Improving Effectiveness of FCSIT Student Attendance Management via Interactive Input and Graphical Reports Display

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1 Improving Effectiveness of FCSIT Student Attendance Management via Interactive Input and Graphical Reports Display Jonathan Sidi Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology University Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia Lau Siew Ling Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology University Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia om Syahrul Nizam Junaini Faculty of Computer Science & Information Technology University Malaysia Sarawak, Kota Samarahan, Malaysia ABSTRACT Student attendance is taken in Faculty Computer Science & Information Technology (FCSIT), University Malaysia Sarawak (UNIMAS) for every course as a formal appraisal of the quality of education process. The attendance can ensure that the students meet the need of the education and qualify for the final examination. The student attendance which is an effective measure of acquiring all the students attendance can be used as a guideline by a lecturer to keep track of students attendance performance in the course taken. Traditional student attendance was done using papers which consumes cost of printing and lots of human works. Thus, student attendance management system is required to assist the faculty and the lecturers. The system that developed has capability to take attendance of the students using interactive input, generating reports in pie chart, view students and lecturers profiles, providing students timetable, auto generated and user management functionality such as add new user, delete user, register course, delete course and etc. This document describes further elaboration of the FCSIT Student Attendance Management System. Before that, there will be a brief introduction about attendance management system. Furthermore, a concise overview of the system will be included as well. In addition, this document also addresses the interactive input, graphical reports display, experimental details, results and discussion. Keywords: Interactive Input; Graphical Reports; Student Attendance Management System 1. INTRODUCTION Computer plays a vital role in today humans daily lives. Almost every organization, either private companies or government agencies used computers in managing their operations and procedures. In order to make their life easier, they used different systems, such as Electronic Attendance Management System, Customers Information System, Registration System, Portable Attendance Registration System, E-Recruitment and etc for different tasks. A system is a group of interdependent items that interact regularly to perform a task [1]. A system can also be defined as an assemblage of inter-related elements comprising a unified whole. According to Latin and Greek, the word system meant to combine, to set up or to place together. A system usually consists of elements, which are connected together in order to facilitate the flow of information, matter or energy [2]. The management of attendance is an important aspect of supervision in the courses for a faculty. Attendance is not an expectation. It is a right of students to have good attendance. Student Attendance Management System manages the student attendance by accepting adding, modifying or removing attendance, information and generating reports. It is integrated so that student, lecturers and faculty can share the information of students attendance activities. Access to real-time information is important for improving the student achievement. 2. OVERVIEW The universities such as UNIMAS also used those different systems to manage their daily operations and students information. Most of the systems used are the Students Information System, Laboratory Registration System, Courses Registration System, Students Financial Information System, Library System and etc. By using those different systems, the universities can control all the activities done by each student to ensure that they following the universities policies and also the rules and regulations in order to achieve the universities visions and missions. For FCSIT, a Student Attendance Management System is needed in order to computerize the manually paper-based attendance. The system allows students to take their attendance using the specific computer provided in each of the lecture hall or tutorial room when they attend the course. It is easy, quick and hassle free. Lecturers are able to count the students attendance easily and quickly, as the system will generate it automatically. The system also enables the faculty to detect those students whose are always absence and may disqualify to sit for the final examination. Furthermore, the system can send auto-generated to course lecturer, the list of students that have not enough attendance (less 185

