Group Decision Making in Evaluation and Ranking of Students by Extended Simple Multi-Attribute Rating Technique

Abstract

Abstract The paper deals with evaluation and ranking of students taking into account two main criteria of the learning – theoretical knowledge and practical skills. These criteria are divided into several sub-criteria to reflect different aspects of the learning outcomes. To make such complex evaluation the proper utility function based on simple multi-attribute rating technique is proposed. This new utility function includes not only the evaluation score and weighted coefficients for criteria importance, but considers also additional coefficients that indicate how theoretical knowledge and practical skills will take part in the aggregated final assessment. The formulated model is applied for the assessing of the students on web programming. The students are ranked under three different cases where the theoretical knowledge and practical skills take different part in the aggregated assessment. The obtained results demonstrate the applicability of the described approach by providing different ranking depending on the importance of the theoretical and practical aspects.