CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of Study

In this age, the technological developments in the area of e-learning has gain

prominent place. Among them, more attraction has been drawn towards Online Help

Desk Information System. This can also be known as online Question and Answer

System; Campus Online Help Desk Information System can bridge the gap between

the User’s need for Simplicity and the software’s complexity, by providing relevant

information within the very specific context of user’s lack of familiarity with a

particular concept, place or thing. A technical definition of Campus Online Help

Desk Information System on collection of one or more programs designed to provide

user assistance embedded in a larger program or computer system. Those help desk

systems will provide solutions for the problems regarding the usage of system and

services rendered by the systems.

However, in this research, the main concern was drawn towards the

implementation of campus online help desk information system in an educational

context. That means this system will help visitors, students and staff to solve their

problems that arise during their visit, lectures or venue and changes regarding some

subject matters. So, with the help of this system, students will get the opportunity to

clarify their doubts regarding situations covering the campus. Therefore, with Online

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Help Desk Information system will play a crucial role in the university. In general,

high quality Online Help Desk Information System is characterized by:

 Constant availability: Help should be available at all times.

 Consistent user interface: Access to and presentation of help information

should be the same throughout the system.

 Completeness: All aspects in every detail should be covered, without loose

ends.

 Context sensitivity: Help obtained should be targeted to the users specific

context.

 Adaptability: Help should be customized to the user’s preference.

Although some prior researches addressed above requirements, little empirical

works, grouped online help desk information system into specific domains. Most

previous researches focused on generic online help system. e.g. application oriented

online Help Desk Information System.

Customer care is a crucial element of business success. Every time you have

contact with your customers you have an opportunity to improve your reputation

with them and increase the likelihood of further sales, the same goes for the online

campus helpdesk. From your telephone manner to the efficiency of your order-

fulfilment systems, almost every aspect of your business affects the way your

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customers (students) view your business. This guide outlines what student customer

care involves. It explains how you can use customer contact, feedback and loyalty

schemes to cater for the needs of other students. It also covers how to prepare for

receiving a student complaint. Online Campus Helpdesk supports different types of

users:

 Students: These are the users who will request for the different facilities of

the campus.

 Departments: These are the users who will receive the requests and try to

resolve them.

 Administrator: The Administrator will be able to add more students and

facility heads to the system.

Online Campus Helpdesk is a web application aimed at providing different services

of the college to the students for which they normally have to wait too long. Online

Campus Helpdesk will allow students to easily request for different services via this

online portal.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

At present the current system works manually. It provides the information in

written or oral form within the campus. Individual has to spare his time and energy

in order to obtain even the basic information regarding the campus. Apart from this

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there can be a long and tedious procedure in order to have a solution regarding any

particular query.

Owing to

1. Daily influx of visitors

2. Development of new buildings
3. Movement of staff offices
4. Yearly new intakes orientation
5. Direction to relevant places
6. The difficulties people face in transferring information/data.
7. Sensitive/confidential nature of students’ information.
8. Time wasted in manual processing of students’ information.

1.3 Aim of study

The aim of this project is to develop a software called Online Help Desk

Information System to help the students, staff or visitors of the University of

Calabar. The Aim of the project are;

1. Students and staff can perform activities such as submitting a request,

viewing a list of requests made and checking the status of his/her request.

2. The administrator has to perform tasks such as checking the requests from

the students and authorizing them i.e. taking necessary actions on them.

3. The administrator furthermore, has the option to send a proper notification

via email to the students with solutions to their requests.

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 4. Students and staff will also be able to access possible solutions to or

information about their complaints/problems from the knowledgebase that

would be incorporated into the project.

1.4 Objectives of the Study

1) To develop software called CAMPUS ONLINE HELP DESK to enable the

students, staff and visitors to locate any relevant places within University of

Calabar.

2) To import and incorporate a Google map platform for location of

infrastructures in University of Calabar.

3) To develop a data base backend that would contain as many information as

would be needed about Unical.

1.5 Significance of the Project

The significance of this project is listed below:

1. To develop, promote, and provide adequate and efficiently Online Campus

Help Desk.

2. To maintain an efficient system of collection, sorting and delivery of students

information.

3. To demonstrate increased motivation to the Godfrey Okoye University staff.

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 4. To eliminate the error involved with the manual method of checking

students’ information.

5. To save the time wasted with manual method of checking students’

information.

1.6 Scope of Study

This project work is narrowed to University of Calabar. It deals with the

development of Campus Online Help Desk information system for the students, staff

and visitors of the University of Calabar.

1.7 Purpose of Study

This is actualized by designing computerized CAMPUS ONLINE HELP

DESK which is user friendly and interactive. By the time this software is designed

and implemented, the difficulties encountered with manual method of having the

University’s information will be eliminated.

1.8 Limitation of Study

It is important to mention here that time was a major constraint in the course

of fact finding. It is also wise to mention here that some information we need to

work with was not collected because of the unwillingness of the staff to review such

information.

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1.9 Definition of Terms

Help Desk: A section of an organization offering specialist advice to users who have

problems, especially with computing equipment or systems.

Computer: A computer is a programmable machine that receives input, stores and

manipulates data, and provides output in a useful format.

