DEVELOPMENT OF A STUDENT ONLINE RESULT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

CHAPTER ONE

1.0 INTRODUCTION

For several years, efforts have been made to ease the difficulties faced by students atregistration, result and transcript generation and the accompanying hardship faced by desk officers who are in charge of processing these applications. There are errors associated with the existing manual method of processing of students results in most Higher Intuitions in Nigeria, (Adeyegbe, 2007)),this makes it not only desirable but imperative that students’ result processing be computerized.

The manual methods being employed suffer a number of set-backs which includes;   computational miscalculation, among others are high turnover time for processing, difficult retrieval of student results and so on (Olasina, 2011) making the process to be timeconsuming and prone to error. All these lead to examination results being published late, sometimes with wrong grades being entered and students’ grade point averages being wrongly computed as a result, and ultimately leading to wrong conclusions being arrived at on grades being awarded. Some students could end up with undeserved HND/OND result, while others could be unfairly victimized, bringing about frustration and bad blood. These cantarnish the image of all the Polytechnics in Nigeria. Online registration emerged because of these problems associated with manual handling of registration and student records. Other problems include mismanagement of students’ academic records, mismanagement of courses registered for, among others (Enwere, 1992).The solution to these problems, therefore, is to find a method of processing examination results that would be sufficiently accurate and reasonably timely.

Online-registration is a system that could easily manage its student body while also providing added bonuses, with a main goal being to ease the transfer of information. The Polytechnic education system requires a tremendous amount of data and documentation, and this online-registration solution allows higher institutions to focus less on processing paperwork and more on what matters most -meeting the educational needs of their students by having a cost-efficient, secure registration process that allows for easy access to student files (Olasina, 2011). Intranets and portals are supposed to provide an infrastructure through which end-users can gain effective access to information sources needed to assist in daily tasks such as effective decision making, planning and research (Brakel, 2003).Lakos (2004) gives the key principles that should govern a portal rollout. The first is simplicity: This means that users want a simple and clear web environment. The second principle is dependability: in his view, the site and its contents should be available always and should be predictable. The third is quantifiable value: users should feel self-sufficient and realize added value from using the portal. Another principle is personalization: the portal should be in a way that users can be able to change the site

to their personal preferences. Lastly, systematic management: long term success requires a systematic approach and long term commitment.

There are very few researches that have been done so far concerning online-registration. These include Olasina (2011) who did a research on Students’ Perceptions of E-Registration at LadokeAkintola University of Technology. The research was aimed at highlighting acceptance and use of both major and minor features of the e-registration

portal of LadokeAkintola University of Technology, which empowers users to apply for enrolment, register forcourses, search for information, meet requirements and other news as well as access other e-resources after signing in/logging in. The study revealed that the Lautech portal was used mostly for course registration by the students who had a high

perception of use of e-registration in comparison with manual registration. A research by Cao and Budnick (2002) on the Social Factors Affect Students’ Use of Online Registration established that the major social factors influencing students’ use of online registration include: students’ majors and classes, family income, academic emphasis and family income. However, the study did not find significant gender impact on using the online service.Matovu (2009) in a study titled, availability, accessibility and use of ICT in management of students’ academic affairs in Makerere University found that this emerged because of the problem of mismanagement of students’ academic records despite the technological advancement that had advanced in the University. The findings of his research indicated that internet facilities, computers, management information systems, electronic databases all were available and accessible to administrators, lecturers and students though with restricted access for viewing results, record keeping, setting and marking exams. ICT for registration was used for tracking students’ registration progress by administrators and academic progressing.

Computerisationof results although a recent development in developing countries, is not new in more technologically advanced countries.  (references)

According to(Kuria et al, 2011), computerizing the manual process entails students (i.e. from prospect status to admitted status) application, registration, examinations, reporting and other extra curricula activities which includes alumni interaction and so on.

• Background of the Study

This research focuses on creating an automated students result management system using database, forms and reports. This is a computerized examinations result management system for tertiary student’s examination records. The manual method of students’ academic result processing is found to be tedious, especially when carried out for a large number of students, this makes the entire process time-consuming and error prone. A student online Registrations system presents a single platform that is used to manage the processing of all personal and academic recordsfor any given institution. The newunified Grading System, was established by the National Board for Technical Education (NBTE) in 2016 for both HND (Higher National Diploma) and ND (National Diploma).The NBTE unified grading system is shown in

Table 1.1: Grading System for Polytechnics Courses in Nigeria

(Source :

Table 1.2:  Cumulative Grade Point Average

( Source:

The courses offered in a HND and ND program are allocated a number of credit hours which vary from one course to another, because the courses vary in their needs and scope. Hence some are allocated greater credit hours than others. The grade-points obtained by a student in any course are determined by multiplying the value of the grade (numeric grade) by the credithours of the course. The total grade-points are obtained by summing up the grade-points of all the courses offered. The Grade-Point Average (GPA) is computed by dividing total grade-points by the sum of credit hours of all the courses offered in that period. Thus: reference (NBTE,

Where;

n=Numbers of Year

G = GPA

G_c= CGPA

Okonigene et al. (2008) further stated that, with the use of computers for information processing, the following are possible: instant access to students’ personal and course information, instant student information updating, automatic computation of the Grade Point Average (GPA), generation of the graduating students list, monitoring of failed courses, keeping an up-to-date record of the entire student body in the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti , 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. With the appropriate software in place, the system would simply capture raw scores as entered by individual lecturers for various students in the different courses, and then process accordingly.

