Design and Implementation of Online Student Clearance System (A Case Study of Caritas University, Amorji-Nike, Enugu)
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The objective of this computer software-based online clearance system for the graduating student includes the following:
To effectively and efficiently process students’ clearance.
To provide a reliable and transparent system devoid of personal inclination and interest.
To provide borderless access. To ensure prompt clearance.
To alleviate the problems and stress of traveling and queuing up of students during clearance.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
ROLE OF INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY IN THE ACADEMIC SYSTEM
The introduction of computer into information technology has massively improved the information need of organization; the success of this machine is dependent on the knowledge base. Therefore, one can be prompted to ask aloud “what is a computer” Funk (1980) defined a computer as an electronic device that can perform automatically at a high speed of a sequence of logical operations according to instructions giving to it inform of pre-arranged program.
Anigbogu (2000) define a computer as an electronic device capable of accepting data and instruction; process the data base on the instruction to generate result or output in such a manner that is yet to be equaled by any other known machine to mankind.
Chimezie (1990) define computer by saying that computers are looked upon as obedient servants who are ever ready to free man from tedious procedures and produce result as compared with human computing time.
Obilikwu (1995) define a computer as a machine that is capable of accepting input data, store and process the data base on the instructions giving by the computer users and in this way produce expected result, generally called output.
World net describes an information system (I.S) as systems consisting of all communication channels used within an organization and include software and hardware. It may also be define as a system that collect and process data (information) and provide it to manager of all levels that use it for decision making, planning, program implementation and control.
The aim of information system to admission, registration, result processing and clearance in universities using computer software based online clearance system is to improve the quality and accuracy of information provided to all involved as well as assisting universities in compiling and reporting information, making work lesser for the management.
Information technology has been an integral part of academic system since almost four decades. According to Hewlet (1993) the world is entering an era in which technology will literally transform every aspect of business, every aspect of life and every aspect of society.
Since the arrival of internet technology, school system has taken a new shape style with a blend of convenience and satisfaction. Taylor (1980) says that computer base education includes both computer-assisted instruction programs that interact with students in a dialogue and a broader array of educational computer applications such as simulations or instructions in computer programming. Learning from a student bedroom, office or anywhere in the world has made its way into university system with the advent of internet technology. Information technology has always helped the university system to educate student in better way. To explain few examples. Student online clearance is a method where the student obtains his/her clearance letter without carrying files around. This is safe, fast and has no hazels. Filling out the documents and comparing options and writing for approval is a time consuming process. Through the internet, this process is made much easier and sometimes the approval is made within minutes. This explains an efficient way of obtaining clearance and saves time and money for students.
DATA AND INFORMATION
The concept of data and information are very important in understanding issues that go with development and implementation of a computer software based online clearance system. The term “data” and “information” are used interchangeably every day conversation as meaning the same thing. Too many manager and information specialist. However, these terms have distinct meaning. According to O’Leary (1996) data simply consist of raw unprocessed facts while information is a data that have been processed by the computer. Hordeski (1986) gives the following definition of data; A graphic or textual representation of facts concepts, numbers, letters, symbols or instructions suitable for communication, interpretation or processing. Data is the basic element of information that is use to described objects, ideas, conditions or situations.
Lucy (1991) defines data and information as Data is fact events, transactions and so on, which have been recorded. They are the raw materials from which information is produced. Information is data that has been produced in such a way as to be useful to the recipient. Data are fact obtained by observation, counting, measuring, weighing etc, which are often records of day-to-day transactions of the organization.
CHAPTER THREE
METHODOLOGY
GENERAL ANALYSIS OF EXISTING SYSTEM
When a student is about to graduate, he/she will take his/her degree exam after which he obtain clearance letter from various departments and unions. The registrar office carefully reviews each degree candidate academic records and certificate to faculty that the candidate has completed his requirement for the degree. Also the bursary has to certify that the student has completed all payment.
The current clearance system of the university is a manual one. These make the system tedious and time consuming. Here, student has to visit all the clearance offices with a form for them to sign, once this forms are sign, it prove that the student has been cleared, the process take some months to be completed and processes a lot of stress to both staffs and the student involved. In the manual system, the clearance forms are documented in a file cabinet. Each time the clearance form is needed, a search operation is conducted on the file cabinet to locate a particular student clearance form.
METHOD OF DATA COLLECTION
During this project research work, data needed for the project was gathered from the various sources. In gathering and collecting necessary data and information needed from the system analyses, two major fact-finding techniques were used in this work and there are:
Primary Source:
This refers to the source of collecting original data in which the researcher made use of empirical approach such as personal interview and questionnaires
Secondary Source:
The secondary data were obtained by the researcher from magazine, journal, newspaper, library source and internet downloads. The data collected from this means have been covered in literature review in the chapter two.
CHAPTER FOUR
SYSTEM DESIGN
DESIGN STANDARDS
This new system is structured to work with the standard software development procedure. In order to achieve effective online clearance system, Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM) were used. This is because SSADM is an internationally accepted software engineering model mainly used in most result oriented analysis and design.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
SUMMARY
The use of computer software based online clearance system forms the basis of the school management decision. It aims at providing the management with adequate, effective, well documented up-to-date and formatted output. To help as a tool in planning and decision making/based on the student clearance form.
The lack of learner outcome variation of the online system signals the establishment of concurrency between the two measures even though they are measures of same construct. This investigation supports the use the online system delivery structure to broaden the instruction audience in technology education program.
The use of online clearance system in technology education at the university remain at the minimal level as suggested by the 80 percent of the online student participant, predominantly technology education measures who report that they have not done online clearance previously. Also 75 percent of online student participant report that they have not used computer software base online clearance system previously. Having come to completion of this project work a lot of achievement was made and they include;
- The replacement of error prone manual system with new automated online clearance
- Data can now be processed with great speed and
- The application has the ability to update record in various files automatically there relieving the university staff the stress from working from file to file.
- The security of data is
- The use of database server was
CONCLUSION
Research and development are continuous processes; this is same in computer and software development. However the effectiveness and efficiency of this new system provide room for further improvement. As early mentioned some of the objectives of this project were not actualized due to some limitation. So this objectives could be improved upon, the outline clearance system developed will offer greater opportunity in school management. All transaction or payment with regards to student’s clearance can be carried out online.
RECOMMENDATION
The research work carried out is limited to online clearance only. It would be better if a full portal is developed for effective and wholesome of information management technology in our universities. When this is done the following modules are recommended to include in the portal.
- Developing an online students admission system to enable full tracking of student records
- Automation of student academic record to enable the management to have access to student academic
- Maintaininga central database for accessing information relating to
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