E- ACADEMIN: A WEB BASED APPLICATION FOR RE-ENGINEERING ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION

 

ABSTRACT

Most organizations are deploying e-business solutions because of its numerous advantages, such as, increased productivity, reduced transactions costs, wider coverage and increased speed to market. The present academic offices in developing countries still use paper-based approach for most of their activities. Data and information are logged into files, folders and excel sheets which are printed, bound and saved into drawers that are rarely used again for other purposes.  In the universities, a lot of time is spent in manual computation of results, production of transcripts and reference letters for students. In this research, the issues and challenges of deploying e-business technology were reviewed and an e-business software, e-Academin for transforming traditional academic administrative processes into an online academic administration is developed. The use of e-Academin will facilitate a clean desk policy implementation, ensure emanagement computation of examination results, enhance process improvement in both record keeping and administration and re-engineer the entire business processes in an academic environment. The web-based e-Academin was developed using Visual Studio.Net framework and other relevant e-business tools. The e-Academin used the department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Federal University of Technology Owerri, as a case study. It can easily be loaded with other departments’ data. On testing, user stakeholders found e-Academin to be user friendly.

Key Words: Academic Administrator; E-business; Information and Communication Technology (ICT); Internet; Paper-based Office; Paperless office; Re-engineer; Software Development; Web Based; Visual Studio.NET

 

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certification… ..         ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..          ..         ..         ii

Dedication… ..           ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         iii

Acknowledgement… ..          ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..          ..         iv

Abstract…       ..         ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..          ..         ..         v

Table of Contents…    ..         ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..          ..         vi

List of Figures…        ..         ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..          ..         ix

List of Tables…          ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..          ..         xi

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION

1.1      Background of the Research…          ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         1

1.2       Problem Statement… ..          ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         2

1.3      Objectives of the Study…      ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         3

1.4      Methodology…           ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         4

1.5 Significance of the Study… .. .. .. .. .. .. 4 1.6 Scope and Outline of the Thesis… .. .. .. .. .. 5

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW

2.1      Overview…     ..         ..         ..         …         ..         ..         ..         ..         7

2.2      History of E-Business…         ..         …         ..          ..         ..         ..         7

2.3      The State-of-the –Art of E-business…           ..         ..          ..         ..         9

2.3.1    Understanding the Context of e-business… ..          ..         ..         10

2.3.2   Role of ICT in E-Business Networks…         ..         ..         ..         11

2.4      E-business Analysis and E-Business Models…         ..          ..         ..         12

2.4.1    E-Business Analysis…           ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         12

2.4.2    E-Business Models… ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         14

2.5      Software Engineering…         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         16

2.5.1   History of Software Engineering…    ..         ..          ..         ..         16

2.5.2   Software Life Cycle Processes…       ..          ..         ..         ..         19

2.6     Web Application Development, Technologies and Design… ..        ..         26

2.6.1   Web Application Development…      ..          ..         ..         ..         26

2.6.2   Web Application Technologies…      ..         …         ..         ..         29

2.6.3   Web Application Design…     ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         32

2.7      Database Management and Design… ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         35

2.7.1 Database Overview… ..          ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         35

2.7.2 Database Management System (DBMS)…    ..         ..         ..         38

2.7.3 Database Design…      ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         48

2.8      Internet and Web Security….. ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         55

2.9 Review of Related Work… .. .. .. .. .. .. 60 CHAPTER THREE: MATERIALS AND METHODS

3.1      Research Methodology…       ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         68

3.2      Requirement Gathering and Analysis…         ..          ..         ..         ..         69

3.3      Analysis and Discussion…     ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         73

3.4      Design Process…        ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         74

3.4.1 Functional Design… ..           ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         74

3.4.2 System Design…         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         75

3.4.3 Program Design…       ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         77

3.5       Implementation and Unit Testing… ..          ..          ..         ..         ..         79

3.6      Integration and System Testing…      ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         83

3.7       System Installation… ..          ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         83

 

CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

4.1      E-Academin Homepage..       ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         85

4.2      Student Report Forms ..         ..         ..         ….        ..         ..         ..         86

 

4.3      Staff Report Forms     ..         ..         ..         …         ..         ..         ..         90

4.4      Administrator’s Portal …       ..         ..         …         ..         ..         ..         92

4.5      Discussion       …        ..         ..         ..         …         ..         ..         ..         98

4.6      Backup and Deserter Recovery..       ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         99

CHAPTER FIVE: CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

5.1      Overview…     ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         100

5.2      Contributions of the Present Research…       …         ..          ..         ..         101

5.3      Conclusions… ..         ..         ..         ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         102

5.4      Recommendation for Further Work… ..        …         ..         ..         ..         102

References… ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         ….        ..         ..         ..         104

Appendices… ..          ..         ..         ..         ..         …         ..         ..         ..          113

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1        Background Of The Research

Everything in business today has an “e” attached, e-banking; e-clothing and etravel are just the tips of the ice-berg. “E” opportunities are limitless and many ebusiness companies have experienced reduced transaction costs, increased speed to market, and improved customer services.

