Departmental Portal System

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A DEPARTMENTAL PORTAL (CASE STUDY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT) BY HARRYS JIL ODINAKACHUKWU NAITES/COM/ND12/363 A NATIONAL DIPLOMA PROJECT PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE NIGERIAN ARMY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, MAKURDI IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF NATIONAL DIPLOMA (ND) IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

OCTOBER, 2014 TITLE PAGE DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF A DEPARTMENTAL PORTAL 1

(CASE STUDY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT) BY HARRYS JIL ODINAKACHUKWU NAITES/COM/ND12/363 A NATIONAL DIPLOMA POJECT PRESENTED TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE NIGERIAN ARMY INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, MAKURDI IN PARTIAL FULFILMENT FOR THE AWARD OF NATIONAL DIPLOMA (ND) IN COMPUTER SCIENCE

OCTOBER, 2014 DECLARATION I, HARRYS JIL ODINAKACHUKWU hereby declare that this project work was done by me and has never been presented before for the award of National Diploma (ND) in Computer Science. All referenced work has been dully acknowledged.

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NAITES/COM/ND12/363

Signature/Date

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CERTIFICATION PAGE This is to certify that this project DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF DEPARTMENTAL PORTAL was written by HARRYS JIL ODINAKACHUKWU with matriculation number NAITES/COM/ND12/363 under my supervision. .

Supervisor

Signature/Date

Project Coordinator

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Head of Department

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External Examiner

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APPROVAL PAGE This project report has been approved for the Department of Computer Science, Nigerian Army Institute of Technology and Environmental Studies Makurdi. 4

BY

Supervisor

Signature/Date

Project Coordinator

Signature/Date

Head of Department

Signature/Date

External Examiner

Signature/Date

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DEDICATION

This project is dedicated to Late Mrs. Theresa N. Harrys, whose motherly love, advice, rebuke and upbringing has seen me to the point where I am now and still leading me on.

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ACKNOLEDGEMENTS I would love to acknowledge firstly, God Almighty whose love and mercies upon my life has kept me to this far in life. To Dr. Joseph O. Harrys who had been a compass of direction and guidance to me, Mrs. Prissy I. Harrys who has been there all the way for me, serving as a pillar of re-enforcement. I would not want to forget some dynamic individuals Miss. Joy C. Harrys, Miss. Jef U. Harrys, Miss. Jed C. Harrys, Master Joseph E. Harrys, their prayers is all what have been keeping me going. To my able Supervisor Miss Nwafor Chidinma for making me go through the refining process to make sure that the gold in me is actualized, more grace to your elbows ma’am, Mrs. Charity Egbunu, for her academic advice and motherly counsel. The HOD Computer Science Department Mr. Jikeme Emmanuel, for providing a conducive learning environment and for providing me with necessary details in course of this project. To Lt.Col MI Essien (Rtd) for teaching me how to work amidst any kind of season and giving exposure to how the labor would look like. To all Staffs and Students of Computer Science Department (NAITES) for treating me like a member of one big family. The staff of NAITES as a whole are also among my acknowledgement list not exempting Brig Gen EJ Enenche. Also, I wish to acknowledge my able project coordinator Mr Caleb Shagbum and the entire staff of the department of Computer Science.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page Declaration Certification Page Approval Page Dedication Acknowledgement Table of Content Abstract CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Stud 1.2 Statement of the Problem 1.3 Aim & Objectives 1.4 Significance of the Study 1.5 Scope of the Study 1.6 Limitation of the Study 1.7 Definition of Terms

ii iii iv v vi vii viii x 1 3 3 4 4 4 5

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Preamble 2.2 Theoretical Framework of the Study 2.3 Empirical Review of Previous Work

6 6 9

CHAPTER THREE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODOLOGY 3.1 Preamble 3.2 Research Methodology 3.2.1 Methodologies Adopted for the Proposed System 3.2.2 Method of Data Collection 3.3 Description and Analysis of the Existing System 3.3.1 Components of the Existing System 3.3.2 How the Existing System Works 3.3.3 Data Flow Diagram of the Existing System 3.3.4 Advantages of the Existing System 3.3.5 Disadvantages of the Existing System 3.4 Description and Analysis of the Proposed System 3.4.1 Data Flow Diagram of the Proposed System 3.4.2 Justification of the Proposed System 3.4.3 Advantages of the Proposed System 3.4.4 Disadvantages of the Proposed System

19 19 20 21 21 21 22 22 23 23 23 24 25 25 25

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3.4.5 3.5 3.5.1 3.5.2 3.6 3.6.1 3.6.2 3.7 3.7.1 3.7.2 3.7.3

High Level Model of the System System Requirement Hardware Requirement Software Requirement Research Design Input Specification Output Specification UML Diagram Use Case Diagrams Class Diagrams Activity Diagram

26 26 26 27 27 27 27 27 28 31 32

CHAPTER FOUR SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION 4.1 Preamble 4.2 Objectives of the System Design 4.3 Program Main Menu 4.4 System and Program Flowchart 4.5 Choice and Justification of Programming Language Used 4.6 Program Code Listing 4.7 Maintenance

35 35 35 36 37 38 38

CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Review of Achievement 5.2 Suggestion for Further Research 5.3 Recommendation 5.4 Conclusion

40 40 40 40

References Appendix I Appendix II

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ABSTRACT Education is very important in this century, especially higher education. In recent years, courses development is springing up like mushrooms. Therefore, the need to provide and maintain high quality of teaching and learning services are very important to maintain. This project report is about developing a Departmental Portal which aim at creating a system whereby common educational challenges can be tackled without much stress from the students or staffs. The use of PHP and MySQL were involved for the developmental process. The Departmental Portal is a web based system that deals on registration of student, generating blacklist for student, generating quick result for each student, provides upload and download of course material and allocation of departmental courses. It is an affordable solution that gives the department more values as the system caters to the need of the department which includes: admission, online result, inquiry etc. It maintains all information of the department in a centralized database and allows each Staff to view relevant information from anywhere at any time. This system will assist the student of the department regarding information (on the courses, levels, assignment, grades and news/events update) and provides a simple interface for the maintenance of the students’ information to be used by the department to maintain the records and details of each student easily.

