Abstract
Electronic
Examination Time Table system is a research work
that will help build an effective information management system for University of Benin, in Computer Science department. The
designed system will serve as a more
reliable and effective means of accessing examinational time table and removing all forms of delay and stress that is involved in the manual system. This project work
made use of data collected from the college library, and journals. The aim of this project work is to achieve
the following; to effectively and efficiently access of computer
science examination time table, and to provide a reliable
and transparent system devoid of personal inclinations and interest and to
provide borderless access to departmental examination schedules . The implementation of the Electronic ssystem was carried out using Visual Basic language. In conclusion, the work met all the
objectives intended. It is, however, recommended for use by all tertiary
institutions in computer science department.
CHAPTER ONE
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Time-table
is a structured schedule of an event with time at which they occur, especially
time of arrival and departure according to Adedokun J. B. (2014)
A
time-table is an organised set of courses in a tabular form, which makes
information available about a series of arranged events such as the time range
for the event to take place, venues, invigilators and supervisors that will
monitor how the event is carried out.
It
will be very important for us to know that time resources is the most valuable
asset in the world, which may result to failure if there is no proper planning,
scheduling and management so time-table has come into existence which serves as
solution to the world wide time planning and management challenges, which when
applied appropriately will yield fulfilment of the aim.
Computer
science department, University of Benin, applies manual approach in
constructing an examination time-table. This is done by the examination
officer, who ensures that examinations are conducted effectively and free of
hitches. This is done by collecting all the list of courses that are offered by
the department. The examination officer uses this list to form a tentative
Examination time-table. The time-table
is liable to changes if there is any observation either from the staff or
student in the faculty, if there are any clashes or omission of courses, it
will be effected before the final time-table is released. This is always done
two weeks before the commencement of the examination.
The
manual construction of time-table (in Universities, Polytechnics, Monotechnics,
colleges and other lower academic Institutions) is time consuming and
particularly involve straining up of brain which may eventually result to some
errors as it were, which may still demand for setting of another time-table
with the mindset of attaining a desired and favourable Examination Time Table
as the case may be. Computer solution to
the problem can give more flexibility, make it easy to incorporate new requirements
and save effort and it’s time conserving even as the world is approaching
paperless era.
Examination
time-table scheduling is an optimization problem to which either maximization
or minimization of the available resources takes place depending on the
choice. The variables are very large and
combinatorial explosive and the primary aim is to schedule the Examination
time-table such that a clash of schedule does not occur and the time-table
should be a good one that is acceptable.
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
For many years in the Faculty, time-table has
always been generated using common type of time-table generation technique,
which is the manual technique. However,
there have been errors on the generated manual examination time table, these errors
include the following: inability to spread courses evenly, clashes in the
examination time-table (i.e. two courses offered by a student are assigned to
the same period). Invigilators are also
affected due to the fact that an invigilator may be assigned more than one
courses at the same period.
Also,
the officer in charge has his own challenges in the process of generating the
examination time-table. The challenges
are: stress involved during the process, time spent in the process which
otherwise can be used for another productive work.
1.3 AIM AND OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The
main aim of this project is to Design and Implement a University Time-table
System that will provide an effective and efficient way of generating
Examination time-table.
The
objectives of the project are:
i.
To study the existing
method of examination time-table generation
ii.
To design a system that
will schedule courses, venues, invigilators and supervisors
iii.
To implement the
designed system
1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
Considering
the importance and vital role Examination time table plays in the University
system, this project will definitely be of tremendous benefit to the
university. This project is very
significant in the sense that it will assist the University timetabling team and
the users of the Examination Time-table officer, the lecturers and the students
who are the benefactors of the generated Examination time-table.
Some
benefit of the generated Examination time-table is in providing best possible
solutions that can foster/enhance:
Productivity, Quality of services and Quality of Education.
This
is achieved by providing the following listed features: User friendly program, better scheduled Exam
Time-table, Error free time-table, easily generated time-table and Clash free
time-table.
1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY
This
project titled “DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AELECTRONIC EXAMINATION TIME-TABLE
SYSTEM (A CASE STUDY OF COMPUTER SCIENCE DEPARTMENT)” intended to cover the Computer
science departmental Examination Time-table, the main users are the officers in
charge, the lecturers and the students. It will be limited to: Registration of
Courses, Venues, Invigilators and Supervisors, and Generation of the Time-table
as the system will handle inputted information and allocate them across the
Time-table appropriately.
1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This
project research is limited only to the Examination timetabling process of
computer science department, although the same procedure can as well be used
for scheduling Lectures time-table.
Reasons are due to the time factor and because it covers many fields.
In
the course of this research work, the following limitations are encountered:
a. Time-table for all courses offered by
University of Benin, were not put into consideration
b. Spill
over courses were not put into consideration
1.7 OPERATIONAL
DEFINITION OF TERMS
Time table:
this is the academic calendar that shows how a specific operation in the school
can be run sequentially
Schedule: this
is the process of setting up a time for an academic importance.
Examination:
A formal test involving answering or writing in a particular place at set out
time.
Optimization:
the design and operation of a system or process to make it as good as possible
In
some defined sense
Slot: A space where
some information will display such as Time, Courses, Invigilators, Venues etc
Simulated:
Made to imitate manual outlook
Automation:
The act of converting the controlling of a system or approach into an
electronic controls by using computer