2 than 80%). Therefore, warning can be send out to those students during the mid semester break. 3. SCOPE The project scope was to create an Attendance Management System for the FCSIT students to take their attendance electronically using barcode scanner and key in instead of signing the attendance manually. This system was developed to replace the paper-based attendance system, which is tedious and troublesome. The system also got the record finding and notification through . Furthermore, the system can send auto-generated to course lecturer the list of students that have not enough attendance (less than 80%). Therefore, warning can be send out to those students during the mid semester break. 4. SYSTEM FEATURES AND FUNCTIONS The general descrition of the capabilities and functionality of the system are (i) A standalone application to take students attendance in an easy, fast and effective way. Students just scan the barcode on their matric card using barcode scanner and done. (ii) The students attendance is updated in real-time, as each attendance registration take place.(iii) The system is able to generate the attendance reports in pie chart and statistic. There are three types of reports : overall course report, student attendance report and not enough attendance report. (iv) Lecturers and administrators are able to view the percentage of student attendance and detect those who always absence and may disqualify to take their final exam. (v) System is able to send to course lecturers a list of students that have not enough percentage of attendance, which is less that 80% through the trigger application. 5. MODULE DESIGN The system is divided into three parts. The first part of the module is the students attendance process, where students need to scan the barcode on their matric card to take attendance. Students can access the system to view or edit their profile, register course and view course schedule. The second part is lecturer activities, used by lecturers to view or print attendance reports, view or edit own profile and view other profiles. The third part is adminstration activities, used by academic staff in faculty to view or print attendance reports, view or edit profiles, add or delete user, add or delete course and add or delete program. Figure 1.0 shows the system module of the system. 6. INTERACTIVE INPUT Interactivity accurs when users can access a range of input devices such as mouse, keyboard, barcode scanner and etc that can activate the system with the result in the form of visual-audio output. The sequences of those actions form an interaction [3, 4]. FCSIT Student Attendance Management System using the CCD barcode scanner and keyboard as the interactive input. 6.1 Barcode Type According to Gregory R. Baur et al., barcode is a representation of some data character. It is made up of bars and spaces where arranged in a predetermined pattern that follows clearly defined rules. The pattern differs from one another by using different widths of bars and spaces [5]. There are various types of barcode, such as code 128, code 39, code UPC and etc. Currently, the system is using the code 128 as it is a high-density barcode symbology, used extensively world wide. Code 128 used for alphanumeric or numeric-only barcode. The character set includes the digit 0-9, the letter A-Z (both upper and lower case), and all standard ASCII symbols and control codes [6, 7, 8]. An example of barcode in code 128 is shown in Figure 2.0. Figure 2.0: Sample Code Barcode Scanner Barcode scanner use the intensity of light reflected from a series of black and white stripes to tell a computer what code it is seeing. It is a device specialized for reading barcodes and converting them into either the ASCII or EBCDIC digital character code [9]. Many different types of barcode scanners are available. For example, pen readers, laser scanners, Charge- Coupled Device (CCD) scanners, PDA scanners and etc. In this case, the student attendance management system has chosen the CCD scanner due to its ability to read barcodes quickly and easily [10]. It is extremely durable and requires less maintenance. Moreover, no specific software required as it has built-in decoders and can auto-discriminate several barcode symbologies [11]. However, CCD scanner has two boundaries. First, it cannot read barcode further than about 4 inches away. Secondly, it cannot read barcodes that are wider than the face of the reader itself [10]. See Figure 3.0 for the CCD scanner. Figure 3.0: CCD Scanner Used In the System 7. GRAPHICAL REPORTS DISPLAY The student attendance reports in the system are generated in graphical form using the web chart. Web Chart is a.net 2.0 charting control for web applications [12]. The web chart used in this system was downloaded from the.netcharting website, using the free developer edition..netcharting makes use of the most advanced technologies available on the market today including the.net framework [13]. In order to enable the usage of the web chart in the Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2003, copy the dotnetcharting.dll and dotnetcharting.xml to the bin folder within the web application and add a reference to dotnetcharting.dll under the References node in Solution Explorer. Below is the register tag for the chart control. <%@ Page Language="VB" Description="dotnetCHARTING Component" ContentType="text/html" ResponseEncoding="iso " Debug="true"%> 186

