STUDENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Software Version Release Date / Year and Vendor Name

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION
The student management system is an improved Student Management System. It
can handle all details about a student. The details include lecture, subject details,
student personal details e.t.c.
In case of current system they need a lot of time, manpower e.t.c here almost all
work is computerized. So the accuracy is maintained. Student management system
is managed by an administrator. It is the job of the administrator to insert update and
monitor the whole process .The system has four modules. They are
student details
subject details
lecturer details.

BACKGROUND OF CURENT SYSTEM

The school of social sciences is a school which track the personal data of student
registered in the department each and every year and keeps the record.
Currently they use Microsoft exel to track their data but due to increasing population
the excel has become slow in data retrievement and therefore after preliminary
investigation I realize that there is a need for a better system.
The current system is a semi computerized system where the data are printed out at
the end of every semester to allow new entry of data. The current system they are
using Is Microsoft exell which still can not compute complex questions which can be
handled by Microsoft access.

Problem statement
The data in this system are kept manually especially after the end of every semester which makes
it difficult to search data after a good number of years when a student need to know some of his
details. It takes time to search on the pile of files. Also there are some questions which the system
can not answer which has to be done manually like if asked to find subjects which were done by
phanuel in 2006. You will have to search manually and write down which actually takes a lot of
time.

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Objectives

General objective
To develop a database system which can easily store, retrieve and update data
Specific objectives
 The system is to eliminate their manual counting of student taking a particular
subject to a computerized system which can query.
 The system is to shorten the time of retrieving data when required.

Justification

The current system is unreliable it is likely to deteriorate when the number of students
increase in the department. After proposed system every tasks will take short time and no
more wastage of files to keep some data which can stay within the system for over years.

Scope
The system will capture information about student’s personal details lectures and the
courses. Storing updating and retrieving in a fast and accurate way.

Previous Versions Complete Lists

Justification for the use of Access Database

Access database comes over the rest of the databases due to a number of reasons. Being one
of the database pioneers, Access has became more easy to use as well as learning because of
this it make developing a new database system much quicker compared to others such as
Oracle, My sql etc. Microsoft access has been considered because of its ability to support and
enhance the appearance and navigation of html generated. (Carry N Prague,micheal R.
Irwin,and jennifer Reardon access 2003 bible pg952) The fact that access is always upgraded
makes it easier and compatible with new systems. For example Access 2003 uses ASP
technology which also complies with new technologies such as XML. (Cary N Prague,
Micheal R. Irwin, and Jennifer Reardon access 2003 bible)

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Access was most preferred because of its ability to create dynamic data and html pages and
they can be displayed in Microsoft Explorer 5.0. Cary N Prague, Micheal R. Irwin, and
Jennifer Reardon access 2003 bible Access has the ability to export and import data through
ADODB which is a common connector among most web application. MySql Though MySql
is well known for being capable of handling very powerful and large data bases it also has a
couple of setbacks that the developer could not take chances with it. MySql does not support
transactions or concurrent update of complex table which if used would have become a huge

hindrance to the development of the system in the making. Oracle Oracle is very well known
1for the use of SQL statements. It is one of the most expensive databases on the market.
There is no graphical interface for creation or modification of tables. This implies that the use
of this database is very time consuming.

Justification for the use of SQL

This is also another data retrieving language that is used by most databases i.e. Microsoft
Access, Oracle and MySql. There are quite a number of reasons for the use of SQL. One of
the most common reasons why most web developers’ use this language is because it is easy
to use and a standard query language that can be used for both database and web pages.
Because of the fact that SQL is can be used to manipulate data in all ways, it can be used to
retrieve, create, store or even update records.

Feedback- for every action on a system

A feedback is necessary in order to confirm that the action been executed or accomplished for
without feedback it becomes difficult to continue or to move to the next level. On designing
the interaction design the designer require design principle guiding tool. Feedback is one of
the guiding principles, this is very essential for both the user and the designer because it is an
aspect that can lead them to the next step of their task. These principle are based on common
sense, experience as well as theory based knowledge. In order to have a well designed
interface the most common principles one ought to observe are consistency that is the ability
to observe uniformity, visibility, affordance and constraint. In the simplest terms these
principles could be defined as:
Uniformity:
Consistency is very vital and this refers to the ability to maintain uniformity in the system
interaction design. This implies the system follows a certain criteria for example: The use of
certain operations to log on to a system. All in all, consistence makes learning very easy and
quick for the new users as well as the existing ones. April 13, 2009 BSC(HONS) BUSINESS
INFORMATION SYSTEM 21
Visibility:
The visibility of functions enable the user to know how to manipulate or use the system, for
that matter it’s very important to mind where and how functions are placed, as for the case of
the system, the making of links and icons are very important because they have to be visible
enough.

