DESIGN AND DEVELOPMENT OF ELECTRONIC STUDENTS COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM (CASE STUDY OF ISAAC JASPER BORO COLLEGE OF EDUCATION SAGBAMA)
ABSTRACT
“ELECTRONIC STUDENTS COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM” is the central part of the educational administration system, which consists of undergraduate course registration, graduate course registration, retaking and retesting, dropping the course in the middle phase and information exchange, etc. The Electronic Student Course Registration System I’m Proposing is to simplify the current manual procedure. This system will be developed using PHP, jQuery, Apache and MySQL. The front-end is designed using PHP with excerpts of code written using jQuery and back-end is designed and managed through MySQL. This system software is more secured, user-friendly and less time-consuming.
Keywords: PHP, MySQL, jQuery, Apache, Database, Database Management System, Front-end, Back-end.
CHAPTER ONEBACKGROUND OF STUDY
Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education (IJBCOE) Sagbama was formally known as Bayelsa State College of Education and was located at Agudama-Epie but was later relocated to Okpoama where for over an academic session, the college could barely admit about 50 students. Then in 2012 The Bayelsa State College of Education Law was amended and was rename after the Niger-Delta legendary hero ISAAC JASPER ADAKA BORO and the permanent site was relocated to Sagbama Town in Sagbama Local Government Area, Bayelsa State with a student population of over 1400 and 25 programs with introduction of Theatre Arts and Music as new courses in 2012/2013 academic session.IJBCOE run fully accredited courses in all her Programs. Provide Qualitative teaching learning and research environment for students and staff to realize their full potentialities in life.
Produce graduates that are fully-equipped with knowledge and skills in contemporary pedagogical insights to make outstanding success in their chosen profession Ensure transparency and accountability in all our undertaking.
In Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama, Bayelsa State, semester course registration is done online only by the ICT staff, students get their courses information from their head of department and then take it to the ICT, the ICT done the registration for them at their end, students find it hard to update their courses registration details e.g add or drop course. After ict does the course registration for the student, the student will take the print out form to their head of department for submission. My aim of developing this system to make improvement and update features on the current course registration system use in Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama, Bayelsa State. Where the head of department will setup curriculum for their students and review their students course register before approving their course registration and students can print their approved courses registration from their pages.
1.2INTRODUCTION
System may be defined as a layered structure that depicts how programs interrelate and communicate. In computers, System may also include actual programs, programming interfaces and tools for managing the larger system. The term system may be used differently in different contexts, but more or less the concept remains the same.
Basically, systems are implemented for facilitating complex manual processes and that is exactly what to be achieved. System is implemented as per user requirement such as a manufacturing concern may install a plant for easing out manual processes. seeking help from computer programming for automation of manual registration system. With the introductionof computers, every aspect of our lives has been revolutionized. When used judiciously, computers can help us save time, secure our personal information, access the required information whenever and wherever required. Keeping all these positive points in mind, for Electronic Student Course Registration System, this idea has been developed for easily managing the semester course registration process for the student in Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama. In state IJBCOE the course allocation is advisory based and more complicated. The courses are assigned according to the skill set and industry requirements. Hence, in current scenario, automated system is required for semester course registration of students.
Electronic students course registration or e-registration, is a secure web based registration or even online registration website that students enter to register their semester course registration. Students can access the e-registration site from anywhere with an internet connection. Mostly these sites are portals. Pena-Lopez (2007) describes a web portal as a site that functions as a point of access to information on the World Wide Web and portals present information from diverse sources. The Google directory describes the term portal as where users control the content. The Elizade University I.C.T describes portal as Portal means website that serves as a gateway or a main entry point ('cyber door') on the internet to a specific field-of-interest or an industry. There are several terms in library and information science and indeed IT that have their origins borrowed from other disciplines and a portal is one of such (Brakel, 2003). It must be borne in mind that the Web, a resource of the Internet, and a tool to browse the Internet is the first ever innovation that allows anyone to publish to a vast number of users via the Internet. The portal in this context, is more than a gateway, it is a hub from which users can locate all the Web content commonly needed (Nielsen, 1999). The portal is a platform for organizations – universities, colleges, companies to leverage and for efficient communication and other in-house operations. Put more simply a portal collates a variety of useful information into a single, one-stop` web-page, helping the user to avoid being overwhelmed by info glut or feeling lost on the web (Looney and Lyman 2000 33). However, the Internet (Internet gateways or libraries) are not focused on internal enterprise functions. Reasons why organizations have a portal according to (source) include: Information customization: Information personalization: Efficiency in accessing information (work flow): Link integrity software issues that link work: Enhancements and features such as calendars, to do lists, schedules, hours of operation, discussion groups and chat, announcements and alerts, job openings, career opportunities, reports and documents, search, emails, course schedules, grades, CPGAs (Cumulative Point Grade Average), transcripts, campus and world news, links to reference materials, bookmarks, etc. (Brakel, 2003). The roles that a portal supports includes those of students, faculty, staff, managers, workers, provosts, academic departments, IT facilities, scholars, researchers, prospective students, alumni, visitors, friends and vendors. (Katz, 2002).
The term portal is known as links page which presents information from diverse sources in a unified way. It may contain services that provide standard search engine feature, e-mail, news, information, databases and entertainment. Portals provide a way for enterprises to provide a consistent look and feel with access control and procedures for multiple applications and databases, which otherwise would have been different entities altogether.
