An Automated Results Computation System

Results Computation in Higher Institutions using PHP, HTML, CSS, MYSQL

Introduction

A student’s result is the criteria for the measurement of the student’s capability in terms of academic work in the school. It is also used to measure a student’s capability in each course offered by the student. Without an adequate results computation system, the aim for which results are produced may not be achieved, because the slightest mistake made during the process might lead to a very big problem, which may reduce or eradicate the ability to grade a student from his school result. For this reason an effective, efficient and error free results computation system should be designed and implemented in our schools for proper running of the schools system. This project is therefore embarked upon to develop an automated results computation system for tertiary institutions using the Department of Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science Kwararafa University, Wukari Taraba State as a case study to know the problems encountered in the manual system and how these problems can be solved.

Background to the Study

Student’s result is one of the most important elements in schools. These data must be processed under critical management, while requiring simple operations for processing the examination results. The need for student to have access to their result on time and accurately cannot be overemphasized. Scores from examination taken by student need to be returned to these student to enable them know their performance in the various courses written.

Also, students need to know what courses they failed in order to retake the exams. Staff in charge of students result computation is burdened with a lot of other academic works like lecturing, research, marking of exams and attending to other administrative task. These other duties tend to affect the timely, efficient and accurate computation of results. The effort expended in the process of registration of students and computation of their examination results is awesome. Quite worrisome is the fact that these processes are carried out every academic session, putting the operators in a continuous and ever demanding cycle.

Vecchioli (1999) noted that organizing and managing student records into a cohesive and efficient system might seem like an impossible task. This study was carried out to verify the manual process involved in generating students examination result and to seek a way of automating the system for effective operations. 

Barrett (1999) notes that in an effort to efficiently document and maintain accountability data, schools are relying more on technology in the form of Student Management Information Systems (SMIS). This system is designed to efficiently handle processes like inputting scores, storing results, automatically calculating grade points, and interpreting the student’s overall result. The usual manual process has now reached a level where it is difficult for the available man power to cope with the magnitude of examination work, in the given time. The imbalance between man power availability and the magnitude of work to be done in processing examination results, leads to the delay in the declaration of examination results. An effective measure, which can improve the efficiency of the examination result processing, is therefore the introduction of computerization, especially with the use of examinations result processing software. Computerized relational database systems (RDBMS) like Oracle database, Microsoft SQL server, MySQL etc. were developed with goal of reducing data redundancy.  

Brian (2009) stated that databases are collections of interrelated data of such a nature that the collections can be represented as a number of files but not a single file.

 Garcia-Molina et al. (2008) also stated that depending on the Database Management System (DBMS) used, these files may be integrated permanently into a single connected structure or integrated temporarily for each interrogation, known as a query. Nearly all departments within an organization require data to be processed into information in a timely manner. Timely information processing and dissemination leads to efficiency and customer satisfaction. Schools are organizations as well and timely information processing and dissemination is needed to run a school efficiently. Many schools have their own system to manage students profile and assessments. Common practice as earlier stated is by recording the student information in a record book(s). Students’ information is obtained from the registration forms obtained from the practices that have always been used. This practice has some weaknesses such as it takes a longer time to search the student’s profile, the possibility of misplacing these record books and the vulnerability of student’s record as the records could be accessed by unauthorized persons.

 Eludire (2011) stated that other problems associated with manual course system management include; improper registration, late release of students’ results, Inaccuracy due to manual and tedious calculation, Retrieval difficulties/inefficiency. It is unfortunate that most educational institutions in the developing world still operate the manual methods of record keeping and computation. Although the manual method still works, it is prone to errors. Automation of school administration processes should be encouraged. Computers can be used for this automation process and processing student’s results can be done quickly and efficiently to the satisfaction of the students, lecturers, parents and school authority. It is pointed out in the research work Student Examination Result Processing System (2012) that the effort expended in the process of registration of students and computation of their examination results is enormous. Hence, the need to evolve a computerized process that will effectively and efficiently capture all the important data associated with the registration and examination result processing within the University.  

My research focuses on the design and implementation of an application where student results can be stored, users can access this software from anywhere as long as the computer they are working on is on the network same as the application server. This application enables users with the right permission to insert new user details, students’ examination records as well as updating these records whenever necessary. This research seeks to provide an alternative to the manual system of presenting results to students.

In Universities like Kwararafa University, Wukari, the need for an automated method of keeping data has been there. There have been several attempts to develop systems for automating results computation, but most of the work of this project will be on the computation of the results of the students at the undergraduate levels; and also span across other Head of Department, Examination Officer and Lecturer functions. With the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science as the research projects’ case study, this work is focused on providing alternative solutions to the general problems associated with results computation, timely computation of students’ grades, and above all, security issues which hinders unauthorized access to results by students and lecturers.

Statement of the Problem

The problems posed by manual methods of results computation are enormous. The situation is the same in Kwararafa University, Wukari and correspondingly, the Department of Mathematics, Statistics, and Computer Science.  The issues here can only be addressed by employing upper hands. The computation of examination results of students is obviously an object-centered activity, the student being the dominant object in this case. Hence, the  need  to  evolve  not  just  a  computerized  process,  but  an object-oriented software   design   and   implementation   that   will   effectively   and efficiently capture  all  the important objects associated with the results computation within the University and the interactions among the objects.