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Affordance:
Affordance is another principle that could refer to clues that enable the user to know how to
use the system it is also defined as “an attribute of an object that allows the people to know
how to use it” (interaction design beyond human-computer interaction 2nd edition by John
Wiley & sons, ltd page 33) though affordance is categorised into two and that is real and
perceived affordance.

Constraints
Constraint can be referred to as controls or limitations that are within a system allowing what
actions to be done during the interaction the common constraint use is the deactivation of
some menus while another action still executes. This is very important because if graphical
representations that are used to constraint the users’ interpretation of a problem or
information. (Interaction design beyond human-computer interaction 2nd edition by John
Wiley & sons,ltd page 31) As for the case of the patients’ online booking system, it could be
referred to as perceived affordance because it is web base which means it is virtual. Therefore
all the mentioned principle should be present in a well designed system and all these can be
witnessed in the finished product of the patients booking system. There are quite a number of
problems that might a result from the need to apply all design principles. The attempt to
recreate physical objects into a virtual form in order to achieve affordance may result into
absolute difficulty to be used. In that case such a principle could be ignored. Visibility of
information may be compromised if constraint is over emphasised within an interface. All in
all these design interaction principles are all applies trade-offs may occur. (Interaction design
beyond human-computer interaction 2nd edition by John Wiley&Sons Ltd page34)

Software Usage Level ( Home / Industrial Usage )

After the feasibility studies it was decision time to decide what methodology will suit the
development of the required system. The system to be developed for the project will be
done by applying software engineering tools and techniques. The analysis and design is
concerned with understanding the current and the proposed system requirements. In
other to do this systematically, a methodology will be applied so as to go through the
systems development life cycle.

The life cycle is the process of development which is to be followed in stages in order to
develop a computerized information system. These stages are to be developed in
sequence and one stage has to be completed before going on to the next stage.

It is a bit difficult to define the term methodology but still there are many definitions
from different authors. Here are some few of them

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[Check land, 1981]: “a methodology is a set of principles which in any particular
situation have to be reduced to a method uniquely suitable to that particular situation.”

[Avision & Wood-Harper, 1995 Pg. 20]: “a coherent collection of concepts, beliefs,
values and principles supported by resources to help a problem-solving group to perceive,
generate assess and carry out in a non-random way changes to the Information situation.”

[Vision & Fitzgerald, 1988]: “a methodology is a collection of procedures, Techniques,

tools and documentation aid which consists of phases...but a Methodology is more than
merely a collection of these things. It is usually based on some philosophical view,
otherwise it is merely a method, like a recipe.”

After analysis and design here are some of the methodologies which I considered before
coming up with the final methodologies I used in order to achieve the development of a
system which will meet the specification of the users with bounds specified by the
business. be working and reliable meet the requirements of the users, i.e. meet the
business objectives of the users.

This is Yourdon Structured Method (YSM) and Soft Systems

By implementing a prototype, the users can see the inputs and outputs from the new
system and can decide on what format they want which can be changed until the user
requirements are met, before the final system is built.

It enable me and the user of the new system to make sure that the right system is been
built before too much time is and effort has been put in It enable the aspect of the system
which is of interest to be built and tried out

By spending time on the development and testing of prototypes first, rather than going
straight ahead to build the real thing, the finished version should be produced early.

It is a way of reducing risk, since any error noticed during development can be corrected
immediately because the cost of correcting these errors at a later stage can be quite
expensive.

Software package considered

The main software package considered here is Microsoft access and the reasons why it
was considered are:

It enhances quick information retrieval. It can be used on-line by the firm to be able to
answer clients’ queries quickly and efficiently regarding their cases.

It reduces data redundancy and duplication. With the Database Manager System,

DBMS duplication of files is avoided. This reduces wastage of space. Page No: 5
Consistency of data is maintained in a database system. The same data will appear
throughout the system when added.

Complete Current Software Hardware Requirements

Below are the data field to be used in the required system and the description of each of
the fields.

STUDENT TABLE

Studentno - student number is a proper identification of students in the table

students. The primary key for the database table STUDENT

Studentname - it is the name of the STUDENT

Studentgender-it is the sex of the student(Male,Female)

Studentresidentialstatus - it indicates whether the student is a border or a

dayscoler

Studentphonenumber - it indicates the student contact phone number.

Studentyear – it indicates each year a student is registering in the campus

studentsemester - indicates the semester registered in the year above.

Studentcountry- indicates the country a student coming from

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SUBJECT TABLE.

Coursetitle – It indicates the name given to a particular course e.g. Basic Mathematics.

Courseno – it uniquely identifies the Course with the table.

Coursecode – It shows the school code given to identify the course (e.g. DMCT 098)

Coursecredithours- it indicates the hours for which the course is taught in a week.

Courseroom- it indicates the room where the course is taught.