Visitor: A visitor is one that visits, especially: one that makes formal visits of

inspection.

Database: A database is a system intended to organize, store, and retrieve large

amounts of data easily. It consists of an organized collection of data for one or more

uses, typically in digital form.

System: whole compounded of several parts or members, system, literary

“composition”. Is a set of interacting or interdependent system components forming

an integrated whole.

Information: is a processed data.

Storage: is a device for recording (storing) information (data)

Staff: a set of people, such as the employees or volunteers, within an organization.

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 CHAPTER TWO

LITERATURE REVIEW

2.0 Introduction

We summarize the prior research into a conceptual framework, which is

organized from definition, scope, taxonomy and evolution to design, implementation

issues and some empirical studies. Limitation of preceding works are also revealed

to propose our research questions.

2.1 Online Help Desk System

Kearsley (2008) offered one definition of help system; a help system is one

or more programs designed to provide user assistance embedded in a larger program

or computer system. Although designers frequently integrated help programs with

the applications, help system might also be separated and run concurrently with the

system (Kearsley, 2008). This definition was of narrow scope, in that, it was oriented

by computer programs, e.g. application-oriented. With the pervasiveness of a diverse

and heterogeneous range of software and hardware systems, an online help

information system serves as a gateway to all kinds of computing resources. For

example, the online help system at UMBC provides services on a variety of

platforms including Macintosh, Windows and UNIX, for heterogeneous software or

applications such as oracle, ASA, Mathematical, MATLAB, and the like. In this

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sense, a broad view of online help system questions. System should consider it to be

a middle tier between computing resources and users. From organizational

perspective, specifically in an educational institution, an online help desk system is a

portal to users, integrating all available computing knowledge or skills for users.

Selfe & McGarm (2012) discussed the evolution of online help desk; from

book-oriented, through exploratory, to constructive. Book-oriented online help

mirrored paper-based documentation, which featured static and linear structure.

Although traditional organization of contents was familiar to users, it was not

quite competent for satisfying the complicated information needs of particular users

in specific contexts for idiosyncratic task. Thus, came up hypertext-based online

help, either exploratory or constructive. Exploratory online help was characterized

by providing multiple paths to navigate document, hence it granted a higher level of

interactivity. Its weakness were unfamiliarity users and difficulty to read through.

Constructive online help desk allowed customization by users, feedback to

developers and capability to re-conceptualize tasks (Selfe & McGavin, 2012). This

online help conception evolved along the dimension of user-document interactivity.

With the implementation of heterogeneous software and hardware, however, online

help systems should be considered more from organizational point of view that

application-oriented perspective before. As will be illustrated later in our field study,

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some problems online help desk systems stem from awkward integration among

different applications, instead of failing to solve certain system questions.

Sondheimer & Relles (2002) proposed four dimensions wherein online help

desk systems could be categorized:

1) Access Method: How users inputs help requests

2) Data Structure: How the help information are organized.

3) Software Architecture: How users and the help systems interact.

4) Contextual Knowledge: To which extent the help information is relevant to

the environment and tasks of a specific user (Sondheimer and Relles, 2002).

Bergman & Keene-Moore (2012) argued that one shortcoming of this categorization

was that these dimension tool into consideration software related aspects, omitting

user interface related factors to address this deficiency, they brought up a new

taxonomy of online help, as shown in Figure 1 (Bergman & Keene-Moore, 2012).

But these methods of classification were all limited in application viewpoint,

either from system itself or human computer interactivity. We argue that

organizational or human behavioural factors are also, at least of the same

importance, in order grasp what our users really want from online help systems. In

this sense, we concern more about our field study process, for the sake of letting

contextual data speak out by itself.

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2.2 Theoretical Background

The major technologies used in this project are web technologies (HTML,

CSS, and PHP) and MySQL database technology. HTML, CSS, and PHP are

acronyms for different coding languages used for displaying webpages on the

internet. Each has a different purpose and function and they work together to deliver

beautiful websites with updated content to your web browser.HTML stands for

Hyper Text Mark-up Language, CSS for Cascading Style Sheets, and PHP for PHP

Hypertext Pre-processor. We will start with HTML, each of our HTML documents is

a sequence of elements. The major HTML features used were form and cascading

style sheet (CSS). We used the form to collect information from the students and

staff alike and processed the information in PHP and stored the information or data

collected in the MySQL database. PHP and MySQL instructions are used in our code

to open the database, establish a connection between it and the HTML code to insert

data, retrieve data, delete data and also modify data.

2.3 Review of Related Literature

Help desk automation is for many companies the first application area of

knowledge-based systems. “The help desk is an automated knowledge distribution

while payroll was an automation of record keeping… a universal application that fits

the new technology like a glove” (Middleton L. A., 2007). The theory above anchors

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on the help desk management system which has attracted a number of research

works. Such as, in developed world, help desk has been established as a tool for

inquiries made by users like students and staff of an institution for facilities and

services. Further, the help desk information retrieval mechanism will be suitable for

users in managing the complaints and proper system maintenance. The system helps

improve help desk usability and functionality.

