iOBE Software Version 7.0: Major Enhancements and New Features

I'm excited to announce the release of iOBE version 7.0, marking a significant upgrade from iOBE v6.2. This latest version leverages AI analysis, introduces substantial improvements in data visualization, data reporting, computational efficiency, and user experience, while maintaining full compatibility with older input files down to iOBE v6.1. The full version remains freely available to the public, especially for educational institutions seeking robust OBE solutions.

🔹 Key Enhancements in iOBE v7.0

1️⃣ Advanced Visualization and Interactive MATLAB Figures
iOBE now produces high-quality visual outputs as MATLAB figures, giving users enhanced interactivity and flexibility when working with their data. Users can:

✔ Zoom in/out and pan graphs for a closer inspection of data points.
✔ Move and reposition legend boxes for improved clarity.
✔ Resize and refine graph appearances dynamically before exporting them.
✔ Save figures in multiple formats, including PNG, JPEG, PDF, and vector formats (EPS, EMF, SVG), ensuring compatibility with different publishing and reporting needs.

📌 Additional Benefits of using MATLAB Figures

✔ Lossless resizing and scaling, especially useful when exporting figures for research papers, presentations, or reports.
✔ Custom modifications, such as changing axis labels, gridlines, or line styles, even after the figure is generated.
✔ Multi-window support, allowing users to compare multiple datasets simultaneously.

2️⃣ Improved Data Export to Excel
Users can now easily access and analyze iOBE-generated data, which is automatically saved in Excel files. These include:

✔ Student outcomes data at the course, multi-course, and program levels.
✔ Statistical data from box plots (median, quartiles, outliers).
✔ Population distribution data, capturing performance trends at both the course and program levels.

This enhancement allows users to customize their own analysis, integrate data into reports, and use AI tools for deeper insights.

3️⃣ Enhanced User Experience & Front-End Processing
To further streamline workflow and usability, the following upgrades have been implemented:

✔ Improved progress bar tracking: Users now receive detailed updates on the computation stages during software execution, giving them a clearer picture of ongoing processes.

✔ Reduced screen clutter: Data tables are now written directly into Excel files, eliminating unnecessary on-screen outputs and improving processing speed.

✔ Optimized computational processing: The back-end algorithm refinements enhance data processing speed and efficiency, ensuring faster computations and smoother operation.

4️⃣ AI-Assisted Data Analysis Capability
A key enhancement in this version is the ability to leverage AI tools like ChatGPT 4o to perform in-depth analysis of the output files generated by iOBE.

🔹 AI-Driven Insights: The Excel files and visualization charts produced by iOBE contain a substantial amount of computed data. These files can be fed into AI tools like ChatGPT for detailed technical analysis using pattern recognition, statistical analysis, and advanced data analytics.

🔹 Enhanced Decision-Making & CQI: By analyzing iOBE-generated data with AI, educators can gain deeper insights into student performance trends, statistical distributions, and program outcomes. This facilitates better decision-making for Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) in academic programs.

📌 Important Note: iOBE does not have built-in AI integration. However, its structured output files (Excel + graphs) are compact with detailed information and easily analyzable by AI tools, allowing users to extract more insights beyond what the software presents directly.

5️⃣ User-Friendly Design
While introducing powerful new capabilities, iOBE version 7.0 continues to prioritize ease of use with a streamlined and intuitive interface:

✔ Single-Click Operations – The software features a compact (and the one and only) control panel that users interact with to execute functions with a single click, making data processing effortless. (Shown below is the actual iOBE panel on a full desktop screen, against the background of a self-captured Kinabalu sunrise.)

✔ Simple Input Files – iOBE is designed to work with straightforward input files, ensuring that users can operate the software with minimal setup.

✔ Offline Functionality – iOBE remains an offline tool, providing full data security and privacy, eliminating concerns about exposure to online threats or cloud dependencies, or slow server issues that can impact performance and accessibility.

✔ Comprehensive Documentation – The software is supported by detailed documentation, ensuring that users can easily understand its features, troubleshoot issues, and maximize its capabilities.

📌 Designed for Efficiency: These features make iOBE accessible to all users, from individual educators to institutional decision-makers, without requiring extensive training or technical expertise.

