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INTEREST GROUP USING ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

1. 3 participate discussin board 4 participate test session a t l l l l l L l l l l l l r l l l l l l Figure 4 5 Sequence Diagram For Existing Application Student View Description of Figure 4 5 To access the e learning system a student user is required to login into the system From the main page the user can proceed to access unit documents such as lecture notes tutorial question or assignment Whenever student has inquiry the student can participate in discussion board to discuss the question In addition from the CeL system the authorized student can participate in a test session which is prepared by their main campus lecturer 60 4 2 2 System Architecture for Existing Application CeL System Figure 4 6 System Architecture For Existing E Learning Or Cel System The existing e learning application or CeL system provided by Blackboard Inc is mainly offered at main campus only Lecturers from other five campuses or branches who desire to collaborate and share academic information with a unit leader a subject s leader from the main campus can communicate through email telephone fax or mailing approaches 61 4 3 User Requirements Currently the author is one of the academic staff working at TARC s main campus She is a unit leader for a common subject
2. Redirect to Test page A test title is added into database Redirect to Edit Test Title page Modified test title is updated to database The selected test 114 title is removed from database Academic Staff Information Able to add an academic staff s contact details Able to edit an academic staff s contact details Able to delete an academic staff s contact record Redirect to Academic Staff Information page An academic staff s contact record is saved into database Redirect to Edit Academic Staff Information page Modified academic staff record is updated to database The selected academic staff s contact record is removed from database Test Result Able to access students test performance for a selected test title Redirect to Test Result page Students test result for a particular test title is presented Table 5 3 System Evaluation Control Panel 5 2 3 Student User The following table 5 4 demonstrates i GEMS evaluation based on student user perspective Test Case Functionalities Yes No Remarks Actual Output Login Able to gain access to the i GEMS v Redirect to Subject system for an authorized user Selection page Subject Able to display a list of subject Y Redirect to the Selection options and allow user to make a corresponding selection subject s main page
3. 115 Subject s Allow a student user to access a The content is Main Page studying subject s materials displayed according to the user s selection By default announcement is displayed under content section Announce Able to display a subject s latest Announcement is ment announcement properly displayed The latest announcement is always displayed on the top Unit Allow a student user to view the The selected file is Information content of a unit information file displayed under content section Able to download a unit information file to a specified path The selected file is correctly saved or downloaded to the user s computer Lecture Allow a student user to view a The selected lecture Notes lecture notes content notes is displayed under content section Able to download a lecture notes The selected lecture file to a specified path correctly notes is saved or downloaded to the user s computer Tutorial Allow a student user to view a The selected tutorial tutorial s content is displayed under content section Able to download a tutorial file to a The selected tutorial specified path correctly file is saved or downloaded to the user s computer Assignment Allow a student user to view an The selected assignment s content Able to download an assignment file to a specified path correctly assignment is displayed under content section The selected assignment file is
4. Dim connectionString As String Provider Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4 0 Ole DB_ Services 4 Data Source amp Request PhysicalApplicationPath amp iGEMS mdb Dim dbConnection As System Data IDbConnection New System Data OleDb OleDbConnection connectionString Dim queryString As String SELECT Announcement FROM _ Announcement WHERE Announcement SubjectCode amp SubjectCode amp ORDER By TodayDate DESC TodayTime DESC Dim dbCommand As System Data IDbCommand New System Data OleDb OleDbCommand dbCommand CommandText queryString dbCommand Connection dbConnection Dim dbParam_subjectCode As System Data IDataParameter New System Data OleDb OleDbParameter dbParam subjectCode ParameterName SubjectCode dbParam subjectCode Value subjectCode dbParam subjectCode DbType System Data DbType String dbCommand Parameters Add dbParam subjectCode Dim dataAdapter As System Data IDbDataAdapter 2 New System Data OleDb OleDbDataA dapter dataAdapter SelectCommand dbCommand Dim dataSet As System Data DataSet 2 New System Data DataSet dataAdapter Fill dataSet Return dataSet End Function Figure 5 3 To Retrieve An Announcement From Access Database By Using Code Wizard 101 From CP Add Announcement aspx btnSubmit_Click procedure Try Dim DBConn As System Data OleDb OleDbConnection Dim dbCommand As New System Data OleDb OleDbCommand Dim strPath As String Dim SubjectCode As String Di
5. Productivity4you offer wide range of content authoring tools which include Viewlet Presentation Software to Create Online Animated Presentations Virtual Conferencing and Web Collaboration Lecture Capture Presentation Voice amp Whiteboard and Web Publishing Content Authoring and Publishing tools Content and Course Delivery and Management Assessment Authoring and Management and 22 Web Quizzes Authoring Productivity4you s e learning and productivity tools are used in many sectors of industry commerce and the public sector The prominent clients list include BBC Shell International NHS Citroen Ford Volvo Fujitsu HP Novell Sesame Nokia UkeU Aberdeen University Oxford University University of Cambridge University of Sheffield and so forth ScribeStudio http www scribestudio com ScribeStudio is another provider that allows users to create online versions of offline programs information courses assessments and tests and deliver such materials online to invited students trainees and other learners By combining Authoring Tools with a Learning Management System ScribeStudio offers following comprehensive toolset e CourseBuilder to create highly engaging online courses CourseBuilder facilitates learning by unleashing students and educators creativity to express ideas through rich digital multimedia content e SiteBuilder to create password protected learning sites where your students can access
6. ur Ti dl iv d ura Joal Ut i Rahman E ollege 1L EIL BRL TENE I ILI i fat C ai etbsg Ara inae jest enn Sr Limir itt B ore ep ee A 185 Control Panel gt Maintaining test questions EIDEM Qus SE d e mad ina EY Ma Rr E z JA NI CEDERE rg Hu 2 Ogu UU HEN L OHER E age tg a homne demos IK a a pda Ae Das sch ac ha wm leben desen D PPP a Ep Deer Fiere 1 Ia pec corper ks ena Herp dit cime m sana dmm ii gu mI P T Beien A E fo CT TEE VTT E LBS Bam Fe Comic Fact rk uf hier hit jubes D fonat Name I ID Perka E a Fui pp EM Pium De po Ties Loreen LC pind Lea tte How kak re wm ze Leet Hl kee Sd oe ep PEC MEET E ILI 186 Control Panel gt Maintaining academic staff information EHE misgi eet Ie Pa EA wee levin dm mm s T i eG Logg feria Zi IH E a WD enc repo er pes in da aa e a LE Tara Shag Drs Pr JF At AAA A UR EH GG FIN O ONES GER oe ee Loire Acida g k ssen B i Kc mim Mei Freske rg oca da e dd o Ka fact piiki adf de ec go be clog a Add Aces vw bacn Dez Esla Fui 1 Die Daba i rud be traba lr Li ndm ions He 414 joa Lage ss Moa dsc ru Dar Fa mir Fee Beh im Lerner Erud iori an bugs ae He Ted LY is Lass V LAC Kali Longe Oris Tia Taser Les s e Jen oe PLI Control Panel gt Accessing test result Pa io ee bm lee He A m L I de e li wa 4i y
7. Figure 4 1 and Figure 4 2 are the UML diagrams that demonstrate the existing communication approach in academic information sharing and management across branches or campuses of TARC Use Case Diagram ere lt lt extends gt gt Campus X Course Tutor Campus Y Course Tutor Acquire contact details lt lt extends gt gt Campus X Lecturer xchange academic information Campus Y Lecturer Figure 4 1 Use Case For Existing Communication Circumstance Description of Figure 4 1 From section 2 2 1 the author has illustrated that for a common subject that is offered at several campuses of TARC the communication and collaboration between the lecturers involved several steps Assume that campus X lecturer and campus Y lecturer are both teaching a same subject AA Campus X lecturer wants to collaborate the subject with other campus s lecturer but he or she does not know 56 who is the other campus lecturer handling the same subject Hence it requires campus X course tutor to communicate with campus Y course tutor to get the particular campus Y lecturer information who is teaching the same subject AA From there the campus X lecturer gets the campus Y lecturer s contact details and therefore start collaborating and sharing the academic information with campus Y lecturer Sequence Diagram CampusXCourseTutor Campus YCourseTutor Campus YLecturer l l l Ca
8. 2003 Access Quality and Cost e Learning s Contribution Lynnfield Massachusetts Zane Berge 2002 New Roles For Learners And Teachers In Online Higher Education University of Maryland System UMBC 151 Website ASP NET http samples gotdotnet com quickstart Blackboard Inc htt www blackboard com Deitel amp Associate Inc http www deitel com Nanyang Technological University http www ntu edu sg CorpComms News Releases 2003 ukeu htm Patrick Henry 2000 Software Development Life Cycle Models http www csd uwo ca courses CS377b CS377 Development html Paul Henrik Jorgensen 1998 Introduction to Object Oriented Approach http www kb nl coop elag elag98 presentations jorgensen Productivity4you http www p4you com ScribeStudio http www scribestudio com Select Business Solutions Inc http www selectbs com solutions rad htm Startvbdotnet com http www startvbdotnet com sdlc default aspx The e University Compendium http www heacademy ac uk 1641 htm Tony Drewry Data Flow Diagrams http www cems uwe ac uk tdrewry dfds htm Tunku Abdul Rahman College http www tarc edu my WebCT http www webct com 152 APPENDIX A E LEARNING APPLICATION FORM KOLEJ TUNKU ABDUL RAHMAN COMMUNICATION amp INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY CENTRE REQUEST TO CREATE TEACHING UNITS IN COLLEGE E LEARNING SYSTEM CeL To be submitted through respective School Department Request
9. Assignment Module Test Module Q amp A Module Discussion Module Academic Staff Information Module and Control Panel Module Each of the modules presents different functionalities and purpose to serve the academic staff and students of TARC To ensure a success deployment of i GEMS system a chapter that discusses organization strategy is produced The discussed strategies are including rollout strategy change management data migration Business Continuity Plan and expected organizational benefits In the author s view the greatest achievement in delivering the project is being able to accomplish the Master thesis and proposed i GEMS system which have fulfilled all the endorsed requirements project scope as well as format that required by the UTM 146 7 2 Constraints amp Challenges Constraints On the whole the i GEMS system is not applicable to all of the higher education institutions Instead the system is proposed and designed based on TARC circumstances where academic staff and students of TARC are the main users of the system For illustration purpose rather than covering all the courses that offered at TARC the i GEMS system is developed using the pilot of computer science first year diploma courses As TARC s existing e learning system is subscribed with Blackboard Inc it is impossible for the author to access the system implementation Hence the i GEMS system is not serve as a modification fro
