A Novel Web-Based Student Academic Records Information System

Transcription

1 A Novel Web-Baed Student Record Information Sytem Nmaju Obai, E. O. Nwachukwu, and C. Ugwu Department of Computer Science, Univerity of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, River State, Nigeria Abtract The ytem preent a ingle platform that will be ued to manage and proce data for all categorie of tudent in a eamle and interactive manner. The deign technology adopted for the implementation i a client/erver technology, with MYSQL a the erver technology and Viual Baic.NET a the client technology. Internet Information Server (IIS) i ued a the Web erver. The oftware development methodology adopted i the incremental model in conjunction with prototyping technique. The data ued were obtained from the Univerity of Port Harcourt and an empirical evaluation of the ytem how that the ytem expedite proceing of tudent reult and generation of other related acade information. Thi ytem increae efficient ervice delivery and provide added advantage in acade record management. Keyword: Student Information Sytem, Web Server, Client/Server, MYSQL.0 Introduction intitution i an educational intitution dedicated to education and reearch, which grant acade degree [3]. Thi definition may well cover the different type of acade intitution, although each type of acade intitution offer the ame ervice in varying degree. The baic type of acade intitution include: Primary School, Secondary School, and Advanced Educational Intitution. Our interet following there-from i in advanced educational intitution and our focu in thi paper i how they manage tudent information for the purpoe of proceing grade and adminitering reult. Teaching and reearch remain the primary activitie in higher intitution, but there are other important activitie a well, like managing of tudent data at the different level of higher education (undergraduate, potgraduate, and doctorate level); tracking of tudent progre at each level; a well a other adminitrative and managerial activitie. In many countrie of the developed world, thee activitie are handled by automation. Thi, however, i far from being the cae in developing countrie a evident in Nigeria. Many higher intitution in Nigeria till adopt the manual method of managing tudent data which i timeconuming and demanding, and are often prone to a variety of error and diater. Hence, it bring to the fore the need to properly addre how thee hortcoming (in managing tudent data) could be reolved and improved. The olution to thee hortcoming lie in an efficient information management ytem, or imply, information ytem. Information ytem, imply tated, tranform data into ueful information. It i an arrangement of people, data, procee, and interface that interact to upport and improve day-to-day operation in a buine a well a upport the problemolving and deciion-making need of management and uer [9]. Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June 203 3

2 A tudent information ytem i a oftware application for education etablihment to manage tudent data [3]. Synonym include Student Information Management Sytem, Student Record Sytem, Student Management Sytem, Campu Management Sytem, or School Management Sytem. Thee ytem encompa a wide range of function and capabilitie, and therefore vary in ize, cope, and capability. Thi could range from ytem implemented in relatively mall cale to cover tudent record alone, to enterprie-wide olution that aim to cover mot apect of running large multicampu organization with ignificant local reponibility [3]. Mot tudent information ytem in ue today are erver-baed, with the application reiding on a central computer erver and being acceed by client application at variou place within and even outide the chool [3]. Alo, according to [3], tudent information ytem have been moving to the web ince the late 990 and that trend i accelerating a intitution replace their older ytem. There are everal force that have been driving thi evolution of tudent information ytem, and a a reult, leading many intitution to replace their. Thee force are Demand for 24/7 web-baed acce to information by tudent, teaching taff, and (in primary and econdary education) parent. Increaing demand in the amount and frequency of data reporting for accountability and other purpoe. Importance of integrating tudent information ytem with other tool, 2.0 Related Work In the pat, information ytem of thi nature were manually operated it uually involved high clerical cot, delay in production of required information, reduction in work throughput, and many at time grave error and/or omiion occur. epecially relating to intruction, coure and learning. Thu, thi paper i concerned with the deign and implementation of a novel web-baed tudent acade information ytem for higher intitution that will addre ome of the identified function of a tudent information ytem. The identified function thi paper offer include: providing mean to effectively maintain accurate, up-to-date tudent databae that can be quickly and eaily acceed; providing an efficient mean to collect, collate, interpret, and adminiter tudent reult error-free; enabling prompt proceing and releaing of relevant acade document (like trancript, tatement of reult, etc) in real-time fahion; providing effective mean to ecure and protect tudent data againt infiltration and unforeeen diater; providing an automated mean for ntitution management to extract deciionmaking information about tudent acade performance; providing a eamle communication interface between tudent and the intitution. Hence, the objective of thi paper therefore include: i. To develop an information ytem that will provide a ingle platform to manage and proce the data of different categorie of tudent. ii. To develop information ytem that will erve a an interface between tudent and intitution management to enable tudent promptly check their grade, a well a track their progre. iii. To develop an information ytem that will produce information to aid deciion-making at management level. To overcome thee hortcoming, the ue of information technology i now employed. But many intitution till have not put the potential of information technology to work a oberved. For intance, many intitution ue different Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

