CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCCTION
An online assignment handling is a system contained
within the Module virtual learning environment. The functionality of the
standard assignment handling module has been extended to cater for all the
Department's needs in terms of receiving assignments from students, making them
available to tutors to mark, returning grades, comments and marked work to
students and keeping Registry and course administrators informed at all stages
of the process. Extension requests are an integral part of the system.
Universities, Polytechnics and colleges
of education are considered the main provider of knowledge in various fields.
Various courses of studies are taught in institutions, covering several fields including
applied Sciences, Math, Computer, Human Resource, and Accounting. Most courses
at universities consist of theoretical as well as practical subject matter. To evaluate
the level of understanding and degree of comprehension among students,
assignments are often given.
Assignments are submitted by students
either individually or in groups. Assignment management involves collecting, marking,
and redistributing to students. Tregobov (1998) breaks the process down into
four stages: submission, recording, marking, and return. Online assignment
submission and management (OASM) involves the use of the World-Wide Web, the
Internet and computers to aid this process (Jones, 2003). With traditional
assignment submission system, lots of problems arise especially when the
students have to submit the answers of the assignment to the lecturer. There
may be problems due to distance, time, or format of the assignment (written or printed).
Also every learning process requires administrative support. Much of this
administrative support is to some degree transparent but if the latter is not
well organized it could disrupt the flow of learning between students and the
staff.
As the educational world is moving
faster and becoming more competitive, almost every university started to use an
online submission system, or newer technologies to facilitate their task, to
have more time, and to be in pace with this fast moving IT world.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Many reported failures in
courses thought in the tertiary institutions can be attributed to the careless
of the course representative or the teaching assistant who failed to submit an
assignment paper to the lecturer for marking (Jones, 2003). Such careless could
lead to a zero mark for the victim whose paper was declared missing or simply
not found. The manual method of submitting assignments to the course lecturer
or directly to the lecturer in most Nigerian Universities is simply not
effective as these papers could get damaged or get missing due to the
carelessness of the course representative or the lecturer.
Moreover, assignments
that are large in terms of pages or volume could easily discourage a student
from submitting due to financial constraints brought about by high cost of
printing an assignment. All these problems highlighted are the main reasons the
researcher is developing an electronic assignment submission system to curtail
these challenges and make studying more enjoyable in our tertiary institutions.
1.3 OBJECTIVES OF STUDY
The main objective of the
paper is to design and implement an online assignment submission system.
Specific objectives of the study are:
i) To
develop a system for proper documentation of students’ record in the in the
school system.
ii) To
Create a database that will manage each student assignment submission and allow
access by leacturer to access those files submitted by the student.
iii) To
Create a quick search and advance search that the student / lecturer when
sorting a file.
iv) This
proposed system is geared towards providing a system to assure equal
opportunity and impartial review of student assignment submission
v) The
system to be developed will provide a full school system by that will take
cares of faculty registration, lecturer registration, course registration,
department registration, users registration, student registration, perform
scores /grades registration, test scores assessment and article entry.
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The
study will aid lecturers to have a well structured system for assignment
submission and grading. This will eliminate paper work in their offices and
improve on their efficiency in managing students assignments. Unlike attaching
files in a mailing system like yahoo mail and gmail and sending to a lecturer,
this system systematically arranges assignments with respect to courses,
departments and students ID, creating a more user friendly environment for both
the students and the lecturers.
1.5 ORGANIZATIONAL PROFILE
Founded
in 1962, the University of Lagos has, for over 5 decades, provided qualitative
and research-oriented education to Nigerians and all those who have entered its
domain in search of knowledge. The University has built a legacy of excellence
and has been instrumental in the production of top range graduates and academia
who have had tremendous impact, directly or indirectly, on growth and
development in Nigeria..
1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Assignment: a task or piece of work allocated
to someone as part of a job or course of study
Student: A student
or pupil is a learner, or someone who attends an educational institution.
Online: online"
indicates a state of connectivity.
Lecturer: A lecture is an oral
presentation intended to present information or teach people about a particular
subject, for example by a university or college teacher.
Submission: the action of presenting a
proposal, application, or other document for consideration or judgement.