Enrollment System Complete Capstone Documentation
Enrollment System Complete Capstone Documentation
Enrollment System Complete Capstone Documentation
CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
The advent of computer technology has opened a new chapter in technological advances which
makes computers become part of everyday life. Computers make all lives easier so that all can
live good lives. Computers are everywhere at work, at school, and at home. The educational
system has taken advantage of the technology in teaching and learning, processing data, record
keeping, and in their enrollment system.
Enrollment systems are used in recording a student’s information. A well built one will reduce
the load on the people that normally have to-do all the work. Enrollment system is useful
especially when the school retrieves the important information from the student. In the
enrollment system, the school can trace what are the standings of the students. The manual
enrollment system in a school can lead to inaccurate evaluation of student performance, loss of
student records, inaccurate reports, and slow enrollment processing. Students will be confused
on what they should do and how they will do to be able to enroll. It is extremely useful in the
school in a way of making the processes of enrolling much easy.
The School is using the traditional way in their enrollment process. There are Three Thousand
students enrolled in four (4) year levels. The population of the school increases every year such
that the manual system of enrolment and student record keeping are consuming too much
time to the teachers or enrolling officer.
In this study, the researchers aim to develop a fast, accurate and reliable computer-based
enrollment system for the administration, faculty and staff of School that will speed up the
enrollment process, facilitate and secure students’ record, minimize the effort exerted by the
enrolling officer in updating students information, provide reliable record keeping facility, and
provide accurate enrollment summary report.
Project Context
The present system of the school is done manually such as the enrollment system, and record
keeping. From the start of the school’s operation, they use the manual system.
During the enrollment period, students will go to the admission office and for requirements
needed for the enrollment. The evaluator will then evaluate student’s grades in order to know
what subjects are to be taken in the current school year and to know their status. A list of
subjects that the students are required to take will be prepared by the evaluator. After getting
the list, students will pay to the cashier for their PTA fee and other fees. The cashier will issue
receipts to the students in order to clarify that the students had already paid. At the end of the
enrollment period a summary of student’s enrollment will be prepared by the person in charge.
The manual updating of the student’s records slows down the admission process because the
enrolling officer takes time to search and locate the records of the student in the filing cabinet.
Delays in the evaluation of students because the enrolling officer takes time to check student’s
previous grades and some of the student’s records are misplaced. Tallying of subjects also takes
time because of non-organized student’s files.
For these reasons, the researchers were challenged and have decided to design and develop a
computerized enrollment system that is fast, accurate, reliable, and easy to use. The proposed
enrollment system is a good step for the school. This could be a great help to the people who
are handling many tasks during the enrollment period by providing fast and easier access to
information.
The proposed project will replace the manual process of the school’s existing manual
enrollment system and will use computer based software that enables authorized users to
speed up the enrollment process, provide an updated, secured and easy to access student
records, and generate accurate reports.
The features of the system will focus on: login/logout services, administrator’s module,
registrar’s module, enrolment/cashier module, database maintenance, and help assistant.
Log-in/Log-out Services, refers to one of the features of the proposed system that will require
authorized users to enter their user ID and password to be able to access their user account in
the administrator’s module, registrar’s module, and enrolment/cashier module.
Administrator’s Module, allows the school administrator to manage sections, year level, school
year (set active school year – used in current enrollment), subjects, faculty and staff.
Registrar’s Module, allows the registrar office staff to manage students credentials, view list of
enrolled students, view student records and input grades.
Enrolment/Cashier Module, allows the cashier to view enrollment statistics, enrolled student
complete details, record payments, manage fees and student ledger.
Database Maintenance, refers to one of the features of the system wherein the administrator
can update students’ records, manage data and transaction log files, and backup the system.
Help Assistant, which contains instructions on how to use the system.
The proposed project can generate the following outputs, these are: user’s log report, list of
enrolled students, enrollment summary reports, payments and collectibles, and student ledger.
The proposed project offers several benefits for the school administration, office staff and the
student which include the following: admission officer can easily update student record,
evaluate students, provides list of student subjects, record payments, provides list of
collectibles, and manage credentials such as Form 137.
This project will provide an enrolment database for the school. It will store student’s record
such as student’s name, year, section, schedule, and school fees.