10. Campuses KL Branch O PG OPK OPH OJH USB School Dept Date to be made available for staff access at the latest Date to be made available for student access at the latest Date to be made unavailable RECOMMENDATIONS FROM HEAD OF SCHOOL DEPARTMENT Comments Date SIA estados evi na e heee Head of School Dept FOR OFFICIAL CITC USE Date receive Unit Creation Unit Made Available Date completed Date completed Signature Signature 153 APPENDIX B STAFF INFORMATION SHEET No Unit Code Unit Title Courses Name of Staff College Role Taking Staff ID E Mail I A Unit Please indicate whether the staff will be an Instructor I or an Assistant A There can only be one instructor for each unit Attach details in separate sheets if there are insufficient rows of entry APPENDIX C Projected Cost Benefits 154 Current process for communication across campuses lecturers per subject RM Labor cost 1500 00 Stationary cost 300 00 Communication expenses 350 00 Other incurred cost 150 00 Total 2300 00 i GEMS process for communication across campuses lecturers per subject RM Labor cost 600 00 Stationary cost 80 00 Communication expenses 80 00 Other incurred cost 50 00 Total 810 00 155 Projected saving in communication across
11. LEFT 20px POSITION absolute TOP 60px runat server AutoGenerateColumns false width 100 gt 106 lt HeaderStyle font bold True forecolor White backcolor 6666CC gt lt HeaderStyle gt lt AlternatingItemStyle backcolor Gainsboro gt lt AlternatingItemStyle gt lt ItemStyle backcolor White gt lt ItemStyle gt lt Columns gt lt asp TemplateColumn HeaderText Topic gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt Container Dataltem Topic gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt asp TemplateColumn gt lt asp TemplateColumn HeaderText Message gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt Container Dataltem Message gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt asp TemplateColumn gt lt asp TemplateColumn HeaderText Date gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt Container Dataltem TodayDate gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt asp TemplateColumn gt lt asp TemplateColumn HeaderText Time gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt Container Dataltem TodayTime gt lt ItemTemplate gt lt asp TemplateColumn gt lt Columns gt lt asp DataGrid gt Codes under ASP NET script section Sub Page Init CAnnouncementList DataSource GetAnnouncement CAnnouncementList DataBind End Sub Note Reader can refer to Figure 5 3 for the GetAnnouncement procedure Figure 5 10 Binding A Datagrid Control To Announcement Table 5 2 Test Result System Evaluation 107 Based on the Test Plan identified on page 89 to 93 the following section further
12. __ _ _ _ __ __ __ _ ____2 ge wig Noris ere E de Jui Dis 171 Viewing Assignment M dm EF E F m Herin 7 tm ul Tq n amp H E E Bd iy y f i NINH E nj leg rar kapri bomine mat a beir mamas rs bas mg GT EE Bu ai SG a a 2 ori nara E ESSE O B D ide i d iin a AACE i i an fnb uc De Tao exc ict A Aa aus a b Ra Cp lal AA La og ta kc m dell gereecht rici nns miner nut rm Paar dd si apes Tot idet Bega a nme dias reum PII wie te Downloading Assignment AP em a ne f Temm e ja z EI FL WE 172 Participating a Test ETE ic creed ammi le a l nnv IC SI ml x e SEH ham d rv Zei l l ju d iif Wil E 2 Di He D eng a yp d aerman Nee LA T ZI eem WI raag teg irp dra DOC Tm rre yee I Da pora pe a ma Bappi dab der ed eee Te intr ML es WEEN Mas 173 Test result F fp qun Pm ER ves Prats Tee Hed a Qu e nm temm GEN E B ii rri p s bes EA Abdul Rahman Ci am Ya lebresteg Trcksakagr sar IT len er arar eet of Ui The aka pee gel Dos he tei F am al 23 ep dus jertfi air e pi nine Is id abad bevel Ti baken ai aay led Ga ke ter prifuiirsmnin bry jordi y inae ii Test ag ide tithes 4 if i Ke T D Ahad Le d C LOANS LL NI A dires Ad Lc rn 174 Accessing Q amp
13. electronic system at any time and anywhere To ensure the success implementation of i GEMS system a rollout strategy is proposed to introduce the proposed system to end users The rollout strategy is divided into several stages The first and foremost step is to have i GEMS system installed at a Web server Once the system is installed it can then proceed to have a pilot deployment aimed at main campus Kuala Lumpur and Penang campus where the target users should involve academic staff teaching diploma computer science subjects only and the corresponding computer science students These two campuses are chosen as pioneer campus for the reason that most of the common computer subjects are offered at these two campuses The pilot experiment will be implement for 1 semester duration 135 Satisfactory result of the pilot deployment implemented at Kuala Lumpur and Penang campuses will then be expanded to other campuses It is estimated that to deploy i GEMS system for all computer science diploma subjects across the six campuses require two years time span In other words two years later the i GEMS system should be fully adopted for computer science diploma subjects At this stage as the i GEMS system has been existed for two years at computer science division it will be then appropriate to expand the proposed system to other divisions such as Mathematics Biology and Chemistry Business Social Science and so forth At that stage it wil
14. plus many more available in today s digital world For instance through online user can access to the circulation services acquire for a specific book from other library inter library transaction or even access to the latest e journal databases or catalogs Through e library it provides users convenience easy to use and powerful access to library content via the Internet E Enrolment Through the web portal students will receive personalized course information and be able to enroll through online 19 E Administration Referring to the use of ICT and Internet as a tool to achieve better administration E administration provides general administrative functions which include allowing students access to their own records through Internet E Commerce In education context e commerce is mainly a web portal that provide interface that served as a place for students to pay fees through online or buy books from the education institutions E Publishing E publishing or electronic publishing is referring to publishing in which information is distributed by means of a computer network or is produced in a format for use with a computer It is used to provide a service for all kinds of institutional and personal academic publishing with quality controlled outputs to enhance university s reputation as a place of innovative research and education 2 3 2 E Learning Providers As the creators and keepers of enormous quantitie
15. through single course management and shared service across campuses should be incorporated into the consideration as well However many institutions diminish the standardization approach so as to save cost by allowing each campus to make their own standardization decision Often this is a result of the perception that a single solution cannot serve the needs of all the different university constituents or lack of an enterprise wide strategy view for e learning Education institutions that are successfully implementing an enterprise wide e learning strategy are typically using a single solution that is flexible enough to allow significant autonomy to different academic schools departments or Campuses In fact having a single standardized course management system could produce an ease of use platform to students across campuses reduce redundant license fees associated with multiple products lower the costs of technical support for multiple systems and ensure consistent and standardize course delivery across the campuses The practice allows the sharing for content courses curriculum and even policies across the campuses while maintaining quality standards Shared service is another opportunity approach for collaboration Shared service refers to the joint funding of e learning infrastructure and the support of common infrastructure to reduce aggregate costs Shared services collaboration can involve varied members within a consortium
16. A A hd i R zit T f d d Neal AA rz baby RIO MET IE 175 Discussion page di un amp AH Abd 77i q ri A PIN ol Ze aj TD ZI geen oh Peed ege i Yan e a Sen es ees tT mz Ee aa hain d amp 1 dim mam TER e Ba x he Srt saik M arp e dier in dni Jamna m 176 Participating a discussion 4 u D I d 3 Bd i if EN a mari ollege labra li ari mima PTS adieu Academic Staff Information page ES d gem T nt bi cie n DH Ee imd fate E H 1 gie a i m a d F 4 e A A bd iN E a fi i E t Mi e i E MIDI wr LI Sherr Ed Fa Laca Ess rhrwhrdicuml mr coeur Phe Hs hal e CE Loca VIO ab Lia Oirr Eam Thani ps pa A AA 177 Change password page AAA mo Pa duo e rb luxe e a i d wird imate EI e l T Es PS 3 s ac J lunku Abdul Rahman Olegi a mir Deere Cs obrena Cria in ZI gem Change Feuer Thus Beta Lenert gs Pra bal Euh Can suit Pod Des Fairumad i kemi He anarai Thangs F anam M km eds cd Pol Dies at ELO IT EE CET Control Panel imi mj E de land traia d e Zei Y gt Li CM m bu Ls A Ac HUM Vase Lal Laan ALERT Iri Biskes 228 d o en Tea Fendt IL Bd oe pm ee Jemna a 178 Control Panel gt Adding an announcement Him ta vgl errai i d r d y Ti if unh B Ki T bau i i EX ah ait i el Eg re VEB Bass Lx
17. Not all of the people are allowed to access to the system Only authorized lecturers can gain access to the system 53 e The system is capable to analyze and process the different authorization level for different types of lecturer user e Lecturers from different campuses who are teaching the same subject are allowed to cooperate with each other to develop and manage the teaching materials e Lecturers who are teaching different subjects are allowed to refer to the other subject s academic materials in order to enhance their knowledge However this group of lecturers is not authorized to access the answer section Only those lecturers who are teaching the subject are authorized to access and modify the answer session e The system allows lecturer to post their teaching materials such as lecture notes tutorial question and assignment that is be accessible by the students e Lecturer can make an announcement on the system to inform and deliver a message to the students e A lecturer can upload objective test questions that are used to evaluate student s performance Once all the test questions are posted the system is capable to process and mark the students answer automatically Then the system will analyze students performance and produce a performance summary e The system allows lecturer to modify their password for security purpose From student perspective the functionalities of the proposed system are as follows e St
