Skip to content

Instructor Class

The Instructor class represents an instructor within the School Enrollment System.
It extends the generic User<Instructor> class and provides functionality related to teaching, grading, and managing course information.

Purpose

The purpose of the Instructor class is to:

  • Authenticate instructors through the inherited login system
  • Allow instructors to view students enrolled in their assigned courses
  • Enable grading of assessments
  • Support updating course information such as schedule and description
  • Allow instructors to update their personal information
  • Provide a clear representation of instructor data for administrative use

The class models the responsibilities of an instructor in an academic environment.

Structure and key components

1. Inheritance

The class is defined as:

public class Instructor extends User<Instructor>

This allows the instructor to inherit:

  • ID, name, password, email, phone number, address
  • Role handling
  • Abstract login and logout methods

The instructor class then implements its own role‑specific functionality.

2. Constructors

Default constructor

Creates an empty instructor object, typically used during file loading or temporary object creation.

Parameterized constructor

Initializes:

  • All inherited user fields (via super)
  • Any instructor‑specific fields (if provided)

Note: Although the constructor may accept a list of enrolled students, this parameter is not used internally, which may be intentional or an oversight.

3. Methods

The Instructor class implements several categories of methods.

Authentication

login

Searches the list of instructors for a matching ID and password.

Behavior:

  • Iterates through the instructor list
  • Compares credentials
  • Prints success or failure messages
  • Returns the authenticated instructor or null

logout

Returns a simple confirmation message indicating that the instructor has logged out.

Viewing enrolled students

viewEnrolledStudents

Allows the instructor to view students enrolled in the courses they teach.

Behavior:

  • Iterates through all courses
  • Filters courses assigned to the instructor
  • Displays enrolled students for each course
  • Handles cases where:
  • No courses are assigned
  • Courses have no enrolled students

This method ensures instructors only see students in their own courses.

Grading students

gradeStudent

Provides a multi‑step process for assigning or updating a student's grade.

Workflow:

  1. Instructor selects a course they teach
  2. Instructor selects a student enrolled in that course
  3. Instructor selects an assessment type (Quiz, Midterm, Final, etc.)
  4. Instructor enters a score between 0 and 100
  5. The system:
  6. Updates an existing assessment if it exists
  7. Creates a new assessment if none exists

The method includes validation and error handling for invalid inputs.

Updating course information

updateCourseInfo

Allows instructors to update the schedule and description of a course.

Behavior:

  • Instructor enters a course code
  • System verifies:
  • The course exists
  • The instructor is assigned to the course
  • If valid, the instructor may update:
  • Schedule
  • Description

The method prevents instructors from modifying courses they do not teach.

Updating personal information

updateInstructorPersonalInfo

Allows instructors to update their own:

  • Password
  • Email
  • Phone number
  • Address

Validation is handled through the Helpers class.

Utility

toString

Overrides toString() to return a concise representation of the instructor:

  • ID
  • Name

This is useful for administrative listings and debugging.

Summary

The Instructor class models the teaching and grading responsibilities of instructors within the system.
By extending the User class and adding course‑specific and grading functionality, it provides a complete representation of instructor behavior in a course enrollment environment.