🖥️ Software Availability and Requirements

📌 The Download Links:

1. iOBE Software Version 7.0
2. MATLAB Runtime Compiler R2024b (24.2) for 64-bit Windows
3. Software Manual v7.0
4. Other Documentations

🖥️ System Requirements:

1. Built using MATLAB R2024b (64-bit Windows OS).
2. Requires the MATLAB R2024b compiler (included in the download link above).
3. Can also run on Apple computers but requires a 64-bit Windows OS environment installed first.

🎯 Who Can Benefit from iOBE?
iOBE is designed to support Outcome-Based Education (OBE) assessment at tertiary institutions, but can also be easily adapted for primary and secondary education levels.

✔ Lecturers and teachers can use iOBE for immediate insights into their students’ performance.
✔ Departments and institutions can integrate iOBE into their academic quality assurance processes.
✔ Education researchers can analyze trends in student achievement over time using iOBE’s robust statistical features.

📩 Contact for Training & Support
If your department or institution is interested in implementing iOBE and requires further explanation or training on its effective use for academic programs, please feel free to contact me here.

🔹 Summary of What’s New in iOBE v7.0

✅ New MATLAB interactive figures for refined data visualization & export.
✅ Excel data export for student outcomes, statistics, and performance trends.
✅ Improved front-end processing with detailed progress updates.
✅ More efficient computational algorithms for faster performance.
✅ Full compatibility with older input files (iOBE v6.1+).
✅ AI-assisted analysis compatibility, allowing iOBE data to be analyzed with AI.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE v6.2

The iOBE software has been upgraded into iOBE v6.2. The new version of the software, its compiler, and relevant documentations can be downloaded below. The full version of the iOBE software is released as a free software to the public.

1. iOBE Software Version 6.2. Update 15/5/2022: the sample input files have been updated to improve the textual label inside those files, without affecting the software's data processing.
2. Matlab Runtime Compiler R2021a (9.10) for 64-bit Windows
3. Documentations

The main upgrade is:

1. Consideration on Repeated Courses: For students who have repeated some of their courses (to pass these courses or improve their grades), the calculations of their POs and CGPAs will only take into account the improved marks/grades from these repeated courses. In other words, the lower marks/grades from the same courses taken previously will not be aggregated into their POs and CGPAs.

In addition to the new upgrade above, users are advised to check out the list of major upgrades in iOBE v6.1, recently completed two months prior to this upgrade.


Completion of Upgrades:
This latest update completes all the major upgrades intended for the iOBE software to be able to perform its two primary functions:

1. To calculate students' outcomes attainments at the course/program levels,
2. To present those outcomes in useful tabular and graphical forms.

Data Management:
Detailed management of the outcomes data is beyond the functionalities of this free software. To do so, users can build separate systems, e.g., through a simple spreadsheet-based system, or more effectively, through a modular software-based system. Please contact the software developer for advice on how to do this.

Operating System:
The new version was developed in the 64-bit Windows OS with Matlab R2021a and therefore has to be run with the newest Matlab compiler in the same Windos OS. The software can also be run on Apple MAC computers, but only within the 64-bit Windows OS environment that needs to be installed first into the MAC computers.

Read more...

Major Upgrade: iOBE v6.1

Update on 30/8/2021: A newer upgrade, iOBE v6.1, was made to replace iOBE v6.0 that was released here in this post on 26/8/2021. iOBE v6.0 contained a glitch when reading input files, and has been taken out from here following this new replacement of v6.1. Users who have downloaded iOBE v6.0 should replace it with the newer v6.1.

----------------------------------------

The iOBE software has been upgraded with major improvements, from iOBE v5.2 into iOBE v6.1. The new version was developed in the 64-bit Windows OS with Matlab R2021a and therefore has to be run with the newest Matlab compiler in the same Windos OS. The software can also be run on Apple MAC computers, but only within the 64-bit Windows OS environment that needs to be installed first into the MAC computers.

The new software, its compiler, and relevant documentations can be downloaded below. The full version of the iOBE software is released as a free software to the public.