3 form of preadheet application to collate and proce acade reult. The deficiencie with thi approach include: it doe not offer the benefit of a databae management ytem; it doe not provide timely information and therefore cannot be relied upon to aid deciion-making; the availability of reult and other information are not real-time. Thi approach could be ummed up in one word inefficient. Some recent related work aimed at improving the earlier ytem reviewed include: a) Client Server Ditributed Databae for Student Reult Proceing, [0]. The main highlight in thi work include: i. It will allow each acade department to maintain it own databae and control their data. ii. It emphaize on advantage of ditributed ytem over centralized databae ytem. iii. It focue on improving communication between variou department local databae ytem in a bid to improve computation of tudent reult. b) Deign and Implementation of Student Information Sytem for Tertiary Intitution Uing Neural Network: An Open Source Approach, []. The main highlight in thi work include: i. It focue on peeding up collection of tudent acade data to expedite proceing of reult and trancript at variou level. ii. It would allow online acce of reult for tudent. c) Interactive Intranet Portal for effective Management in Tertiary Intitution, [4]. The main highlight in thi work include: i. Their work addree the problem ariing from reult proceing, tuition fee payment, and library reource management. ii. A oberved from thi work, emphai i on bringing ome identified ervice to the acade community on one platform. iii. Only two of the mentioned ervice (reult proceing and library reource management) were dicued in the work and they didn t meet the deign expectation a at the time of publication of the paper. d) Web portal developed for Univerity of Port Harcourt by Cinfore a private organization (202) i. The portal offer the following ervice: Information about the Intitution and the variou chool, department, facilitie, and other information that need public view; Account maintenance; Online payment and payment record; ervice; SMS ervice; and Student Exam and Record Management. ii. The lat ervice i preented a a web application, and it addree the following tak: Student Regitration; Coure Regitration; Tet and Exam core and record; Student peronal and acade record; coure management and allocation; Reult approval; and CGPA check. iii. From the much documented in the Staff Uer manual, thi ytem doe not provide the kind of management information that would be expected for management activitie. iv. The approach adopted for reult update i a major concern. Thee concern include: Poibility of the inbuilt formula in Microoft Excel file ued to collate reult broken. Not much difference from the earlier approach ued by the Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

4 Univerity, except for the fact that the reult collated uing Microoft Excel i eventually tored in a databae. Amount of time taken to manually earch through the Excel file to update a core. Unneceary duplication of data a a reult of verioning. Thi lead to watage of torage. The propoed ytem preent an enhanced and efficient mean to manage and proce tudent peronal and acade data with a lot of added functionalitie. Unlike the reviewed work, thi work provide the following benefit: Would provide information beyond that required for routine data proceing. Such information will upport deciion-making and managerial activitie. Would allow generation of the neceary acade document (Trancript, Statement of Reult, etc.) in a flexible and dyna manner. 3.0 Material and Method The oftware development model adopted in thi project i the incremental model in conjunction with prototyping technique. Thi methodology ha been adopted becaue of the nature of the work, which are iteration of analyze-deignimplement activitie called build. Each build i improved and functionality added until it become a new build. Hence, to addre the identified problem, a well a the deficiencie in the exiting ytem, we employed the following method: Interviewed takeholder, including management taff and other taff of the Univerity of Port Harcourt. Surveyed and analyzed the different acade document the intitution preent to tudent. Reviewed bet practice literature regarding information technology project in government and private etting. Reviewed other tudent information collection and management method and ytem to gain in-depth undertanding of what the ytem hould be like; what it hould do; and how it hould perform. Collected a comprehenive acade coure data from the Univerity of Port Harcourt ued for teting the ytem. Simulated a fictitiou 4-year acade reult core for 20 tudent per eion for Computer Science department (which we ued a the tet department). Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