Regularly the term help desk is utilized for interior backing within the

organization or for outside care groups. Numerous organizations are turning to help

work area to mechanize a mixed bag of errands and, at the same time, lessen costs by

cutting staff and giving more client help from the current staff (Berg, A. L., et al.,

2012). Organizations need to give high calibre client administration and backing to

get by in today's business surroundings. Having the right help work area would

guarantee high client fulfilment (Littlefield, D. et al., 2007). Customer help

consolidates profits that help a customer or customer fathom and benefit from things

limits by noting request, handling issue and giving online information. The

preferences of automated help work area are basic in that they permit fewer

individuals to manage larger work volume. The help desk is increasing its

importance as companies move to client-server architectures. Users who interface

with the help desk often form a general perception of the information system group.

Information systems help desks plays an important role within an organization

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(Pirani, J. A., et al., 2007). The help work area is in charge of uniting an association's

assets with a specific end goal to give its clients quality help and administration.

Help desk is designed and customized to provide businesses with an internal support

system as well as a link for providing support to its customers. Help desk

applications host a number of benefits that includes:

1. Giving existing clients with information and Frequently Asked Questions

(FAQ's) concerning the organization's frameworks and approaches.

2. 24-hour availability thus catering to the trend of office personnel working

late and to those overseas or in different time zones.

3. Troubleshooting peculiarities gives clients the capacity to take care of

numerous help issues all alone. This apparatus gives the clients with brisk

and simple arrangements and sparing the organization’s cash.

4. Serves as an instrument for following and recording help work area concerns,

which gives an information base of resolutions to past exchanges concerning

comparable issues.

5. Supplies information concerning trends and other issues, which aids in the

continuing improvement of products and services.

A helpdesk could comprise of one person or group of persons that make use of

telephone devices or software applications to keep track of problem(s) status and

thus provide solution(s) that satisfy the users. Helpdesk could also be seen as an

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information and assistance resource that supports the functionality of an organization

by responding to users’ requests in a timely manner. It is hence, a core sector

through which problems, complaints and requests are reported, managed,

coordinated and resolved (Berg, A., L. 2012). Helpdesk software is a solution

application that is used for managing organization’s helpdesk. It is accessible to

customer support personnel who could direct request(s) to servicing department(s).

In a business enterprise, helpdesk unit is a place that users call to get help for

a problem. Helpdesk can be classified into internal helpdesk (this is used to serve the

employee within the organization) or External helpdesk (this is used to serve people

that are external to the organization). Irrespective of the category, the smooth

operation of the helpdesk is fundamental to the smooth running of the organization.

Helpdesk management methods vary from one type of organization to the other. In

many small scale companies, a helpdesk is simply one person that has some ideas of

how to handle the users’ problems and users can contact him/her only by phone. In

larger companies, a helpdesk may consist of a group of experts using dedicated

software to: keep track of the status of user’s problems, analyse the problems and

thus provide solutions to the problems. Moreover, in some multi-national corporate

organizations, helpdesk support can be provided to customers via a toll-free

telephone number, website or e-mail. In Nigerian tertiary institutions and many of

the tertiary institutions in developing countries of Africa, helpdesk processes are

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handled manually and thus poses a lot of difficulties to both the helpdesk officers

and the users (Sheehan M., 2007). There are three conventional manual methods

currently used for reporting problems in Nigerian institutions:

 Making requisition/complaints via the phone

 Making requisition/complaints via e-mail and

 The use of Requisition/Complaint form.

Figure 2:1 Current Manual Helpdesk Process

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 Presented in Figure 2 is the diagrammatic illustration of the current manual

method for reporting problems to the different servicing departments. There is a lot

of repetitive work on problems that have simple solutions. Also, problems that

appear on a regular basis still go through the same process and therefore cause delay.

Staff and students are confronted daily with recurring problems for which the cause

never gets addressed or eliminated (Byeong, H. K., 2007). They have to explain their

problems or complaints to support staff and wait a long time for problem resolution.

There is also lack of follow-up of requests that need attentions.

Additionally, getting access to the support team could be quite challenging,

even though there is telephone but there is no tool to log the problems automatically

for the support personnel to attend to the problems later. Users have to keep on

trying to contact the support personnel for days or weeks before getting access. Upon

receiving the complaints, the support personnel will have to pass the case to the

appropriate administrator. These could take additional hours or sometimes days to

complete. This could reduce productivity or hinder management functions. Also, the

current manual method does not have any system which could allow the user to

monitor progress on the reported complaints. In view of these limitations, there is

the need for computer aided helpdesk system solution tagged Online Campus

Helpdesk for tertiary institutions in developing countries as currently done in

developed world. It is a user friendly distributed software system that can serve as

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virtual partner to the human helpdesk officers (Sitisyatirah, R., 2010). The

conceptual design of Online Campus Helpdesk for tertiary institutions in developing

countries is presented in this project. The proposed Online Campus Helpdesk would

be able to overcome the challenges of delay, loss of records, improper

documentation and many others; by routing specific requests to the appropriate

administrator electronically via established Intranet and Internet system and thus

bringing about proper documentation and accountability.