18. Technology Malaysian Chinese Association Object Oriented Methodology Tunku Abdul Rahman College Unified Approach Unified Modeling Language Universiti Teknologi Malysia XV LIST OF APPENDICES APPENDIX TITLE PAGE A E learning Application Form 152 B Staff Information Sheet 153 C Projected Cost Benefits 154 D Unit Plan for subject Introduction To Information Technology 156 E User Acceptance Test for i GEMS System Administrator User 158 F User Acceptance Test for i GEMS System Academic Staff User 160 G User Acceptance Test for i GEMS System Student User 163 H I GEMS Screen Design 165 CHAPTER 1 PROJECT OVERVIEW 1 1 Introduction The title for the project is Interest Group Using Electronic Management System i GEMS The title i GEMS symbolizes that the system will serve as an electronic platform to gather a group of people who are having common interest on particular education information which is precious and valuable just like jewels gems to the lecturers and students across campuses of Tunku Abdul Rahman College TARC Hence i GEMS is selected as the title for the project 1 2 Background of Problem Interest Group Using Electronic Management System i GEMS is a proposed project intended for managing academic information through electronic system for tertiary education environment The system is developed based on the author s working environment Tunku Abdul Rahman College TARC Currently
19. an academic staff user to The selected file is Information view the content of a unit displayed under information file content section Able to download a unit The selected file is information file to a specified path saved or correctly downloaded to the user s computer Lecture Allow an academic staff user to The selected lecture Notes view a lecture notes content notes is displayed under content section Able to download a lecture notes The selected lecture file to a specified path correctly notes is saved or downloaded to the user s computer Tutorial Allow an academic staff user to The selected tutorial view a tutorial s content is displayed under content section Able to download a tutorial file to a The selected tutorial specified path correctly file is saved or downloaded to the user s computer Assignment Allow an academic staff user to The selected view an assignment s content assignment is displayed under content section Able to download an assignment The selected file to a specified path correctly assignment file is saved or downloaded to the user s computer Test Allow user to participate in an Test questions are objective test questions presented to the user Once user submitted test answer system analyzes user s 110 performance and produces test result immediately Q amp A Allow academic staff to answer a The user s answer question or reply is added immedi
20. and maintain a database by using code wizard or manual approach While the subsequent demonstration shows how to create a folder in specified path and upload a file into the folder The last part illustrates the DataGrid control which is the most essential object that used to in implementing the i GEMS system At section 5 2 four main test result or system evaluation tables have been created to test the functionalities of 1 GEMS system as well as to evaluate the completion status The four tables include system evaluation by administrator system evaluation by academic staff user system evaluation by student user and system evaluation for control panel functionalities On the whole based on user acceptance test it shows that the i GEMS system has fulfilled the project scope and user requirements that endorsed earlier 134 CHAPTER 6 ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY 6 1 Roll out Strategy To align TARC s environment with the i GEMS system some organization strategies are proposed The vision of TARC is to offer higher education opportunity for school leavers and young Malaysians who have been seeking for furthering their education Through the proposed system it helps to achieve the vision better by ensuring standardized and good quality education is delivered to the students throughout the six campuses of TARC In addition the system can facilitate students study by allowing them to access all the necessary study materials from the
21. appears which lists the different threads in the forum A thread is a message that is posted to a forum Users can post new threads in a forum and reply to threads that have already been posted In spite of this based on the author s practical experience with the e learning system students participation and respond to the discussion board was poor Many of them were not interested in posting or even to view the forum Even though the discussion board is available for them to discuss on a topic yet students still prefer to post questions to private email account of the lecturers In fact some of the answers to the queries were already posted on the discussion board This scenario may due to the existing e learning system is still not widely adopted by 14 the lecturers and students Although some lecturers have applied for using the e learning system voluntarily however as the college does not have policies that encourage or emphasize on the use of e learning system hence lecturers do not highlight the usage of the system to students Academic staff or lecturers who are interested in delivering their teaching subject through online is required to apply for that subject unit through their respective head of school and department In other words the e learning system is not by default offered to all the academic staff A lecturer who is interested in delivering the academic unit through the e learning system is required to fill in the req
22. been designed using Microsoft Access to support the i GEMS system Fundamentally the users of i GEMS system are categorized into three main groups Administrator academic staff and students Each category of users has different authorization and access level that granted by the system For details on user access level reader can refer to section 4 5 3 Interface Chart A test plan for i GEMS system that comprises of module test and integration test is developed Within each of the modules test a detailed functional test is implemented to ensure all the sub features within the module is completed as expected and then it is followed by the integration test On the whole i GEMS system comprises of 12 modules Security Module Register Module Announcement Module Unit Information Module Lecture Notes Module Tutorial Module Assignment Module Test Module Q amp A Module Discussion Module Academic Staff Information Module and Control Panel Module Each of the modules provides different functionalities and purpose to serve the academic staff or lecturer as well as the students of TARC 95 CHAPTER 5 DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION amp TESTING 5 1 Coding Approach ASP NET is the core programming language that used to implement the i GEMS system together with support of Web Matrix program which is an ASP NET compiler Instead of using others prominent ASP NET compiler such as Microsoft Visual Studio NET Web Matrix is chosen as it is a
23. branches lecturers per subject RM Labor cost 900 00 Stationary cost 220 00 Communication expenses 270 00 Other incurred cost 100 00 Total 1490 00 156 APPENDIX D Unit Plan for subject Introduction To Information Technology Course Tutor E mail Adress Mr Yong Chan Huang Main campus Mr Nikalus Swee Penang campus Ms Ling Soon Hua Perak campus yongch O mail tarc edu my swees mail tarc edu my lingsh mail tarc edu my Lecturer Ms Lee Seah Fang Main campus unit leader Ms Woo Woon Yim Penang campus Ms Wong Sim Mei Perak campus leeseahfang O mail tarc edu my woowy O mail tarc edu my wongsm mail tarc edu my Unit Overview Section A Hardware Chapter 1 Introduction to Computers Chapter 2 Input Chapter 3 The Components of the System unit Chapter 4 Output Chapter 5 Storage Section B Software Chapter 6 Application software Chapter 7 Operating system and Utility Programs Semester Schedule 157 Week Lecture Tutorial 1 Chapter 1 2 Chapter 2 Tutorial 1 3 Chapter 2 Tutorial 1 and 2 4 Chapter 3 Tutorial 2 5 Chapter 3 Tutorial 3 6 Chapter 4 Tutorial 3 and 4 7 Chapter 4 Assignment Presentation 8 Chapter 5 Assignment Presentation 9 Chapter 5 Tutorial 4 10 Chapter 6 Tutorial 5 11 Chapter 6 amp Test Tutorial 5 12 Chapter 7 Tutorial 6 13 Chapter 7 Tut
24. campuses are not encouraged to set different types of teaching materials Instead standardized and consistent teaching materials should be delivered throughout the whole nation campuses This policy can be implemented by careful coordination from a unit leader a subject s leader to supervise the process Communication and collaboration policy For a common subject that is delivered at more than one campus lecturers who are involved in teaching the common subject should communicate and collaborate with each other Communication and collaboration among the lecturers should not only happen within the same campus only it should also reach through the inter campuses communication and collaboration among the lecturers Knowledge sharing policy A good study environment should encourage the existence of knowledge sharing among each other Academic staff are encouraged to share their expertise and experiences by allowing others to access their academic modules from the system The sharing should not be restricted to the same campus lecturers only instead the knowledge sharing should be implemented throughout the six campuses Students and lecturers interaction Students are encouraged to communicate with their lecturers through using the i GEMS system Through the electronic system students and lecturers interaction is no more restricted to traditional classroom 137 teaching or face to face communication basis Whenever students have
25. comment 4 Agree 5 Strongly Agree Acceptance Features 1 2 3 4 5 Do you agree that the i GEMS system is easy to use Do you agree that the i GEMS system is easy to learn Do you agree that the functionalities are complete Do you agree that the system design is appropriate Do you agree that the system design is attractive Do you agree that the system design is consistent Do you agree that the system s font size is appropriate Do you agree that the system s font color is appropriate Do you agree that the information presented is enough Can you understand the instructions given by the system Comments Revision 1 0v Date Signature Name User Acceptance Test for i GEMS System Student User APPENDIX G Functionalities test 163 Modules Acceptance Testing Action Yes No Remarks Login Able to gain access to the i GEMS system for an authorized user Subject Able to display a list of subject options Selection and allow user to make a selection Subject s Allow a student user to access a studying Main Page subject s materials Announcement Able to display a subject s latest announcement properly Unit Allow a student user to view the content Information of a unit information file Able to download a unit information file to a specified path correctly Lecture All
26. decisions about e learning as well as other technology platforms With the advantages provided by the single academic implementation including the ability to share content and technology resources it has convinced all of the campuses to participate including campuses previously deployed on a different e learning platform The all four campuses have been now integrating their own student information system into the central e learning installation to form a single standardized academic platform WebCT 2003 2 ELCH A six university consortium in Hamburg Germany has begun to develop a new joint e learning program The state government and Hamburg Ministry of Science are the sponsors for the program On the whole the program is using a single e learning system to link all six institutions in the E Learning Consortium Hamburg ELCH The state library will also join the program in providing a unified content and technology sharing e learning environment The key approach in implementing such program is the interoperability with the school s diversities proprietary authentication and registration systems as well as making it easy for universities to participate in the system WebCT 2003 3 Estonian e University Estonian e University was established by 8 institutions six higher education institutions University of Tartu Tallinn Technical University Tallinn Pedagogical 30 University Estonian Agricultural University Est