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CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION 1.1 Background of the Study The role of education as an instrument for promoting the socio-economic, political and cultural development of any nation can never be over-emphasised. According to Abdulkareem (2001), a nation’s growth and development is determined by its human resources. The provision of the much-needed manpower to accelerate the growth and development of the economy has been said to be the main relevance of university education in Nigeria (Ibukun, 1997). The colonial education which was inherited by Nigeria was criticised for being too theoretical to be able to make meaningful impact on the life of Nigerians (Akinlua, 2007). Subjects taught in schools reflected the taste of the colonial education officials; hence school curricula were built around the existing colonial values. Students were supposed to mimic their teachers in subject like English Language which involved demonstration of competency. The same problem which informed dependency on past colonial education relics seems to have continued till date. Woolman (2001: 41) was forced to comment on issue of this sort in his remark about African education. According to him, “African school systems today still follow the rigid structure of time periods and grade-level progression found in Western education.” In the rural areas where the majority lived, children learned the skills of farming and other work, as well as the duties of adulthood, from participation in the community. This process was often supplemented by age-based schools in which groups of young boys were instructed in community responsibilities by mature men. By the 1970s, education experts were asking how the system could be integrated into the more formal schooling of the young, but the question remained unresolved by 1990.

Western-style education came to Nigeria with the

missionaries in the mid-nineteenth century. Although the first mission school was founded in 1843 by Methodists, it was the Anglican Church Missionary Society 11

that pushed forward in the early 1850s to found a chain of missions and schools, followed quickly in the late 1850s by the Roman Catholics. In 1887 in what is now southern Nigeria, an education department was founded that began setting curricula requirements and administered grants to the mission societies. By 1914, when north and south were united into one colony, there were fifty-nine government and ninety-one mission primary schools in the south; all eleven secondary schools, except for King's College in Lagos, were run by the missions. The history of university education in Nigeria started with the Elliot Commission of 1943, which led to the establishment of University College Ibadan (UCI) in 1948. UCI was an affiliate of the University of London (Ike, 1976). According to Ibukun (1997), the UCI was saddled with a number of problems at inception ranging from rigid constitutional provisions, poor staffing, and low enrolment to high dropout rate. Education is an important and traditional part of society. As time has progressed education has also changed from traditional one to the current modern system of education currently been practised. It also required changing the way of maintaining the student information in the department. The Departmental portal is a web base system that deals with the registration, record updating and maintaining student information. Currently, schools usage of new technologies is very limited. Most schools have dozens of computers but they are only used for teaching the computer subject and nobody uses them for administration purposes. There are some limited numbers of schools that use a computer instead of a typewriter by using Microsoft Word or for saving some data in Microsoft Excel. However there are numerous tasks that can be done by computers if they are programmed to do, such as managing students’ grades. Students' grade management is one of the most tedious task of administration staff and teachers of schools, which they have to perform manually at the every school year. Managing students' grades is a task of administration staff and lecturers of the department, which is very time consuming and error prone. 12

As more information is made available in a variety of formats and media and in a variety of locations, the need to manage information/data efficiently becomes more and more critical. Both staff and public users want access to stored information and want to access it more efficiently. It is the Department Policy to improve both the efficiency and effectiveness of departmental registration and result processing operations and services through the implementation of an integrated automated database System. This website is very dynamic and very easy to understand, the interface of the website is very easy and anybody can easily work in our website, this website can provide all the details about the department, courses, subjects, event, news, attendance, result, some important information about fresh news & events. The online departmental management website is also very useful because the student don’t have to read notice board, he can easily view all info. Like result via this website. To make this website work successfully we have used some latest technology such as PHP as the Development Platform, PHP frame work as the development and MYSQL as the Database Management environment. 1.2

Statement of the Problem

Today in the department, student details are entered manually. The student details in separate records are tedious task. Referring to all these records and updating is needed. There is a chance for more manual errors. The presence of so many hands on computing the students information gives room for errors, but the fewer the hands involved the less the errors encountered. 1.3

Aim and Objectives

The Aim of this project is to create a system whereby common educational challenge can be tackled without much stress from the students or staffs. Objectives of the project include: a.

Creating a system whereby students can copy and submit their assignments

online. b.

Gets information about their academic history without necessary going

through the course lecturer. 13

c.

Keep records of all Students in all levels.

d.

Generates quick Result of each and every student.

e.

Automatic Generate student identification number which differs from the

matric numbers. f.

Generate black list for Students.

g.

The system can allow the administrator to select the unnecessary

information and delete them from the database. h.

Administrators have total control on Site; he can delete or edit information.

i.

Provide the facility like send mail for recover password.

j.

Upload course details.

1.4

Significance of the Study

The project work will help in a good number of ways to ease the delay in manual departmental processing. The software developed will help the department to achieve efficient information management system. It saves the stress of manual collection of student details, database for registration and examination result is maintained. 1.5

Scope of the Study

This system covers the general activities carried out by the departmental administration officer. Some of these activities includes; managing of student information, upload student assignments, time-tables, results. Also it publishes course details which entail the course description, credit unit, course lecturer and course syllabus. Keeping the students and staffs up-to-date with latest news and most recent events is not left out by the system. This system also gives the student the opportunity to keep their information up-to-date by allowing them to edit their profiles. 1.6

Limitation of the Study

Each and every system has some limitations that can restrict them to work on a particular environment. On the course of this study, the scope was narrowed down to a few, based on the lack of adequate information concerning the existing 14

system. The Department withheld some information from me because of confidentiality, some of those information withheld includes: Address, Date of Birth, Phone Numbers and Address of Next of Kin. Also, the entire process of the existing system (i.e manual departmental system) was not all spelt out. Based on the fact that this system was narrowed down to the departmental level, little information was not released by the Registry department. 1.7

Definition of Terms

Module

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One of the parts of a Program

Portal

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A dynamic site that allows access to so many modules

Database

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A large store of data being held in a computer and is easily

accessible to a person Synchronous –

A form of transmission in which data is sent as a block using

frames or packets Asynchronous – A form of transmission that transmit only one character at a time and during transmission the character is preceded by a start bit and followed stop bit that lets the receiving device known where a character begins and ends Stud Id

–

Black List –

Abbreviation for Student Identification Number Lists that contains students that are either

lowor have academic indiscipline. LMS

–

Learning Management System

VLS

–

Virtual Learning Environment

DFD

–

Data Flow Diagram

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academically

CHAPTER TWO LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Preamble In this computer age, information and management system is very common in Schools. The Appropriate use of these systems helps to reduce the workload and increase the work efficiency. The aim of this literature is to review the existing system which is commonly used in other School, and also understand the technology issues of this project case. 2.2

Theoretical Framework of the Study

There seems to be some controversy whether students today are technologically prepared for the 21st Century Digital Age. “Available evidence shows that American adults and children have a poor understanding of the essential characteristics of technology, how it influences society, and how people can and do affect its development. Neither the educational system nor the policy-making apparatus in the United States has recognized the importance of technological literacy” (National Academy of Engineering, 2002). Technologies are growing at a tremendous rate and U.S. citizens are not equipped to make well-considered decisions or to think critically about technology. In short, we are not “technologically literate” (National Academy of Engineering, 2002). The introduction of computer into information technology has massively improved the information need of organizations; the success of this machine is dependent on the knowledge base. Therefore, one can be prompted to ask aloud “what a computer is?” A computer is an electronic device that can perform automatically and at a high speed a sequence of logical operations according to instructions given to it inform of a pre-arranged program (Funk, 1980). A computer is 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 equalled by any other known machine to mankind(Anigbogu, 2000). 16