Course days- indicates the days in which a given course is taught e.g. MTW(Monday,
Tuesday, Wednesday)

LECTURERS TABLE

Lecturername - name of the lecturer

lecturernumber - primary key which uniquely identify the lecturer

lecturer phone umber - telephone number for the lecturer.

lecturer gender - sex of the lecture(Male/Female)

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 E-r model
Form lines
Students

Fill

Contain
Subject
Written

Filled

Subject lecturer form Lecturer

The figure bellow is the entity relationship table for the flow above

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Important Snap Shots of the Software

SYSTEM IMPLIMENTATION

Fig 1
The figure bellow shows the students details entry form which the user will be able to
feed in student data each and every semester.
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Fig 2

The figure bellow is the data entry form of the course details by the system user.

Fig 3
The figure 3 bellow is the data entry table for the lecturer details for the system.
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Sample structured query language and the out put on the display screen.

1. To find the subjects which were done by Assimwe Julius and the credit hours
in the year 2005? This is the query format. Page No: 12
SELECT COURSE.ctitle, COURSE.ccredithours
FROM STUDENT INNER JOIN (COURSE INNER JOIN ASSOCIATIVE ON
COURSE.cnumber = ASSOCIATIVE.cnumber) ON STUDENT.snumber =
ASSOCIATIVE.snumber
WHERE (((STUDENT.sname)="ASIIMWE JULIUS") AND
((STUDENT.syearofstudy)=2005));

courses in part year

ctitle ccredithours
RESERCH PROJECT 3
ELEMENTS OF SOCIAL WORK INTERVENTION 3
SIGN LANGUAGE 3
SOCIAL DEFENCE 3
PRINCIPLES OF SOCIOLOGY 3

2. To find which subjects are tought by Dr Tabitha Sigue. This is the format.
SELECT
courses of a lecturer
ctitle clecturedays ccredithours
RESERCH PROJECT MWT 3
SEMINER IN CONTEMPORARY SOCIAL PROBLEM TTHW 2
SKILLS AND TECHNIQUES OF COUNCELING W TH F 3
SOCIAL WORK AND NATIONAL DEVELOPMENT TH M F 2

2. To find which lecturer is teaching the subject with the title “social defense”. This
is the query format.

SELECT

Query1
lname
ATUKUNDA IGNATIOUS

3. This is the same as sample number 1 but different year.

 Page No:13 SELECT

Query2
ctitle ccredithours
ETHICS AND VALUES OF SOCIAL WORK 3
PSYCOSEXUAL COUNCELING 2
COLLECTIVE BEHAVIOUR AND SOCIAL MOVEMENT 2
INTRODUCTION TO SOCIOLOGY 3
SPOKEN FRENCH 3
GROUP DYNAMICS 3

3. To know the name of student coming from Zambia.

WHERE SCOUNTRY="ZAMBIA";
student country
SNAME
KAMWENDO FAITH

Technical Points ( Hardware / Software )

Challenges

1. The major challenge I encounter during the system development is the time box.
2. Lack of free access to computer to any time you wanted because of the classes
which was sometimes going on in the computer labs.
3. Data access was sometimes difficult because secretaries we were suppose to receive
data from were not willing to give full data thinking that if the system is developed
they may loose their job.

Recommendation

I’ve successfully applied what I have learnt in our institution. Also, I can enhance my
skills and abilities that can make me boost in my technical skills. And also I became
understandable and gained many experiences how to negotiate relationship between users
and clients. Problem solving is my major achievements in this period of application
project. Therefore, we fully understand the whole SDLC.
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Conclusion

Great skills have been achieved during the development of this project, time management
being one of them, research in various areas of web and database development and at the end
of the day it can be said that the task has been a great success incorporated with extraordinary
challenges. All in all the sleepless nights, stressful days and hard work have paid off and
besides some good moments were also experienced. These experiences will be used for ever.

References

Books
Cary N prague, micheal R. Irwin,and jennifer Reardon access 2003 bible
Entity relationship diagrams [online]MDM Summit Europe(20-22/04/09)London
http://searchcrm.techtarget.com/sDefinition/0,,sid11_gci333128,00.html accessed on
(17/03/09)
Pressman, Roger S., Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach. McGraw-Hill,
2001.
Bergner, Terry; Steiny, Julia and Armstrong, Jane. (2007). Benefits of and Lessons
Learned from Linking Teacher and Student Data. National Center for Educational
Accountability, Data Quality Campaign. www.DataQualityCampaign.org
Berry, Barnett. (2007). Connecting Teacher and Student Data: Benefits, Challenges and
Lessons Learned. Center for Teaching Quality. www.teachingquality.org
Borden, Victor M.H. (1995). Harnessing New Technologies for Student Tracking. In P.T.
Ewell (ed), Student Tracking: New Techniques, New Demands (New Directions in
Institutional Research #87, pp.55-67. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Cunningham, A. F., and Milam, J. (2005). Feasibility of a Student Unit Record System
Within the Integrated Postsecondary Education Data System (NCES 2005-160). U.S.
Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, Washington, DC:
U.S. Government Printing Office.

Future Aspect
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