COURSE REGISTRATION AND RESULT PROCESSING SYSTEM IN COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA BY AMAH MARYLYN CHIDIMMA PG/MSc/12/62093 Being an M.Sc project submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of Master’s degree in Computer Science of the University of Nigeria. SUPERVISOR: DR M.C. OKORONKWO DEPARTMENT OF COMPUTER SCIENCE UNIVERSITY OF NIGERIA, NSUKKA JUNE, 2015 i CERTIFICATION I hereby declare that the work presented herein was done by me, and not a third party. Should I be convicted of having cheated in this work, I shall accept the verdict of the university. AMAH, MARYLYN CHIDIMMA. PG/MSc/12/62093 ii APPROVAL PAGE This Project is approved for submission DR M. C. OKORONKWO iii DEDICATION I dedicate this research work to my loving mother Mrs Elizabeth Amah who amidst all toils remained very supportive to the project work. Her consistent and warm advice in the face of trouble pushed me through. Mum may God Bless You. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENT I sincerely send my profound gratitude to Almighty God for his goodness. In fact, God used this research process to expose me to his unfathomable saving graces. I earnestly send warm appreciation to all the staff of the Computer Science Department UNN. They in no small measure contributed to the realization of this project. The framework of the project, the system analysis and the data collation are all contributions from various lecturers of the department. My most profound gratitude goes to my Supervisor Dr M.C. Okoronkwo for his commitment and dedication towards making this research a success. Doc! I’m immensely grateful. I will not fail to thank a loving brother and a friend Mr Emma Ukekwe for making this project a reality. Mr. Emma went extra mile to develop modules that were implemented in the project. Alongside are Engr. Collyns Udanor, Dr. (Mrs.) Ebem, Mr. Chinwuko and others. I pray the good Lord to reward you abundantly. I use this medium also to thank my family members especially my mum, Mrs Elizabeth Amah, Mr Innocent Ike and Revd Christian Amah for their financial support. To my friends and well wishers Revd Fr Fidelis Ajamugha, Honorable Collyns Owhonda, Honorable Ibrahim Adeoti and Mr. MackJames Ukwueje who supported me morally and financially in the cause of this project. I am immensely grateful to you all. Remain Blessed. v ABSTRACT Course Registration and Result processing system form the key activities in the life span of a student. The demand for effective and efficient result computation and output lead to the production of the automated result process. The digitalized process provides the capabilities of centralized repository for storage, management and dissemination of result information to those concerned. A study into the manual process reveals the inefficiencies and the rigorous nature of course registration and result processing, therefore the existing manual process was analyzed and converted into an automated system. The manual activities was modeled with an object-oriented methodology and the system was implemented with PHP(hypertext processor), a scripting language and MYSQL database management systems. It provides a robust database that generates various reports that is relevant to the department. The result of this research work is a system that automates the course registration and examination result processing for the Department of Computer Science, which can be used in any department of most universities in Nigeria. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF ITEMS PAGE NUMBER Title Page …………………………………………………………. i Certification page …………………………………………………. ii Approval Page ..…………………………………………………... iii Dedication …………………………………………………………. iv Acknowledgement Page …………………………………………... v Abstract …………………………………………………………….. vi Table of Contents.…………………………………………………... vii List of Figures……………………………………………………..... ix List of Tables………………………………………………………... xi Chapter 1: Introduction ………………………………………… 1 1.0 Introduction …………………………………………….. 1 1.1 Statement of Problem .………………………………….. 3 1.2 Objectives ……………………………………………… . 4 1.3 Scope of the Study ……………………………………….. 4 1.4 Significance of the Study…………………………………. 4 Chapter 2: Literature Review ......................................................... 5 2.0 Introduction……………………………………………….. 5 2.1 Theoretical Background …………………………………... 5 2.2 Review of Related Literature………………………………. 10 vii Chapter 3: Systems Analysis and Design…………………………. 21 3.0 Introduction ……………………………………………… 21 3.1 Analysis of the Existing System………………………….. 22 3.2 Description of the Proposed System……………………… 25 3.3 Design of the Proposed System…………………………... 27 3.3.1 Design Methodology……………………………... 27 3.3.2 Justification for the use of the design methodology. 