27. i GEMS System is as Figure 4 23 Internet Internet Access Access Pahang Campus 1 GEMS Web Server BEEN Johor Campus Internet Internet Access Access Figure 4 23 System Architecture For The Proposed I GEMS System The i GEMS system will be located at a web server which is accessible and available to all the six campuses of TARC on a 24 by 7 basis 4 6 Hardware Requirements 88 In terms of hardware requirements table below illustrates the proposed web server that may be used to support the i GEMS system Features Computer Components Estimated Market Price Processor INTEL PENTIUM 4 660 3 6GHz RM1670 LGA775 2MB 64Bit 800FSB Motherboard ASUS PSWD2 Premium 1955X RM1080 DDR2 1066FSB DUAL CORE Gb LAN SA Memory KINGSTON 1GB DDR333 SO RM490 DIMM Network Card LINKSYS 24 PORT 10 100 1000 RM1880 SWITCH Hard Disk 320 GB WESTERN DIGITAL RM570 CAVIAR 8MB ATA100 Display Card PCX ABIT RX300SE RM280 Sound Card PCX ABIT RX300SE 128 MB RM280 Speaker EDIFIER R251 RM179 Monitor 17 DIGITAL MONITOR RM275 Drive LITE ON DVD R RW 4X RM250 DUAL LAYER 16x8x16 CDRW 48x24x48 Printer HP LASERJET 1015PPM RM865 1200DPI 16MB RAM Total RM7819 Table 4 3 Hardware Requirements For Supporting The I GEMS System In short the proposed web server emphasiz
28. illustrates the test result of i GEMS based on the three main categories of users administrator academic staff and student 5 2 1 Administrator User The following table 5 1 demonstrates i GEMS evaluation based on administrator user perspective A tick under Yes column indicates that the tested functionality is completed and working properly while No column signifies the vice versa status Note Academic staff in the i GEMS context is equivalent to lecturer unit leader or tutor Test Case Functionalities Yes No Remarks Actual Output Login Able to gain access to the 1 GEMS v Redirect to system for an authorized user administration s main page Add Able to register an authorized Y A lecturer is added Academic lecturer to the respective teaching to a teaching subject Staff subject module module Edit Able to modify information of a Y The modified Academic lecturer in relate to the teaching information in relate Staff subject module to lecturer teaching subject is updated to database Delete Able to remove a lecturer from a Y A lecturer is Academic teaching subject module removed from a Staff specific teaching subject module Add Able to register a student course toa v A student course is Student specific studying subject module added to a specific Course studying subject module 108 Edit Able to modify information of Y The modified Stud
29. in the system e Object Diagram The object diagram is a variant of a class diagram and uses almost identical notation The difference between the two is that an object diagram shows a number of object instances of classes Hence an object diagram is an example of a class diagram that shows a possible snapshot of the system s execution 42 e State Diagram A state diagram is typically a complement to the description of a class It shows all the possible states that objects of the class can have and which events cause the state to change e Sequence Diagram A sequence diagram shows a dynamic collaboration between a numbers of objects The diagram demonstrates a sequence of messages sent between the objects as well as the interaction between objects something that will happen at one specific point in the execution of the system e Collaboration Diagram A collaboration diagram shows a dynamic collaboration just like the sequence diagram In addition to show the exchange of messages it also shows the objects and their relationships e Activity Diagram An activity diagram shows a sequential flow of activities The diagram typically describes the activities performed in an operation though it can also be used to describe other activity flows such as a use case or an interaction e Component Diagram A component diagram shows the physical structure of the code in terms of code components A component can be a source code co
30. pendidikan yang selaras dan konsisten akan dapat disampaikan di keenam enam kampus KTAR Selain itu para pensyarah dapat memperluaskan pengetahuan dalam bidang lain dengan menggunakan segala informasi yang terdapat di dalam i GEMS Kesimpulannya i GEMS adalah sistem yang menggalakkan pengurusan informasi akademik melalui kerjasama antara kampus perkongsian informasi dan pembelajaran melalui modul akademik yang berlainan serta menggalakkan interaksi dan perkongsian informasi di antara pelajar dengan pensyarah vii TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER TITLE PAGE 1 PROJECT OVERVIEW 1 1 1 Introduction 1 1 2 Background of Problem 2 1 3 Statement of the Problem 3 1 4 Project Objectives 5 1 5 Project Scope 6 1 6 Importance of Project 9 1 7 Chapter Summary 10 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 11 2 1 Introduction 11 2 2 TARC s Existing Application 12 2 2 1 TARC s E Learning System 13 2 3 E Learning System 17 2 3 1 Overview 17 2 3 2 E Learning Providers 19 2 3 3 Impact of E learning 24 2 4 Future Trend and Development 26 2 4 1 Overview 26 2 4 2 The Emerging Approach 27 2 5 Chapter Summary 32 METHODOLOGY 3 1 Introduction 3 2 Project Methodology 3 2 1 Object Oriented Methodology OOM 3 2 2 Unified Modeling Language UML 3 3 System Development Methodology for i GEMS 3 4 Project Schedule 3 5 Chapter Summary SYSTEM DESIGN 4 1 Organizational Analysis 4 2 Current Business Process and Data Model 4 2 1 UML Diagrams 4 2 2 System Architecture for
31. previous project methodology study a customized system development methodology or operational framework is proposed for the i GEMS system as demonstrated at Figure 3 4 The customized element is mainly fall on the design stage which comprises of three sub stages prototype design design evaluation and design finalization 1 Initiation 2 Analysis Study of background problem UML diagrams Literature review Use case diagram Organization analysis Sequence diagram User requirements Activity diagram 3 Design Prototype Design Design Design Evaluation Finalization 4 Implementation Figure 3 4 Proposed Operational Framework For I GEMS System Initiation This is the first phase of i GEMS system where the project title is proposed initial problem is studied and the scope of works is defined The delivery of initiation phase will be the i GEMS proposal 45 Analysis During the analysis phase existing background problem is studied chapter 1 This is then followed by literature review that studies and analyses similar application and technology which exist in the contemporary education sector In addition a detailed organization analysis and user requirements are analyzed and discussed at chapter 4 Based on the gathered analysis information UML diagrams will be deployed to model the existing application by using use case and sequence diagrams while the proposed system will be modeled based on use case sequen
32. result when finish answering the questions Whenever it is necessary the activities may lead to updating the database of 1 GEMS system 71 Select a subject View subject content Access Q amp A module Figure 4 15 Activity Diagram Access Other Subject s Module Description of Figure 4 15 From Other Subject s Module which is not handled by a lecturer the user can enhance his or her knowledge by selecting a subject that the user is interested The user can study the subject from the module download the content whenever it is needed or user can also participate in Q amp A section to raise their queries 72 V View Q amp A section n Post a query Answer a query Figure 4 16 Activity Diagram Access Q amp A Module Description of Figure 4 16 From Q amp A Module a user first access to the Q amp A section From there a lecturer user can choose to post a question or student user can choose to answer the question 73 Access registration module Maintain lecturer account Maintain student course account Update database Figure 4 17 Activity Diagram Access Registration Module Description of Figure 4 17 From Registration Module an administrator can choose either to maintain an authorized lecturer account or student course account Whenever it is necessary the activity may lead to updating the database of i GE
33. saved or downloaded to the 116 user s computer Test Allow a student user to participate in an objective test questions Test questions are presented to the user Once user submitted test answer system analyzes user s performance and produces test result immediately Q amp A Allow a student user to add a new question Allow a student user to reply a posted question The user s question is added to database and display immediately under content section The user s reply is added immediately under the specific question topic Academic Staff Information Able to display a subject s academic staff information properly Academic staff information such as name email phone number office location and office hours are displayed under content section Change Password Able to change a student s password The modified password is updated to database Logout Able to logout from the i GEMS system Y Redirect to Login page Table 5 4 System Evaluation Student User 117 5 2 4 User Acceptance Test User acceptance test is part of Implementation phase for i GEMS system The purpose of the test is for the end user to verify that the i GEMS system meets all specified objectives refer to section 1 4 Project Objectives and 1 5 Project Scope as well as to ensure that all user requirements are included in the new i GEMS
34. second semester Subject AACS1614 that is not offered at second semester is accessible by all of the academic staff However apart from the unit leader for the subject all the academic staff are not allowed to maintain and control the subject s content Subject AACS1614 that is not offered at second semester is accessible by unit leader of the subject and the unit leader has authority to maintain and control the subject s content 94 4 8 Chapter Summary From the section 4 1 existing TARC s organizational analysis is elaborated in details Predicaments that currently facing such as lack of communication and information sharing among the lecturers from different campuses resources wastage as teaching materials has been redeveloped at different campuses for a same subject inefficient of e mail communication approach in supporting academic sharing among lecturers and so forth Hence i GEMS system is proposed to overcome the problems faced The proposed system advocates managing academic information through collaboration across the campuses which then lead to standardization of academic materials In addition the system also serves as a platform to provide information sharing and learning by allowing lecturers to access other non teaching academic materials Through the system it helps to enhance communication between students and lecturers as it is no more restricted by the location boundaries A database that consists of 19 tables has