1. iOBE Software Version 6.1
2. Matlab Runtime Compiler R2021a (9.10) for 64-bit Windows
3. Other related documentations

The key upgrades are:

1. Students' Names with Symbols: In the previous version (iOBE v5.2), there was a limitation in that students' names cannot contain non-alphabetical characters or symbols, such as the slashes "/" in names that contain S/O (son of) or D/O (daughter of). In iOBE v6.1, this issue has been fixed and students' names with symbols can now be entered as inputs. Examples of such names are included in the sample files packaged together with the iOBE software that can be downloaded in the link above.
2. Flexible Axes Labelling: Plot axes are labelled exactly with the names of the Assessment Tools, Course Outcomes, or Program Outcomes entered by users as inputs into the Excel file of the course to be computed. In the previous version, the axes were labelled as numbered codes only (e.g., AT1, AT2, AT3... CO1, CO2, CO3... PO1, PO2, PO3, and so on).
3. Expanded Charts: The bar charts based on student populations are expanded with more data being plotted, to show populations of students with marks above 80%, 70%, 60%, 40%, and 25%. These five marking levels are chosen based on the typical levels used at USM. In the previous version (iOBE v5.2), only three marking levels were shown, with marks above 80%, 60%, and 40%.
4. Progress Bar: A small Windows progress-bar panel appears when the software computation is initiated. The panel displays a green bar that dynamically show the progress of the computational process in the software, which typically takes a few seconds for a single course, and up to less than 2 minutes when aggregating 50 courses or more.

When using the new version, please take note that:

1. The previous version of the main input files in Microsoft Excel at the course level (i.e., Course Info, individual course files, and the iOBEdata files for individual courses) that were used with iOBE v5.2 are COMPATIBLE with iOBE v6.1, and can be used as they are with iOBE v6.1 without any changes.
2. The previous version of the Course List file that was used at the program level with iOBE v5.2 are NOT COMPATIBLE with iOBE v6.1. The Course List file for iOBE v6.1 has an extra (third) sheet that contains the list of the Program Outcomes (POs). This list MUST BE IDENTICAL to the list of POs in all of the courses in the program. A sample file of the new Course List is included together with the iOBE software package that can be downloaded above.
3. The input files are maintained to be in the form of Excel files because this is the EASIEST way for lecturers to enter students' assessment data. In most cases, lecturers already record the assessment data of their students in Excel files. In such cases, they can simply copy-paste the data from their own Excel files into the Excel files formatted to be used with the iOBE software. These specially-formatted Excel files come pre-packaged with the software that can be downloaded above.

Examples of the charts produced from this new version are shown below:

Hopefully this upgrade will help facilitate and improve the process of computing students' learning outcomes for educational program providers.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE v5.2

The iOBE software has been upgraded with the following improvements:

1. The parameter "StudentID" in the main Excel input file can be entered using numbers, texts, or a combination of both. Prior to this upgrade, this parameter must be strictly entered as integers, which limited its usage and caused problems to users when the StudentID data were not formatted properly as integers in the Excel input file.
2. Users can use any number of Assessment Tools (AT), from one to any number of ATs, per course. Prior to this upgrade, more than one ATs were required for the computation in the software to work: the computation halted if only one AT was entered.

The full version of the software, its compiler and related documentations can be downloaded for free below.

1. iOBE v5.2 (updated 9/2/2018). This zip file contains the software and sample input files to guide users to build their own input files.
2. iOBE Software Manual v5.2 (updated 9/2/2018)
3. The Matlab Compiler Runtime must be installed prior to running the software.
4. Other documentations related to the software.

For further information about this software, or to arrange a seminar/workshop related to the software, please contact the developer here.

Read more...

Uprade: iOBE v5.1

The iOBE software has been upgraded with minor changes on the presentation of the graphical data, and with a new logo (as shown here in the column on the right). For the previous major upgrade from v4.0 to 5.0, please refer to this post.

The full version of the software, its compiler and related documentations can be downloaded for free below:

1. iOBE v5.1 (updated 28/7/2017). This zip file contains the software and sample input files to guide users to build their own input files.
2. iOBE Software Manual v5.1 (updated 28/7/2017)
3. The Matlab Compiler Runtime must be installed prior to running the software.
4. Other documentations related to the software.

For further information about this software, or to arrange a seminar/workshop related to the software, please contact the developer here.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE v5.0

The iOBE software has undergone another major upgrades from v4.0 to v5.0. These upgrades were done primarily to meet the needs of the iCGPA Initiative in the Malaysia Education Blueprint (2015-2025) for Higher Education.