3 Register TagPrefix="dotnet" Namespace="dotnetCHARTING" Assembly="dotnetCHARTING"%> There are a variety of chart can be generated in the web chart, such as bar, line, doughnut, radar, bubble and etc. In this system, pie chart has been chosen to represent the student attendance reports. Pie charts provide a visual representation of data as slices of a pie. The greater the data value, the larger the pie slice [14]. The pie chart in the system consists of two data elements: absence and presence. The total sum of all the data elements will represent the full 360 degree pie circle. 8. SIMPLE MAIL TRANFER PROTOCOL Electronic mail ( ) is a stire and forward method of composing, sending, storing adn receiving messages over electronic communication systems. It applied both to the Internet system based on the Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and to Intranet systems allowing users within one organization to each other. SMTP is the standard host-tohost transmissions across the internet, operates over TCP, port 25. If mail delivery fails, sendmail will queue mail messages and retry delivery later [15, 16]. The system consists of a standalone trigger application where can send to the course lecturers a list of students that have not enough attendance. It is using the SMTP as the transmissions media across the Internet. 9. EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS 9.1 Demographics A survey consists of a hundred of students (51% female, 49% male) from the FCSIT has been carried on during the analysis phase for Student Attendance Management System. The purpose is to obtain qualitative and quantitative data from the users regarding the system. During the testing, ten people (60% female, 40% male) have been randomly selected from the FCSIT to evaluate the Student Attendance Management System and were asked to response to a set of questions on 5-point scale. All the data collected were converted into percentage and mean. All of them have experience in using Internet. 9.2 Evaluations Evaluation process has been carried on when all the functions were tested working. Evaluation is to determine the important of the system through careful appraisal and study. Evaluation examines the outputs, outcomes and impacts that have been produced [17]. Qualitative and quantitative evaluation methods were applied during the evaluation process. Qualitative methods consist of observation, interviewing and document review that is difficult to measure and express in numerical terms. Qualitative data can show that a defect exist and the extent of its impact. Meanwhile, quantitative methods consist of descriptive statistics and charts that provide a visual representation of the data collection [18]. Usability of the system was the major concerned while user performing their tasks, as the user interface would affect the performance of the users to achieve specific goals of effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction in a specified context of use [19]. Usability heuristic, which is a good method for finding both major and minor problems in a user interface, has been applied. It is similar to the cognitive walkthrough in that it is carried out by an expert but is less structured [18, 20, 21, 22]. 10. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION According to the survey that carried on during the analysis phase for the Student Attendance Management System, most of the students preferable in using the electronic attendance system compare to manually paper-based attendance system. 54% of the students agreed that the paper-based attendance system is a waste of time. Furthermore, most of them had experience in using the barcode scanner (64%) and gave response that the device is not difficult to be used (74%). See Figure 4.0 for the barcode usage in Appendix. Besides, a survey of six main things students taking note each time they used an electronic system has been conducted. There are the system user interface, system usability, system performance, system security, system reliability and others. The results shows that the system usability (25%) is the most vital thing that needs to be considered in an electronic system. Following by the system performance (21%), user interface (20%), system security (20%) and system reliability (14%). Figure 5.0 in Appendix shows the comparison of the student preferences when using a system. The results in Table 1.0 shows that the average mean is 3.83 out of The error prevention has the highest mean which is This concluded that users are satisfy with the error checking and detection in the system that prevents users from making errors whenever possible. However, some improvement needs to be done on the match between system and the real world as the mean is only Figure 6.0 shows the graph of mean of the usability testing result (Refer Appendix). 11. HARDWARE AND SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS 11.1 Hardware Requirement The system was developed under Windows environment using a personal computer with the following hardware specification (Table 2.0). However, it can be run on the machines with lower specification. The tested minimum hardware requirement is as shown in Table Software Requirement In order to run a web application, Internet Information Services (IIS) needed to be installed. IIS is a powerful web server that provides a highly reliable, manageable and scalable web application infrastructure for all versions of Windows [23]. Table 4.0 are the software used in developing the system. 12. CONCLUSION In conclusion, the implementation of FCSIT Student Attendance Management System has been a success. Every single module performs their specific function as defined. The linkages between different part of the system work properly. System functionality 187

