ONLINE COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM

ONLINE COURSE REGISTRATION SYSTEM (A case Study of Foundation Polytechnic ,Ikot Idem)

CHAPTER ONE 1.0       INTRODUCTIONThis chapter consists of the introduction, background of the study, statement of the problem, objective of the study, significance of the study, organization of research, scope of the study and definition of terms as used in the research work.   1.1       Theoretical Background            One of the largest investments in many organizations is the creation, maintenance, and retrieval of information. It has been estimated that in an organization such as a tertiary educational community, information is highly essential for correct students’ record especially course record and examination data. Student course information, if not properly created and stored, will cause many errors in usage Okonigene, et al (2008). Nearly every section of the educational system requires information processing. With the use of computers for information processing, the following are possible: instant access to students’ personal and course information, instant student information updating, automatic computation of the Grade Point Average (GPA), generation of the graduating students list, monitoring of  failed courses, keeping an up-to-date record of the entire student body  in the institution, storing course information such as course code, course description, course unit, and scores for the purpose of GPA computation, and producing user-friendly data entry screens for ease of use. It is unfortunate that all educational institutions in the developing world, such as the Universities, Colleges of Education and polytechnics in Nigeria, still operate under the manual method of course registration, course record keeping and computation of result. Foundation polytechnic, Ikot Idem, for example, still operates on this manual method which is highly prone to errors.             With the advent of Information Technology in the last decade, the major focus has shifted from manual systems to computerized systems. Various systems viz railway reservation, hospital management etc involving manual work have been automated efficiently. Student course registration process in colleges involves filling registration forms manually, getting it signed by the Head of department. As is evident, this process is very laborious and time consuming.

Therefore, because of this problems and errors arising from such a system, an online course registration system and result confirmation becomes inevitable; the benefits accruable from the web-based system cannot be over emphasized.

1.2     STATEMENT OF PROBLEMS

Many universities, polytechnics and colleges have their own system to manage student’s studies and results. Common practice is by recording the student course and grade information in a record book.

Course registration form is obtained on presentation of evidence of school fees payment by the student before issuing the course form by registrar to the student. This process of verifying fee payment takes minutes and causes overcrowding and long queues in the registrar’s office. After completion of the course form, the student takes the form back to secretary to registration for submission to be sign by head of department. This practice has some weaknesses such as longer time to search the student course information, the possibility of misplacement of record book and vulnerability of student course record to be accessed by unauthorized person.