Roblyer, et al (as cited in Roblyer, 2000) states, “. . . the future of educational technology rests to a great degree on us (educators): how we view technology, how we respond to the challenge it presents, and how we see it helping us accomplish our own informed vision of what teaching and learning should be.” In America, between the academic school years of 1991-92 and 1996-97, inventories of computers grew 186% with an additional 1.2 million computers added in 1996-97 alone. In 1996-97 there were an estimated 6.3 million computers in virtually 100% of the nation’s schools (Market Data Retrieval, 1997 as cited by U.S. Department of Education, 2002a). In 1998, 89% of schools had Internet connections (U.S. Department of Education, 1999 as cited by U.S. Department of Education, 2002). However, technology alone does not make a difference; rather the key element is how it is used. The National Education Technology Plan 2004 (U.S. Department of Education, 2004), reports that today nearly every public school has access to the Internet, but the real issue lies in the lack of adequate training and lack of understanding of how computers can be used to improve learning. In 1999 the Milken Family Foundation conducted its second annual survey (Solomon and Widerhorn, 2000) of district technology coordinators. Previously, assessments were believed to have been tied more to equipment measures than technology planning and advancement. The purpose of this survey was to obtain accurate and up-to-date school technology data by state. According to the survey, student-to computer ratio was the most common summary statistic on the status of school technology. Survey results indicated a significant drop in student-tocomputer ratio, 36.3 to one in 1997-98 as compared to 18.5 to one in 1998-99. In recent years, there has been an enormous growth in the areas of online courses and virtual schools, customizing instruction to meet the needs of individual students. According to the Education Week Research Centre (as cited in Fox, 2005), 22 states have established state virtual schools and 16 states have at least one cyber charter school 17

Chin et al. (2000) reported that the online environment is potentially an arena in which

new practices and new relationships can make significant contribution

towards learning. However, Jones et al. (2000) identifies the Internet as an ideal vehicle for college management system, delivering of course materials and providing student with flexibility, reliability and freedom of choice. Slay (1997) agreed that there is current trends towards the delivery of courseware via the World Wide Web. Well (1999) expanded that the Internet is primarily a delivery vehicle for information, which assists with facilitation of the teaching and learning process. The above mentioned author agreed that the Internet has an important role to play within education the educational sector in any country. The Internet being used, as only a delivery vehicle might not be the most effective usage of the tool, as the literature will discuss in further sections, but as an interactive tool between a student in a college and the school. It will contribute towards the learning process as reported by Rogers (2001). Adams (2011) comments there has been little critical discussion relating to the potential shifts in teaching and learning practices, and overall there is little evidence-based research supporting continued investment in e-learning from a pedagogical perspective. The rapid adoption of LMS has occurred in a vacuum of research into their teaching and learning effectiveness (Beer, Jones et al. 2009). Overall, LMS are a “taken for granted teaching technology, based on accessibility and convenience (Weigel 2005), as well as [meeting] perceived student demand for digitally enhanced learning environments” (Adams 2011: 253). However, there is increasing recognition that “LMS are not pedagogically neutral technologies, but rather through their very design they influence and guide teaching. As the systems become more incorporated into everyday academic practices, they will work to shape and even define teachers’ imaginations, expectations and behaviours” (Coates, James et al. 2005: 27). Mersham (2009), states “the choice of medium or LMS is a major consideration in e-learning. This software facilitates management of educational courses, including course 18

development, presentation and administration.... E-learning pedagogy exists direct and is mutually dependent on relationship with the technologies, supporting and allowing certain activities while preventing others”. 2.3

Empirical Review of Previous Work

In the early 1960s, Stanford University psychology professors Patrick and Richard C. Atkinson experimented with using computers to teach math and reading to young children in elementary schools in the East Palo Alto, California. Stanford's Education Program for Gifted Youth is descended from those early experimented. As early as 1993, William D. Graziadei described an online computer-delivered lecture, tutorial and assessment project using electronic mail. In 1997 Graziadei, W.D., et al., published an article entitled "Building Asynchronous and Synchronous Teaching-Learning Environments: Exploring a Course/Classroom Management System Solution". They described a process at the State University of New York (SUNY) of evaluating products and developing an overall strategy for technology-based course development and management in teaching-learning. The product(s) had to be easy to use and maintain, portable, replicable, scalable, and immediately affordable, and they had to have a high probability of success with long-term cost-effectiveness. Serdiukov (2001), therefore suggested three new model of online web-based college management system, which are: Teacher-students: This is the traditional model for education with a face between the teacher and the students. Teacher-computer-students: The teacher–student’s model has been transformed into the Teacher-Computer–Student model, which has more advantages because it gives accommodation for Student- computer, Student- Teacher and Teacher– Computer interaction. Computer–Student: This model terminates live human presence, which means there is no Teacher–Student contact time. There is an interaction of teaching, 19

learning and enabling elements on the World Wide Web that facilitate cognitive change in learners (Rogers, 2001). According to a case study by Ralph, et al (2007) regarding the use of online projects, students in favour of online projects indicated that the accessibility to the professor for fast and easy feedback was a great asset. Furthermore, the study revealed that when implementing technology students were concerned with the expense of the technology, the necessity for internet access, and the reliability of the technology. Research on student perceptions and satisfaction with online courses provide insights to student reactions and satisfaction with implementation of an online exam. Hale (2007) found that student satisfaction surveys reveal that the most important reason for taking a distance education course is its convenience. In addition, Steinman (2007) indicated that “students’ perceptions of online courses can be negative if they experience large transactional distance with the instructor and with other students and can influence whether a student will stay in or drop out of a class.” Steinman (2007) also found that “many students choose to enrol in online courses and the demand for online courses is high. Taking an online course can provide educational experiences that would otherwise be unavailable, especially for students who live in rural areas and do not have convenient access to schools.” Rowh (2007) also found that “online courses offer convenient learning and those students who take online classes are working hard. They're just doing it at their own pace, on a schedule and in a setting that works for them.” Walker (2007) indicates that the “widespread availability of computers and the Internet provide considerable enrichment in terms of variety of material and formats for presentation over what was possible with the old correspondence courses”. The Chronicle for Higher Education (2007) reported that a university stated that they “use electronic education to add on to their curriculum, not as the main basis.” This lends to the implementation of an online exam into a traditional classroom where students still get the face-to-face interaction with the instructor and classmates but the control of time and location to take their exams. 20

