Republic of the Philippines

Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology

COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Andres Bonifacio Avenue, Tibanga, 9200 Iligan City
Tel.: (063) 221-2002 Local 4191
Website: https://www.msuiit.edu.ph/academics/schools/scs/about/index.php

________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Dear Students,

Thank you for choosing MSU-Iligan Institute of Technology as the school for your graduate studies. We
hope that we will be able to help you in achieving your goals in your pursuit of knowledge.

It is in the 2nd Semester AY 2014-2015 that the Office of Graduate Studies instituted the submission of a
concept paper as an admission requirement for all graduate programs.

Below are frequently asked questions which may help you realize the importance of a concept paper as
you embark on your graduate studies.

 What is a concept paper?

A concept paper is a summary written a by students embarking on research to gather and present
preliminary ideas: to review a field of study, state a research question, identify methods, and indicate
the significance of a line of research, often including a budget and timeline. It tells the reader what the
research is, why it is important and how it will be carried out. Interestingly enough, even Wikipedia
defines a concept paper as a requirement submitted to a university’s graduate program for admission.

 Why is a concept paper important?

A concept paper can be considered as a research plan. When a student enters a graduate program with
a clear research interest in mind, it helps him/her stay focused in his/her studies. The concept paper
enables the student to choose an adviser at the onset of his/her studies which will help him/her
establish a longer professional relationship with his/her mentor, allow him/her longer time in discussing
the direction and future plans (most probably publication) of his/her research and suits the
requirements of his/her courses according to the demands of his/her research. The best advantage of
requiring a concept paper at the onset is that it helps the student graduate on time, if not earlier.

 Will a student be denied of an admission on the basis of his/her concept paper?

The purpose of requiring a concept paper during admission is for the department to assess the research
potential of a student. It is also to guide him/her in his research plans. If the concept paper needs
improvement, then the Department will assign a professor to help the student to enhance it. A student’s
admission documents include the concept paper.

 How long should a concept paper be?

The length of a concept paper varies. It may be 2-3 pages long or even longer. Different academic
programs have different requirements. For your convenience however, the Office has come up with a
template which will guide you in writing your concept paper. You may download the form from our
website. Please go to this link: http://www.msuiit.edu.ph/academics/schools/sgs/resources/index.php

I hope this helps you in writing your concept paper. We wish you all the best in your graduate studies.
Please do not hesitate to visit the SGS Office if you have any concerns and problems.

Yours,

Alita T. Roxas
Acting Director, OGS

Republic of the Philippines

Mindanao State University-Iligan Institute of Technology

COLLEGE OF COMPUTER STUDIES
Andres Bonifacio Avenue, Tibanga, 9200 Iligan City
Tel.: (063) 221-2002 Local 4191
Website: https://www.msuiit.edu.ph/academics/schools/scs/about/index.php

CONCEPT PAPER TEMPLATE1

Proposed Title of Research Interest

Improving the Teacher Efficiency Rating (TER) System of MSU-IIT through the use of Web Technology and Data
Management and Visualization

Area of Study (Field of Specialization)

Data Management, Data Visualization, Usability, User Interface, Web Development, Teacher Efficiency Rating

Background of the Study (What have you read that has had an impact on your thinking about the topic?)

Effective teaching leads to quality education. It is paramount for every academic institution to be able to evaluate
the performance of their teachers and the quality of education it provides. Lacking good data on teaching
effectiveness, administrators are at a loss when assessing return on professional development investments.
Without efficient data management to collect, explore, and understand feedbacks, it is hard for us to know
whether our efforts are moving us in the right direction. Visualizing captured digital information is an added-value
to an organization. Visualized data is easy to digest and much efficient to present and explore compared to raw
data, especially in large volumes.

Abrami, Theall, and Mets (2001) reported that student ratings “serve as tools for instructional improvement, as
evidence for promotion and tenure decisions, as the means for student course selection, as one criterion of
program effectiveness, and as the continuing focus of active research and intensive debate”. Cashin (1999)
reported, “Many colleges and universities rely heavily, if not solely, on student rating data as the only systematic
source of data collected to evaluate teaching”. And according to Selden (1999), “Student ratings are now the most
widely used source of information on teaching effectiveness”. Thus, the systematic management of teacher
evaluation data is essential to any academic institution.

Data management is the practice of collecting, keeping, and using data securely, efficiently, and cost-effectively.
The goal of data management is to help people, organizations, and connected things optimize the use of data
within the bounds of policy and regulation so that they can make decisions and take actions that maximize the
benefit to the organization. A robust data management strategy is becoming more important than ever as
organizations increasingly rely on intangible assets to create value. ("What is Data Management", Oracle, 2019)

It is the conversion of data into information--data converted to a format that facilitates a decision maker's ability to
make a more effective decision--that drives data's ultimate asset value and facilitates its ability to generate new
business opportunities or reduce fraud, waste, and abuse. (Collins, Virginia, and Joel Lanz, 2019, p. 22+)

According to Tufte (2001), what is to be sought in designs for the display of information is the clear portrayal of
complexity. As an organization accumulates data over time the complexity of getting and communicating valuable
information also grows. It would be a tedious and complex process to get insight and substantial information out
of those accumulated data especially if it is using paper-based technology.