27 3.3.3 Design tool………………………………………… 28 3.3.4 Database design…………………………………… 32 3.3.5 Input and output design…………………………… 35 3.4 Systems Architecture………………………………………. 45 Chapter 4: System Implementation………………………………… 46 4.0 Introduction………………………………………………… 46 4.1 Development Environment…………………………………. 46 4.2 Choice of Programming Language used……………………. 47 4.3 Implementations Architecture………………………………. 47 4.4 Software Testing……………………………………………. 48 4.5 Documentation……………………………………………… 49 4.5.1 Software Modules……………………………...49 4.5.2 User Guide/Manual…………………………… 52 4.5.3 Software Installation………………………… 54 4.5.4 Source Code Listing……………………….......54 Chapter 5: Summary and Conclusion………………………………. 55 5.0 Summary……………………………………………………. 55 5.1 Conclusion………………………………………………….. 56 5.2 Recommendations………………………………………….. 56 References Appendices viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3.1 The Use Case Diagram of the System - - - 28 Figure 3.2 The Class Diagram - - - - - 31 Figure 3.3 Screenshot of the Database tables - - - 32 Figure 3.4 The Student’s Login design Form - - - 35 Figure 3.5 Admin Login design Form - - - - 35 Figure 3.6 Student’s Course Registration design Form - - 36 Figure 3.7 Design form of an ongoing course registration - 37 Figure 3.8 Design input form for uploading student’s result - 38 Figure 3.9 Design input form for adding courses - - - 39 Figure 3.10 Design of the Course Registration Printout- - - 40 Figure 3.11 Design of the View Result Form- - - - 41 Figure 3.12 Design of the Semester Transcript Result - - 41 Figure 3.13 Design of the Lecturer’s Grade Sheet - - - 42 Figure 3.14 Design of the Official Semester Broadsheet - - 43 Figure 3.15 Design of the Official Cumulative Broadsheet- - 44 Figure 3.16 System Architecture- - - - - - 45 Figure 4.1 Design of the Implementation Architecture - - 47 Figure 4.2 Screenshot of the Homepage - - - - 60 Figure 4.3 Screenshot of the Admin Login Page - - - 61 Figure 4.4 Screenshot of the Add Course Form - - - 61 Figure 4.5 Screenshot of Uploaded Result file from excel- - 62 Figure 4.6 Screenshot of the Course Registration Form - - 62 Figure 4.7 Screenshot of the Error Registration Page - - 63 ix Figure 4.8 Screenshot of the Semester Broadsheet Report - 63 Figure 4.9 Screenshot of the Lecturer’s Grade Sheet - - 64 Figure 4.10 Screenshot of the Class List - - - - 65 Figure 4.11 Screenshot of the Semester Transcript Report - 65 Figure 4.12 Screenshot of the Student’s CGPA Report - - 66 x LIST OF TABLES Table 3.1 Sample Table for Calculating Student’s GPA- 24 Table 3.2 Student’s Bio-data Table - - - - 33 Table 3.3 Admin Table - - - - - 33 Table 3.4 Course Table - - - - - 33 Table 3.5 Course Registration Table - - - 34 Table 3.6 Result Table - - - - - - 34 xi CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 1.0 INTRODUCTION Automated course registration and exam processing system is a software that facilitates the students course registration and processing of examination result. It will build in an automated information system capability that will ease the stress and enhance all the activities involved in course registration and result processing. The occurrence of examination and assessment irregularities can seriously damage public confidence in the validity and legitimacy of examination and assessment results and should be dealt with as a matter of urgency within the judicial framework established for this purpose[12]. There are different computer programs in different tertiary institutions for computing examination results. However, beyond examination result computation, not many programs in use provide multi- level aggregated data of student population and academic progress at various stages of studentship. The need for data use to inform administrative decisions in tertiary institutions have been emphasized for the purpose of better planning[1]. Almost every section of the educational system requires information processing. With the deployment of a good information system, wear and tear occasioned during data retrieval and handling, and sometimes loss is greatly minimized. Data sharing is less difficult and reproduction becomes a lot more cheaper. Furthermore, information system when employed to the educational sector, prompts the following:- prompt access to students’ personal and course information, instant student information updating, automatic computation of the Grade Point Average (GPA), monitoring of failed courses, quick production of result, storing course information such as course code, course description, course unit and scores for the xii purpose of GPA computation, and producing user-friendly data entry screens for ease of use. It is unfortunate that most universities in Nigeria still adapt the manual system of course registration and examination result processing. The errors associated with the existing manual method of results computation make it not only desirable