DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF COURSE REGISTRATION AND RESULT PROCESSING SYSTEM
ABSTRACT
Course Registration and Result processing system form the key activities in the life span of a student. The demand for effective and efficient result computation and output lead to the production of the automated result process. The digitalized process provides the capabilities of centralized repository for storage, management and dissemination of result information to those concerned. A study into the manual process reveals the inefficiencies and the rigorous nature of course registration and result processing, therefore the existing manual process was analyzed and converted into an automated system. The manual activities was modeled with an object-oriented methodology and the system was implemented with PHP(hypertext processor), a scripting language and MYSQL database management systems. It provides a robust database that generates various reports that is relevant to the department. The result of this research work is a system that automates the course registration and examination result processing for the Department of Computer Science, which can be used in any department of most universities in Nigeria.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ITEMS PAGE NUMBER
Title Page …………………………………………………………. i
Certification page …………………………………………………. ii
Approval Page ..…………………………………………………... iii
Dedication iv
Acknowledgement Page v
Abstract vi
Table of Contents vii
List of Figures ix
List of Tables xi
Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………… 1
1.0 Introduction …………………………………………….. 1
Statement of Problem3
Objectives4
Scope of the Study4
Significance of the Study4
Chapter 2: Literature Review 5
Introduction5
Theoretical Background5
Review of Related Literature10
Chapter 3: Systems Analysis and Design 21
Introduction21
Analysis of the Existing System22
Description of the Proposed System25
Design of the Proposed System27
Design Methodology27
Justification for the use of the design methodology. 27
3.3.3 Design tool 28
Database design32
Input and output design35
Systems Architecture45
Chapter 4: System Implementation 46
Introduction46
Development Environment46
Choice of Programming Language used47
Implementations Architecture47
Software Testing48
Documentation49
Software Modules49
User Guide/Manual52
Software Installation54
Source Code Listing54
Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion 55
Summary55
Conclusion56
Recommendations56
References Appendices
LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 3.1 The Use Case Diagram of the System - - - 28
Figure 3.2 The Class Diagram - - - - - 31
Figure 3.3 Screenshot of the Database tables - - - 32
Figure 3.4 The Student’s Login design Form - - - 35
Figure 3.5 Admin Login design Form - - - - 35
Figure 3.6 Student’s Course Registration design Form - - 36
Figure 3.7 Design form of an ongoing course registration - 37
Figure 3.8 Design input form for uploading student’s result - 38
Figure 3.9 Design input form for adding courses - - - 39
Figure 3.10 Design of the Course Registration Printout- - - 40
Figure 3.11 Design of the View Result Form- - - - 41
Figure 3.12 Design of the Semester Transcript Result - - 41
Figure 3.13 Design of the Lecturer’s Grade Sheet - - - 42
Figure 3.14 Design of the Official Semester Broadsheet - - 43
Figure 3.15 Design of the Official Cumulative Broadsheet- - 44
Figure 3.16 System Architecture- - - - - - 45
Figure 4.1 Design of the Implementation Architecture - - 47
Figure 4.2 Screenshot of the Homepage - - - - 60
Figure 4.3 Screenshot of the Admin Login Page - - - 61
Figure 4.4 Screenshot of the Add Course Form - - - 61
Figure 4.5 Screenshot of Uploaded Result file from excel- - 62
Figure 4.6 Screenshot of the Course Registration Form - - 62
Figure 4.7 Screenshot of the Error Registration Page - - 63
Figure 4.8 Screenshot of the Semester Broadsheet Report - 63
Figure 4.9 Screenshot of the Lecturer’s Grade Sheet - - 64
Figure 4.10 Screenshot of the Class List - - - - 65
Figure 4.11 Screenshot of the Semester Transcript Report - 65
Figure 4.12 Screenshot of the Student’s CGPA Report - - 66
LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1 Sample Table for Calculating Student’s GPA- 24
Table 3.2 Student’s Bio-data Table - - - - 33
Table 3.3 Admin Table - - - - - 33
Table 3.4 Course Table - - - - - 33
Table 3.5 Course Registration Table - - - 34
Table 3.6 Result Table- - - - - - 34
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
Automated course registration and exam processing system is a software that facilitates the students course registration and processing of examination result. It will build in an automated information system capability that will ease the stress and enhance all the activities involved in course registration and result processing. The occurrence of examination and assessment irregularities can seriously damage public confidence in the validity and legitimacy of examination and assessment results and should be dealt with as a matter of urgency within the judicial framework established for this purpose[12]. There are different computer programs in different tertiary institutions for computing examination results. However, beyond examination result computation, not many programs in use provide multi- level aggregated data of student population and academic progress at various stages of studentship. The need for data use to inform administrative decisions in tertiary institutions have been emphasized for the purpose of better planning[1]. Almost every section of the educational system requires information processing. With the deployment of a good information system, wear and tear occasioned during data retrieval and handling, and sometimes loss is greatly minimized. Data sharing is less difficult and reproduction becomes a lot more cheaper. Furthermore, information system when employed to the educational sector, prompts the following:- prompt access to students’ personal and course information, instant student information updating, automatic computation of the Grade Point Average (GPA), monitoring of failed courses, quick production of result, 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. It is unfortunate that most universities in Nigeria still adapt the manual system of course registration and examination result processing. The errors associated with the existing manual method of results computation make it not only desirable but imperative that automated approach be used to the full in measuring students’ progress. The manual methods being employed suffer a number of set-backs. 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. They also lead to loss or misplacement of student’s result. In some cases, it leads to incoherent course registration. However some departments in some universities in Nigeria are gradually advancing with the new information system processes. Taking the University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a case study,