It may also be use by the finance department of the school for their school fees. The database is
designed for use by staff and other authorized user in the registrar office to enable them to
easily produce information required by the different people in the school. The database system
will make the enrolment and collection of fees for the school easy and fast.
The specific objectives of the researchers in conducting this study are the following:
The database maintenance feature of the proposed system will focus on adding, and editing
students’ records, students’ grades, maintaining and managing table entries of users and user’s
log; and monitoring of the changes done by authorized users in the system.
The proposed project will be implemented using client-server architecture and will employ the
Local Area Network (LAN) connectivity. This is not accessible through the World Wide Web and
only the administrator who has access to the Administrator’s Module has the full access of the
different features of the system.
CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE/SYSTEM
This chapter presents the review of the related literature and studies and the technical
background of which will discuss the technicality of the project, details of the technologies to
be used and the relevance of the project.
(http://www.studymode.com/essays/Computerized-Enrollment-Thesis-927388.html)
Record Keeping
According to Chifwepa (2009) records have a dual function. Not only do they enable a school to
have a clear picture of what is available and what is required, but they also provide justification
of certain needs. Furthermore, they serve to extend the memory by which persons and/or
organizations can pass their cultures and achievements on to future generations. Record
keeping is vital to an education system’s information cycle as a whole, because of its
fundamental role in the process of efficient information production and collection. Since some
of the most crucial information is produced at the school level, the importance of creating a
systematic record-keeping culture at that level cannot be stressed enough.
(http://www.adeanet..org/adeaPortal)
Importance of Record Keeping
In the study conducted by Adebowale and Osuji (2008) it investigated the record keeping
practices of primary school teachers in selected local government areas in Ondo state of
Nigeria. Data were collected with a questionnaire titled “Questionnaire on Record Keeping
Practices of Primary School Teachers” and data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. The
findings showed that although the teachers were familiar with some principles of record
keeping they were not proficient in most of the operational procedures and did not
demonstrate the knowledge of using record keeping to further the development of teaching
and learning activities. Equipments that could be used for safe keeping of records were not
available. Recognizing the importance of record keeping towards the successful
implementation of the country’s Universal Basic Education programme, the researchers
recommend that teachers should be given regular in-service training in record keeping and
retrieval. Development of record keeping skills should also be included in teacher preparation
programmes. (https://www4.nau.edu/cee/jep/journals.aspx?id=183)
Student Information System
According to Schoolcomputing.wikia.com (2012) Student Information Systems (SIS) manages
student records and information. A SIS may handle course management, scheduling, personnel
records, grades/comments, room/resource management and more. They can be used to run
complex enrollment reports, admissions, course schedules, grades and more. A SIS helps
schools manage various operations including student data, administrative, and fundraising
operations. A SIS allows for the quick and accessible flow of information. By implementing a SIS
to manage daily school needs, teachers and administrators can save time and have immediate
access to a variety of student data. These systems are needed for all parties involved in
education – parents, children, teachers, administrators, alumni, etc.
(http://schoolcomputing.wikia.com/wiki/Student_Information_Systems)
Synthesis
The abovementioned concepts on the computerization of enrollment system and record
keeping is relevant to the present project because these serve as foundation in the
development of an enrollment system for the School that will minimize the time consumed and
effort exerted by the staff in updating student records and record keeping. The concepts also
point to the features of the present study such as the users’ module and database maintenance
that will be integrated by the developers in the proposed system.
The concept on record keeping, importance of record keeping, and its fundamental role in the
process of efficient information production and collection is used as basis by the researchers in
the formulation of the general objectives and important factors to be considered in designing
the features that should be included in the development of the proposed enrollment system.
The related studies on the managing of records and information, and record keeping practices
provide details and evidence that guide the researchers on how to design and develop an
effective enrollment and record keeping tool.
TECHNICAL BACKGROUND
The existing enrollment system of the School is manually done. The school does not
have an existing technology that is essential and necessary for fast and easy enrollment and
record keeping process and generation of reports.
For implementation of the proposed system, the school needs to acquire computer units,
machine for printing results, and set-up Local Area Network connectivity.
Using the computerized enrolment system and taking advantage of the technology in
processing data, record keeping, and in their enrollment system will provide an effective means
of processing information and record keeping for the school.