1
Adapted and modified from Kenyatta University Graduate School Post Graduate Concept Paper Template.
Accessed at 01 June 2015
http://www.ku.ac.ke/schools/graduate/images/stories/docs/concept_paper_template_postgrad_students.pdf
The Early epidemiologist John Snow’s 1854 map with data help saved many lives. Snow mapped the location of
London’s 13 public wells and 578 cholera deaths by stacked bars perpendicular to their location. His graphic, in
some way, helped convince the city to shut down the infected well. It clearly shows that a good chart can inspire
action.

Tufte (2001) posited the following principles of graphical excellence:

"Graphical excellence is the well-designed presentation of interesting data --a matter of substance, of statistics,
and of design."

"Graphical excellence consists of complex ideas communicated

with clarity, precision, and efficiency."

Information and Communication Technology (ICT) integration has been a constant effort in every organization
around the globe simply because it aids people to be more productive and efficient especially in dealing with large-
scale and complex matters. In education, appropriate use of ICT can transform the whole teaching-learning
processes leading to quality education and much more. With that, a number of researches are done to find ways to
innovate and enhance education, and to understand its role and impact. Even up to this day, more researches are
needed to be done on the fact that technology is constantly evolving exponentially.

Statement of the Problem (as far as you are aware of, what is the gap of knowledge in your research interest
based on readings/existing literatures? Why does this research need to be conducted?

The Teacher Efficiency Rating System of Mindanao State University - Iligan Institute of Technology (MSU-IIT) is
established to measure teacher effectiveness which is done every end of the semester. There are three groups of
people that will rate the teachers, their heads (Dean and Department Chairman), their peers, and the students. For
the students, traditional in-class, paper and pen type evaluations are practiced. With peer evaluation, some
colleges and departments use online forms like Google forms but most used the manual method. And the
computation of results is done manually. With the current procedure, the obvious issues are the labor-intensive
process and the slow delivery of results. The process can still be streamlined to deliver timely and meaningful
feedback to teachers which is important to improve instruction. According to Kelly, M. et al (1997), one of the
apparently "obvious" benefits of going online with teaching evaluation is the minimization of administrative
workload. Unfortunately, MSU-IIT has not yet enjoyed such benefits.

Hobson and Talbot (2001) concluded that well-developed student evaluations with adequate data may provide
some of the best measures of teaching effectiveness. The problem is, how much data is adequate and are we
getting adequate valuable information? In MSU-IIT, the evaluation results are used only on a semestral basis and
the previous data are archived and sit idly in storage. Currently, if the administrators would ask for statistical data
and consolidate reports for all teachers' evaluations for the past 10 years, that would be tiresome and time-
consuming efforts. In that scenario, school leaders are not able to get adequate information badly needed for
critical decision making. Other than the accessibility of information problems for administrators, it is clear that
there is a lack of emphasis on the more effective use of data and there is a substantial amount of information that
isn't revealed.

The current setup of the institute's teacher efficiency rating system of the institute needs improvement. It is not
systematic and efficient in terms of data management and it is not possible to communicate large datasets into
meaningful insights, data visualization for example, that would create a value needed to establish a decision
support system.

Theall and Franklin (2001) stated, “Few issues in higher education are as sensitive, divisive, and political as faculty
evaluation and in particular the quality and value of the information provided by students in their evaluations of
teachers and courses”. Moreover, Theall and Franklin suggested that a more beneficial direction would be to
improve the knowledge and skills of those who use the data and, thereby, decrease the issues of mistrust and
misuse of the data.

Other than the improvement of the faculty evaluation system, knowledge and skills of end-users of that data can
be improved with the use of information technology. However, such implementation is not yet present and tested
in MSU-IIT. ICT integration can be the key but how to utilize it is a big question.

We are living in a golden age of data management and data graphics yet we have not fully utilized and taken
advantage of these technologies for the betterment of our school. What if we integrate these tools into our
teacher evaluation process? Will it make a difference? What would be its impact on administrators, teachers, and
students?

Objectives of the Study (What does the study hope to achieve? Give at least three).

1. To develop an Online Teacher Efficiency Rating (TER) System prototype

2. To address the technical problems associated with collecting, storing, and processing results of students,
peer, and heads' feedback data through the use of web technology and data management tools

3. To test the viability and robustness of the overall system design

4. To give recommendations for planning, designing, and implementing a good TER Information
Management System

Research Locale and Respondents (Where will the study be conducted? Who will be the target respondents?)

MSU-IIT administrators, faculty, staff, and students.

Literature Review: (What literature do you intend to review and why? Five for MA/MS students and at least 10
for PhD/Doctorate students)

1. Lit 1

2. Lit 2

3. Lit 3

4. Lit 4

5. Lit 5

Theoretical Framework (What tentative theory/ies will you use in analyzing your material? Why this/these
theories?

Proposed Methods/Procedures (This answers the question: How will you conduct the study?)

References

Oracle. 2019. What is Data Management. Retrieved November 18, 2019, from
https://www.oracle.com/database/what-is-data-management/

Collins, Virginia, and Joel Lanz. (2019). Managing Data as an Asset. The CPA Journal, June 2019, p. 22+. Gale
General OneFile, https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A593675229/GPS?u=phmsu&sid=GPS&xid=95702f67. Accessed
18 Nov. 2019.

Tufte, Edward R. 2001. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information (2nd edition) Cheshire, Connecticut: Graphics
Press, p. 13+.
Note: You may use additional sheet/s if necessary. Must be computer-encoded and in A4 sized bond paper.