DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AUTOMATED SYSTEM FOR STUDENT EXAMINATION AND RESULT GRADING A CASE STUDY OF DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE, AKWA IBOM STATE POLYTECHNIC, AKWA IBOM STATE
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
INTRODUCTION
The errors associated with the existing manual method of processing of students results , make it not only desirable but imperative that computerized approach be used to the full in measuring students’ progress. The manual methods being employed suffer a number of set-backs. They make the process to be timeconsuming and prone to error. They 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 class of degree awarded. Some students could end up with undeserved good class of degree, while others
could be unfairly victimized, bringing about frustration and bad blood. The Departments
concerned, and the whole University, could become tarnished. The problem, therefore, that arises is to find a method of processing examination results that would be sufficiently accurate and reasonably timely. The software application in this article is intended to bring relieve by providing for timely and accurate processing of students results using the processing power of the computer. The rest of the article discusses the background to this work, the materials and method used in the work, and the results recorded.
Theoretical Background
At present the students grading system used by all universities in Nigeria is the Five-Point Grading System, established by the Nigerian Universities Commission (NUC) in 1989. The system is also called the “Carry Over” system,because a student is allowed to carry over a course up to two times (or attempt a course a maximum of three times) before a final “Fail” grade is recorded if he/she still does not pass the course. A few exceptions to the rule are the General Studies and Communication Skills (or GSS) courses, which must be passed for a student to graduate. The courses offered in a degree programme 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 measure of performance of a student in any course is given by the grade-points obtained in that course. The grade-points obtained by a student in any course are determined by multiplying the value of the grade (numeric grade) by the credit hours 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:
Statement of the Problem
Sometimes the delay in declaration of results cause heavy losses to the students as generally they cannot join further studies or appear in competitive exams because of the non-availability of examination result in time [6]. Some of the limitations of the existing system, though not comprehensive, are as follows:
Repetition of Work: There is repetition of work in the existing system because the same data is recorded in different branches of the examination. This leads to data duplications as well as huge money is spent by the institution to purchase papers. In existing system, managing of students’ record is very tedious. Retrieval of students’ records through manual registers, maintaining of records and data reconciliation etc. are very time consuming.
Tempering of student Records: In manual examination system, there are chances of tempering with students records. Sometimes fake results are prepared and there is no online verification of the results. This leads to unfair practices and it mars the credibility of an institution.
A number of problems associated with student academic record management include improper course registration, late release of students’ results, inaccuracy due to manual and tedious calculation and retrieval difficulties/inefficiency . In most cases the data generated by academic institutions are usually created in non-delineated files for use by different departments/units within the institutions with the same data appearing on several of these files. This means that a simple change of address would have to be processed in two and probably three or four places, depending on the number of other files on which these data appears. The development of database concept is the answer to these problems where the amount of redundant data is reduced and the possibility that data contained on a file might be inaccurate because they were never updated. Other problems associated with course system management include improper registration, late release of students’ results, inaccuracy due to manual and tedious calculation, and retrieval difficulties /inefficiency. To proffer solution to the setback associated with manual system of result processing, an application called Student Academic Record Management System using Microsoft Access to handle the task of creating, storing, accessing and maintaining files and database records is developed. According to , the choice of Microsoft Access was With automated result processing in an institution of learning, there will be lots of benefits to derive which will provides the necessary conveniences for the students, Lecturers and managements in the school. The benefit of computerize test taking, marking and result publication cannot be overemphasis, identify the following as benefit of computerize test taking, Marking and results publication:
(i) Automation Minimize Human Intervention: There will be lesser human intervention (as much as possible) in result processing by automating all the concerned activities.
(ii) Automation Facilitate Management: The Computerized Statistical Analysis of Data will facilitate the management to see trends in result at various levels. Management Information System (MIS) reports will facilitate the Top Level Management to make strategic decision in favour of the institutions and students.
(iii) 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 maintain consistency, integrity and security of data.
In an educational community, information is highly essential for correct students’ record and examination data. Student information, if not properly created and stored, will cause many errors in usage. Nearly, every section of the educational system requires information processing. This new system is flexible and can be modified to suite any kind of record keeping and data processing.
Aim and Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to identify the problems inherent in the existing system of result grading systems, and to proffer a remedy to the existing problem. The solutions are as follows:
Ø Record and reports of students will be easily retrieved with increased data security. Ø There will be reduction in the amount of resources, which in turn will lower the cost of processing of student’s result, since information will be stored in a database with reduced data Redundancy.
The proponents of the work is to:
- Provide accurate and timely results with less effort.
- Provide a reliable and error-free grade processing.
- Less file handling and high storage.
- Establish performance authentication framework in
academia.
Significance 0f the Study
The project research haven’t identify the problem that was existing in the old system of operation , is designed specifically to come up with a more resound and effective system that will not only counteract this problem but also provides a detailed future plan that will give room for more information technological improvement in the result sector.
The developed software application will run on the system and operate using the following features:
The login screen which, enables the user to enter his \ her password in order to login.because, due to password protection, no unauthorized person can gain access to alter the data. The information obtained from the system has a reasonably high degree of accuracy, because all the computations are automated. Any errors found would probably be those introduced by human error in the keying in of the raw scores. Computations are carried out very speedily by the system, once all raw are entered, then required information is available almost immediately.
- b) Compute results: Display a window for computation of results for each student in a class .
- c) View Result: Display each student result indicating the scores of each course for the student and his/her position in class.
Organization of Research
