Design and implementation of student result notification system

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Today, the world is full of technologies; there are lots of inventions made to use the latest technologies. To be specific on technology, Mobile phones have been a part of our everyday use where we share lots of information through this communication channel. Nowadays, android system is becoming more popular, especially in the Smartphone market. Because there are some of the development tools which is available free are used to generate many applications in an android platform. The main reason for its popularity is, it also provides a very convenient hardware platform for developers (Umar ManzoorI, 2014).
The advancement of technology today has immersed itself towards education. The presence of technology has reached its maximum of providing sustainable technology towards quality education through delivery and effective learning. It helps to develop more advanced economies, and now it can be used for spending our leisure time. Social desires towards educational leadership in economics and academic matters rely on upon the integration of technology in each aspect of society (Marsha, 2012). The Tai Solarin University of Education is one of the state owned institutions that embrace information and communication technology now. As they immersed themselves with technology through their delivery towards academic excellence and other forms brought about by information technology.
Rapid growth and popularity of smart phones had made mobile applications integration into a new way of learning, teaching and passing of information, causing the majority of scholars to research. How to make students get information as quick as possible by the way of mobile is a time of great significance for research. The mobile student result notification integration based on Androidhas been proposed.
The current academic environment is dominated by the use of advanced communication technologies. Such technologies are used extensively by students and staff at institutions of higher learning for accessing and disseminating information. A closer look at the gadgets around us, it is clear that we are becoming more comfortable with wireless communication systems; there is no doubt that the world is moving towards wireless communication. It’s significant to note (Song and Lee’s, 2012) study of mobile device ownership among international business students, which shows clearly that close to 82% students owned smartphones. Olatokun (2008) observes that “Mobile phones have become an inseparable part ofeveryday life”. Mobile devices have become more attractive mainly because of the availability ofe-commerce related applications and the ease with which one can access desired information from anywhere anytime. The real impetus for the mobile devices started with the arrival of web 2.0 applications especially the active participation of the user towards the web which has pushedthe growth of mobile devices in academic institutions. When we look at the different gadgets used around us it’s obvious to note most of them are wireless. “Everywhere we go we cannot help but notice the number of mobile devices being used; cell phones, iPods, iPads, android devices, MP3 players, GPS systems, blackberries and even mini-laptops”. Jacobs (2009) observes that “mobile access is the remediation of wireless internet”.

Students, being the relatively younger generation, are more likely to be familiar and early adopters of new technology. However, technology is only a tool and can thus be a double-edged sword. The use of technology, while making learning more interactive and thus more attractive to younger generations has also the potential to deter them to be physically present for learning activities (Gomis et.al, 2011).

Nowadays, mobile phones and internet are indispensable factors of our daily life. This reality played a very important role in coming up with the proposed mobile alert/notification system. This service provides a means to alerts or notify the student whenever an update occurs at the website in terms of push notification. There are other mechanisms through which users of the app could get the update about release of result, through short messaging service (SMS), e-mail subscriptions etc but this research work shall be focusing on the most recent form of delivering update to users of mobile application which is Push Notifications.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Students have to search the internet each time to know about any news updates like fee payment dates, exam results etc. in the university or department result website. The project entitled “Mobile Student Result Notification System” is a system which sends latest news updates from the department website to student in form of push notifications. The system is developed so that students do not miss out on any alert and save their valuable time rather than the usual method of time-to-time checking whether the results have been uploaded to the website or not as they will also be able to check these results without having any course to visit the website.

1.3 AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
The aim of this project is to develop a mobile based result notification application, which will be highly efficient for the process of retrieving necessary information pertaining to every relevant notification about the student results. The objectives are:
• To design and implement a mobile application system, which is user friendly and can provide up to date information.
• To evaluate the performance of the developed software application on users mobile devices by installing the application on respective students device.
• To get users review of current software i.e. including a contact page in the application which will enable users/students to send feedbacks, complaints and suggestions to the administrator as this would be needed in improving the system in subsequent updates.

1.4 JUSTIFICATION OF THE STUDY
The outcome of the study “Mobile Student Result Notification System”, will provide a range of benefits in the ease of access of information to students. Some of the benefits are listed below:
1. Enable students to have access to real time information.
2. Instant notification about information relating to their result via push messages.
3. Ability to check their result without having any cause to visit any website.

1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The study is significant has it helps to integrate modern day technology to the university system. It gives and improves key indications on developing an electronic information system.
The project is quite significant in its nature because of the various advantages mobile technology poses; in the design of the system it keeps student abreast of instant notification about their results and other relevant news.

1.6 METHODOLOGY
The project would be developed, using an iterative development methodology getting user’s specification. Also at intervals a sample prototype would be installed on user’s phone, to help get additional user’s requirement during the course of development.
The following methods would be applied during the course of this project, the method for collecting requirement specifications would include;
• Investigation into the current system in use and the processes involved.
• Conduct information gathering from students, lecturers, and staffs in the department
• Implement a prototype system that will meet the user’s specification (students).
The implementation stage will include coding, testing and installation on different android platforms.
The following technologies / Languages would be used during implementation or development
• Programming language: Ionic Framework, AngularJS and PHP

•  Database variant: MYSQL
• SMS API
• Target Mobile platform: Android operating system.

1.7 SCOPE OF STUDY
The Scope of this study is limited to developing the mobile application for the department of computer science (TASUED).

1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
• Information: This is the result of processing raw data about a particular entity and presenting it in a way that is meaningful.
• Push Notification:A push notification is a message that pops up on a mobile device. App publishers can send them at any time; users don’t have to be in the app or using their devices to receive them.
• Information system: A collection of input, output, feedback and environment that collects, processes, stores, analyses, retrieve and disseminate information for specific purpose.
• Android Studio: This is an integrated development environment (IDE) for developing on the Android platform. It was announced on May 16, 2013.
• ADT (Android Developer Tools): The ADT is a plugin for Eclipse that provides a suite of tools that are integrated with the Eclipse IDE. It offers you access to many features that help you develop Android applications.
• Android Emulator:The emulator lets you prototype, develop and test Android applications without using a physical device.
• Ionic Framework is a convenient framework for developing hybrid mobile applications as it is very fast for development of mobile applications.