35. system backup be performed twice per semester to ensure the continuity operation of 1 GEMS system At last section of the chapter expected organizational benefits or competitive advantages gained from i GEMS system are discussed For instance as the proposed system advocating academic collaboration among the campuses lecturers hence it serves as an easier faster and more efficient platform for cooperation across the campuses Through using the system academic workloads can then be sharable across campuses Other advantages include standardization in education delivering accuracy in evaluating students across campuses and the rest 144 CHAPTER 7 DISCUSSION amp CONCLUSION 7 1 Achievements MCU1124 Project 2 is a Master s project for IT Management course As a student of the master program the author has worked hard and tried her best effort in producing the report within the given timeframe Finally the report has been successfully produced on time and conforming to the latest report format and requirements that requested from the Universiti Teknologi Malysia UTM The report consists of seven main chapters Project Overview Literature Review Methodology System Design Design Implementation and Testing Organizational Strategy and the last chapter Discussion amp Conclusion Throughout the process of preparing the project knowledge acquired from the master course such as the knowledge of system development ap
36. system will be developed iteratively in each phase according to Figure 3 1 to ensure that the final system is meeting with user requirements and consistent with system design 37 The following sections 3 2 1 and 3 2 2 discuss in more details about the OOM and UML approaches 3 2 1 Object Oriented Methodology OOM The approach of Object Oriented Methodology OOM is different from traditional development methodologies which are either function or algorithm centric or data centric Instead OOM has packaged both the data and functions as an object as demonstrated in Figure 3 2 Each object has its own attributes data and methods functions and is responsible for itself OOM applies a single object model that evolves from the analysis and design stage and carries all the way down to the programming level The interaction between collections of objects that work together to accomplish tasks is viewed as an application Packaged as Functions or Algorithm Figure 3 2 Data And Functions Packaged Together As An Object An object can only be accessed via the functions it makes publicly available so that all details of its implementation are hidden from all other objects which is the concept of encapsulation Other than encapsulation inheritance and polymorphism are also the characteristics of OOM Inheritance refers to specialized objects inheriting the properties and operations of more generalized objects Polymorphism 3
37. test title where each subject may have 1 or more than 1 test e g Test 1 Test 2 and etc to evaluate students understanding 14 Test Question To maintain test questions according to a specific subject and test title 15 QA To maintain students and academic staff s questions 16 QA Reply To maintain students and academic staff s participation and reply in question and answering module 17 Discussion To maintain discussion topics among the academic staff who are teaching same subject 18 Discussion Thread To maintain academic staff s participation and thread in relate to the discussion to the same teaching subject 78 19 Academic Staff To record academic staff s consultation hours office Info location and contact details Table 4 1 Database Description Of 19 Tables For I GEMS An i GEMS database relationship diagram is shown on the next page 79 80 4 5 2 Program Structure Chart The following Figure 4 22 demonstrates the structure of 1 GEMS that consists of 12 main modules For further elaborations on the program reader can refer to the section 4 5 4 Detailed Modules Features Security Register Test Q amp A Discussion Control Module Module Module Module Module Panel Module Announce Unit Lecture Assign Test Academic ment Information Notes ment Module Staff Module Module Module Module Information Module Figure 4 22 I GEMS Structure Chart 4 5 3 Interface Ch
38. that best applies to your application or partition your application across many languages Simplicity ASP NET makes it easy to perform common tasks from simple form submission and client authentication to deployment and site configuration For example the ASP NET page framework allows you to build user interfaces that cleanly separate application logic from presentation code and to handle events in a simple Visual Basic like forms processing model Additionally the common language runtime simplifies development with managed code services such as automatic reference counting and garbage collection Manageability ASP NET employs a text based hierarchical configuration system which simplifies applying settings to your server environment and Web applications Because configuration information is stored as plain text new settings may be applied without the aid of local administration tools This zero local administration philosophy extends to deploying ASP NET Framework applications as well An ASP NET Framework application is deployed to a server 98 simply by copying the necessary files to the server No server restart is required even to deploy or replace running compiled code Scalability and Availability ASP NET has been designed with scalability in mind with features specifically tailored to improve performance in clustered and multiprocessor environments Further processes are closely monitored and managed by the ASP
39. the college s main campus is located at Setapak Kuala Lumpur with five other branches located at five different states Penang Perak Pahang Johor and Sabah to provide education to the public As one of the academic staff for TARC the author has practical experienced some difficulties in communicating with other academic staff from other branches in sharing academic information As a result an initiative to develop an electronic information management system solution which is custom made based to TARC atmosphere culture and mission is duly purposed Currently there are 105 courses offered in TARC For illustration purpose this project is only concentrating on computer science first year diploma courses Fundamentally as TARC has six campuses within the nation it is said that lack of communication exists among lecturers from different campuses who are teaching the same subject This is due to the current environment that does not provide a proper platform to allow different campuses lecturers to communicate with each other in order to share and manage education information effectively and efficiently As a result lecturers from different campuses may cover subject scope differently and produce inconsistent teaching materials The problem is worsen when some campuses students are not able to answer the examination questions due to different scope covered by their lecturer Consequently these groups of students may fail the particul
40. time For those students who are unable to attend campuses courses they can now opt for off campus delivery ICT also provides flexibility in learning time whereby students can receive just in time learning The flexibility provided has offered learning opportunities for more learners who previously were constrained by other commitments Ron Oliver 2002 In spite of this according to researchers the current impacts of ICT on educational practice are considered as small Instead the impacts will grow considerable in years to come and that ICT will become a strong agent for change among many educational practices Ron Oliver 2002 26 2 4 Future Trend and Development 2 4 1 Overview The use of ICT in education sector has become a daily part in scientific teaching and learning processes In order to survive and succeed in the increasing competitive higher education around the globe with the use of advanced ICT universities has looked for collaboration with other institutions in order to consolidate their services in providing the higher education According to researchers Estonia 2003 the future development of e learning as well as e universities will mainly concentrate on the following four main strategies Cooperation between universities The development of cooperation between higher education institutions in the field of e learning is one of the priorities in the strategic plan Small population limited materia
41. where it is directed to one lecturer only Moreover i GEMS allow the question and answering session to be shared and participated by all those students who are studying the same subject In short the I GEMS system is served as a platform for communication and collaboration in academic information management among the lecturers and students of TARC 11 CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW 2 1 Introduction Over the last few years the use of information and communication technologies ICT in all sectors of education has increased dramatically It is said that the adoption of ICT in education is only at its infancy Seeing the increasing significance of ICT contribution in education sector hence the topic of the project i GEMS is chosen to further explore the possibilities of ICT contribution under TARC circumstances To understand the project better the chapter will first brief on existing system that is available at TARC section 2 2 Section 2 3 gives a brief overview on the e learning system the e learning providers as well as the impact of e learning system Section 2 4 discusses future development and trend in developing the online education system Last but not least section 2 5 will be the summary of this chapter 12 2 2 TARC s Existing Application Globalization and ever developing of e technology application has tremendously changed the ways services are delivered Higher education or university is not exceptio
42. will be displayed Make any necessary modification and click Update button e e CIE C a n E Pho XN WE E D A Gd Vi d ik i ING i WIERE Ge ie Ey cg ee Figure 5 30 Updating A Student Course To A Corresponding Studying Subject 132 Administrator can remove a course from a subject by selecting Delete Student Course from left panel From the Course Code field click the arrow down button and select a course code then click Search button The corresponding course record will be displayed Choose Delete button a Deletion Confirmation will prompted to confirm the deletion Choose Yes to delete the record from database or choose No to cancel the operation Figure 5 31 Vi UNN A Adu Ra Oman ollege Ome Bini T se Figure 5 31 Removing A Course From A Subject 133 5 4 Chapter Summary ASP NET is the main programming language that is used to implement the 1 GEMS system ASP NET is an object oriented language In developing the proposed system the author has used ASP NET server controls or object to create common user interface elements and programs Making use of the reusable built in controls or custom objects allow the author to rapidly build the web based application as the controls has simplified pages of codes At section 5 1 1 some snapshot of critical programming codes are demonstrated Among the demonstration it includes a section that illustrates how to connect