Patterson (2006) conducted a post-examination survey of students completing an online exam. The study “found a large majority of students were able to easily access the online exam, found the testing tool easy to use, and were able to complete the comprehensive exam with little difficulty. The future use of online assessment for the comprehensive exam was supported by 87% of respondents.” Furthermore, Patterson found that the “Web-based comprehensive exam procedures employed made it possible for students to take the exam at the time and place of their choosing”. The exam was able to reduce stress for students by giving them the ability to choose time and location of taking the exam according to Patterson. Patterson (2006) also acknowledged that the “challenges to test items security and the creation of procedures to minimize the possibility of collaboration and cheating on this type of "high-stakes" examination remains to be fully met. A study of online exams by Luecht (2001) “identified six challenges of Webbased testing: (1) test-taker identity and testing materials security risks, (2) measurement of problem-solving and complex skills, (3) implementation of advanced item selection and test construction algorithms, (4) management and processing of test response data, (5) deployment of "high-bandwidth" multimedia tests and, (6) optimization of the "usability" of Web-based testing interfaces.” Luecht (2001) also identified several “strengths of Web-based testing including rapid test development and deployment, around-the-clock test access, prompt results reporting, and decreased need for test administration personnel.” According to Sara Bennet (2009), Learning Management Systems are referred to by several names, including course management systems, virtual learning environments (VLE), and e-learning courseware. The term LMS is more frequently used in the majority of US based publications and VLE is more frequently used in Europe and Asia (Weller, 2007). For the purposes of this report, the term LMS is used synonymously with VLE. A University LMS consists of many interlinked components, as illustrated below (Wise and Quealy 2006): LMSs resemble other systems designed for e-commerce, human resources 21

and student records, but what makes an LMS unique is its functionality and instructional nature. Ellis describes a ‘robust’ LMS as a system which has the ability to: 1. Centralise and automate administration 2. Use self-service and self-guided services 3. Assemble and deliver learning content rapidly 4. Consolidate training initiatives on a scalable web-based platform 5. Support portability and standards 6. Personalize content and enable knowledge re-use (Ellis 2009:1) Hayward (2009) (cited from Adams 2011) describes LMSs through a five level hierarchy of Increasing capabilities: 1. Classroom management – facilitate delivery of notes or other learning aids for a particular lecture (e.g., lecturer creates a website to distribute materials) 2. Course management – support to span multiple class sessions across an entire course with common goals, adding tools for evaluation, feedback and discussion 3. Curriculum management – provides meta-tools (e.g., content tagging and objectives management) to handle relationships among a set of courses. These tools can be used to index a curriculum across a programme or identify common attributes across courses 4. Learning management – information is organised around the learner. This facilitates self-directed learning as students can chose from a variety of learning opportunities, and can progress at different rates over time depending on individual goals. Students may have a private area within the system to assemble selected resources (facilitating the use of an e-portfolio) 22

5. Community management – enables borders to extend beyond the class, course, curriculum or the traditional campus learner, allowing for multiple learning contexts and organisations. Selecting an LMS is a critical decision for any University, and is likely to have a major impact over a number of years. LMSs are available in two broad categories: propriety (paid for) and open source. Most of the propriety systems are based on Microsoft .NET and/or Java technologies (Eckstein, 2010). Examples of paid-for LMS include Blackboard, JoomlaLMS, Learn.com, and Saba Learning Suite. Most open source systems are based on Apache, PHP and MYSQL, making installation simple and inexpensive (or free), and the software for each open source LMS is free to download, install, use and update, and all have comprehensive free documentation and forums (Eckstein 2010). Examples of open source LMS include Moodle, Sakai Project, Claroline, and aTutor. This review concentrates on Blackboard and Moodle, as these are the most frequently used second generation propriety and open source LMS in use in New Zealand and Australia (Bacus 2010; University of Tasmania. 2010). Although definitive data is very difficult to access, it appears that of 33 universities across New Zealand and Australia 29 are currently using a version of Blackboard (including WebCT), 12 are using a version of Moodle, one is using Sakai and one is using Desire2Learn. There are more than 90 different types of LMSs available (Pina, 2010). Second generation LMS are characterised by a shift towards modular architecture designs, recognitions of the need for semantic exchange, integration of standards-compliant platforms and increased shift towards the ‘services’ principle, where aspects of functionality are externally exposed (Dagger, O'Connor et al. 2007). Second generation LMS remain content or teacher centric, rather than learner-centric (Yau, Lam et al. 2009). Blackboard was established in 1997, and has grown considerably over time through the strategic acquisition of other LMS and non-LMS companies. As a result, Blackboard has a wide-reaching product line. In 2009, Blackboard Learn Version 9 was introduced, which incorporated functionality from earlier versions of Blackboard and WebCT. 23

Walsh and Coleman (2010) note that the latest version, Blackboard Learn 9.1 also incorporates Blackboard Connect (at an additional cost), which alerts students to deadlines, due dates and academic priorities within a course. Blackboard 9.1 also allows educators to more easily incorporate videos and photos directly into text for a more complete learning experience. Finally, this version also features Blackboard Mobile Learn (also at an additional cost), which lets students connect to their online courses using various handheld devices, such as the iPhone or iPad. Blackboard has adopted a modular approach, where the LMS is extended by the incorporation of ‘building blocks’ – applications built by third parties. A small number of building blocks are available free of charge, however most are purchased or licensed annually. Tools included within the Blackboard Learn community are course-centric, and are supplemented with the Content, Community and Outcomes systems to add institutional

based content and

learning object management, e-library reserves, e-portfolio, and group and user role management (Pina, 2010). Due to the significant annual investment required for the Content, Community and Outcomes systems which can triple or quadruple the initial licensing fee for the Learn system many customers only use the core Learn system (Pina, 2010). In contrast to Moodle, Blackboard positions itself as pedagogically neutral (Adams, 2011). In New Zealand, Blackboard has been used by many tertiary institutions as an LMS (Winter, 2006). Moodle has been freely available for download and implementation since 2002, and is developed and supported by an active community of developers, users and administrators that keep the software evolving at a steady pace (Pina, 2010). Moodle 2.0 is the latest version, and new features focus on increased usability, including: easier navigation, improved user profiles, community hub publishing and downloading, a new interface for messaging, and a feature that allows teachers to check student work for plagiarism (Walsh, et al 2010). Text formats also allow plug-ins for embedded photos and videos in text. (Walshet al 2010), note that Blackboard 9.1 allows for this too. A major improvement in Moodle 2.0 is that anyone can set up a community hub, which is a public or private directory of courses. Also, Moodle now allows teachers to search all public community hubs and download courses 24