The current course registration in the university of Nigeria, Nsukka takes the following format. Students on resumption renew their registration and register for courses every new semester. Before the current system was implemented, students register their courses with the different lecturers handling the courses. The list is compiled and sent to the appropriate centre. Later the system improved, a better system came into place where students go online and upon entering their registration number and department, the list of available courses for a particular level for a semester is shown and they register for them by selecting the appropriate box against their chosen courses. This is then submitted online and a printed copy is taken to the appropriate centre for approval. Examination result processing draws all the registered courses together and applies a criteria to process each student’s result at different semesters, session and at the end of the school programme. But the system currently in use poses challenges to the exam
officers in the departments. It is observed that students do not register courses as required by the department. This could either be because the students deliberately registered wrongly or the system cannot enlist all the semester courses at a time. Secondly, the current system is unable to enlist all failed courses that were taken in the previous semesters and does not compel students to register them before proceeding to the new ones. It does not have the capability to efficiently reconcile all registered courses with their respective result. Therefore this project work is targeted to eliminate most of the problems inherent in the current system. It would provide a set of structures that keeps databases of all registered courses at all levels enlisting the core courses, electives and required ancilliary courses, it keeps student’s personal information. It will also keep past record of student’s result and a database of all components required for processing results. It will have component that extract each student’s result corresponding to the registered courses and computes the required result at any level and time.
STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The problems identified in the old system are as follows:
1. The old system does not have a unified database system.
2. There is no structure that compels students to register all outstanding courses before proceeding to the recent ones.
3. Student’s test and exam scores may be entered wrongly when manually done.
5. It is very cumbersome to manually reconcile all registered courses from different files sources into their work sheet for the purpose of result computation.
AIM AND OBJECTIVES
The main aim of this project work is to provide a centralized database system that prompts correct course registration and keep all result information of a student.
The objectives to realize the aim of this project work are as follows:
1. Enforce a system that would automatically pool fail courses into the student’s registration portal and allow them to register them before they can register new ones.
2. Put in place a unified database system that coordinates course registration and exam processing.
3. Provide a mechanism of transmitting course registration and examintion results to all stakeholders especially Department, Exams and Registry.
4. Produce all kinds of results expected from the university.
SCOPE OF THE STUDY
The new system designed is meant to handle course registration and exam result processing for the Computer Science department in UNN only.
SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Students stand to greatly benefit from this project work. The new system will enable students to see all failed courses and give them the opportunity to register and rewrite them on time. There would be reduced case of overstay.
Result computation would be easier and convenient for the exam officers as all result information will be kept and generated from the system.
The new system would enhance the result processing performance as it will reduce delay in computing student’s result.
CHAPTER 5: SUMMARY & CONCLUSION
SUMMARY
The new course registration and result processing system is an enhanced automated software that is built to eradicate the major problem inherent in the current system. The development of this system arose because of the growing rate at which students overstay in the school and the semi manual/digital method of result computation. A study investigated the cause of these problems and conclusion was drawn that it is caused by improper course registration and the manual method of result computation. Therefore the new system targets to arrest this situation by building features in the software that could not only produce a better system but mandate students to register any of their failed outstanding courses before registering for the new courses in the current session and rewriting the exam on time.
Secondly, study into the result processing system exposed the laborious nature of the system; it is time consuming and less effective. The new system is developed with the capability to extract students result from an excel result template and calculate the semester GPA for the student. This will not only enable the students to access themselves and improve their performance but will also help the exam officer to articulate and compile students result at final year.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, this project presents a software application that is capable of storing and processing students’ results with high speed and accuracy and presenting the output in a certain required forms. It’s qualities include enabling error free registration, reduction in the cost and time spent in computing GPAs/CGPAs, faster generation of a semester transcript per student and enabling the exam officer to view every session result of a whole class in a single sheet called the broadsheet, The Application is easy to use, reasonably secure and enforces data integrity resulting from the use of a relational database management system.
RECOMMENDATIONS
The findings of this study exposed some salient issues in the student’s course registration process that would require further automation. It is hoped that these issues will advance and promote further researches in schools and colleges. The recommendations derived from this study are:
1. Student’s awareness of their past academic performance increases their performance in subsequent semesters in school. It is recommended that students result should be made available on time so that he/she can access himself before registering for new courses.
2. Methodologies deployed in the system can be harnessed to allow the excel software to interface with the MYSQL server in other to generate and present the broadsheet report from it. This is the only way that the broadsheet can be shown on a single sheet.
3. The system can be reprogrammed to allow semester transcript result to be duly endorsed by any staff in charge online before the student can print a copy of the result.
4. A component should be built into the excel result template so that the HOD can endorse the result on the spreadsheet file and then submit it to the administrator himself. This is to increase the reliability of the data in the result template. Once the HOD handles and endorses the result, changes cannot be made to the result.
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