Humans have always relied on tools to make work easier and more productive. Computing began in the ‘50’s when businesses found ways to automate production-line activities. Large mainframe computers which were used then, later evolved into PCs as a result of the advent of micro-processing chips. The move to client-server network applications as well as World Wide Web (www) protocols and formats made the Internet a platform for buying, selling and global information sharing. Internet, which is the most important tool of e-business started as a government tool. The US Department of Defence (DOD) had a need to access information from different locations and route information in the event of nuclear attack. To satisfy that need, the Internet was born in 1969. Scientists and researchers were then able to share academic, scientific, and military data with multiple users across the globe. The Internet has the highest adoptive rate of any new technology in history (Fisher, 1993). The World Wide Web is transforming business at warp speed. With a computer and a modem, the Internet is no longer an exclusive tool for the government and educational organizations, but a resource for the world. The affordability of PCs contributed to the increasing number of Internet users.

The web is changing every aspect of our lives, but no area is undergoing as rapid and significant a change as the way businesses operate. As businesses incorporate Internet technology into their core business processes they start to achieve real business value. E-business is about using Internet technologies to transform key business processes (IBM, 1999). It is about strengthening relationships with stakeholders, capitalizing on new business opportunities and increasing efficiency to become more profitable. According to Mehta and Morgan (2000), e-business is defined as the transformation of key business processes through the use of Internet technologies. In eBusiness, companies use the Web to communicate with their partners, to connect with their back-end data-systems, and to transact commerce in such a way that it leverages the strength and reliability of traditional information technology in the Internet environment (Kalakota 1996, 1999 and McLaren 1999).

E-business is increasingly used as the “generic and over-arching term signifying all manner of internal and external expirations and processes conducted over networks (Oblinger and Katz, 2000). It involves the use of Internet and World Wide Web as the infrastructure for organisations doing their business, be it selling books, music or software or delivering and supporting education (Turnbull and Gofers, 2005). Why should educational institutions adopt e-business strategies? Mitchell (2002) states that e-business goals can include; improving efficiencies, reducing costs, increasing speed of transactions, expanding markets, enhancing business partnerships and most importantly providing additional value for clients. According to Turnbull and Gofers (2005), the factors driving the move to e-business in industry and educational institutions include:

• The level of access to and use of the Internet by organisations and individuals for an increasing number of activities.
• The expectation of individuals of easy and quick access to information and services (e.g. course information and checking of result online).
• Continuing funding constraints especially in the education sector.
• The potential to expand markets.
• The desire of government and businesses to provide enhanced services.
• The need to remain competitive in an increasingly competitive environment made possible by Internet and World Wide Web (www) technologies.

 

• Problem Statement

This century has witnessed a transformation in the way in which higher education is delivered and supported (Burbridge and Florjancic, 2001). The driving force behind this transformation is the need for universities to deliver higher education in a more effective manner, while transacting its processes even more economically. At present, most academic offices in developing countries, including Nigeria, still use a “paper-based” and segregated management approach for most of their activities and there is room to improve the use and sharing of information through an electronic solution. Data and information generated through project management, finance management, office management, reporting and communications are being logged into files, folders, excel sheets, and then printed, bound and saved into drawers rarely used again for other purposes. Academic staff spends much time in computation of results, production of transcripts and reference letters for students and searching for records in files and file cabinets. The knowledge created in the analysis and insights captured from information are not being properly managed and transferred to assist overall work plan delivery of the office. The paper-based approach also leads to mistakes in result computation, omission of results and delays in approving results. In order to respond to the above recurring issues and challenges, there is need to develop an e-Business model for academic administration.