to use as templates for building their own courses. Teachers can now see when a student completes a certain activity or task and can also see reports on a student’s progress in a course (Walsh, et al 2010). Moodle LMS design is explicitly conceptualised to support a social constructivist framework of education, where students are actively involved in constructing their own knowledge (Moodle, 2011). The concept behind this philosophy of learning is that learners actively construct new knowledge and they learn more by explain what they have learnt to others, as well as by adopting a more subjective stance to the knowledge being created (Barr, Gower et al. 2007). Pina (2010) comments that the Moodle interface contains a feature set similar to a commercial LMS, however the focus of the interface reflects Moodle’s constructivist roots, and is focused on facilitating communications and social interaction. In New Zealand, Moodle was reviewed by the Open Source Virtual Learning Environment Project, as part of the identification and selection of a suitable open source learning environment to develop for use in educational institutions. Moodle was shortlisted from over 30 options, and was recognised for its user friendliness, flexibility, excellent documentation and evolution to meet SCORM standards, along with accessibility to developers, modular architecture, and the existence of a lively developer community (Winter, 2006). Identifying LMS market share information is very difficult to ascertain, however there is general agreement that Blackboard and Moodle are responsible for a large section of the LMS market. A recent analysis of LMS market share for US Higher Education institutions was undertaken by the Delta Initiative. Beer and colleagues (2009) analysed LMS systems analytics data and investigated LMS ‘clicks’ by undergraduate students as a proxy indicator of course engagement. Engagement was defined as including active and collaborative learning, participation, and communication among teachers and students. Acknowledging that learning is more complex and diverse than demonstrated in this model, findings indicated a positive correlation between the number of student clicks on LMS courses and their resulting grade. Student 25

grades were increased where they had participated in discussion forums with teaching staff, compared to students where staff did not contribute to discussion forms. These authors suggest this emphasises the importance of employing discussion forums as part of on-line teaching, and encouraging teaching staff to adopt this LMS feature (2009; Beer, Clark et al. 2010). Similar findings have been reported by other authors (Dawson and McWilliam 2008). Also using LSM analytic data, the University of Wollongong has developed a student network visualisation tool, SNAPP (Social Networks Adopting Pedagogical Practice), to analyse the network of interactions resulting from discussion forums and replies (University of Wollongong. 2009). The data is generated from the LMS, and includes reports on the number of sessions (log-ins), dwell time (how long the log-in lasted) and number of downloads. Network visualisations of this data provide an opportunity for a teacher to identify patterns of user behaviour, at any stage of the course. The network diagram can: • Identify at risk or disconnected students • Identify key information brokers within a class • Identify potentially high and low performing students to support interventions being planned even before work is marked • Indicate the extent to which a learning community is developing within the class. The use of LMS by teachers is also an important part of student engagement – the quantity and quality of teacher presence are important and influential factors in developing and maintaining student online engagement (Dawson and McWilliam, 2008). Clark and colleagues (2010) also investigated LMS analytics data to demonstrate that there are links between an academic’s approach to pedagogy, utilisation of features within an LMS and use by both academics and students, which together create involvement and engaged learning. Acknowledging that the academic is only one part of interconnected learning, Clark et al suggest the 26

following components are necessary in combination to support engaged teachers and engaged learners: • An academic with understanding of their teaching approach a place within an LMS to create space for communication, collaboration and content dissemination, • A sound understand of assessment and the need for this to be authentic • Student motivation (Beer, Jones et al. 2009; Clark, Beer et al. 2010; Clark n.d.). A recent meta-analysis of student educational outcomes from online learning found that, on average, students in online learning conditions performed modestly better than those receiving face-to-face instruction (US Department of Education Office of Planning Evaluation and Policy Development. 2010). The difference between student outcomes for online and face-to-face classes was larger in those studies contrasting conditions that blended elements of online and face-to-face instruction with conditions taught entirely face-to-face. The authors noted that these blended conditions often included additional learning time and instructional elements not received by students in control conditions. This finding suggests that the positive effects associated with blended learning should not be attributed to the media per se, and that engagement with instructors is important (US Department of Education Office of Planning Evaluation and Policy Development. 2010). Similarly, Mersham (2009) comments that to be effective, e-learning must put into practice an e-pedagogy that relates to social interaction and collaboration. However, communication opportunities in e-learning are under-used and ineffective when they are grafted onto courses that are rooted in pedagogic models and practices with which they are incompatible. This project examines and discusses the problems, challenges and Benefits of implementing web-based college management system in the country, by reviewing the consciousness and willingness of the selected Colleges. This study also identifies the enabling factors, the traffic-jam and, forecasts the future growth of web-based college management system in Nigeria colleges. Survey research method was adopted for the study, and questionnaire was the only instrument 27

used for the data collection. The findings of the study show that out of the 18 colleges selected from different specialization areas, i.e three colleges from each Geopolitical zone, only 12 responded with usable answers. The response rate was 67%, which is an expected rate for such surveys. Awareness of web-based college management system among the colleges in Nigeria is very high but investment and commitment to develop a web-based college application is very poor and below expectation according to the study. Most of the staff and students in the colleges only use Internet related college information site just for the sake of finding related information for their researches, since their libraries cannot afford to provide them with adequate and current materials, but not for the sake of real online college management system. The study also found out that some of the colleges have web pages and others are in the trend of creating a web page, which is usually for advertisement of the colleges but not for the entire web-based college management system activities. Furthermore, the findings also reveal that staff and the students have also been using e-mail and Internet in addition to developing web pages for transaction of students. Web-based college management system comprises all forms of electronically supported college system and information. The information and communication systems, whether networked college system or not, serve as specific media to implement the college information process. The term will still most likely be utilized to reference out-ofclassroom and in-classroom educational experiences via technology, even as advances continue in regard to devices and curriculum.

28

CHAPTER THREE ANALYSIS AND DESIGN METHODOLOGY 3.1 Preamble This chapter is a compendium of the methods of data collection, the critical analysis of the previous system which involves; the processes in the system, flowchart of the system and the problems of the system. Analysis of the new system which includes; aim and function of the system, input requirement specification of the system, the processing requirement specification of the system, the output requirement specification of the system and the advantages of the new system. 3.2 Research Methodology Research methodology is a systematic way to solve a problem. According to Ranjit (2005), research methodology is defined as the step-by-step analysis of the principles of methods, rules and postulates employed by a discipline or the development

of

methods

to

be

applied

within

a

discipline

or

a

particularprocedure. Methodology in research can be considered to be the theory of correct scientific decisions (Karfman as cited in Mouton & Marais 1996:16). In this study, methodology refers to how the research was done and its logical sequence. The main focus of this study was the exploration and description of the experiences of students involved in the departmental registration processes, therefore the research approach was qualitative. Mouton (1996:35) describes methodology as the means or methods of doing something. According to Burns and Grove (2003:488), methodology includes the design, setting, sample, methodological limitations, and the data collection and analysis techniques in a study. Henning (2004:36) describes methodology as coherent group of methods that complement one another and that have the ability to fit to deliver data and findings that will reflect the research question and suit the researcher purpose. It is a science of studying how research is to be carried out. Essentially, the procedures by which researchers go about their work of 29

describing,

explaining

and

predicting

phenomena

are

called

research

methodology. It is also defined as the study of methods by which knowledge is gained. Its aim is to give the work plan of research. This is concern with the set of methods and principles used to carry out this project work successfully. It deals with techniques applied in data analysis and design. Examples of Research Methodologies include: 

YSM (Yourdon Systems Method).