1.1 STATEMENTS OF THE PROBLEM
The purpose of this study is to develop a web based Course Registration Portal that has a solution to the problems of the student’s semester course registration currently in the institution. The purpose of this study is aimed to solve the following problems:
1. The semester courses registration problem due to some manual means of operations which easily lead to misplacement or loss of student course registration information.
2. The manual pre-assessment of student course registration system is very slow and consumes a lot of time which causes the delay in completing the entire courses enrolment process.
3. Consume time and human effort due to long queue in the process of paying money in the bank and registration processes.
4. Due to manual means of generating report, such report can easily be misplaced or loss. The outcomes from this study will assist the Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama to know whether or not the problems of manual handling of students` registration and mismanagement records should be overcome. The level of acceptance and use of e-registration by the students of the Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama that will be unraveled in this study will provide a framework for the improvement of e-registration at the Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama from which other colleges/universities in the country can connect materials to improve their own e-registration exercise.
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
My aim is to develop a web based Electronic semester course registration portal for Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama, Bayelsa state.
Objectives are as follow
1. To have an effective way of providing courses information notification anywhere and anytime to the students about rapid changes of schedule.
2. Making the Semester Course registration process accessible anywhere to the students.
3. Making the head of department to setup semester course curriculum for students.
4. Making head of department to preview students course registration before approving them.
1.2 Proposed Methodology of the Study.
⦁ Data Collection: the primary Data needed for these proposed project is collected through Interviews with the staffs and students of Ijbcoe, Reading of textbooks, journals and observation of student during their course registration period.
⦁ Software and Hardware: this includes the hardware and software that will be used to carry out the success of the project. Ram 4gb, Hard disk space 40GB, Window 10 Operating system, Notepad++
⦁ Programming Languages: Programming Languages that will used to developed the proposed system includes
⦁ PHP: It is used to send data to the database and retrieved database from the database.
⦁ MySQL: It is used to interact with database e.g. Insert, Delete, Update, Select. It is used to store records
⦁ HTML: It is used to design the font end (users Interfaces) of the system.
⦁ CSS: It is used to beautify the front end the user’s interfaces.
⦁ JavaScript: commonly used as a part of web pages, whose implementations allow client-side script to interact with the user and make dynamic pages
⦁ JQuery: it makes easier to use JavaScript on the website.
⦁ Class Diagram: This are UML diagram which will be used to depict the proposed system, the flow and relations or interaction of various links together.
1.3 SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
The significance of the study is that it will provide an effective means to capture, store and retrieve student and course information for IJBCOE. The IJBCOE Management can be presented with instant reports needed pertaining to any student or group of students and the courses registered. The study will also serve as a good reference material for other researchers that need information pertaining to the subject.
1.To the Students,
Through this system, the students should be able to use the Electronic Course Registration Portal effectively for their Online Course registration processes especially for registering their personal information, courses registration. Example: It will also promote students easy access to information resources, materials etc.
2. To the Faculty Members,
Through this system, the faculty members can provide all the necessary information and resource material of their students and also be able to get the student information from the website.
3. To The Head of Departments,
Through this system, the head of departments can upload the department courses, setup curriculum for the students to registered, preview students course registration and approved the students course registration detail.
4. To The Bursary Departments,
Through this system, the bursary department can upload student payment detail who pay their course registration fee to the bank and generate payment receipt for the student.
5. To The Information Communication Technology (ICT) Unit,
Through this system, the ICT department or unit will be relief from student workload, and creating account for new students, and also updating and improving the system features.
6. To the Future Researchers,
The future researchers could gain knowledge from the study on the benefits, advantages and disadvantages, impact of developing web portals which they may apply to their research in the future. By improving on the portal in such a way that is being connected with inter-switch whereby students will be able to make any necessary payment through the website, payment like school fee, acceptance fee, and departmental fee and so on.
1.4 SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This project work is set to develop Electronic Student Course Registration System for Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama, Bayelsa State.Itwill cover the semester course registration of both old and fresh students of Isaac jasper boro college of education sagbama, bayelsa state which can be accessible from anywhere with internet. It does not cover the semester course registration of students in other college of education in Nigerian or Universities although with little amendments, it could be used by any desiring universities or polytechnic. This project does not cover records, student’s affairs and others hence it cannot be used in the processing of student’s results, students’ hostel allocation etc.
The Limitations of the study
1. Time Constraint- Time frame for the study is short.
2. Distance or location – Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama, Bayelsa State is far from my institution.
3. The problem of financial constraint was also an issue of great concern. The meager income available to me had to be managed to realize this work.
4. The problem of interrupted power supply also affected my fastness in the design of my work.
1.5 BENEFITS OF THE PROPOSED SYSTEM TO IJBCOE
The benefits of this research work is to present to Isaac Jasper Boro College of Education Sagbama, Bayelsa state. Course Registration system that is electronic that will help in the following ways:
i. Easy data updating
ii. Easy record keeping
iii. Less human error
iv. Strength and strain of manual labor can be reduced
v. High security
vi. Making the course registration process accessible anywhere to the students.
1.9 Thesis Organization
Chapter 1 consists of the background of the study, the aim and the objectives and significance of the study. The benefits of the proposed system to IJBCOE, the method of data collection and sources of the data collected. Finally, the definition of the terms used in the write-up. Chapter 2 focuses on the Literature Review which compares the other various methods of course Registration with the electronic students course registration system. It also explains the places where electronic course registration system had been used and how it was used. Chapter 3 is about the analysis and design of the electronic student course registration system. Chapter 4 describes how the designed system will be implemented, tested and documented. Chapter 5 discusses the limitations of the study, the summary and recommendations for the effective use of the developed system and the conclusion.
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