Design and Implementation of a Web-based Students Automated Grade Point Average (GPA) Calculator
Chapter One
Aim and objectives
The aim of the project emphasizes on developing a comprehensive implementable web-base software or program to automate the grading system of GPA for easy access processing and reliable information of student result. The specific objectives are:
- To facilitate the accessing time of student result
- To enhance speedy of the results.
- To eliminate error due to manual processing.
- To provide security measure to check student mischievous act of changing marks on the result sheet.
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
REVIEW OF STUDY
A grade point average, or GPA, is the system many schools use to rank student academic performance. Each grade a student earns is weighted according to a uniform scale so that a single number can be used to express grades earned over a semester, year, or even entire academic career. A GPA is usually regarded as a rough indication of a student’s abilities, and often serves as a way of ranking and distinguishing people for purposes of university admissions, scholarship awards, and job interviews. The number is not used in the educational systems of all countries, and not all countries or schools use the same scales.
Grading in education is the process of applying standardized measurements of varying levels of achievement in a course. Grades can be assigned in letters (for example, A, B, C, D, or F), as a range (for example 1 to 6), as a percentage of a total number correct, as a number out of a possible total (for example out of 20 or 100), or as descriptors (excellent, great, satisfactory, needs improvement). In some countries, all grades from all current classes are averaged to create a grade point average (GPA) for the marking period. The GPA is calculated by taking the number of grade points a student earned in a given period of time divided by the total number of credits taken. The GPA can be used by potential employers or educational institutions to assess and compare applicants. A Cumulative Grade Point Average is a calculation of the average of all of a student’s grades for all courses completed so far.
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”. Anigbogu (2000) defined a computer as an electronic device capable of accepting data and instructions, processing the data based on the instructions to generate results or output in such a manner that is yet to be equaled by any other known machine to mankind. For the fact that we are already into a new millennium, no organization, company or institution can do without information processing system or organizational information system. So many authors and researchers have in one way or the other taken step towards analyzing the problems associated with manual result processing and the need for computerized result processing.
Some previous work has actually been carried out in this area. Two of such are the work by Moses Ekpenyong and that by Ukem and Onoyom-Ita. In his work, Ekpenyong employs Microsoft Excel spreadsheet program to build an
Intelligent Knowledge-Based System (IKBS), making use of various programming facilities provided by that application (Excel). The central issue here is that the programming is hard coded into the cells, and cell referencing is used to monitor and track student’s performance (cumulative points, etc.). The system has been reported to be working fine. However, it appears to be rather restrictive, and calls for substantial expertise in programming. In the work by Ukem and Onoyom-Ita, Adobe Dreamweaver, an Integrated Development Environment, is used to create the Graphic User Interface and to write the codes. MYSQL Server, a Relational Database Management System, is used to create the database tables and data. Personal Home Page Pre-Processor (PHP) is used to communicate with and manipulate the database. This application, though tested and found to be working as expected, has however not been put to use widely. Apart from these two, there are undoubtedly several other similar applications in existence. There is, however, always room for improvement. This new application is intended to have reduced complexity and greater ease of use, in order to enhance maintainability while still retaining good speed and accuracy.
The setbacks of manual results processing and the need for automated system.
Ukem et al, (2012.) state that the errors associated with the existing manual method of processing of students results in most universities in Nigeria, make it not only desirable but imperative that computerized approach be used in measuring students’ progress. According to him, the manual methods being employed suffer a number of setbacks; they make the process to be time consuming and prone to error. They lead to examination results being published late, sometimes with wrong grades being entered and students’ grade point averages being wrongly computed as a result, and ultimately leading to wrong conclusions being arrived at the class of degree awarded. Some students could end up with undeserved good class of degree, while others could be unfairly victimized, bringing about frustration and bad blood. The Departments concerned, and the whole University, could become tarnished. He said the solution to the problem, therefore, is to find a method of processing examination results that would be sufficiently accurate and reasonably timely. Eludire, (2011).Observed that a number of problems associated with student academic record management include improper course registration, late release of students’ results, inaccuracy due to manual and tedious calculation and retrieval difficulties/inefficiency, According to him, the development of database concept is the answer to these problems where the amount of redundant data is reduced and the possibility that data contained on a file might be inaccurate because they were never updated. Mohini and Amar, (2011) indicated that Publication of students results in the manual system takes a very long time owing to which students remain idle for months together. Sometimes the delay in declaration of result cause heavy losses to the students as generally they cannot join further studies or appear in competitive exams or join jobs because of the non availability of examination result in time. Okonigene, et al (2008) observed that, with the use of computers for information processing, the following are possible: instant access to students’ personal and course information, instant student information updating, automatic computation of the Grade Point Average (GPA), generation of the graduating students list, monitoring of failed courses, keeping an up-to-date record of the entire student body in the University, storing course information such as course code, course description, course unit, and scores for the purpose of GPA computation, and producing user-friendly data entry screens for ease of use.