The full version of the software, its compiler and related documentations can be downloaded for free below:

1. iOBE v5.0 (updated 20/4/2017). This zip file contains the software and sample input files to guide users to build their own input files.
2. iOBE Software Manual v5.0 (updated 20/4/2017)
3. The Matlab Compiler Runtime must be installed prior to running the software.
4. Other documentations related to the software.

The major upgrades are:

1. iCGPA Spiderweb plots for individual students, produced automatically.
2. Improved mapping approach for more flexibility.
3. Improved presentation of the outcomes data.
4. Improved "Course Data" input file. As such, iOBE v5.0 cannot run the previous version of this input file (i.e., v4.0 and below).

For further information about this software, please contact the developer here.


SOFTWARE GUI PANEL & OUTPUT:
Users only need to interact with the software through its simple GUI panel, shown below. Each operation, either for a single course or to aggregate data from multiple courses, only requires a one button-click as shown in the panel.

Shown below are samples of iCGPA Spiderweb plots, each for a different student, aggregated from multiple courses. Other sample outputs from the software can be referred to in the previous post.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE v4.0

The iOBE Software has undergone major upgrades from v3.2 to v4.0. The key upgrades are:

1. Improved computational algorithm to expedite the calculations significantly.
2. The two software modules (Calculator and Aggregator) merged into one.
3. Students' iCGPA and PO attainment computed for single and multiple courses.
4. Improved presentation of the graphs to show collective outcomes.
5. Improved presentation of the outcomes data and iCGPA of individual students.

The new version of the software and its instruction manual can be downloaded at:

1. iOBE v4.0 (updated 14/12/2016)
2. iOBE Software Manual v4.0 (updated 14/12/2016)
3. Users also need to install the Matlab Compiler Runtime prior to running the iOBE software.

Included in the iOBE v4.0 zip file above are the software's executable file, the research papers accompanying this work, its solution manual, and sample input files.

The software's new GUI panel are now much simpler than before, requiring only one button to run the data for a single course and another button to aggregate data from multiple courses.

Further upgrades on iOBE in the near future will include:

1. The spiderweb graphs to show the iCGPA for individual students.
2. Flexible labelling of the axis to reflect actual items being computed.

The GUI panel of the software is shown below:

These are some samples of the outputs produced:

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE SOftware v3.3

Download the software modules and their associated input files:

1. iOBE Calculator v3.3 (updated 28/7/2016)
2. iOBE Aggregator v3.3 (updated 29/7/2016)

Upgrades in v3.3:

1. In both modules, additional symbols are added in the labels of the horizontal axis in the plots to reflect their variables (e.g., AT, LO, PO, and LD) .

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Calculator v3.2

Download: iOBE Calculator v3.2 (updated 15/3/2016)

The upgrades in iOBE Calculator v3.2 are mainly on improving the filters to detect errors in the input data.

They ensure that the input data are valid before being processed in the software. Without these upgrades, small errors in the input data (e.g., wrong assignments of marks or matrix mapping) would go undetected and thus invalidate the results produced by the software.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Software v3.1

Download the software modules and their associated input files:

1. iOBE Calculator v3.1 (updated 2/3/2016)
2. iOBE Aggregator v3.1 (updated 2/3/2016)
3. Users need to download the Matlab Compiler (MCR v8.15); read further here.

Upgrades in v3.0:

1. Both modules were produced using Matlab 2015 (with better visual quality of the graphics); the previous versions use Matlab 2011.
2. More information have been added as outputs from the software.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sample graphical outputs with the new upgrades from both modules are shown below:

iOBE Calculator v3.0 (analysis for a single course):
Figures 1, 2 & 3: Outcomes data for collective groups of students in the course.

Figures 4 & 5: Outcomes data for a student in the course.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

iOBE Aggregator v3.0 (analysis for multiple courses):
Figures 1 & 2: Outcomes data for collective groups of students, aggregated from multiple courses.

Figure 3: Outcomes data for a student, aggregated from multiple courses.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Aggregator v2.4

Download software & sample input files: iOBE Aggregator v2.4 (updated 1/2/2016)

The upgrades in iOBE Aggegator v2.4 are:

1. Students' individual marks and outcomes bands, as aggregated from all their enrolled courses, have been added into the output graphs and the corresponding text files.
2. The axes of the output graphs are now properly labelled (in the previous versions, the labels were not shown due to the limited space in the output windows).

