AUTOMATED COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM FOR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS, A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC

AUTOMATED COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM FOR TERTIARY INSTITUTIONS, A CASE STUDY OF AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Introduction

In most tertiary institutions, the process of registering all students as members of the institution and the courses they are to offer is largely concentrated into a very short period of time. The registration period takes some time to complete. The purpose of the registration process is to determine which students will be taking courses within the institution, and for the administration to keep its records up-to-date. From the students’ point of view, registration enables them to acquire the necessary authorized membership of the institution, and where relevant, obtain their grant cheques. It is usually the case that students will register for particular courses, or modules, at the same time, and the information collected is used by members of the teaching staff to construct class lists, etc. Registration involved students being registered in a single place within the institution, where they would present a form which had previously been filled in elsewhere by the student and their department. After registration this information can then be transferred to a computer system. Many institutions have decided that the entire student and course registration process is better to be computerized (electronic registration). The decision was also made to decentralize the registration process so that the end users of the course data, the various departments, would have more control over the accuracy of the data entered. It was also expected that the delay before the final data could be delivered back to the departments would be considerably reduced. Although the same registration forms were issued to students, available data concerning each student had already been entered in the system database. At the registration, using unique student number as a key, student data was retrieved from the database and updated as necessary. This system serves as an information system.

An information system (IS) is any combination of information technology and people’s activities that support operations, management and decision making. In a very broad sense, the term information system is frequently used to refer to the interaction between people, processes, data and technology. In this sense, the term is used to refer not only to the information and communication technology (ICT) that an organization uses, but also to the way in which people interact with this technology in support of business processes.

Honganson. (2001) opined that there are two views on (IS) and IS-centered view that includes software, hardware, data, people, and procedures. A second managerial view includes people, business processes and Information Systems. There are various types of information systems, for example: transaction processing systems, office systems, decision support systems, knowledge management systems, database management systems, and office information systems. Critical to most information systems are information technologies, which are typically designed to enable humans to perform tasks for which the human brain is not well suited, such as: handling large amounts of information, performing complex calculations, and controlling many simultaneous processes.

In an institution for instance, there is need to record information pertaining to members of the institution especially the students so that it will be easy to retrieve needed information instantly without stress. A student information system is a software system that enables the data of students to be recorded such that it will be easy to obtain needed information pertaining to any particular student or group of students. The system can also be viewed as a database system that enables capturing of large amounts of students record to facilitate manipulation by the administrator in charge. For example, every student has a unique registration number which stands as the primary key. In an information system it will be very easy to obtain the record of any student just by querying the database based on the primary key or registration ID of the student.

Management of institutions and organizations are in need of instant information so as to enable them speed up business operations considering the limited resource of time. For most businesses, there are a variety of requirements for information. Senior managers need information to help with their business planning. Middle management needs more detailed information to help them monitor and control business activities. Employees with operational roles need information to help them carry out their duties.

 1.2 Statement of Problem

Many institutions do not have computerized course registration system that facilitates the capturing, storage and retrieval of relevant information pertaining to courses offered by students. The traditional flat file organization is still in use and it is inefficient as it takes time to locate any needed file. The problem is worse if the information needed was recorded years back. Also, it is difficult for management to get needed information instantly thereby delaying the decision making process that is based on the information needed. They have failed to see the benefits of utilizing the computer system despite its advantages. It is in view of these challenges that this research work is carried out to implement a course registration system.

1.3 Aim and Objectives of the Study

The following are the objectives of the study:

To design and implement an automated course registration system for tertiary institution

To understand the concept of information systems

To present the types of information system

To present Architecture of an automated course registration system

To showcase the advantages of information systems

To present the limitations of information systems

1.4 Organization of the Research

 

This research work is organized into five chapters. Chapter one is concerned with the introduction of the research study and it presents the preliminaries, theoretical background, statement of the problem, aim and objectives of the study, significance of the study, scope of the study, organization of the research and definition of terms.

Chapter two focuses on the literature review, the contributions of other scholars on the subject matter is discussed.

Chapter three is concerned with the system analysis and design. It analyzes the present system to identify the problems and provides information on the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed system. The system design is also presented in this chapter.

Chapter four presents the system implementation and documentation. The choice of programming language, analysis of modules, choice of programming language and system requirements for implementation.

Chapter five focuses on the summary, conclusion and recommendations are provided in this chapter based on the study carried out.

 

1.5 Scope of the Study

This study covers the automated course registration system for tertiary institutions, a case study of Akwa Ibom state polytechnic, and it is limited to Computer Science Department.

 

1.6 Significance of the study

The significance of the study is that it will provide an effective means to capture, store and retrieve student and course information. Management can be presented with instant reports needed pertaining to any student or group of students and the courses registered. The study will also serve as a good reference material for other researchers that need information pertaining to the subject.

 

1.7 Definition of Terms

Below are some of the terms that need proper definition so as to make the research work understandable.

Course – A program of study or training, especially one that leads to a degree or certificate from an educational institution

Registration – Enrollment process: the process of enrolling at a college or university, choosing courses, and paying fees at the beginning of an academic term

Information – Definite knowledge acquired or supplied about something or somebody, also the meaningful material derived from computer data by organizing it and interpreting it in a specific way

System – A combination of related parts working together to achieve a particular goal.

Management – the organizing and controlling of the affairs of a business or sector of business.

Query – A request for information

Database – A systematically arranged collection of computer data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated.

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