AIM (Application Implementation Method)



OMT (Object Modelling Techniques)



SSDAM (System Structure Analysis and Design methodology)



OODM (Object Oriented Design Methodology)



OOSE (Object Oriented Software Engineering)



OOAD(Object Oriented Analysis and Design)

3.2.1 Methodologies Adopted for the Proposed System In achievingour proposed system, we made use of the internationally accepted software engineering model, the Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM). Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology (SSADM) is a systematic approach to the analysis and design of information systems. SSADM method involves the application of a sequence of analysis, documentation and design concerned with analysis of the current system, the logical data design, logical process design etc. The steps involved are; the use of the Use Case Diagrams, UML Activity Diagram, Sequence Diagrams and Class Diagrams which makes the presentation of data logical and easily understandable by even novice to get the desirable message. Based on the above reasons, Structured System Analysis and Design Methodology was adopted for this project work.

30

3.2.2 Method of Data Collection Data collection is the process whereby the researcher gathers information related to his problem from different sources. In any research work, the method of data collection should be in conformity with the nature of the research work itself. The two types of data being carried out in this project are as follows: i.

Primary method of collection

ii.

Secondary method of collection

i.

Primary Method of Collection: these consist of data that were collected

through observation and research (Old Departmental portal) with the help of some administrative staffs in the department. ii.

Secondary Method of Collection: These constitute the use of the library

and internet to check for new and improved system for departmental management. All these form the bedrock for the view of related literature of the research within the era of Information Technology age. 3.3 Description and Analysis of the Existing System The Existing system is a manual process that has all its processes revolving round the departmental office. The departmental officer stands as the middle man between the students, lecturers and the archives. All informations pass through the departmental officer and he is responsible for the safe keeping of the informations in the department. 3.3.1 Components of the Existing System The manual system has three components: 1.

The student/lecturer takes his/her records and details and submits to the

administration office that verifies the details. 2.

The administration Officer collects details form the students/lecturers and

keeps the collected information in their corresponding files. 3.

Archive is where all the information at the end of an academic year is kept

for the purpose of record keeping. The informations are not kept in the same file, 31

thus making it very hard and nearly impossible to retrieve necessary information from. 3.3.2 How the Existing System Works The manual system of departmental management is mainly overseen by the administration office of the department. The departmental administration office is in-charge of the registration, result printing, news, events and course registration of the students amongst others. Once a new student has been admitted into the department by the Registry department, she/he is expected to register with the department or be ready to forfeit the admission. She/he is expected to approach the departmental administration office with copies of her/his credentials alongside a registration of fee which varies in amount. The credentials to be submitted includes: Birth Certificate, Certificate of Origin, Hardcopy of O’level Results Printouts, Copy of School

Fees

Teller,

Testimonial/First

School

Leaving

Certificate

and

departmental registration form. After their credentials have been verified by the department, their details are now been entered manually into a list that contains the name of all the students admitted in that academic year that belongs to the same level. After which it is moved to an archive file that contains information of previous years. Hence, there is no database for all the record as they are all kept in different files. 3.3.3 Data Flow Diagram of the Existing System The data flow of the existing system refers to movement on informations and how the informations are related within the student, lecturer, administration officer and the information bank (usually the file cabinet).

32

Fig 3.1 DFD of the Existing System 3.3.4 Advantages of the Existing System 

It gives room for students with special cases (i.e handicapped)



It creates a student-administration relationship.



It makes sure that the right informations are submitted.



It gives the administrator a chance to help the student with information they are not cleared with.



Students can make change to their information at any time.

3.3.5 Disadvantages of the Existing System 

It is very slow and tends to take long time for processing.



It gives room for manipulation of student informations.



Students can influence the administrator.



It gives room for continuous error.

3.4

Description and Analysis of the Proposed System

The proposed system is intended to provide the facility of automating the administrative tasks such as student grade and information management, creating a general database for the safe keeping of the departmental informations amongst others. This system will be a web server system, meaning that all the transactions 33

would be carried out through the help of the internet the entire database used would be an online database. People who would access the system would include the administrator who is in charge of maintaining the system, the lecturers or staffs and most importantly the students at all levels. The administrative office of the department is responsible for managing details on the system including course, lecturers and students information. 3.4.1 Data Flow Diagram of the Proposed System This refers to pattern at which informations are been related within the student, lecturer and the proposed system (departmental system). News/Events/ Level

Student News/Event Details

Enter Data Student Details

News/Event Info

Departmental Management System

Course/Result Details Info

Staff Details

Enter View Reports Data Enter Data

Results/Course Details

Staff Administrator

Fig 3.2Level 0 DFD of the Proposed System

Fig 3.3 Level 1 DFD of the Existing System

34

3.4.2 Justification of the Proposed System This includes some of the interfaces that is been used and their functionality and importance. 

Password Recovery Page: This page would be used by the student incase she/he forgets his/her password. The new password would be sent to the email address provided.



Home Page: This is the first page the user/visitor sees when visits the site.



Admin Setup Page: This page is used strictly by the administrator to set up his/her parameters so as to enable him/her have total control over the system.



Admin Search Page: The admin uses this page to search for student details which he/she wants to edit, delete or blacklist.



Database View: This is the view of how the database looks like. This view is created with Phpmyadmin Panel.

3.4.3 Advantages of the Proposed System The Advantages of the Proposed System includes: 

It unifies the entire process.



It uses a central Database.



It makes the departmental process faster and stress free.



It reduces the rate of occurring error.

3.4.4 Disadvantages of the Proposed System The Disadvantages includes: 

It does not give provision for student with special cases (i.e handicapped).



Once the records are saved, it cannot be corrected by the students again

except by the administrator only. 

If there is a problem with the internet connection the student cannot access

the system.

35



It requires all the operators (i.e Admin, Lecturer and Student) to be

computer literate. 3.4.5 High Level Model of the Proposed System

Fig 3.4 Hierarchical Diagram of the Proposed System 3.5

System Requirement

The requirements for the installation of the Departmental portal are mentioned in the following sections. 3.5.1 Hardware Requirement The hardware requirements involve the following minimum resources: 

Processor Speed: Pentium III-class processor, 600 MHz processor



Recommended: 1 GHz processor



RAM: 192 MB or onwards Recommended.