Vecchioli (1999) noted that organizing and managing student records into a cohesive and efficient system might seem like an impossible task. This study was carried out to verify the manual process involved in generating students examination result and to seek way of automating the system for effective operation. Student Examination Result Processing System (2012) explainsthat the effort expended in the process of registration of students and computation of their examination results is enormous. Hence, the need to evolve a computerized process that will effectively and efficiently capture all the important data associated with the registration and examination result processing within the school.

Barrett (1999) notes that in an effort to efficiently document and maintain accountability data, schools are relying more on technology in the form of Student Management Information System (SIMS). This system is designed to efficiently handle processes like inputting scores, storing results, automatically calculating grade points, and interpreting the student’s overall result. The usual manual process has now reached a level where it is difficult for the available man power to cope with the magnitude of examination work, in a given time. The imbalance between manpower availability and the magnitude of work to be done in processing examination results, leads to the delay in the declaration of examination results.

An effective measure, which can improve the efficiency of the examination result processing, is therefore the introduction of computerization, especially with the use of examinations result processing software. Computerized relational database systems like Oracle database, Microsoft SQL server, MySQL etc. were developed with goal of reducing data redundancy.

• Objectives of theProject

The objectivesof this project are to:

• Design asoftware for managing students results in polytechnics, and

(b)  Implement the design in (a) above

This shows that results are still being processed manually as well as transcript generation. This leads to various problems which include:

1. Insecurity of results.
2. Duplication of results.

iii. Loss of results when files are been carried from one table to the other.

1. Wrong calculations during computation.
2. Omission of results.

This project will achieve the following:

1. Increase in deficiency
2. Easy detection and correction of errors.
3. Reduce pressure of work on examination officers.
4. Makes computation less labor intensive.

Hence, the need for the design of software and the implementation in the processing of results and generation of transcripts for the twenty three departments in the Federal Polytechnic Ado Ekiti cannot be over emphasized.

• Methodology

The application will be developed in the form of a database, using a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS). The decision to implement the application in the form of a database was informed by the consideration that various types of data would need to be held, and a database approach would be more appropriate due to the advantages that the database file system has over other forms of file systems. A database management system permits organizations to efficiently create databases for different applications by database administrators (DBAs) and any of other specialists reiterated that Database management system allows many user application programs to simultaneously access the same database that is called concurrency. Adobe Dreamweaver, an Integrated Development Environment will be use to create the Graphic User Interface and to write the codes, MYSQL (My Structured Query Language), a Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) will be used to create the database tables and Personal Home Page Pre-Processor (PHP), a Scripting language to communicate with and manipulate the database. The primary features of the PHP are that it is object-oriented and a cross platform language. By cross platform, it means that the programs can run across several platforms such as Microsoft Windows, Apple Macintosh, Linux, and so on.

• Expected Contribution to Knowledge

Clearly this project will helped to emphasis the necessity of an automated student result system in schools, as itwill simplifies the process of compiling and presenting students results. Computerization of this process reduces thetime, human involvement and errors that could occur while making use of the manual method. “Most studentinformation systems in use today are server-based, with the application residing on a central computer server andbeing accessed by client applications at various places within and even outside the school” (Nmaju et al., 2013).My application is no different as it will utilize an applications web and database server. The application that will be run asalready stated using a multitier architecture. The application will ease the processing of students’ results in the entire Polytechnic. The application will be successfully developed, tested, and found to be working as expected. It will be able of store and retrieve academic records with high speed and accuracy, and presenting useful information to its users. Its qualities will bethe reduction in the cost of processing student’s results (an example would be the cost of purchase of papers)reduction in the time spent in the computation of student’s grades and the elimination of duplication ofduplication of resources in terms of manpower and infrastructure. The system will be flexible and runs in a webbrowser. It will be reasonably secure, enforces data integrity from the use of a relational database management system, it willminimize data redundancy and will be user-friendly. With this application, the processing of students’ results will be automated, thereby reducing processing time and increasing accuracy. “Automation Minimizes Redundancy.  The use of Relational Database Management System for storage of students’ data will help in minimizing the redundancy in database in addition to maintains consistency, integrity and security of data.”(Ezenma et al., 2014). Clearly this report will helped to emphasis the necessity of an automated student result system in schools, as it will simplifies the process of compiling and presenting students results. Computerization of this process will reduce thetime, human involvement and errors that could occur while making use of the manual method. “Most studentinformation systems in use today are server-based, with the application residing on a central computer server andbeing accessed by client applications at various places within and even outside the school” (Nmaju et al., 2013)1.

This Project will achieve the following:

1. It will serve as a reference material to those who use this project material.
2. It is a contribution to knowledge

• It will provide information to other researchers/developers on how best and beneficial the use of a management information system can be in providing accurate information for an organization’s decision making.

1. It will ensure high level quality service development of the management which will ensure that students are not subjected to undue suffering in collection of their result or clearance prior to the deployment for youth service.
2. Easy detection and correction of errors.
3. Reduce pressure of work on examination officers.

• Makes computation less labor intensive.

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