CHAPTER THREE
SYSTEM DESIGN, SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION AND SYSTEM DEVELOPMENT
System Design
System design is a problem solving process. Its goal is to create a new system that meet a set of objectives and these objectives are the force behind the design process. The objectives are as stated below
The primary aim of the system is to achieve some objectives over the existing one. It is therefore important to state the objectives in clear terms especially in a useful way to the proposed system.
- To facilitate the accessing time of student result
- To enhance speedy of the results.
- To eliminate error due to manual processing.
- To provide security measure to check student mischievous act of changing marks on the result sheet.
Objective of design
The main objective of this study is to design and develop platform that will help to;
- Minimize the time wasting in processing exam records.
- Aid in generating a result that will be more meaningful to the management.
- Aid in the efficient management of student result computing
- Aid in effective and efficient maintenance of student result in the department.
File Design
File held in this project are made up of different data types. These types are integer, character, double, data, etc. some of the files used are designed.
CHAPTER FOUR
IMPLEMENTATION AND RESULTS
INTRODUCTION
This chapter discusses the deployment and testing of the demonstrated web-based student automated GPA calculator after its design and development. The Hardware and Software Requirements as well as Development tools are identified in this chapter.
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary
This paper has presented a software application meant to ease the processing of students results in a tertiary institution. The application was successfully developed, tested, and found to be working as expected. It is capable of processing students’ results with high speed and accuracy, and presenting output in certain required forms. It is easy to use due to the use of a GUI rather than command-line approach, reasonably secure, and enforces data integrity resulting from the use of a relational database management system. With this application, the processing of students’ results can be automated to a large extent, thereby reducing processing time and increasing accuracy.
Conclusion
In order to introduce the use of computers into the manual processing of students’ information, careful investigation and analyses were carried out on the existing method. Many text and journal (handbook) records were consulted to have an in-depth and thorough understanding of the major concepts of operations. This work finally presented a software application meant to ease the processing of students results in College of Education, Akwanga, Nasarawa State. The application was successfully developed, tested, and found to be working as expected. After the trend of investigation and initial analysis had been made on both the manual system (old) and the new system of carrying out the operation of students result processing, it became obvious that It is capable of storing and processing students’ results with high speed and accuracy, and presenting output in certain required forms. It has some qualities such as reduction in the cost of processing, reduction in time spent in computing GPAs,/CGPAs, generating transcript, and elimination of duplication of effort which makes it overshadow the manual system of students record keeping. The Application software is flexible and can be modified to suite any kind of record keeping and data processing. It is easy to use due to the use of a GUI (Graphical user interface) rather than command-line approach, reasonably secure, and enforces data integrity resulting from the use of a relational database management system. With this application, the processing of students’ results can be automated to a large extent, thereby reducing processing time and increasing accuracy.
Recommendation
The efficiency of the software can be further enhanced based on the following recommendations: Effort should be made to validate the input data to ensure the integrity of the system. The primary users should be given an initial orientation on how to interact with the system for optimal utilization of the facilities of the system. Though the application is web-enabled, which makes it easier for Users to access the application from anywhere via the Internet, and be able to carry out their work, and students with proper authorization would be able to view their results online, the relevant authority should register with Nigeria communication commission for license so that students can access results on their mobile phones. The issue of security could also be looked into, with a view to improving it so that users would have greater peace of mind, knowing that their data would not easily be compromised.
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