Hard Disk Space: 45 MB of available space required on system drive of

available or more. 

Enhanced keyboard.



Mouse.



Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) Unit.



Working Internet Connection. 36

3.5.2 Software Requirement 

Operating System (Windows XP Service Pack 2, Windows Server 2003

Service Pack 1, or later versions) 

Web browser (Mozilla Firefox 24 /Opera 20.0 onwards or any browser that

supports HTML 5) 

Software (Mysql v5.1, PHP, Apache server or Wamp server 2.0)

3.8

Research Design

A Research Design helps to decide upon issues like what, when, where, how much, by what means, etc., with regard to an enquiry or a research study. “A research design is the arrangement of conditions for collection and analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the conceptual structures within which research is conducted; it constitutes the blueprint for the collection, measurement and analysis of data” (Selltiz, et al 1962). 3.6.1 Input Specification The input to this system consists of the various forms through information inputted or supplied to the system, which includes the login interface, the password recovery interface, the admin set up interface, the admin search interface, interface where students can input the courses they prefer etc. 3.6.2 Output Specification After the student must have supplied the information required by the system, the output produced by the system includes information put together display, which is the career that matches the information provided by the student. 3.9 UML Diagram UML stands for Unified Modeling Language; it is an Object Oriented system of notation. It is designed to provide a standard way to visualise the design of a system.

37

3.7.1 Use Case Diagrams The Use Case diagram models the functionality of the system using actors and use cases. View/Edkit Course Details

View/Edit Student Details View/Edit Session Details

View/Edit Staff Details

View/Edit Assignment Details

Admi n

Upload Examination

Upload News/Events

Upload Documents

Upload Time Table

Fig 3.8 Admin Use Case Diagram

38

Register Course

View News/Events

View Level Details

View/Print Own Result

Copy/SubmitAss ignment Details

Student

Download Documents

View Level Time Table

View Gallery

View Own Details

Fig 3.9 Student Use Case Diagram

39

Manage Own Profile View/Delete Assignment Upload Assignment

Lecturer Upload Document

Fig 3.10 Lecturer Use Case Diagram

40

3.7.2 Class Diagrams Class diagrams are the backbone of almost every object oriented method, including UML; they describe the static structure of a system. Admin Id name password email epass Permission Staff Id name password email epass permission course course_title course_code course_unit lvl sem lecturer

Std_matric Id name matric pass epass Material Id name dis level lecturer file_link

Assignment Id lecturer course_code level date title text file_link

Course_Reg id matric level course_1 cours_2 course_3 course_4 course_5 course_6 course_7 course_8 course_9 course_10 course_11 course_12 course_13

Student id name matric level gender email phone address ssid photo_url session pass dob cid blacklisted religion nok nok_number lga state

Fig 3.11Class Diagram

41

Exam exam_id matric level cu cp tcu tcp gpa cgpa rem carry_over

Assignments_solution Id by_matric date level link assignrmt_id course

3.7.3 Activity Diagram This illustrates the dynamic nature of a system by modeling the flow of control from activity to activity. An activity represents an operation on some class in the system that results in a change in the state of the system. Admin

Server

Browser Login

Go to Request

Database Verification Retrieve Info

Successfully Login

Response Check Valid

Add Staff/Student/Course

Go to Request

Successfully Msg

Response

Add News/Events

Go to Request

Successfully Msg

Upload Result

Go to Request

Successfully Msg

View Details Display

Log out

Response

Response Go to Request Response Forward Log out

Fig 3.12AdminActivity Diagram

42

Check and Add Info

Acknowledge

Check and Add Info

Acknowledge

Insert Result

Acknowledge

Get all Info View all info

Staff

Server

Browser Login

Go to Request

Database Verification Retrieve Info

Successfully Login

Add Assignment

Successfully Msg

Upload Doc.

Successfully Msg

Edit Course

Successfully Msg

View Solutions Display

Log out

Response Check Valid

Go to Request

Response

Go to Request

Response

Go to Request

Response Go to Request Response Forward Log out

Fig 3.13Staff/LecturerActivity Diagram

43

Check and Add Info

Acknowledge

Check and Add Info

Acknowledge

Get Details

Change Details

Get all Info View all info

Student

Server

Browser Login

Go to Request

Database Verification Retrieve Info

Successfully Login

Register

Response Check Valid

Go to Request

Display Details

Response

Register Courses

Go to Request

Successfully Msg

Download Ass/ Doc

Display Download

View Result/Time Table Display Result/Time-Table

Log out

Response

Go to Request

Response Go to Request Response Forward Log out

Fig 3.14StudentActivity Diagram

44

Check and Add Info

Acknowledge

Check and Add Info

Acknowledge

Get Downloads

Process Download

Get all Info View all info

CHAPTER FOUR SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION 4.1 Preamble This chapter covers the processes involved in the design and implementation of the new system. Also, it contains the system flowchart, choice and reason for choosing the preferred programming language and steps of efficient maintenance to ensure adequate functionality of the system. 4.2 Objectives of the System Design As the new system is focusing on how to create a computerised educational database system, effort was made to present designs that will suite the research objectives. So, the design of the software will help the user achieve the following objectives. a. Have a workable form through which all the inputs will be made to the system. b. Generate a report that will present all queried records. c. Design of a menu driven program so that the forms will be neatly arranged and utilized. d. Create a modular programming interface for easy debugging. 4.3 Program Main Menu The Main Menu is a page through which all other page can be accessed from, it contains all the navigation links that would enable the user to navigate to any page of his/her choice. This system has two main menus: the student main menu and the administrator main menu from which the student and administrator can access the content of the system respectively.

Username

Password

Log In Reset Password

Fig 4.1 Student Main Page

45

Main Portal Setup Student Management Course Management Download Management Result Management Log Out

Fig 4.2 Admin Main Menu 4.4 System and Program Flowchart A flowchart is a graphical or symbolic representation of a process. Each step in the process is represented by different symbol and contains a short description of the process step. The flowchart symbols are linked together with arrows showing the process flow direction. In other words, a flowchart is a diagrammatic representation of the logic flow of a program. Start

Log in

Web Server

NO

YES

Quer y

Login? Save Databas e

Print Result

Stop

Fig 4.3 System Flowchart

46

Start

Home Page

Enter Username Enter Password

NO

Is Username & Password Correct ?

YES New User ?