The main users of the system are typically divided into four categories as

follows:

a. User/Requestor: Requestors include staff and students of the institution and

other individuals seeking information as regards to the institution. The

requestor makes all the requests through the Online Campus Helpdesk for

resolution. The request will contain the actual complaints and some

information about the requestor, as well as his/her department. The requestor

will also be able to access possible solutions to or information about his/her

complaints/problems from the knowledgebase. Information retrieved from

the knowledgebase depends on the privilege given to the requestor.

b. Helpdesk Department: This department receives all requests from the

students and staff, and sends them to the appropriate servicing department(s).

Helpdesk department liaises with experts in the servicing department(s) in

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 order to ensure that necessary solutions are provided to requestor’s

satisfaction and documented. The department also ensures that Online

Campus Helpdesk is on and working and reports problems with the system to

the technical team for quick resolution.

c. The Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Department: This

department provides technology and maintenance support (i.e. hardware and

software) for Online campus helpdesk. ICT attends to technical issues with

the system as indicated by the helpdesk department.

d. Servicing Departments: These are the departments that are solely responsible

for providing solutions to requestors’ complaints/requests. They hold the

information required to solve these issues. They are able to see all requests

and respond to them accordingly. When items or services are required by

staff or students, they provide such items or services and allow the requestor

to submit feedbacks.

2.4 Problems Occurring in Today's Help Desk Management System

Providing cost-effective information technology (IT) support in today’s

rapidly changing computing environments is a challenging, frequently frustrating,

and sometimes seemingly impossible task. According to Right Answers’, todays

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organizations have implemented two types of support for end-user: staff support

center and self-service portal.

 Staff Support Center

This group consists of technical professionals who are available by phone or

by email to resolve users' problems. The staff members are increasingly equipped

with real-time collaboration tools that improve efficiency but still require a one-to-

one relationship between a support analyst and each problem presented.

 Self-Service Portal

This portal provides tools that allow users to troubleshoot, diagnose, and fix

their own technology problems. Organizations will often implement a self-service

portal to augment support-hour availability, provide a means 'Right Answers (The

Knowledge-Pak Company), "improving Help Desk Performance with the Support

Center.", to open tickets when the support center may not be staffed, or let end users

check the status of previously opened tickets.

2.4.1 Staff Support Center

Staff support center is a typical support center operates on a call center

model. Inbound requests (tickets) are received from users, and Tier-1 agents attempt

to resolve the issues or pass them along to an expert (Tier-2 or Tier-3) for additional

19
diagnosis and eventual resolution. The support center is usually responsible for

capturing the end-user and problem information into a ticket in a system that tracks

all resolution efforts and centrally manages the information. Sometimes questions

are quickly resolved at the Tier-I level. Very often, they are not. Consider a typical

help desk call:

i. A caller states a problem. The Tier-i agent asks diagnostic questions based on

that agent's knowledge and begins to formulate possible solutions.

ii. If a solution is not immediately apparent, the Tier-i agent will attempt to

duplicate the issue on his or her computer and devise a solution while the

caller is on the phone.

iii. If the Tier-i agent is unable to resolve the issue, he or she will consult

associates (if any are available), again while the caller is on the phone.

iv. If this consultation does not result in a solution, the Tier-i agent may search

the Internet. The results of such a search are unpredictable, and there is no

way to assure that the information found there is accurate. Again, this process

occurs while the caller is on the phone.

v. If at this point the problem is still not resolved, the call escalates to Tier-2.

End users can be impatient and are easily frustrated. Before a caller even

reaches a Tier-i agent, he or she has often had a lengthy wait on the phone

because all the agents are busy going through this process with other callers.

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 In addition, when a support center is underperforming, the challenge

compounds with low morale and high turnover, which in turn increases

training costs for support center personnel and add to the overall cost of the

support system.

2.4.2 Self-Service Portal

Resolving technical problems by telephone is time-consuming and expensive,

especially when calls follow a pattern like the one described above. Many

organizations are deploying self-service portals so that end users can resolve

problems on their own and can do so with the added advantage of 24x7 (24 hours X

7 days a week) availability.

Self-support systems typically work by using one of several models to find answers:

i. Questions and answers to navigate to a solution.

ii. A decision tree to find information about particular topics.

iii. A searchable knowledge base.

The goal of a successful self-service portal is to enable end users to solve their own

problems by assisting them in troubleshooting, diagnosis, and resolution through

knowledge-enabled systems. Only after failing to resolve their issue is a ticket

opened. This step-wise approach assures that simple questions are resolved at the

portal level and only problems that truly require a Tier-1 analysts' effort are

21
escalated. Self-service is an appealing concept, but it can be difficult to effectively

implement (Samarakoon, L., 2011). If the knowledge base content is not of the

highest quality or is difficult to search or navigate, frustrated users will abandon the

system and not return. Often, users will work through a troubleshooting matrix

without ever finding information specific to heir issues, or they will wrack their

brains thinking of different ways to pose their questions without ever getting the

answers they want. Frequently, users will search a knowledge base only to find a

great deal of information but nothing that answers their specific problem. In

frustration, they may turn to Internet search engines. There again, they are often

presented with countless search results, but the solutions they find are often

unreliable, untested, or even occasionally malicious. In the end, frustrated end users

will call the help desk, which defeats the purpose of implementing a self-service

portal.