5 4.0 Analyi of Propoed Sytem Two level of ytem deign have been made uing model. The firt model, logical model, how what the ytem i. The two logical model ued include data model and proce model, repectively. The identified entitie and buine aertion for thee entitie are a dicued below, and a normalized and fully attributed entity-relationhip diagram (ERD) repreenting the data model i a hown in Figure. The entitie identified include Facultie; Department; Degree Coure; Coure; Aigned Coure; Award; Degree Coure Level; Degree Coure Award; State; Local Government Area (LGA); Student; Uer; Seion; Student Regitration; Coure Regitration; Faculty Colour Code. The buine aertion a would be repreented in the entity-relationhip diagram (ERD) include: We need to tore data about Facultie. For a Faculty, we need to know the faculty name, faculty code, faculty colour, a well a the Faculty Dean. The value of FacultyID uniquely identifie one and only one Faculty. We need to tore data about Department. For a Department, we need to know the faculty, department code, department name, a well a the Head of Department. The value of DeptID uniquely identifie one and only one Department. We need to tore data about Degree Coure. For a Degree Coure, we need to know the department, and degree coure name. The value of DegreeID uniquely identifie one and only one Degree Coure. We need to tore data about Coure. For an Coure, we need to know the coure code, coure title, coure unit, coure emeter, coure department, and the coure decription. The value of CoureID uniquely identifie one and only one Coure. We need to tore data about Coure Aigned to Lecturer. For an Aigned Coure, we need to know the Seion, Lecturer, Coure, HOD Reult Approval, Faculty Dean Reult Approval, and Senate Reult Approval. The value of AignID uniquely identifie one and only one Aigned Coure to a Lecturer for a given Seion. We need to tore data about Award. For an Award, we need to know the award code, award name, and degree type. The value of AwardID uniquely identifie one and only one Award. We need to tore data about Faculty Colour Code. For a Faculty Colour, we need to know the colour code and colour name. The value of ColorCode uniquely identifie one and only one Faculty Colour. We need to tore data about Degree Coure Level. For a Degree Coure Level, we need to know the degree coure, department, degree coure level, firt emeter maximum credit unit, firt emeter minimum credit unit, econd emeter maximum credit unit, and econd emeter minimum credit unit. Alo, we need to know the acade advier. The value of LevelID uniquely identifie one and only one Degree Coure Level. We need to tore data about Degree Coure Award. For a Degree Coure Award, we need to know the degree coure, award code, and award duration. The value of DegAwardID uniquely identifie one and only one Degree Coure Award. We need to tore data about Seion. For an Seion, we need to know the eion name and eion tatu. The value of SeionID uniquely identifie one and only one Seion. Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