There are now 5 output graphs for the aggregated analysis of a group of courses, as shown below. (The input files of this sample case are included in the downloadable files above.)

The analysis of a student, as aggregated from the courses that he/she has enrolled in, are shown in 3 graphs:

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Calculator v2.4

Download software and sample input files: iOBE Calculator v2.4 (updated 1/2/2016).

The upgrades in iOBE Calculator v2.4 are:

1. Students' individual marks and outcomes bands have been added into the output graphs and the corresponding text files.
2. The axes of the output graphs are now properly labelled (in the previous versions, the labels were not shown due to the limited space in the output windows).

There are now 7 output graphs for the overall analysis of a course, as shown below. (The input files of this sample case are included in the downloadable files above.)

As for the analysis of individual students in the course, there are 5 output graphs, as shown below.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Calculator v2.1

The upgrades in iOBE Calculator v2.1 are:

1. The size of the main window panel of this software has been resized into a smaller input console. The console only contains the push-buttons to initiate computations and tabs to input/display text. In the previous versions, the main window is a fixed-size input/output panel containing these buttons, tabs, and six output graphs; these made the window size too large to be displayed in laptops with small screens.
2. The software is able to compute data for all class sizes, including small classes of 2 to 5 students (except for a class with 1 student). Previously, the software were not able to compute data for small class of 5 students or less.

The input console is shown below, with the same buttons and tabs as in the previous versions:

The outputs are displayed as graphs in two separate windows (as shown below) and as text files to display their numerical values. The graph-windows are now resizable (compared to the windows of the previous vesions, which had fixed sizes). Users can easily change the window size according to their needs.

iOBE Calculator v2.1 can be downloaded here. The manual and the compiler can be downloaded here.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Software v2.0

iOBE Calculator and iOBE Aggregator have been upgraded to version 2.0. This upgrade covers the whole range of computations done by the software: collective/individual student outcomes in single/multiple courses, based on students' marks and percentages of students' population attaining specific outcomes levels.

With this upgrade, the software is able to:

1. Compute outcomes attainment on Learning Domains (cognitive, affective, and psychomotor, as well as the six cognitive levels defined by the Bloom's Taxonomy).
2. Detect and inform users if there are errors in input data. The previous versions couldn't detect errors; their computation simply hanged if the input data were invalid.

The upgrade in v2.0 requires additional information in the input files (namely the matrix for the mapping of Learning Domains). Therefore, the input files for v1.x cannot be used with iOBE Software v2.0 and above.

The manual and the compiler can be downloaded here. To download the software, click the buttons below:

1. iOBE Calculator v2.0
2. iOBE Aggregator v2.0 (LIMITED version: up to 5 courses only. Please contact the developer for a CUSTOMIZED version for your academic program.)

Note:
The software operation is designed to be very easy, with only a few buttons to click. The software takes about 3-5 seconds, on a standard desktop computer, to compute data for a course. For aggregated data, the computation time increases linearly with the number of courses. Input files for the software can be prepared relatively quickly (within 5 to 10 minutes), once end-of-semester assessment data are available.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Calculator v1.3

iOBE Calculator has been upgraded to detect invalid input data. The main issue with input data is that the Student ID has to be entered as numbers. With this upgrade, the software will be able to check if all input data are valid, and if not, to display a warning sign on its window panel. In the previous version, there was no detection and warning sign for invalid data: the computation simply hanged.

The upgraded version, released as a free software without any limitation, can be downloaded here.

Read more...

Upgrade: iOBE Aggregator v1.3

The DEMO version of iOBE Aggregator has been upgraded to allow data to be aggregated from any 4 courses. The previous version (v1.2) allows for data aggregation on 3 sample courses provided in the software download.

With this allowance, lecturers can aggregate data from real courses, albeit with the limitation of up to 4 courses only. It can be used, for example, to analyze a group of courses in an academic program (e.g., courses in similar fields, courses taught by the same lecturer(s), courses focusing on similar sets of program outcomes, etc).

The upgraded DEMO version can be downloaded here. Please contact the software developer to obtain a full CUSTOMIZED version (for analysis on unlimited number of courses) for your institution.

Read more...