A Web-to-database system for collecting student data

Many instructors use the Web to deliver information to students. However, serious instructional development requires continuous fine-grained feedback from students. Instructors may want to use the Web to collect data from students, but integrating the Web with databases is difficult for those who are not database experts. We therefore created a general-purpose Web data collection and processing system. Questions and their responses (a "survey") are stored in a database, allowing instructors to easily analyze the data gathered with online form. To create a "survey" the instructor need only define the questions and possible responses, including free responses. For most surveys, no new code need be written. The system generates forms to collect data and stores the responses in a database. The system is very flexible since the data can include HTML, allowing the system to perform additional processing using JavaScript or other HTML techniques. The system also includes several tools to analyze the data. We have used this system for a variety of purposes including: (1) gathering information about prior student experience at the start of the semester; (2) giving students the means to provide anonymous feedback of their comprehension of instruction; (3) creating on-line quizzes; (4) providing fill-in-the-blank forms that teaching assistants use to grade student projects; (5) course and instructor evaluations; and (6) to allow students to conduct student government voting on-line. This paper describes the system in detail, provides examples of how we have used the system and indicates how instructors who have database expertise may further extend the system.