hubris!� Isn�t that what Perl is all about?

Development Time

As Rome was not built in a day, nor was this system. I am a �one-man-band� in a small University with many responsibilities. However, it took me about 8 months to design, develop, test and debug various versions to meet our specific needs. Early on, before the Word and Excel implementation, all statistical data and text commentary were outputted to the web browser.

As a committed developer, I find myself wanting to continually improve the system. Clean, optimized code is what I am now striving for which does take time.

Future Enhancements

The Professor/Course Online evaluation system is still in its infancy. However, the following improvements have been scheduled for the not too distant future:

1)Create an �all-in-one� GUI application using the Tk module so that administrative staff can go about managing databases, generating passwords and outputting both numeric and text based reports.

2)Re-code the existing evaluation.cgi script so that it can work on a Apache-mod_perl server.

3)Use JavaScript form validation routines instead of having the CGI application validate the information on the web server. This will free up server resources.

4)Modify the word_comments.pl program so that the Microsoft Word file contains a blank copy of the student evaluation for professor reference.

5)Create additional sql routines into the excel_workbook.pl program so that it can generate cross-department comparisons.

6)Optimize sql routines to further speed up output.

7)Create Perl Object packages for the math and text parsing/formatting routines.

Final Remarks

The Professor/Course Evaluation as of this time has been successfully used for two consecutive years. As a system, it has without a doubt sped up the generation of evaluation results, reduced errors and paper usage, produced quality information, put the university on the par with other systems and alleviated the busy schedules of certain administrative staff.

--Ettore Vecchione

Ettore Vecchione is Computer Science Lecturer, IT Specialist, Director of the Computer Learning Center and is Chair of the Department of Mathematics, Computer Science and Natural Science of John Cabot University. John Cabot University is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education. In the words of James F. Creagan, President of John Cabot University, �Ettore is a man who wears many hats!�

He holds an MA degree from the University of Toronto in Instructional Technology and enjoys developing with Open Source tools which �..[have] made all the difference!