The proposed system shall be installed on a main server and may have a back-up server in case
the main server malfunctions. The Microsoft Server 2003 Enterprise Edition will be used as
operating system for the server for running applications such as networking and databases. A
software firewall shall be configured in the main server and other computers to protect it
from viruses.
In the development of the new software, the researchers will utilize the Modified Waterfall
Model.
CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter deals with the method and technique used by the researchers in conducting the
study, the system development method, and its results and discussion.
The researchers will utilize different data gathering techniques in the conduct of this capstone
project and will employ different analytical tools to help and justify the conduct of the study.
The data gathering techniques will allow researchers to identify the problems encountered by
the administration and staff of the school in the existing system. The analytical tools include
interview, observation and brainstorming. The data gathered will be analyzed and used as
bases in the system design and development of the system.
An interview is a conversation between two people (the interviewer and the interviewee)
where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee.
Observation is either an activity of a living being, such as a human, consisting of
receiving knowledge of the outside world through the senses, or the recording of data using
scientific instruments. The term may also refer to any data collected during this activity. An
observation can also be the way you look at things or when you look at something.
Brainstorming is used to get as many ideas as possible from a group of people. Generally used
to identify possible solutions to problems, and clarify details of opportunities and finding the
solutions to the problem of the existing system.
On system development, the researchers will utilize the Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC)
method in the development of the system. The SDLC method is the process employed in the
analysis and design of the system as shown in Figure 1.
Modified Waterfall Approach Model of Enrollment System
Figure 1.0 Modified Waterfall Approach Model
Figure 1 illustrates the Modified Waterfall Model that will be used by the researchers in
developing the Computerized Enrollment System which is made up of several phases. These are
the following:
Requirement Analysis. In this phase, the researchers will study how the system works,
determine the user’s wants, needs and requirements, and recommend a solution. The
researchers will interview the school administrator, registrar and finance department staff to
find out system requirements. After the interview, the researchers will analyze the data,
research on related literature and studies. It also involves developing estimates for the work to
be performed, establishing the necessary commitments, and defining the plan to perform the
work, and finalized the project plan.
System and Software Design. On this phase, the system will be designed based on the
requirements needed in the system. The researchers will design the database model structure,
link the database tables, design the data forms, and prepare the presentation of the project.
The evaluation of the design and functionalities of the system will be conducted. The
programmer will review and revise the design of the tables and forms of the system, and test
the functionalities of the system. Data Flow Diagram (DFD) will be used to represent the flow of
data in the system. Entity Relationship Diagram (ERD) shall be employed as data model for the
system. The programmer will create the source codes necessary for the system to be
constructed.
Testing. This phase includes the process of evaluating a system or application, in order to check
whether the application meets all requirements of the client and to detect the errors.
Requirements such as software functions and features where checked to determine if it will
work according to the specification. This stage ensures that the produced system is complete
and performs efficiently, evaluate whether the software perform all activities after integration
with the existing operating environment, and measure up the reliability and overall quality of
the software.
Implementation. In this phase, the researchers will conduct the system dry-run and conduct
training of the target users of the system. The users of the system will check if the
recommended functions and suggestions of the users are met.
Operation and Maintenance. This Phase is to ensure the information system is fully functional
and performs optimally until the system reaches its end of life. The Operations and
Maintenance Phase comprises the following: management of changes to the system to support
end users, monitoring of system performance, and performance of required security activities
such as backups, and continuation of end user support.
Also, this phase will provide users with the documentation and training required to use the
system effectively. Data Conversion will only occur once, but user documentation will be
required. Deployment of the product will be carried out, on the hardware that is going to be
used in production (on live systems). Deployment itself requires careful planning. Once the
product is deployed, initial data will be populated, user training will happen.
The completion of the design and development of software will depend upon meeting the
following goals and objectives:
Registrar – The registrar’s office staff are prompt by the system to enter their user id and
password. The staff may input grades of students and validate them.
Cashier – The cashier is prompt by the system to enter their user id and password. Upon
successful login in the system, the cashier may view the enrollment statistics and students’
complete details. The cashier may receive payments and print receipt.
Project Plan
Before the software project is implemented, the researchers will prepare a project schedule
that identifies the anticipated activities involved, management of resources and project plans
showing the cost needed in the development of the computer-based enrollment system.