43. wizard Figure 5 14 Prompt Showing Completed Installation Of Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix 120 iii Installing Internet Information Services IIS Internet Information Services IIS is required to serve as a powerful web server that is used to provide a highly reliable manageable and scalable application infrastructure for the web based i GEMS system IIS installation can be accessed from clicking Start button from desktop and choose Control Panel Figure 5 15 Die Dh Se Feste Is ek 3 OO Se Es pre Gi Ages D control Parral Poser Ophers Printers pel Quake Feel pd Pared Gehedued mni sel Fases Language Carens Tais Bardo Devices tee Selen limkbar and Tern LI Lee Acepunbi Ve Decxher alti Figure 5 15 Window s Control Panel From the Control Panel select Add or Remove Programs Then click on Windows Setup and user will be prompt by the following screen Figure 5 16 Windows XP Setup Please wait Figure 5 16 Windows XP Setup 121 From the Windows Components Wizard select Internet Information Services IIS and click Next button Figure 5 17 Windmez Components Wizard windows Components You can add or serre Components ed Weeks WE To edd oe a component cick vidt ne denitro o bla ab parle companen wil re mid To see wears included in a component clic Components BE finden Service DOME A w Bl Lier Epic ata O Bu Managed and M
44. 0 O Use or create an IIS Virtual Root Application Name Figure 5 22 Start Web Application 125 Remain all default setting and click Start button The system s default Internet browser will automatically launch the i GEMS System In this case Internet Explorer has been set as default Internet browser Figure 5 23 Figure 5 23 I GEMS Login Page To log in administrator keys in A00001 as user id 00001 as password and click Login button A successful login will direct user to following main page Figure 5 24 E TUNKU Abdul Rahman College Content LL d Loci reni Figure 5 24 I GEMS Administrator s Main Page Administrator can now proceed to register an academic staff to his or her corresponding teaching subject by clicking Add Academic Staff from left panel following screen is shown Figure 5 25 Fill in all the fields and click Add button dreet Figure 5 25 Registration Of Academic Staff To The Corresponding Teaching Subject To edit the added record click Edit Academic Staff from left panel and following screen will be prompted Figure 5 26 TH neu EET da I Nd if Ct 4 Weg Y j z n Figure 5 26 Edit An Academic Staff Teaching Record 128 From the Staff ID field click the arrow down button and select a staff ID then click Search button The corresponding academic staff record will be displayed Figure 5 27 Make any necessary
45. 50 Cost incurred for resit processing Administration cost RMS5 Examination miscellaneous cost RM80 Question setting paper arrangement and etc 141 Overall cost incurred for a student who failed a subject Tuition fees RM208 Resit registration fees RM50 Resit administration cost RMS5 Examination miscellaneous cost RM80 Total RM343 Figure 6 1 Estimated Cost Incurred For A Student Who Fails A Subject e Broaden knowledge without paying more Furthermore as i GEMS system allow a lecturer to access other subjects module hence it provides an opportunity for the academic staff to explore and broaden their knowledge other than their own fields of teaching Through the feature it provides a free of charge channel for one to learn new knowledge through the proposed system For instance a lecturer who is interested in learning ASP NET rather than taking a seminar that cost around RM2000 from outsiders the lecturer can now learn the ASP NET which is also offered at TARC through accessing the subject module from i GEMS system e Provide flexibility in answering approach The other advantage offered by i GEMS system compared to existing system is students questions can also be answered by lecturers from other campuses who are teaching the same subject Compared to existing application students questions are attended by their own campus lecturer only If the specific lecturer is not free or not frequently using the e
46. 66 4 11 Activity Diagram For Overall System 4 12 Activity Diagram Access Academic Module 4 13 Activity Diagram Access Discussion Module 4 14 Activity Diagram Access Test Module 4 15 Activity Diagram Access Other Subject s Module 4 16 Activity Diagram Access Q amp A Module 4 17 Activity Diagram Access Registration Module 4 18 Activity Diagram Maintain Lecturer Account 4 19 Activity Diagram Maintain Student Account 4 20 Process Framework For The Proposed I GEMS System 4 21 I GEMS Database Relationship Diagram 4 22 I GEMS Structure Chart 4 23 System Architecture For The Proposed I GEMS System 5 1 ASP NET Web Controls 5 2 Connecting Access Database Using Code Wizards 5 3 To Retrieve An Announcement From Access Database By Using Code Wizard 5 4 To Insert An Announcement Into Access Database 5 5 To Update An Announcement Into Access Database 5 6 To Delete An Announcement From Access Database 5 7 Create Folder And Upload File 5 8 Datagrid Control 5 9 Drag Datagrid Control From Web Control Toolbox 5 10 Binding A Datagrid Control To Announcement Table 5 11 Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 Installation Setup xii 67 68 69 70 71 qu 73 74 75 76 79 80 87 96 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 105 106 118 5 12 Prompt That Showing Completed Installation Of Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 5 13 Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix I
47. 8 on the other hand is referring to the concept where a single method may operate upon several types of objects In addition OOM is a new system development approach that advocates and facilitates re use of software components With OOM a computer system can be developed on a component basis that enables the effective re use of existing components and facilitates the sharing of its components by other systems In addition OOM allows base concepts of language to be extended to include ideas and terms closer to the primitives of an application According to Ali Bahrami 1999 the software development life cycle SDLC for OOM is mainly consists of three macro processes object oriented analysis object oriented design and object oriented implementation as shown in Figure 3 3 39 Analysis Build a Use Case Model Object Analysis Validate Test Iteration and Reuse Design classes define attributes and methods Using Tools CASE and or OO programming languages Build object and dynamic model Implementation Build user interface and prototype User satisfaction usability amp QA Tests User satisfaction test usability test and quality assurance test Figure 3 3 Object Oriented Systems Development Approach In OOM approach the use case model can be employed throughout most of the software development activities and the approach advocates incremental development Moreover OOM is basically a bottom up
48. AACS1614 Introduction To Information Technology which offered at main campus Penang and Perak branches as well The author possess the opportunity to have practical experience in communicating with other branch lecturers as well as in using TARC s e learning system As mentioned in section 2 2 1 there still have some room for improvement in terms of existing application and collaboration framework In addition the author has observed and discussed with other academic staff and students on the related issues and has finalized their requirements as listed at below Registering e To register an authorized lecturer to the corresponding academic module e To register an authorized student course to the corresponding subject module Security e To verify user identity to ensure only authorized user is accessing the system e To analyze and process different access level to different types of user e To authorize a lecturer who is handling a subject module to manage and maintain the module e To authorize a lecturer to access other academic modules e To authorize a student to access study materials from the system Academic Module Lecturer e To manage and maintain lecture notes e To manage and maintain unit plan that indicates lecturers contact information overall syllabus teaching schedule and percentage of marks allocation for a specific subject or unit Appendix D e To manage and maintain tutorial questions e To manage
49. ARC 11 A cheaper and faster mechanism that enable standardization of academic materials among the campuses without the needs of face to face meeting e To develop a proposed system that is 1 Designed and customized to TARC environment which can facilitate the communication and cooperation in academic information sharing among the lecturers of different campuses il To design a solution that facilitates communication between students and lecturers without restricted by the location boundaries 111 To develop a solution that allows students access to the academic materials as well as important announcements made by the lecturers 1 5 Project Scope The proposed system i GEMS is developed based on Tunku Abdul Rahman College TARC context and circumstances For illustration purpose the project is only focusing on computer science first year diploma courses On the whole the major functionality of i GEMS is to serve as a platform to facilitate communication and cooperation among the lecturers of different campuses through developing and managing a common subject module In addition the proposed system allows lecturer to post their academic materials such as lecture notes tutorial questions and assignment that can be accessed by the students When a lecturer has an important announcement to inform students he or she can make the announcement through the i GEMS system that is accessible by the students From this syste
50. CP Add Lecture Notes aspx btnUpload procedure Dim intFileNameLength as Integer Dim strFileNamePath as String Dim strFileNameOnly as String To find the FileName excluding the path strFileNamePath MyFile PostedFile FileName intFileNameLength Instr 1 StrReverse strFileNamePath strFileNameOnly Mid strFileNamePath Len strFileNamePath intFileNameLength 2 To create the corresponding folder for the subject Dim objFileSysOb Dim GetSize Dim FileSize As Integer Dim Path As String Dim Path2 As String 104 objFileSysOb Server CreateObject Scripting FileSystemObject Path for Create Subject folder Path1 Request PhysicalApplicationPath amp SubjectCode Path for Create Lecture Notes folder within the particular subject folder Path2 Path1 amp W amp Lecture Notes Create the Subject folder only if it is not exist IF NOT ObjFileSysOb FolderExists Path1 THEN objFileSysOb CreateFolder Path1 END IF Create the lecture notes folder only if it is not exist IF NOT ObjFileSysOb FolderExists Path2 THEN objFileSysOb CreateFolder Path2 END IF Add the file only if it is not exist IF NOT ObjFileSysOb FileExists Path2 amp amp strFileNameOnly THEN Copy the file to the destination Path2 MyFile PostedFile SaveAs Path2 amp amp strFileNameOnly GetSize objFileSysOb GetFile Path2 amp amp strFileNameOnly FileSize GetSize Size call InsertFile strFileNameOnly Pa
51. D M err ica tea grat ar eee ei i F D fi E Ni Ly il E 2 Di A H d LI i A nmm i IA d L Ze fi d e el OE Ti E Cola Lares Hau A M Libor hes on Lera Hie jui eld haere Jm Bet LE eur Fera keem 1 24 Pre larg Bt AG SL E ILI Pera p GENET LETA y r Ni or L i Lied Jerai Eur Tui d T Luz mi i ph DE ge a iy D n rb AY Va meng liina ame a da pao E wm P Laim L be ee TE Se LI 182 Control Panel gt Maintaining tutorials Mi EIE Hicri nra ka Pa Ru Chee leere Cedo Lei Ek Oei 0 ai LC bei raain e y Be dil Fi p e De Li j ce eee Fola 2 Ty ne ll Ab EP Wn Lol lege LA ENZ Hum e Dec Era Dead 17 Man bau Taia AAT H A oa i i Tal 14 TAN Bart ed LATE pene of laden The Emra Jm er muni Owe i Ei ae Perm mm Pa Ou DH Ee kend reste d a DI du goa m ett eT A a IT yi ge SOY 1i A y if MEH Er T hr if Es d d HF L d ME Eir Arpa Tie Du et 7 Sie geo dy Di AY rin mn wa ae aa Linens 1L Bde imn ee E 183 Control Panel gt Maintaining an assignment AAA Pa b emo lemin iue eb d di FIM E 2 Di Ti Pr A nmm i IA egi j e L COE Date Glen eegent Fera Jiri Dis t 2 ewer pets AA CO EH Fee bum foe r i ido s ari r T r Ai wer beet blaki praaki iri aa Les nin atium ja vih iem oe mn m Hid em Ap Ip mer WK 184 Control Panel gt Maintaining a test FEET SIE fio