2.5 Early Development

A help desk system can be described as “the process of handling unstructured

data in a structured manner”. As stated by Gyll and Gyll (Gyll and Gyll, 2003) a

general definition of a help desk system is, to be able to create a stable environment

where it is easy to make decisions and find solutions to problems.

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 Help desk systems has developed in order to help the organizations to

effectively communicate, organize, track and report issues. The importance of web

base help desk systems is that the organizations can access information at anytime

and anywhere (Hafifi and Ariza, 2012).

A technical definition of a help desk system is, it is a collection of one or

more programs designed to provide user assistance embedded in a larger program or

computer system. although designers frequently integrated help programs with

application help systems might also be separate and run concurrently with the system

(Chen, 2004b). The issue in this definition is its narrow scope due to its application

oriented nature. Along with the prevalence of diverse and heterogeneous range of

software and hardware systems, an online help systems serves as a gateway to all

kinds of computing resources. With the masses development of technology, online

help systems are also developed largely. The evolution of help system has come

from book-oriented to constructive through exploratory. Book oriented online help

represented paper-based documentation, which highlighted static and linear

structure.

Although this traditional organization of contents was familiar to users, the

limitation of this approach was not quite capable to satisfying the complicated

information needs of particular users in specific contexts for distinctive task. Due to

this, it paved the way for hyper-text-based online help, either exploratory online help

23
was that it provided multiple paths to navigate a document thus increasing the

interactivity. Its flaws were unfamiliarity to users and difficulty to read through

constructive online help desk allowed customization by users, feedback to

developers, and capability to re-conceptualize tasks. This online help conception

evolved along the dimension of user document interactivity (Chen, 2004c).

Due to these reason, it is clear that online help systems should be considered

in an organizational context rather than from an application oriented context.

According to Sondheimer and Reller (2002) online help systems are categorized into

four dimensions.

1) Access method: How users inputs help requests

2) Data structure: how the help information is organized.

3) Software architecture: How users and help systems interacts.

4) Context knowledge: To which extent the help information is relevant to the

environment and the task of a specific user.

But this categorization had some drawbacks Bergman and Keen-more (2012)

argued that one shortcoming of this categorization was that these dimensions

only took into consideration software related aspects, omitting user interface

related factor (More et al., 2012).

2.6 Recent Advancement

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 In the recent advancements of online help systems educational learning by

integrating them as question and answering systems.

Universities or higher education institutions have started introducing the open source

software and practical experiences have been reported by them in various scientific

journals introductory examples of e-learning and their effectiveness have reported.

Construction and application of an e-learning environment are often based on open

source packages, such as Moodle, stack overflow yahoo; Answers, WikiAnswer

etc… (Brill et al., 2002).

Since e-learning offers a learning environment which exceeds spatial and

time-based restrictions due to the use of web technologies, its usage has been

continuously increasing every year (Lebedeva and Zaitseva, 2014). All information

systems built for the purpose of educational support are summarized under the term

“e-learning”.

Installation and operation of an e-learning environment are already playing

an important role in educational facilities, such as Universities and anyone can install

an e-learning system without much effort (More et al., 2012). Although many e-

learning/question and answer systems have been implemented by Universities

around the world, these types of systems are not being implemented in Srilankan

Universities.

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 This help desk system which is to be implemented have new options such as

notifying the relevant lectures according to the relevant categories and also an option

where an e-mail is to be sent to the lecturer. If a student submit an urgent question

which we do not frequently come up with other e-learning systems. This is the

novelty of the system.

2.7 Related Works

Helpdesk management system has attracted a number of research works. For

example, in developed world, helpdesk has been established as a tool for inquiries

made by users (i.e. students and staff) on institution facilities and services (Amaral,

C., 2011). Hence keeping both students and staff members abreast of institutional

functions. Also, helpdesk has been proposed as a tool for creating a good culture of

service in the IT Organization (Workman, S. B., 2012).

Additionally, helpdesk information retrieval mechanism has been developed

Boland, K., K. et al., (2008) Hu, M., (2013) and was demonstrated to be suitable for

users and thus used in managing their complaints and proper system maintenance.

The system has a knowledgebase and thus helps to improve helpdesk usability. Also,

facility management helpdesk has been recommended as a good tool that could

enhance systematic management of users' complaints in tertiary institutions Shafie,

F., et al., 2011.

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 Contrary to the excellent customer satisfactions recorded in the developed

world Sykes 2002 the current helpdesk method in Nigerian tertiary institutions lacks

consistent feedback processes and uses transactional rather than holistic view of

services and manifests fuzzy understanding of the metric of service [8]. These could

explain the gap and dissonances in the shared understanding of IT helpdesk services

in tertiary institutions. Most tertiary institutions in Nigeria provide helpdesk services

via telephone, email and in-person either at the helpdesk location or at the user's

location (Caruso, B. J. 2007).

Helpdesk could also be seen as an information and assistance resource that

supports the functionality of an organization by responding to users’ requests in a

timely manner. It is hence, a core sector through which problems, complaints and

requests are reported, managed, coordinated and resolved. Help desk software is a

solution application that is used for managing organization’s help desk. It is

accessible to customer support personnel who could direct request(s) to different

department(s). Technical concerns are becoming a normal scenario in everyday work

environment both in education and corporate. Thus, need to constantly and

effectively monitor these concerns. These require a system that can handle them.