All the requirements of the first phase are being used to contribute in the successful
preparation of creating the Computerized Enrollment System for administration and staff. This
section will present the Context Diagram, Decomposition Diagram, DFD Explosion for
administrator, registrar, and cashier, and Entity Relationship Diagram of the developed system.
Testing will exercise the system in all possible ways. It includes initial testing and final testing of
the new software. The new software together with the equipment and software should be
tested prior to the delivery to help ensure that the system works as expected.
Visual Basic
The developers used this software in order to develop the design and screen forms as well as to
build the database and server for the Computerized Enrolment System.
Front-end users:
Cashier – One who have access to the payment and student ledger module and can receive
payments and issue receipts.
Registrar – One who has access to the registrar module and can input and validates grades of
students and generates report and student’s credentials.
The enrollment system may be utilized by beginners and professional users. The design
and features suit the needs of the target users (administrator, registrar, and cashier) to provide
a fast, accurate and effective enrollment and record keeping machine that provides the users of
the system an accurate and reliable reports.
System Process Model. The researchers present the context diagram and the
decomposition diagrams of the proposed computerized enrollment system which show the
procedures of each function, the users and the expected outputs.
Context Diagram of the Proposed Enrollment System
Figure 2.0 Context Diagram of the Proposed Enrollment System
The context diagram in Figure 2.0 shown above illustrates the authorized users input to the
system and the expected output information to the users. The target users are the following:
administrator, registrar, and cashier. The expected outputs of the proposed system are the
following: List of enrolled students, enrolled student complete details, student grades and
credentials, user log report, enrollment statistics, and student ledger.
Decomposition Chart of the Proposed Enrollment System
Figure 3.0 Decomposition Chart of the Proposed Enrollment System
The system has three modules, administrator’s, registrar’s and cashier’s module. The
Administrator, will be provided a module to manage sections, year level, school year (set active
school year – used in current enrollment), manage subjects, manage authorized users, and have
full access to the system; Registrar, manage students (view list), manage credentials (form 137
etc), view all enrolled student, view student record (personal record, grades, subjects and
teachers), grade input and validation; Enrollment/ Cashier, view enrollment statistics –
enrollment, view enrolled student complete details (view subject, year-section and teacher)-
enrollment, received payments, collectibles, payment list, manage fees and student ledger.
Database Model. The researchers present the database model by utilizing the Entity-
Relationship Diagram (ERD) to establish the entity relationships of the related tables of the
database for the maintenance of students’ record, enrollment details, grades, student
credentials, and student ledger.
The administrator will manage the enrollment details which includes the following: section
school year, subjects, faculty and staff and have full access to the system features. The Registrar
staff will manage credentials, student record and grades. The cashier will view enrollment
statistics, .receive payments, list collectibles, manage fees and student ledger,
In the Initial Testing the software will be pre-installed. The new software will be
evaluated by IT experts. The researchers will make a letter and will personally release the
evaluation form to the IT experts using the McCall’s Software Quality Model Evaluation Form.
The tabulation of the Software Evaluation Results follows after the system is evaluated.
Final Testing of the developed software will be conducted after the initial testing. In this phase,
the researchers will make a letter to the intended users, by using the standard User Acceptance
Evaluation Form by Scates et. al to evaluate the Computerized Enrolment System where in the
target users are the one who will test and rate the developed system.
In the software life cycle, the maintenance phase is the last stage of the cycle. After the system
passes the design stage and is implemented, the maintenance phase begins. The maintenance-
phase consists of maintenance-tasks to keep the system up and running. Understanding the
characteristics of the maintenance phase of the software allows individual tasks with analyzing
the performance of the software after deployment to correctly resolve issues that arise.
Maintenance is always necessary to keep system usable and useful.
System Prototype
This portion presents the needed report layouts and screen forms of the developed system.
Report Layouts. The researchers will provide hard copy documents for the new system such as
user log report, list of enrolled students, student grades, form-137, enrollment statistics, and
enrolled student complete details.
Screen Forms. The researchers will present the screenshot layouts of system to give readers an
idea on what the system looks like.
Implementation Plan and Result
The system or system modifications are installed and made operational in a production
environment. The phase is initiated after the system has been tested and accepted by the user.
This phase continues until the system is operating in production in accordance with the defined
user requirements.
The researchers plan to integrate the enrollment and record keeping system “Computerized
Enrollment System” to administrators and staff after conducting the initial testing and final
testing of the software.