CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY
The term ‘Portal’ projected the vision
that the web site is an entry point to selected and relevant information in
contrast to the general web where all information is equally accessible. The
term portal was quickly accepted and today it is used liberally by vendors and
organizations alike to promote their web site beyond the original Intra - and
Extra - nets. Traditionally
regarded as World Wide Web gateways, portals have become more than convenient
launch pad for searches (internet searches). Today portals are increasingly
sophisticated applications designed to give users simple, quick, secure access
to relevant organizational and personal data.
A web
portal is a website that functions as a point of access to information on the
web. A portal or web portal present information from diverse sources in a
unified way. Web Portal provides way for an organization to provide a
consistent look and feel with accesscontrol and procedures for multiple
applications and databases which otherwise would have been different entities
altogether.
Many
universities have recently joined the portal band wagon, developing enterprise
wide portals and sharing their experience. Enterprise portal offers important
benefits to higher educational institutions. In particular, they let universities
to co-ordinate user access to multiple services and information sources, and
let users access and work with the information in it (the university web
portal). On technological side, this single application (the web portal) must
bring together and make available vast amount of organization data.
Surprisingly little research focus on user satisfaction however. Many
developers do not put user’s appreciation as one of their topmost priorities
when developing their portal sites. To create portal system that meets both
organizational and user’s requirement, universities must identify portal (web
portal) characteristics that contribute to user’s satisfaction and potentially
to their ultimate adoption of the system.
It is worth
nothing that the major function of a university portal is to use a single
consistent web-based front end to present information from a variety of
back-end data sources. That is information about people is stored in one or
more database belonging to the university. This information could include
student information, employee information, course information, alumni
information, library information, school calendar and so on.Also, it is good to
know the difference between a normal university web site and a university
portal. A university web site contains information, but it is up to the visitor
to find it either with a search engine or by navigating through the various
links. This way people miss information, plus it is difficult to find what you
really want. While in a university portal, the user identifies himself to the
portal, the portal then uses the details provided to present relevant
information that the person would require in one piece.
Academic counselling and tutoring programs have
traditionally played an important role in lowering student desertion and
improving academic performance. Ineffective programs, however, can lead to
students making uninformed or incorrect academic choices, thus contributing to
lower academic performance or even desertion (Soulsby, 1999; Simpson, 2005;
Kuittinen, et al, 2001). Students often require greater attention because of
factors related to the academic environment (particularly increased academic
demands) or maturation (i.e. socialization, personal responsibility, identity
and acceptance issues, etc.). Personal and economic problems are also common
among many students. Effective contact time is extremely important to create
the professional and affective bonds necessary for students to better cope
during their first year of studies. Unfortunately, excessive student-teacher
ratios and schedule conflicts sometimes limit the amount and quality of
interaction. A survey conducted at several local Puerto Rican universities,
Navarro et al (2000) discovered that these two factors accounted for 75% of students
who chose not to employ academic counselling services. Because of their many
different roles (instructor, administrator, researcher, author, etc.) college
professors sometimes do not have the time required to access information in
more traditional forms. Efficient access to student personal information and
academic records, as well as making administrative procedures more efficient
and producing required reports is of vital importance to the counsellor.
Additionally, the extra time required to access information manually increases
the frequency of errors and decreases the effective time spent with students,
and the difficulties in booking appointment with conselors due to time and
number of students to be counselled might lead to some students not fully
counselled. Students are also scared to approach staffs facially, and they
might decide not to consult anybody and make mistakes that could ruin their
academics or life. Consequently, information management is important as it can
minimize errors related incomplete or faulty information (Coles, 1999).
1.2 STATEMENT OF PROBLEM
·
Difficulties
in offline students counseling due to time in booking appointment with an
entire class.
·
Difficulties
of students approaching lecturers, course advisers, HODs, etc facially, due to
intimidation, fear and shyness.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVE
The
aim of mobile ISWCP is to solve the problem of manual counseling by using a single consistent web-based front end to
present information from a variety of back-end data sources.
The
role of a mobile ISWCP is to put a consistent "face" to this
information so that visitors don't have to deal with dozens of different web
interfaces to get information.
1.4 SCOPE OF STUDY
This
project would entail student’s communication with staff, counselors, etc.
Students will also be able to complain of anything hindering his or her
academic pursuit, drop feedbacks as regards the happenings in the department.
More so, the majority of the mobile ISWCP (Interactive Student Web Counseling
Portal) would consider only computer science department subset as a test
platform, covering full time program.
This is because it is assumed the basic
operations or activities that a full time student will carry out is same as
what every other student in other programs (diploma, part time, post graduate,
and so on) will carry out on the portal.
1.5 METHODOLOGY
In order to evaluate this
project, the methodology based on Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC),
generally three major steps are followed, which are:
·
Analysis.
·
Design.
·
Implementation and testing.