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 CHAPTER THREE

SYSTEM ANALYSIS AND DESIGN

3.1 Introduction

The model that is going to be used for the project is the Waterfall Model.

This approach suggests making just one attempt at a project and getting it correct the

first time. When it works well, the waterfall approach allows project completion

times to be forecast with more confidence than with some more iterative approaches

allowing projects to be controlled effectively. The waterfall model in some respect is

the “common-sense” approach. It is the simplest way to organize activities in stages.

The activities are performed in sequence. Therefore, this is a linear model where

each activity provides the input to the next stage in the process. This implies that the

result of one activity flows into the next. The model is simple, widely known,

understood and commonly used.

This process model usually has high visibility because at the close of each

stage full documentation is generated for that stage. Because of the linear nature of

the process it is not particularly robust because any changes tend to force us to loop

back to some earlier change and then follow through each of the stages again.

Whilst the approach is generally suited to the project at Diagonal Solutions, it

is felt that a prototype may be necessary to gauge users’ initial feelings about

interface design and the functionality of the system. The process has the advantage

28
of being able to determine exactly which stage the project is up to. For this reason,

the overall aspect of the Waterfall cycle will be adopted for this project, although it

will be altered somewhat in the coding, and testing stages. Instead of adhering to the

waterfall approach for these levels, a prototype approach should be adopted that will

allow for iterative implementation techniques to be utilised.

Figure 2:2 The waterfall model - adapted from Hughes and Cotterell

29
3.2 Description of the existing System

In the existing system the processes include:

 Current system working manually. It provides the information in written or

orally within the organization/campus.

 Individual has to spare his time and energy in order to obtain even the basic

information regarding the organization/campus.

 There can be long and tedious procedures in order to have a solution

regarding any particular query.

3.3 Analysis of Proposed System

For proper implementation of the new system, there are some hardware and

software requirements that are needed. The following are the hardware requirements

for the implementation;

 A Pentium 4 processor or higher with speed of 1.5GHz or faster

 RAM of at least 256MB

 Hard disk

 A monitor

 A mouse

 A keyboard

The following are the software requirements for the system;

30
  Windows operating system

 Sublime Text IDE

 XAMPP (Cross platform Apache, MySQL, PHP) application.

3.3.1 System Modelling

Structured system Analysis and design methodology (SSADM) is a set of

standards for system analysis and application design. It uses a formal methodical

approach to the analysis and design information system. The SSADM is an opened

methodology based on the waterfall model. It has been used by many commercial

businesses, consultants, educational establishments and case tools developers

The step or stages are as follows

 Feasibility

 Investigation of the current environment

 Business system options

 Definition of requirements

 Technical system options

 Logical designs

 Physical design.

31
Figure 3.0: Use-Case diagram of Student

Figure 3 specifies the activities that a student can perform, of which viewing a list of

requests he can make and submitting a request are the major one. Moreover, he has

options to change password and check status of his request.

32
 Helpdesk
Department

Figure 3.1: Use-Case diagram of Facility Head

Figure 3.1 specifies the tasks that the helpdesk department has to perform such as

checking the requests from the students and authorizing them i.e. taking necessary

actions on them. Furthermore, he has the option to send a proper notification via

email to the students.

33
Figure 3.2: Use-Case diagram of Administrator

Figure 3.2 specifies the job of administrator, wherein he has the ability to add or

remove students or staff from the system.

3.4 Design of Proposed System

Online Campus Helpdesk is proposed to be a web client-server based

distributed software system in which multiple autonomous client systems connects to

distributed servers via established Intranet or Internet connection. Client-server

34
architecture is adopted because Online Campus Helpdesk is expected to be used by a

large number of users from different locations. All communication is over the

network with the server on the institutions intra-network.

3.4.1 Database Design

This system’s database is developed using MySQL’s PHPMYADMIN

frontend. Containing 5 tables with fields in them. The table’s below show the fields

in the database.

Table 3.1
Table showing the fields in user table of the database

Field Data types Size Description

User_id Int 11 Primary key of user table

Name Varchar 60 Full name of the user
Phone Int 11 Phone number of the user
Username Varchar 60 Username of the user
Password Varchar 150 Password of the user
Email Varchar 60 Email of the user
User_role Varchar 20 User role of the user

Table 3.2

35
 Table showing the fields in student table of the database
Field Data types Size Description

Student_id Int 11 Primary key of student table

Student_name Varchar 60 Name of registered student

Student_phone Int 11 Student phone number
Student_matric_no Varchar 20 Student registration number
Student_password Varchar 150 Student password
Student_email Varchar 60 Student email
Student_dept Varchar 60 Student department

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 Table 3.3
Table showing the fields in staff table of the database
Field Data types Size Identity Description

Staff_id Int 11 No Primary key of staff

Staff_name Varchar 60 No The staff name
Staff_phone Int 11 No Staff phone number
Staff_password Varchar 150 No Staff password
Staff_email Varchar 60 No Staff email
Staff_dept Varchar 60 No Staff department

Table 3.4

37
 Table showing the fields in call table of the database
Field Data types Size Description

call_id Int 11 Primary key call id

Member_id Int 20 Primary key
Date_logged Varchar 20 The date logged
Date_responded Varchar 20 The data responded
Call_priority Varchar 20 Call priority
Title Varchar 60 The title
Problem_outline Text The problem outline
Dept Varchar 30 Department

Table 3.5

38
 Table showing the fields in knowledge base table of the database
Field Data types Size Description

Id Int 11 Primary id
Question Text Question
Answer Text Answer

39
Transactions on Online campus helpdesk

Transactions can be described as the activities that users’ carry out on the

database. A transaction may be an update transaction or query type transaction.