NO

Add more

YES

Update/View

Stop

Fig 4.4 Program Flowchart 4.5 Choice and Justification of Programming Language Used There are various languages used for the implementation of the website, these languages includes the following; PHP: PHP stands for Hypertext Pre-processor. Taken directly from PHP's home, PHP.net, "PHP is an HTML-embedded scripting language. Much of its syntax is 47

borrowed from C, Java and Perl with a couple of unique PHP-specific features thrown in. The goal of the language is to allow web developers to write dynamically generated pages quickly" this is generally a good definition of PHP. When someone visits your PHP webpage, your web server processes the PHP code. It then sees which parts it needs to show to visitors (content and pictures) and hides the other stuff (file operations, math calculations, etc.) then translates your PHP into HTML. After the translation into HTML, it sends the webpage to your visitor's web browser. CSS: This means Cascading Style Sheet. The layout of the document is taken care of by the CSS with the use of formatting tags, without the use of style sheets, the designing of a page would became more and more difficult to create as HTML documents was clearly separated from the document's presentation layout. Styles were created by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) a non-profit, standard setting consortium responsible for standardizing HTML in addition to HTML 4.0. Cascading Style Sheet is supported on Netscape, Internet Explorer, Firefox and other web browsers. Java Script: JavaScript is used in millions of Web pages to improve the design, validate forms, and much more. JavaScript was developed by Netscape and is the most popular scripting language on the internet. JavaScript works in all major browsers that are version 3.0 or higher. 4.6 Program Code Listing The source code of this program is made of: the package, main class, sub-class methods and variables. The source code showing the details of the program is here attached as an appendix I to this work. 4.7 Maintenance With time and usage, the requirement of the individual may change, therefore, equipment installation and implementation of a working system is not the end of the system analysis and design, there is need for maintenance to ensure that the system continually meets the objectives or achieved its specific goals. In order to achieve this maintenance goal, the system monitoring methods should be employed. These involves the monitoring of the system during/ or after implementation by observing and measuring the efficiency of the procedures. In each run, for the procedure of monitoring, it is important to determine the following:  

The number of record input and /or output. The activity of modules. 48



The time taken (measured by real time check).

In some cases the correction might include the introduction of a new module to substantiate the existing ones.

49

CHAPTER FIVE SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION 5.1 Review of Achievement This system has automated the existing manual system.It can be monitored and controlled remotely; it reduces the man power required. It providesaccurate information always. Manipulations of records can be reduced.All gathered informations can be saved andcan be accessed at any time. The data which is stored in therepository helps in taking intelligent decisions by themanagement. The system be can accessed by every students/staff of the department through internet connected computers with the aid of his/her login details. Every user will have a home page with his/her profile management facilities. Through links that displays in the home page the user can access different options of the website assigned to him. 5.2 Suggestion for Further Research System is so much flexible so in future it can be increased easily and new modules can be added easily. Addition of online student admission, online fees payment, computerized result processing, online hostel allocation and e-learning modules should be added. In future you can add new module like library management system, it can also include online accounting system. 5.3 Recommendation Based on the research work carried out and on the experience gotten during this research work the following are recommended: 

Existing student should visit the site for necessary information.

 That the department should try to implement the new system, since it has a lot of advantage than the manual system so as to promote advancement in the technology of the department.  That student should look into this research work and carryout further research on it. 

The system should be constantly updated.

5.4 Conclusion The implementation of Departmental portal has been successfully created and the web interfaces have been successfully designed. The system designer has successfully achieved all the planned objectives.The administrators are expected to maintain the reliability and accuracy of database while inserting, editing and deleting of each student’sregistration entries. The implementation of the system would help tackle some of the problems associated with manual systems for 50

keeping of information as well as minimize processing time and accessing time of data.

51

REFERENCES Administration: Outcomes and Lessons Learned. Journal of Social Work Education, 42, 14. Anigbogu, S.O. (2000). Computer Application and Operation First Edition. Awka: Optimum Press (Printers, Publisher and Designers) B. A. Adeyemi, O. A. Oribabor and B. B. Adeyemi (2012). An Overview of Educational Issues in Nigeria Biondo, J. (1990).Fundamentals of Expert Systems Technology: Principles and Concepts. Norwood:Ablex, New Jersey. Bugeja, M. (2007). Distractions in the Wireless Classroom. Chronicle of Higher Education, 53, Connors, S. (2007). 21st Century Tools, Phi Delta Kappan, 89, 320. George Siemens,(2004) “Learning Management Systems: The wrong place to start learning” Hale, S. (2007). Being Online. Academe, 93. Hay, I. & Bull, J. (2002). Passing Online Exams. Journal of Geography in Higher Education,26, 239-244. Hazem M. El-Bakry , Nikos Mastorakis, “Realization of EUniversity for Distance Learning”, Wseas Transactions on Computers, ISSN: 1109-2750 50 Issue 1, Volume 8, January 2009. How Professors Are Using Technology: a Report From the Trenches. (2007) Chronicle of Higher Education, 54, pB21-B23. I. A. Ajayi and Haastrup T. Ekundayo (2008). The Deregulation of University Education in Nigeria. Journal of the National Academy of Engineering 2002 Kumar, Ranjit, 2005, Research Methodology-A Step-by-Step Guide forBeginners,(2nd.ed.),Singapore, Pearson Education. Lien Wing Yan (2011) Course Information and Management System Luecht, R. M. (2001). Challenges of web-based assessment. American Educational Research Association Proceedings, Seattle, WA. 52

Patterson, D. (2006). A large-scale, Asynchronous, Web-based MSW Comprehensive Exam Stacy M.P. Schmidt., et al (2009) journal of College Teaching & Learning S. Rajasekar et al (2013) Research Methodology Tan Kun. Pei Yunzhang, ” Providing Live Course For Distant Learning, ARTEMIS”., Department of Computer Science Technology at Tsinghua.University University of Bradford, School of Management: Introduction to Research W. O Ibukun and A. Aboluwodi, (2010). Journal of Education and Practice

53

and

APPENDIX I

54

Index Page HOME - DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 55

Dept Brief Mission HOD's Note NACOSS STAFF PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS Find a Staff    ||    56

Find a Course ND I    ||    ND II    ||   HND I    ||   HND II WELCOME TO THE DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE It is with enthusiasm that I welcome you to the Department of Computer Computer Science is actually an exciting, challenging and dynamic The program is based on both theory and practical with special emphasis DEPARTMENT NEWS 59



EVENTS Register. php REGISTERATION 64



COMPLETE PROFILE REGISTERATION Studentlogin.php 69

$(document).ready(function(){ $("#slider").easySlider({ auto: true, continuous: true }); }); PROSPECTIVE STUDENTS

70

Dept Brief Mission HOD's Note NACOSS STAFF PROSPECTIVE STUDENT 71

STUDENT LOGIN

Staff Profile Edit

STAFF MENU - DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE 89

HOME Staff panel NAVIGATIONS Add Assignment Assignment Management Upload Documents Edit Course Manage Profile