52. Discussion Module Academic staff or lecturers across the campuses who are teaching a same subject can have their internal discussion through using the discussion module Unit leader for the subject will serve as a discussion moderator and authorized to monitor and control the content of discussed topic Through using the module they may discuss on topics such as work allocation problems faced in delivering the subject proposed solutions to problems knowledge sharing and so on xi Academic Staff Information Module The module enables the academic staff to post their contact details such as their name email phone number office location and available office hour for students consultation By accessing to this information students can then consult to their corresponding lecturers personally xii Control Panel Module The control panel is the most essential feature in the i GEMS system The module serves as a panel to control academic materials by authorizing academic staff across campuses who are teaching same subject to maintain share and standardize the subject s teaching materials as well as to distribute workload among the 87 lecturers Through using the module teaching materials such as announcement unit information lecture notes tutorials assignment test and academic staff information can then be added edited or deleted to or from database 4 5 5 System Architecture Physical Design System Architecture for
53. EIE moe ey Cope aurea Dan ries Bustier m meen c amen sapi quw n eeh Lea FL Sel ne rere LALA I TT IL d ld n it L LEA Ps la slo iia Ce H ar Miir 123 Bue DD PRE AAA PEER Ire 1550 Fu kees Pure Tor mosa pag n Tw an eed to ap a parado pal Cl peed lr rl A A E penis 179 Control Panel gt Uploading an Unit information file FEET iiem eee ie A T 1i iv 4 n t if Er AD N iff FR uh fat E ote qe LEE D loce Aba Tni Td orate pinza Leg Ieierg apen E r e T DE H az Gagi d Dietas GE Fa tee me a Los Juin eS va bim Fre ie Sd oe ree pe e 180 Control Panel gt Uploading a lecture notes ER ves Piratas ieh Hed P Q 0 Sati Am yue Ei Gap hep or ey aq MS Tunku Abdul Rakman College Upissd Lacio Hoia Tale ha a 3 Fie Lama ri Pe es Ceara ee l fires A l Uki HEMI Bos Fe Cd Less Haan dd Lazsurr Haten eres Lana m Ajo mai Control Panel Upload status ag eet et Lag Qr O aa fs ple rere D e ou E LE ARE hee e ee pc Bio AER Hoen Leen Coma Pel Laang Hoc ad Lacon Hoi ari Lyle t Upload Lor hiia Hos ra iar tare Trp Cece mos bar bear ade Racor hy Tul Tage 3 Lm File A AE A ENT ij 1 RISCH 1 T MAER Caman la d des pana bo Va Se Ee Vea ER a nm COACH RE i komaa 181 Control Panel gt Maintaining lecture notes AAA P Mal ee beta imi Pd me d 2 s ren bim 2 T
54. Existing Application 4 3 User Requirements 4 4 Conceptual Design 4 4 1 Business Process and Data Model UML Diagrams 4 4 2 Process Framework for Proposed System 4 5 Physical Design 4 5 1 Database Design 4 5 2 Program Structure Chart 4 5 3 Interface Chart 4 5 4 Detailed Modules Features 4 5 5 System Architecture Physical Design 4 6 Hardware Requirements 4 7 Test Plan 4 8 Chapter Summary DESIGN IMPLEMENTATION amp TESTING 5 1 Coding Approach 5 1 1 Snapshot of Critical Programming Codes 5 2 Test Result System Evaluation viii 34 34 35 37 41 44 46 49 50 50 55 55 60 61 63 63 76 77 77 80 80 84 87 88 89 94 95 95 99 107 1X 5 2 1 Administrator User 107 5 2 2 Academic Staff User 108 5 2 3 Student User 114 5 2 4 User Acceptance Test 117 5 3 User Manual for Administrator 118 5 4 Chapter Summary 133 6 ORGANISATIONAL STRATEGY 134 6 1 Roll out Strategy 134 6 2 Change Management 136 6 3 Data Migration Plan 138 6 4 Business Continuity Plan BCP 138 6 5 Expected Organizational Benefits 139 6 6 Chapter Summary 143 7 DISCUSSION amp CONCLUSION 144 7 1 Achievements 144 7 2 Constraints amp Challenges 146 7 3 Aspiration 148 7 4 Chapter Summary 149 REFERENCES 150 APPENDIX A H 152 161 LIST OF TABLES TABLE NO TITLE PAGE 2 1 Set Of Tools Offered By The Providers In E Learning System 23 2 2 Changing Roles For Both Educators And Students 25 2 3 Emer
55. INTEREST GROUP USING ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM i GEMS LEE SEAH FANG UNIVERSITI TEKNOLOGI MALAYSIA INTEREST GROUP USING ELECTRONIC MANAGEMENT SYSTEM i GEMS LEE SEAH FANG A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the degree of Master of Science IT Management Faculty of Computer Science and Information Systems Universiti Teknologi Malaysia NOVEMBER 2005 To my beloved mother father and brother iii iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The author would like to express her greatest gratitude to many people who have contributed to the successful completion of this thesis Most especially the author would like to thank her project supervisors Associate Professor Wardah Zainal Abidin and Pn Suzana Abidin for their genuine advising and guiding toward the accomplishment of the project Their brilliant guidance have led the author to produce the thesis successfully within the specified time frame along with conformance formation In the meantime the author greatly appreciate her colleagues at Tunku Abdul Rahman College namely Mr Chan Lam Heng Head of School Ms Kathleen Tan Swee Neo Head of Computer Science Division Mr Yong Chan Huang Course Tutor Mr Lee Yik Seng Head of E learning Project Ms Cheong Pooi Sun Lecturer Ms Chin Chai Ling Lecturer Ms See Hui Hong Lecturer Mr Teo Su Beng Lecturer Ms Kong Hui Ming Lecturer Mr Beh Tian Su Lecturer and many oth
56. MS system 74 V v iew lecturer account V Ei lecturer account Aad lecturer account Delete lecturer account Update database Figure 4 18 Activity Diagram Maintain Lecturer Account Description of Figure 4 18 From maintaining a lecturer account module an administrator can choose to view add edit or delete a lecturer user account based on the circumstance Whenever it is necessary the activity may lead to updating the database of i GEMS system 75 V v iew student course account V Bait student course Add student course Delete student course Update database Figure 4 19 Activity Diagram Maintain Student Account Description of Figure 4 19 From maintaining a student account module an administrator can choose to view add edit or delete a student user account where necessary Whenever it is necessary the activity may lead to updating the database of i GEMS system 76 4 4 2 Process Framework for Proposed System The figure 4 20 below demonstrates the process flow or accessing approach for the proposed i GEMS system 1 Course tutor assigns lecturers workload 2 Lecturers workload is submitted to IT department 3 2 IT administrator enrolls correspondence access correspondence student authority to the respective course to the respective lecturer subiect module 3 1 IT administrator enrols 4 1 A unit
57. NET runtime so that if one misbehaves leaks deadlocks a new process can be created in its place which helps keep your application constantly available to handle requests Customizability and Extensibility ASP NET delivers a well factored architecture that allows developers to plug in their code at the appropriate level In fact it is possible to extend or replace any subcomponent of the ASP NET runtime with your own custom written component Implementing custom authentication or state services has never been easier 99 5 1 1 Snapshot of Critical Programming Codes As 1 GEMS is implemented by using ASP NET all the pages must be defined with extension aspx This is important as all ASP NET pages are identified by the aspx suffix that is attached to the end of the filename Only pages with aspx will be sent to ASP NET for processing The following demonstrates some of the critical programming codes that are used in implementing the system Connecting and maintaining a database To connect to a database a developer can either use code wizards Figure 5 2 or to define all the connections and queries manually Figure 5 3 Figure 5 6 9 SELECT Data Method 9 INSERT Data Method 9 DELETE Data Method 9 UPDATE Data Method Send Email Message Figure 5 2 Connecting Access Database Using Code Wizards 100 From C Announcement aspx GetAnnouncement procedure Function GetAnnouncement As System Data DataSet
58. TARC To use the system a user must first login with valid user id and password The security module will then verify user identity analyze and grant user different access level according to user status For instance lecturer s who is are teaching subject Introduction To Information Technology is authorized to maintain the content of the subject while students are only allowed to access study materials participate in Q amp A or test session In addition for security DI consideration user can change password by using one of the features Change Password from the i GEMS system ii Register Module The register module which is used by administrator provides functionalities to register an authorized lecturer to the corresponding teaching academic module and to register an authorized student course to the corresponding studying subject module iii Announcement Module The main purpose of the module is to provide academic staff an easy to use and effective platform to broadcast and deliver their announcement to the students iv Unit Information Module The module serves as an ease to use platform for the academic staff or lecturers to maintain and share the Unit information Unit is subject under TARC environment As an example a Unit plan can be posted by a Unit leader and updated by other lecturers who are also teaching the same Unit Students studying the specific 85 subject can then refer and download the uni
59. aching subject materials H H H l i j L 1 I view or participate discussion I i gt l I I I I I i T I I l i 5 lactess or update discussion i 6 maintain test content T access or update test 9 access or update Q amp A 8 view or submit answer i 10 access other subject s materials gt 111 access subject materials SE j H I 1 1 Figure 4 8 Sequence Diagram For Lecturer User 65 Description of Figure 4 8 Campus X or campus Y lecturers who are teaching a same subject are allowed to access and maintain the same academic module First of all a lecturer user is required to login into the system From the main form or main page of 1 GEMS system the lecturer user can choose to proceed to maintain a subject s teaching material to have discussion among lecturers teaching the same subject maintain test content view or submit answer for students queries or access other subject s module Each of the options involves accessing from or updating to the database academic catalog SubjectModule TestModule Q amp AModule AcademicCatalog Student 1 login I I I l l I l l l i gt l E I I 2 retquest study material l 3 1 l j j j j 1 i 3 a
60. ai a dd ee imei et a a d tl CHE Ee ET acsi Lil dll ter engen 1 Eis L 1 Leg gegen a hbrem e emer Maden per Bem Lam Sat LAS LE Ch al Chapter zi IE Emma Lea ap AE Ed aptos do 168 Viewing Lecture Notes Chapter 1 Emm a a ai z iris thee iD u AA fl LIT amp H E q B d if Ki Z A Man E MER E Val rri lares Urs bode Per ln inq wr E xeu SR 1 8 WAN S nra FEAE EE D A D 1 1 te d d D gem A tbc HE Chapter 1 lntroductson in Computers Imi es Dali Ba ms cosi id Mag r i Lap ELI Li Pe opm E is ar worm cm La fr E D mom mua D hme lo ar CO AE SA ERS Hl pes NIT jamin jeans Y SETZT n 4 GET Downloading Lecture Notes Chapter 1 ET ww DID RUE E mi THE Kaf fria EI i D Si re ma a Paman Co seen P Phin keng jor pel Chats zt 1105448 bm Lea He eh EE at A ii disci rmm E at d LI e HLS LII 169 Tutorial page Mm dm EF E F m toria 2 t ul Tunku Abdul Rahman College rmi Gaerne es a bebr cma Sera y one rs UB Bet Tuer AA de Diga a Jean be ine NIT Ml MEI ILI LJ i 3444 iem Viewing Tutorial 1 AAA Pa T ges Femin laxe be zu ar E A E m Pm tees kb D ro FEAE 3r ir t4 vs D beet EUR CR et A E E A A ee IMS SESS IN E oi Dorsal cc baie L Dire dabo u ts C punpliers 170 Downloading Tutorial 1 ENTE pt RM ___