Update transactions are the activities that are responsible for the insertion of new

records, modification of existing records and deletion of unwanted records in the

database. Query transactions are the activities that are responsible for retrieving and

processing records from the database with the view of generating specific reports for

management decision making.

The transactions envisaged for the system are grouped into the following: Create,

Read, Update and Delete. The acronym given is CRUD.

a. Create Transactions

i. Add users

ii. Add request

iii. Add/Send message referring to a request

b. Report Transactions

i. View/print users’ record

ii. View/print request(s)

iii. View/print thread of messages associated with a request

iv. View/print list of cases (request/problem) reported in a given period

v. View/print List of solved and unsolved requests

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 vi. Display/print status of requests

c. Update Transactions

i. Update user data

ii. Update request status

d. Delete Transaction

i. Remove invalid requests.

ii. Delete repeated users

3.4.2 System Architecture

The architecture of the new system consists of the following; Case-specific

data and the user interface.

41
 Requestors, IT department users, help desk department and servicing
department users with unique interfaces dependent on assigned roles for
data input and reports generation. User
Interface
(UI) Layer
(Front-
end
Modules)
UI Module UI Module UI Module UI Module

1 2 3 n

Authorization
Request Creator Component Request Servicing
Component Components Business
Logic
Layer
(System
Knowledgebase Report
Kernel)
Update Component Knowledgebase Component
Browser

KNOWLEDGE ACCESS LAYER

Knowledgebase
Layer( Back-
KNOWLEDGEBASE end)

Fig 3.3 Architecture of an online campus helpdesk system

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Requestors or End users are the initiators of every request made to the helpdesk.

Requests are made to the helpdesk via browsers residing on client workstation. The

Requestors must be registered users of the system. Once a Requestor makes a

request, the request is immediately forwarded to representative of the servicing

department if specified or to the help desk department which forward the request to

the servicing department(s). The representative may be a clerk, Faculty/College

Dean, Head of Department etc. and may even be an Approving Officer. The request

is forwarded to the necessary units for servicing but first to the Approving officer if

not information based. Once approved, the intended service provider(s) in the

servicing department services the request and indicates completion. The requestor

will then indicate satisfaction once done. Also the transaction history and relevant

data/information about the transaction are stored in the knowledgebase for future use

by management of the institution or the helpdesk department.

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 CHAPTER FOUR

SYSTEM IMPLEMENTATION

4.1 Introduction

The implementation of the proposed system entails putting all the theoretical

design into practical design in order to put the new system into operation. This in

practice is the development of the Online Campus Helpdesk. System implementation

deals with coding and testing of the program.

4.2 Choice of Development Environment

The system developed in this work is a web based application. The Integrated

Development environment (IDE) is Sublime Text. The programming languages used

for the development of the system are HTML, CSS, MySQL and PHP. The choice

was made due to some advantageous features of the programming language such as;

 Fast loading

 Ease of development

 Flexible of configuration.

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 4.3 Software Requirements

Number Description
1 Windows 2000/ XP/ or Higher

with MS-office
2. Xamppor Wampp server

3. Ms-Internet Explorer, Mozilla

Firefox, Google Chrome,

Safari.

4.4 Implementation Architecture

The following block diagram shows the various components of the software

and their linkages.

Login Users
My My
module Technical & Requests
Requests Profile Department
s

Figure 4.0: Block Diagram showing the system architecture of the new system.

4.5 Software Testing

The test activity was carried out in stages. Each module or form as the case

may be was tested during and after design. The figures below are screen shots during

testing for logical and syntax errors. Using the sublime Text IDE.

45
Figure 4.1: Screenshot showing debugging of the login page.

Figure 4.2: Screenshot showing debugging of a menu item.

46
Figure 4.3: Screenshot showing database of the update record tab.

The database was tested basically for connectivity and storage to ensure that the

appropriate data types, validation rules and other properties were assigned to the

fields. The main driver, being the diagnosis page was tested for proper connectivity

to the database. Improper linkage to the database was corrected and assurance was

made to see that data was accurately retrieved and presented without errors.

Testing was also done after the integration of the different modules of the system

with realistic data samples. Below are some screen shots during system testing using

realistic data samples.

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Figure 4.4: Screenshot of User page with selected Department

Figure 4.5: Screenshot of Requests Page.

48
 Figure 4.6: Screenshot of All Requests Page in Admin Section.

The screenshots below show the testing of the login page with both valid and invalid

login details.

