This project is
aimed at developing a web-based system, which manages the activity of “Student
Project Management” and allocation. This system will manage the database and
maintain a list of all student or groups of student that have registered as a
finalist in this site, and for those students that been shortlisted who have
passed the eligibility criteria as set by the lecturer/supervisor. The
programming Language used is PHP (Hypertext preprocessor). This Language was
chosen because of its object oriented features and class libraries for
developing online applications. The output of the system will be in a softcopy
or hardcopy.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of Study
In tertiary institutions in the
country today, final year students seek a project in a given field of specialty
as part of the partial fulfillment of their degree program. Usually, a project
is handled by one student, although in some cases a project can be allocated to
more than one student to be worked upon as a group David, (2007). Normally,
project topics are produced yearly by the project students from a wide range of
area to meet the needs and skills of different students which is a daunting
task. Meeting the skills and preference of each student is minimal due to time
constraint and wide area of preference of different students leading to reduced
optimum performance of students as against when they choose a topic related to
their preference Dye, (2001). Producing a wide range of project topics for a
large number of students who has different area of preference and skills
becomes a difficult task; which is to be done on a yearly basis. In addition, a
lecturer will also offer a range of projects, but not all will be taken and as
such are discarded after some time due to poor archiving Dennis, (2007).
To
give students something of a choice, there should be as wide a range of
available projects as possible, and in any case the total number of project
places should not be less than the total number of students Wysoki, (2011).
Typically a lecturer will also offer a range of projects, but does not
necessarily expect that all will be taken up.
Each
student has preferences over the available projects that he/she finds
acceptable, whilst a lecturer will normally have preferences over the students
that he/she is willing to supervise. There may also be upper bounds on the
number of students that can be assigned to a particular project, and the number
of students that a given lecturer is willing to supervise.
This project was born to solve most
of the issues listed above or at least reduce it to its minimal. In this
project we considered the ways of allocating and managing student project in
our various institutions using Federal College of Agriculture as a case study.
With the advancement in file saving and file retrieval system over the World
Wide Web (WWW), institutions cannot afford to be ignorant of the basic tool,
which is the driving force behind technological oriented administration.
Much can be achieve if an institution
have a well-organized management system. Students project can easily be
allocated to each or group of students without the problem of delayed project
allocation from the supervisor or conflict of topic between two individual or
group of student in the same department. Students update can be easily accessed
if the database system is enhanced.
In the traditional way of project
allocation, students are allocated project topics on a first come first serve
basis since the lecturer cannot meet all students twice to check for their area
of interest and then allocate the available project topics according to their
respective area of interest. But with this new system, project topics are
allocated to student that meets their individual area of interest. Project
topics are then randomly allocated to students when there are no more topics
that meets their area of interest.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The traditional way of allocating
project to students in our higher institution need to be reconsidered since
project/research writing is sensitive aspect of student education in the higher
institution. Before now, lecturers ask students to go out and get project
topics for themselves for approval. This system made project writing look less
like a class assignment which does not require an extra effort to complete
rather an issue of copying.
1.3 Aim and objectives of the
Study
The aim of this study is to create a
project allocating system that will make allocation of project topics more
effective and efficient; in terms of time wastage, reduced plagiarism and
having an organized database of all projects both available and allocated along
with those it was allocated to.
Specific Objectives
1.
To
design a system that allocates project topics to student taking preference to
the student’s area of interest.
2. To
create a system that acts as a database to all available and allocated project
topics.
3. To
develop a system that has an increased efficiency and effectiveness in project
allocation to reduced time wastage, duplicated topic and plagiarism.
4. To
design a system that has an easy means of communication between students and
lecturers.
5. To
manage all the processes of project planning, department and defense,
6. To
be able to detect students that actually working on their given project with
the knowledge of their supervisors.
1.4 Significance of the Study
Projects provide a flexible framework
for engaging students in exploring curricular topics and developing important
21st century skills, such as communication, teamwork, and technology skills. In
addition, students are motivated by the fun and creative format and the
opportunity to make new friends around the world. For teachers, a school portal
enables quick and easy management of student accounts and review of project
work.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The research will center on the
design and implementation of Student Project Allocation and Management system
for the department of computer science in the Federal College of Agriculture,
Ishiagu Ebonyi State.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
Usually,
every work has some limitations and this study is not exempted.
The
two major limitations of this study are the time limits within which the study
is expected to be completed as well as financial constraints. The time
constraint prevents the researcher to have an in depth study and analysis on
the subject matter. While the issue of financial constraint limits the
frequency of investigation to/fro the institution toward gathering the
necessary information relevant for the study.
1.7 Definition of Terms
Allocation: An authorization to incur expense or
obligation up to a specified amount, for a specific purpose, and within a
specific period.
Supervisor: Person in the first-line management who monitors and
regulates employees in their performance of assigned or delegated tasks.
Defense: defenses an academic endeavor most students consider
as a great feat that sends chills down their spine whenever they think about it.
Email - Email,
also sometimes written as e-mail, is simply the shortened form of electronic
mail, a protocol for receiving, sending, and storing electronic messages. Email
has gained popularity with the spread of the Internet. In many cases, email has
become the preferred method of communication.
File extension -
A file extension is the suffix at the end of a filename that tells a computer, and the computer user, which
program is needed to open the file. Also called a filename extension, this
suffix preceded by at least one period, is generally one to five characters
long but the norm is usually three characters in length.
HTML CODE-
HTML stands for Hyper Text Markup
Language. It is a
type of computer language that is primarily used for
files that are posted on the internet and viewed by web
browsers. HTML files
can also be sent via email.
Hyper Link - A hyperlink is a graphic or a piece of text
in an Internet document that can connect readers to another webpage, or another
portion of a document. Web users will usually find at least one hyperlink on
every webpage. The simplest form of these is called embedded text or an
embedded link.
Markup language
- A markup language is a combination of words and symbols which give
instructions on how a document should appear. For example, a tag may indicate
that words are written in italics or bold type.
Monitoring: Supervising activities in progress to ensure they are
on-course and on-schedule in meeting the objectives and performance targets.
TEXT FILE - A
text file is a computer file that stores a typed document as
a series of alphanumeric characters, usually without visual formatting
information. The content may be a personal note or list, a journal or newspaper
article, a book, or any other text that can be rendered accurately in
typewritten form.
TCP/IP - This
often used but little understood set of operations stands for Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol.
TCP/IP is the combination of the two and describes the set of protocols that
allows hosts to connect to the Internet. In actuality, TCP/IP is a combination
of more than those two protocols, but the TCP and IP parts of TCP/IP are the
main ones and the only ones to become part of the acronym that describes the operations
involved
Project: Any undertaking, carried out individually or collaboratively
and possibly involving research or design, that is carefully planned (usually
by a project team) to achieve a particular aim.
Progress report: a progress report to inform
a supervisor, associate, or customer about progress you've
made on a project over a certain period of time.
Project management: Project management is
the application of processes, methods, knowledge, skills and experience to
achieve the project objectives.
Web browser -
A Web browser is a software program that interprets the coding language of the
World Wide Web in graphic form, displaying the translation rather than the
coding. This allows anyone to browse the Web by simple point and click navigation, bypassing the need to
know commands used in software languages.
www : acronym
for World Wide Web