6 We need to tore data about State. For a State, we need to know the State name. The value of State uniquely identifie one and only one State (of the Federation). We need to tore data about Local Government Area. For a Local Government Area, we need to know the State and Local Government name. The value of LGA uniquely identifie one and only one Local Government Area (of the Federation). We need to tore data about Student. For a Student, we need to know urname, firt name, other name, ex, title, religion, marital tatu, date of birth, place of birth, hometown, Local Government Area, State, Nationality, home addre, addre, admiion year, admiion number, degree coure, department, faculty, degree award code, degree award name, degree award type, programme type, programme duration, picture, ignature, PIN (Peronal Identification Number), Paword and graduation tatu. We alo need to know the graduation year. The value of StudentID uniquely identifie one and only one Student. We need to tore data about Uer. For a Uer, we need to know the uer code, uer name, uer department, uer cla, uer category, uer paword, and uer tatu. The value of UerID uniquely identifie one and only one Uer. We need to tore data about Student Regitration. For a Student Regitration, we need to know the tudent, acade eion, tudy year, degree coure level, degree coure, firt emeter maximum credit unit, firt emeter minimum credit unit, econd emeter maximum credit unit, and econd emeter minimum credit unit. We alo need to know the regitration date. The value of StudentRegID uniquely identifie one and only one Student Regitration. We need to tore data about Coure Regitered for each Regitered Student, and Score for each Regitered Coure for each Regitered Student. For an Coure Regitration, we need to know the tudent the coure i regitered for, acade eion, emeter, acade coure, coure unit, lecturer in-charge, and if the regitered coure i a carryover coure or not. Alo, we need to know the core, grade, and grade point a well a the uer that entered or modified the core, date of update/modification, and previou core and grade before the modification. The value of CoureRegID uniquely identifie one and only one Coure Regitration. The propoed ytem would be difficult to fully undertand when viewed a a whole (ingle proce) we need to break down the ytem into maller ubytem. Thi i known a decompoition. The decompoition diagram i a hown in Figure 2. The decompoition diagram how each ditinct operation that need to be performed by the ytem. In ome cae, an operation i further broken down to ub-operation that will be performed. Some operation are dependent on other operation, and therefore cannot be performed until the operation they are dependent upon are performed. For intance, an acade coure cannot be aigned to a lecturer if that acade coure ha not been pre-defined in the ytem. Furthermore, a tudent cannot regiter for an acade coure for a given acade eion if the acade coure ha not been aigned to a lecturer for that acade eion. By thi, Coure Regitration i dependent on Aign Coure, and Aign Coure i dependent on Coure Definition. The econd model, phyical model, how how the ytem i phyically and technically implemented. The output of the phyical modeling i the databae model. Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

7 The databae model repreenting ome of : the entitie are: Table : Uer table Entity: Uer; Table name: tbluer Attribute Data Type Contraint Remark UerID NUMBER (9) NOT NULL Primary Key; No Duplicate; Auto-generated UerCode VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=0; No Duplicate (0) UerName VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=50 (50) UerCategory VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=25 (25) Paword VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=0; Encrypted (0) UerDept NUMBER (9) NOT NULL Foreign Key; Duplicate OK UerCla UerStatu VARCHAR (20) VARCHAR (5) VARCHAR (00) NOT NULL NOT NULL NULL Size=20 Size=5 Size=00 Table 2: Coure table Entity: Coure; Table name: tblcoure Attribute Data Type Domain Remark CoureID NUMBER NOT NULL Primary Key; No Duplicate; Auto-generated (9) CoureCode VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=0; No Duplicate (0) CoureTitle VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=00 (00) CoureUnit NUMBER NOT NULL () CoureSemeter VARCHAR NOT NULL Size=6 (6) CoureDecription VARCHAR NULL Unlimited ize of text (MAX) DeptID NUMBER (9) NOT NULL Foreign Key; Duplicate OK Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