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Figure 4.7a: Screenshot of Login page with valid login details

Figure 4.8b: Screenshot of Login page with invalid login details

50
Figure 4.9 Screenshot of User information page

4.6 Documentation

4.6.1 User Manual

To use this application, follow these steps;

1. Go online to gou-campus-help.xyz.

2. Create an account on the application

3. Login to the application

4. Raise a request

5. Wait for a response for the admin Department.

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4.6.2 Source Code Listing

I. Refer to Appendix A for the source code of the login page.

II. Refer to Appendix B for the source code of the department page.

III. Refer to Appendix C for the source code of the request page.

IV. Refer to Appendix D for the source code of the users page.

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 CHAPTER FIVE

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

5.1 Summary

The motivation behind this section is to abridge the study that was directed

including the statement of the research questions, the research methodology used,

and a summary of the study results, conclusions and recommendations. The primary

aim of this project has been met. All the objectives that were set out have been

completed and giving positive results in the end. Although some users comment that

they did not think online campus helpdesk was ideal, it had managed to convince

them that a try for The University of Calabar would be a good venture.

5.2 Conclusion

In this paper, we proposed a design for online campus helpdesk and a

conceptual framework for electronic helpdesk system, which can be adopted by any

tertiary institution. The proposed system automates the process of request

submission to the helpdesk department. It also provides a platform for users to

receive help on various requests ranging from system failures to service provision.

Therefore, it will be a central point through which problems could be reported and

managed. Online campus helpdesk, if implemented, will serve as a computer based

platform that will effectively and efficiently carry out users’ support services in

53
tertiary institution. Online campus helpdesk provides the tools to carry out the

following functions:

 Enables users to obtain information regarding the institution support services.

 Reduce turnaround time to complete requests submitted by users.

 Storage of records about helpdesk history, resolution tools, workflow for all

helpdesk activities and automated escalation tools for timely support.

 Find, analyse, and eliminate common problems in the institution.

 Handle problems efficiently; maintain audit trails and enable helpdesk staff

free up for more useful tasks.

 Enables management to measure problems resolved by the service provision

departments to give them a fair rating during KPI (Key Performance

Indicator) review.

Listed below are the benefits of online campus helpdesk:

 To log, analyse and assist in the resolution of helpdesk issues

 There is database of users’ details, helpdesk history and resolution tools.

 There is action log to record every event in a helpdesk job history.

 There is structured workflow for all helpdesk activity.

 There is automated escalation tools to assist in timely support solution

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  Helpdesk managers can quickly generate meaningful reports that can

highlight performance bottlenecks, recurring client issues, and outstanding

service.

 Some institutions provide services to companies and other institutions,

therefore with online campus helpdesk, helpdesk managers are able to

quickly configure complex escalation and service level agreement rules so

that their helpdesk support is effective and provides the level of service that

clients demand.

Based on the aforementioned benefits, the following constraints are enforced: Users

are enforced to use a specific workflow as defined by the management of the

institution and service level agreement rules must be implemented in order to

automate request/problem escalation procedure stated therein. Considering the

economy of developing countries, online campus helpdesk is affordable because the

implementation is based on Open Source applications.

5.3 Recommendation

Based on the foregoing conclusions, herewith were the following

recommendations:

1. It is to recommend the full implementation of the proposed system.

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 2. The regular monitoring of access based application at best time to avoid the

slow systems processing due to large volume of users.

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 APPENDIX SOURCE CODE OF THE INDEX PAGE

<!DOCTYPE html>

<html>

<head>

<meta charset="UTF-8">

<title>eHelpDesk</title>

<link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" href="css/bootstrap.min.css">

<link rel="stylesheet" href="css/styles.css">

</head>

<body>

<div class="container1">

<div class="header">

<h1 class="text-center headerText">WELCOME TO THE

eHelpDesk SYSTEM</h1>

</div>

<p class="text-center">

<a class="btn btn-primary" href="login.PHP">Login</a>

<a class="btn btn-primary" href="register.PHP">Register</a>

</p>

<!-- <p class="text-center">You will find below all the available departmrnts. To
access your department or make a new request, please click on the button</p>-->

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</div>

<p class="text-center">Please note that you need to be authorised brfore you

can use any part of this system. Contact the ICT team personally if you're not already
a user.</p>

<h2 class="text-center" style="margin-bottom:

20px;">DEPARTMENTS</h2>

<div class="row departmentsRow">

<div class="col-sm-3">

<div class="contain">

<h3 class="text-center">Technical</h3>

<p>Manages all users and requestors. Responsible for

managing all departments too.</p>

<p>Responsible for all the technicals that have to do

with the system.</p>

</div>

</div>

<div class="col-sm-3">

<div class="contain">

<h3 class="text-center">Physical Planning &

Works</h3>

<p>Servicing of all university equipments.</p>

</div>

</div>

62
 <div class="col-sm-3">

<div class="contain">

<h3 class="text-center">Technical</h3>

<p></p>

</div>

</div>

<div class="col-sm-3">

<div class="contain">

<h3 class="text-center">Technical</h3>

<p></p>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</div>

</body>

<script src="js/custom.js"></script>

<script src="js/bootstrap.min.js"></script>

</html>

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