 

• Objectives Of The Study

The World Wide Web has grown from an experimental tool for sharing academic ideas to an established tool for communication and commerce. E-business started with e-commerce and it has yielded huge benefits to United States and other advanced countries in the past decade.  The on-line strategy has transformed traditional business models and given rise to new businesses that get to all nooks and crannies of the world. Many companies presently advertise, sell or offer services using the Internet, and the introduction of e-business processes into such companies resulted to; improved efficiency and effectiveness, reduced cases of delays, improved security of records and reduced corruption among others. Our present offices in the Universities still use the traditional paper-based and segregated management approach for most of their activities and there is room to improve the use and sharing of information through an ebusiness solution. Some of the disadvantages of this traditional process include; loss of time in result computation and student registration, mistakes in computation and omission of results, loss and insecurity of records, among others.

Introducing e-business into University academic administration will improve efficiency and effectiveness, reduce delays, ensure security of records and reduce corruption among others. E-business in a University system involves consideration of its effects on each of the three fundamental elements of University consisting of the faculty body, the student body and the learning/teaching environment. Hence, the main objective of this research is to develop e-business solution processes that will:

• Create a paperless academic office environment,
• Facilitate a clean desk policy implementation,
• Enhance process improvement in both record keeping and administration,
• Re-engineer the entire business processes in an academic environment,
• Bring to fore the state of the art application development, deployment and management according to software engineering standards.
• Introduce transparency, accountability and greater productivity in the system.

 

1.4       Methodology

This research was carried out in three phases. The first phase involved an indepth review of world-wide application of e-business processes in transforming paperbased offices with their attendant problems to more effective, efficient and paperless or less paper offices. The review of literature was followed in phase two by series of visits to some Universities in Nigeria to determine the extent to which ICT is being used for academic administration and management processes.  The result of the second phase and the analysis thereof formed the first step of the software development phase of the thesis.  An e-Business suite for Academic administration was then designed, developed and tested using Visual studio.Net and other relevant e-business tools. The e-Academin software was developed based on the following attributes:

• A straight forward and more practical than elegant software which is tailored for internal use.
• The implementation is done in modular format with the focus being the most pressing issues and additional modules being added as the need arises.
• The solution mainly catered for the records and administrative needs of the department of EEE, Federal University of Technology, Owerri which acted as a pilot site for Extension to other departments will be carried out in future development.

 

1.5       Significance Of The Study

E-business includes any process that a business organization conducts over a computer-mediated network. In the emerging global economy, e-business has increasingly become a necessary component of business strategy and a strong catalyst for economic development. One of the three primary processes enhanced under ebusiness is “internal management processes” which include employee services, training, internal information sharing, video-conferencing and recruitment. Open and honest communication has been identified as critical for understanding the challenges and opportunities within any organization. According to Anyakoha, Uzuegbunam and Ezike (2007), effective communication within the University is crucial because it enables the various actors within the institution to clarify individual perceptions and discern institutional precepts.

Notwithstanding the enormous benefits derivable from adoption of e-business processes in many establishments all over the world, including the banking industry in Nigeria, the University system in this country has not fully embraced this technology. Our present offices in the universities still use paper-based and segregated management approach for most of their activities and there is room to improve the use and sharing of information through an e-business solution. The significance of this study lies in the following expected contributions to knowledge:

• Contribution will be made toward solving the problem of dearth of e-business processes in our University administrative activities.
• Clean desk and paperless office environment will be achieved.
• Improved productivity, performance and reduced delays.
• Security of records and reduced corruption.
• Unhindered communication network and information flow.
• Better results in student advising and computation/checking of results.

 

1.6        Scope And Outline Of The Thesis

The scope of this research is limited to the design, development, and testing of an effective e-business system that integrates all aspects of hardware, software and people issues in the software life circle and specifically meant for academic activities in a University environment and based on visual studio.Net architecture. The thesis is organized as follows: In chapter one, titled introduction, a general survey summarized most of the work on the study and concludes by positioning the thesis within its field and highlighting the contributions already made to knowledge. Chapter two, which is titled literature review presents and compares existing knowledge in e-business practices worldwide. Chapter three discusses the design, development and testing of the e-business software for academic administration purposes. This chapter also describe all other methods adopted in the study. Chapter four presents the results and the discussion thereof. Chapter five presents the conclusion and recommendations arising from it. Some useful non-original materials are placed in the appendices.

 

E- ACADEMIN: A WEB BASED APPLICATION FOR RE-ENGINEERING ACADEMIC ADMINISTRATION

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