8 USERS UerID (PK) UerCode UerName UerStatu UerCla UerCategory UerPwd UerDept (FK) M DEGREE COURSE LEVELS LevelID (PK) CoureLevel FirtMax FirtMin SecondMax SecondMin Advier DegreeID (FK) M A FACULTIE S FacultyID (PK) FacultyCode FacultyName FaculytyColou FACULTY COLOURS ColourCode (PK) ColourName DEPARTMEN TS DeptID (PK) M DeptCode DeptName HOD FacultyID (FK) Figure : Normalized Entity-Relationhip Diagram * Repeated to avoid croing of line M ACADEMIC COURSES CoureID (PK) CoureCode CoureTitle CoureUnit CoureSemeter CoureDecriptio n DeptID (FK) M M DEGREE COURSES DegreeID (PK) DegreeName DeptID (FK) ASSIGNED COURSES AignID (PK) LecturerID SeionID (FK) CoureID (FK) LecturerAppDate HODApproval HODAppDate DeanApproval DeanAppDate SenateApproval M COURSE REGISTRA TION CoureRegID (PK) CarryOver Score Grade GradePoint ModBy ModDate * M M M DEGREE AWARDS DegAwardID (PK) AwardID (FK) AwadDuration DegreeID (FK) ACADEMIC SESSIONS SeionID (PK) SeionName SeionStatu M STUDENT REGISTRATI ON StudentRegID (PK) StudyYear RegiteredBy RegDate StudentID (FK) SeionID (FK) LevelID (FK) M M M A ACADEMIC AWARDS AwardID (PK) AwardCode AwardName DegreeType STUDENTS StudentID (PK) AdmiionYear MatriculationNo Surname FirtName Other Sex Title Religion MaritalStatu DofB PofB Hometown LGA (FK) Nationality HomeAddre Phone ProgType Picture Signature Statu GraduationYear PIN Paword DegreeID (FK) DegAwardID M M DEGREE COURSES DegreeID (PK) DegreeName DeptID (FK) LGA LGA (PK) State (FK) STATES State (PK) M * Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

9 The Sytem Syt em Log on Uer Definit ion Award Defini tion Faculty Dean Specificat ion Degree Coure/ Coure Coure Level/ Degree Award State/ LGA Student Definit ion Reult Upda te Student Informati on m ic Informa tion Chang e Paw ord Ancill ary Data Facultie / Departm ent HOD Specificati on Seio n Defini tion Aign m ic Coure Student Regitra tion Reult Appr oval Facultie Definiti on Departme nt Definition Degree Coure Defini tion Coure Defini tion State Definit ion LGA Definit ion Student Regitra tion mi c Coure Regitrat ion Coure Level Definition Degree Award Definiti on Progre Info Seme ter Reul t Sei on Reu lt Statem ent of Reult Tran cript Degree Award Check Duratio n Statu Check Unati fied Min. Credit Unit Uncle ared Cour e Pendi ng Score Bet Gradua ting Student CG PA Ch ec k Aign ed Cour e Degr ee Cour e Info Acad e Cour e Info Perform ance Analyi Populati on Ditribu tion Coure Regite red Stude nt Reult Figure 2: Decompoition diagram of the propoed ytem Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

10 Figure 3 how the Sytem Logon flowchart repreenting the logon operation START Launch Application Welcome/Logo n Page Exit Application YE STOP NO Specify Logon Data Logon NO I Logon Succeful? YE Which Uer Category? Sytem Admin Page Dept Officer Page Student Page Lecturer Page Exam/Record Page Figure 3: Sytem Logon Flowchart Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

11 5.0 Implementation of ARIS A working tudent information ytem, called ARIS, wa developed uing Viual Baic.NET a the client-ide technology and MYSQL a the erver-ide technology. ARIS Welcome/Logon page allow uer to log on to the ytem (Figure 4). A indicated in. the Sytem Logon flowchart (Figure 3), uccefully logged on uer are re-directed to the appropriate page, depending on their uer categorie Figure 4: ARIS Welcome/Logon page 6.0 Sample Output/Reult Output preent information to the ytem uer, and are the mot viible component of a working information ytem. A uch, they are often the bai for the uer and ytem owner final aement of the ytem value. Figure 5 to 9 are ome of the output reult of the. The output reult are baed on earch criteria. Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June 203 4

12 Figure 5: Coure Performance Analyi Figure 6: CGPA Information Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

13 Figure 7: Coure Reult Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

14 Figure 8: Seional Reult. Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

15 Figure 9: Statement of Reult 7.0 Dicuion of Reult Coure Performance Analyi output (Figure 5) provide performance analyi for a given acade coure. The analyi i a 3-year performance analyi for tudent of a given programme type. The period conidered in the analyi include the pecified acade eion and the two immediate pat acade eion (if available). For intance, if the performance analyi in, ay, CSC502. i required and the pecified acade eion i 200/2002, the period the ytem will conider include 999/2000, 2000/200, and 200/2002 acade eion, repectively. CGPA Information output (Figure 6) preent the name of tudent whoe CGPA i exactly or le than or greater than a pecified CGPA value a at a pecified acade eion. Coure Reult output (Figure 7) provide the core and grade of tudent who regitered for a particular acade coure for a given acade eion. Alo, the following information are preented: Score Analyi (Highet Score, Lowet Score, Average Score); Attendance Analyi (Number of Student preent and abent, broken down to male and Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

