AN ADAPTIVE SOLUTION FOR MANAGING THE MODULE OF AUTOMATIC ALLOCATION OF OPTIONAL ASSIGNMENTS IN THE EASY-LEARNING ONLINE EDUCATION PLATFORM
Authors: Radescu Radu , Ureche Mihai , Pupezescu Valentin 
Published: February 2023

This paper aims to present the steps, methods and technologies used to create the new management module of the automatic allocation of students' optional assignments for mid-term projects, homework and graduation thesis, using a virtual education system. The Easy-Learning platform provides a framework for any type of on-line or off-line activity in distance/virtual learning, which is useful for tutors and students at any level of education and training. To achieve this new integrated module within the platform, PHP5, JavaScript, HTML5, CSS3 technologies, MariaDB database and REST, Android, Apache (web server) services were used, as well as a number of methodologies for securing communication between a server application and a client application. The paper presents in detail the new proposed procedure and emphasizes the achieved benefits and progress, with numerous examples to illustrate the methodology of design, implementation and use of this module.

The Easy-Learning platform is a complex e-learning system running on a web server (local or remote) and was created with dynamic web pages using Symfony framework, based on the object-oriented side of the PHP web programming language. Among other features, the platform uses MariaDB as a database management system for storing and retrieving information. The main reason to choose the development environment is given by the minimum requirements needed for the applications (running on the server).

Initially, the allocation of optional assignments (for mid-term projects, homework or graduation thesis) was difficult due to numerous, simultaneous and frequently overlapped requests received by tutors from different students and to the fact that the records and the allocation process were not dynamically displayed, so that a real-time evidence was impossible to achieve.

The new module proposed by the present paper automates the optimal allocation of optional assignments. The tutors are responsible for entering the system the items of the optional assignments list. The details are as follows: ID (unique item identifier); Title; Type (project/license/dissertation); Coordinator (tutor); Years of study; Series of study; Actions: details, assigned students, edit, delete. The details of an item are: Title; Description; Requirements; Type (project/license/dissertation); Years of study; Status (inactive/active).

In order to correctly complete the allocation process, an item must be assigned to a unique student. The tutor has the possibility of adding manually a student to the assigned items list. This process implies redirecting to a form where the tutor needs to select the appropriate student for a particular item.

The Easy-Learning platform has undergone many changes over the years, from a simple project that has become complex and efficient, satisfying the needs of a virtual classroom. Easy-Learning is now a tool that may help students and tutors both. It can contribute to centralize information useful to students, thus avoiding congestion situations. Nowadays, the platform has achieved a high degree of maturity, using Symfony's framework - which significantly simplifies repetitive tasks and enables automatic generation of entities - but also other modern technologies. The new procedure of automatically allocation of optional assignments benefits from all these facilities.