4 and usability testing on the user interface design also tested to ensure the system provide usable function to the targeted users. Future improvement and enhancement can be carried out on various areas to improve the FCSIT Student Attendance Management System. Better-designed database, query and integration among the pages could improve the efficiency of the system. There is a clear need for more precise research in improving the web accessibility features to achieve one standard frame of accessibility. To improve the accessibility features, the users understanding and participation with observation is the main factor. So far, the system is just able to send to lecturers a list of students who have not enough percentage of attendance (less than 80%). If possible, the should be sent directly to the students. In future, the system should be able to notify them through SMS as almost 99% students have a hand phone to stay communicated. Through SMS, they are able to receive the notification instantly. Thus, more alert of the attendance issue. 13. REFERENCES AND BIBLIOGRAPHY [1] Webopedia (2004). What is system? Retrieved July 19, 2005, from [2] Wikipedia (2005). Define system. Retrieved August 8, 2005, from [3] Nicholas V. Luppa, Interactive Design for New Media and the Web, Butterworth-Heinemann, USA, [4] Rod Sims (2001). Level of Interactivit. Retrieved May 9, 2005, from [5] Gregory R. Baur, Albert E. Miller & Eugene W. Henry (1984). Barcode Input/ Output in an Intelligent Videodisc Instructional System. Retrieved March 10, 2007, from =&isnumber=14955&arnumber= [6] The Barcode Software Center, USA (2002/ 2003). Code 128. Retrieved February 10, 2007, from [7] Wikipedia (2007). Code 128. Retrieved Februarty 24, 2007, from [8] BarcodeIsland.com, Inc (2006). Code 128 Symbology. Retrieved April 10, 2007, from [9] Barcode scanner (2005). What is a barcode scanner? Retrieved April 9, 2007, from [11] IDAutomation ( ). CCD Barcode Scanners & Readers. Retrieved March 8, 2007, from [12] Winnovative Software (2007). What is Winnovative WebChart? Retrieved March 15, 2007, from [13].netCharting ( )..netCHARTING Overview. Retrieved February 5, 2007, from [14] Sirius Computer Consultants Limited ( ). Advanced Graphs and Charts. Retrieved April 4, 2007, from [15] Freesoft (2007). SMTP Protocol Overview. Retrieved April 9, 2007, from [16] Wikipedia (2007) . Retrieved April 25, 2007, from [17] Welsh Assembly Government ( ). What is evaluation? Retrieved April 25, 2007, from [18] Debbie Stone, Caroline Jarrett, Marl Woodroffe, Shailey Minocha, User Interface Design & Evaluation, Elsevier, Inc, US: San Francisco, [19] UPA (2005). Usability Body of Knowledge. Retrieved April 15, 2007, from [20] R. Molich and J. Nielsen, (1990). Improving a humancomputer dialogue. Communications of the ACM, vol. 33, [21] The Usability Company (2007). Heuristic Evaluation. Retrieved April 25, 2007, from ristic-evaluation.html#h [22] Nielsen, J. & Molich, R. (1990). Heuristic evaluation of user interfaces. Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems: Empowering people. Seattle, WA, USA. April, [23] Microsoft Corporation (2007). Internet Information Services. Retrieved April 2, 2007, from mspx [10] The Barcode Warehouse Ltd. (2007). Barcode Guide. Retrieved April 9, 2007, from 188

5 APPENDIX Very Disagree Disagree Moderate Agree Very Agree Table 1.0 : Mean and Percentages of Agreement for Usability Testing Heuristic Mean Percentages (%) Visibility of system status Match between system and the real world User control and freedom Consistency and standards Help users recognize, diagnose and recover from errors Error prevention Recognition rather than recall Flexibility and minimalist design Privacy Skills Average 3.83 Figure 1.0 : System Module of FCSIT Student Attendance Management System System Module Student Login Lecturer Login Admin Login Register Course View Profile Edit Profile View Course Schedule View Profile Edit Profile View Others Profile View Attendance Report Print Report Add User, Course, Program Delete User, Course, Program View Profiles Edit Profiles View Report Print Report Table 2.0: Developer s Hardware Specification Processor 2.4 GHz Intel Pentium 4 processor Memory 512 MB Hard Disk 80 GB Screen Resolution 1024 X 768 pixels Table 3.0: Minimum System Requirements Processor 600 MHz Intel compatible processor Memory 128 MB Hard Disk 280 MB Screen Resolution 800 X 600 pixels Table 4.0: System Software Requirements Database Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Tool Microsoft Visual Studio.NET 2003 Macromedia Dreamweaver MX Microsoft.NET Framework Web Browser Internet Explorer 5.0 and above or other compatible browsers. Web Service Internet Information Service 189

6 Figure 4.0 : Barcode Usage Figure 6.0: Mean of the Usability Testing Result Mean of the Usability Testing Result Mean Usability Heuristic Mean Figure 5.0: Student Preference 190