16 female); Grade Ditribution Analyi (Count of different Grade). Seional Reult output (Figure 8) how the performance of a tudent at the end of a particular acade eion, howing uch information like name of tudent, tudent matriculation number, department, regitered coure for the emeter and grade earned. Alo, the tudent GPA (for each emeter) and CGPA for the acade eion are automatically computed and diplayed a well. Alo, a remark will be hown for each emeter if the tudent did not atify the minimum credit unit load for a emeter. Statement of Reult (Figure 9) provide information about a tudent earned degree award. Thi report i uually produced at the end of the tudent programme the tudent having atifactorily met all requirement expected of him or her. Thi report can only be printed if the following condition are met: tudent mut have atified the expected minimum total Credit Unit; tudent mut have reached the terminal year of the programme; tudent mut have cleared all previouly failed acade coure; there hould be no pending core for any acade coure regitered for the tudent; the reult of all acade coure undertaken mut have been approved up to Senate level. Thee are ome of the output the ytem can provide. 8.0 Concluion The ytem ha been thoroughly teted and evaluated, and i certified to be made operational. The performance of the ytem i een to meet the deign expectation a hown in the reult. The ytem will expedite efficient ervice delivery in acade record management by eliminating the delay aociated with computing reult and proceing acade document; enabling management to query the databae in a dyna manner to extract relevant information to aid deciion-making; providing an interface between tudent and the intitution. Therefore, we recommend that the univerity will get more added advantage uing ARIS than the preent ytem in ue. Neverthele, new ytem uually repreent a departure from the way buine i currently done; therefore there mut be proviion for a mooth tranition from the old ytem to the new ytem. Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June

17 Reference [.] Ayodele O.A. and Abalom E.E. (200). Deign and Implementation of Student Information Sytem for Tertiary Intitution uing Neural Network: An Open Source Approach, International Journal of Green Computing, Vol., No., pp. -5. [2.] Bonig R. (202). Latet Trend in Student Information Sytem: Driven by Competition, Educaue Review, Vol. 47, No. 3, pp [3.] Chapman J. R., Software Development Methodology a.k.a Sytem Development Life Cycle, Available at Retrieved [4.] Idogho O.P., Akpado K., and Agajo J. (20). Interactive Intranet Portal for Effective Management in Tertiary Intitution, International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Application, Vol. 2, No. 6, pp [5.] Khan A. I., Quarahi R. J., and Khan U. A. (20). A Comprehenive Study of Commonly Practiced Heavy and Light Weight Software Methodologie, International Journal of Computer Science Iue, Vol. 8, Iue 4, No. 2, pp. [6.] Nwachukwu E.O. (998). Information Sytem Development A Structured Approach, Genei Concept, Owerri, Nigeria, pp [7.] Pienaar H. (2003). Deign and Development of an Portal, Libri, Vol. 53, pp [8.] Sorenen R., A Comparion of Software Development Methodologie Available At orener@oftware.hill.af.mil Retrieved: [9.] Whitten J.L., Bentley L.D., and Dittman K.C. (200). Sytem Analyi and Deign Method, Irvin/McGraw Hill, New York. [0.] Youh D.X. (200). Deign and Implementation of a Client Server Ditributed Databae for Student Reult Proceing, The Pacific Journal of Science and Technology, Vol., No. 2, pp [.] Software Development Methodology Today, 08/ mplechapter/ _ch0.pdf. Retrieved: [2.] Retrieved: [3.] Retrieved: [4.] application#ixzz2enq3nu7j Retrieved: [5.] n_web-bae application#ixzz2enqnu736 Retrieved: [6.] i Retrieved: Wet African Journal of Indutrial and Reearch Vol.7 No. June