61. amp txtSenderID Text amp TodayDate amp txtDate Text amp TodayTime amp txtTime Text amp WHERE SubjectCode 8 SubjectCode amp AND StaffID amp AnnSender amp AND TodayDate 8 AnnDate amp AND TodayTime amp AnnTime amp dbCommand CommandText Sql dbCommand Connection DBConn dbCommand Connection Open dbCommand ExecuteNonQuery DBConn Close Figure 5 5 To Update An Announcement Into Access Database 103 From CP Announcement aspx Ann_Delete procedure Dim DBConn As System Data OleDb OleDbConnection Dim dbCommand As New System Data OleDb OleDbCommand Dim strPath As String strPath Request PhysicalApplicationPath amp iGEMS mdb DBConn New System Data OleDb OleDbConnection Provider Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4 0 DATA SOURCE amp strPath dbCommand Connection DBConn dbCommand Connection Open dbCommand CommandText DELETE FROM Announcement WHERE SubjectCode amp SubjectCode amp AND StaffID amp AnnSender amp AND TodayDate E AnnDate amp AND TodayTime amp AnnTime amp dbCommand ExecuteNonQuery DBConn Close Figure 5 6 To Delete An Announcement From Access Database Creating folders and uploading a file The Figure 5 7 demonstrates how to add folder such as Lecture Notes folder Tutorial folder Unit Info folder and etc for a subject and the codes in uploading an academic file to the corresponding folder From
62. and maintain assignment 62 To manage and maintain objective test questions To allow a lecturer to make announcement To allow a lecturer to answer students queries To allow lecturers from different campuses who are sharing the same subject to communicate and discuss with each other in relate to the particular subject through the use of discussion module Student To allow a student to access lecture notes To allow a student to access unit plan To allow a student to access tutorial questions To allow a student to access assignment To allow a student to view announcement To allow a student to post and share comments or queries with others To allow a student to participate in objective test session Collaboration and sharing To group lecturers who are teaching same subject under the same subject module To allow a group of lecturers to share same set of unit plan in delivering a common subject To allow a group of lecturers to collaborate and share lectures notes for a common subject To allow a group of lecturers to collaborate and share tutorial questions for a common subject To allow a group of lecturers to collaborate and share assignment for a common subject To allow a group of lecturers to share and discuss workload problems faced in handling the teaching subject knowledge or expertise through discussion board To allow a lecturer to share his or her subject module with other lecturers who are not ha
63. approach that supports viewing system as a set of components or objects that can be combined together to form a system Hence the OOM inherently makes each software object as stand alone object that can be reused not only within the one problem domain but also in completely different problem domains Due to the distinct characteristics supplied by 40 OOM approach it is gaining more acceptance as a system development methodology nowadays Through the characteristics of OOM it provides the basis for improvements in traceability quality maintainability and extensibility which are the key features of well designed Object Oriented systems Paul Henrik Jorgensen 1998 Generally the benefits produced by OOM are listed as follows e Improve productivity Application development is facilitated by the reuse of existing components that can greatly improve the productivity and facilitate rapid delivery e Deliver high quality system The quality of the system can be improved as the system is built up based on components manner with the use of existing components which are well tested and well proven e Lower maintenance cost The traceability of OOM enables a system to be extensible and adaptable to changing requirements As a result the maintenance cost can be reduced e Facilitate reuse With this approach a computer system can be developed on a component basis that enables the effective re use of existing components Reusable c
64. ar examination The next section 1 3 statement of the problem will serve as a continuous to illustrate an overview of the existing problems 1 3 Statement of the Problem As briefed on the previous section on the whole the problems faced by the lecturers of TARC can be listed as below Lecturers do not acquaint with lecturers from other branches including those lecturers who are teaching the same subject A lecturer can only get to know other branches lecturers contact details through course tutor course tutor is an academic staff who is in charge of a small group of lecturers or human resource personnel which is quite a tedious task Lack of information sharing and collaboration among the same field lecturers Lack of proper channel that allows lecturers to share their expertise and academic knowledge among themselves Lack of standardization among the teaching materials prepared by the lecturers from different campuses On the other hand the problems faced by students can be short listed as follows Communication between the students and lecturers are mostly restricted to classroom teaching only which provide very limited time for student to ask question Some students are shy or not confident to voice their question in the classroom as a result their enquiries are not handled and subsequently cannot catch up with the syllabus Students may have questions after they have done their revision and wish to send
65. ard to attend the issues and trying their effort in solving the problems 17 2 3 E Learning System 2 3 1 Overview Regardless of where one lives the future of learning cannot be dissociated with information and communication technologies As technology becomes more and more ubiquitous and affordable e learning carries the greatest potential to train masses in the developing world in anything and everything E learning can and will finally revolutionize learning in the education sector Cheick Kante and Vishal Savani 2003 What is e learning E learning is the deployment of technology such as the application of Internet based technology to facilitate and enhance the traditional processes of education The goals of deploying the e learning or sometimes also called as e university or e education are illustrated as following Maris Treimanis 2003 e To improve diversify and extend university s services e To be more effective and efficient in providing education services e To increase competitive and attractiveness of a university or college in the local and global market e To meet the needs of individual learners by providing technology that support for customized educational programs e To apply and aligned with the growing use of the Internet and World Wide Web WWW as tools for information access and communication The services provided by the e learning or e university may vary from university to university Dif
66. art 81 l GEMS has three main categories of users administrator academic staff and student The Table 4 2 illustrates the i GEMS features which are accessible to the users The symbol signifies that a specific feature is available to the y g D corresponding category of users Features Administrator Academic Student Staff Login page 2 5 X i GEMS main page Add Academic Staff Edit Academic Staff Delete Academic Staff Add Student Course SS Edit Student Course D Delete Student Course Subject selection page E A subject s main page e Announcement Get latest announcement A K e Unit Information Download the unit information SG Access and view the unit information e Lecture Notes Download the lecture notes e Access and view the lecture notes e Tutorial Download the tutorial ji Access and view the tutorial S e Assignment P Download the assignment N Access and view the assignment e Test Choose the test title Answer the test question System analyzes test performance and produce result e Q amp A Choose to view a specific question To add a new question To reply a question To remove an unsuitable question To remove a reply Note Only those lecturers who are teaching the subject are authorized to maintain the content of Q amp A e Discussion Choose to view a specific discussion topic To add a new discussion top
67. as coaches and mentors Educators become expert of questioners rather that being as providers of answers Educators merely provide structure to student work in order to encourage self direction Students role is changing from acting as passive knowledge recipients to students who are able to construct their own knowledge Students are required to master problem solving skills rather than merely memorizing facts Students are more involved in activities that require students define their own questions and search for From a solitary educator to a member of learning team From total control of teaching environment to sharing with students as fellow learner As a result educator student hierarchy is broken 25 answers More emphasize on students ability as autonomous independent and self motivated Students are required to emphasize more on mastering learning skills rather than studying just to pass the test down Table 2 2 Changing Roles For Both Educators And Students Moreover as e university has introduced the concept of flexibility in delivering place of education programs ICT applications have provided many options and choices and many institutions are now creating competitive edges for themselves through the choices they are offering to students With the emerging of ICT students are allowed to receive their education without restricted to location and
68. ately under a specific question section Allow academic staff to add a The user s question question is added to database and display immediately under content section Allow an academic staff who is An improper teaching the subject to moderate question is removed question topics from the Q amp A module Allow an academic staff who is An improper reply teaching the subject to moderate is removed from the content of reply Q amp A module Discussion Allow an academic staff who is The user s teaching the subject to add a discussion topic is discussion topic added to database and display immediately under content section Allow an academic staff who is The user s thread is teaching the subject to participate in added immediately a topic discussion under a specific discussion topic Allow a Unit leader for the subject An improper to moderate discussion topics discussion topic is removed from the discussion module Allow a Unit leader for the subject An improper thread to moderate the content of is removed from the discussion thread or reply discussion module Academic Able to display a subject s Academic staff Staff academic staff information information such as Information properly name email phone number office 111 location and office hours are displayed under content section Change Able to change an academic staff s v The modified Password password password is updated to
69. ccess subject 4 participate a test session L S llaccess and update test 6 participate Q amp A session T 1 HAM SN EE 7 access and update test Figure 4 9 Sequence Diagram For Student User Description of Figure 4 9 To access i GEMS system a student user is required login to the system From the main form or main page the user can choose to access subject materials participate a test session or Q amp A session Each of the options involves accessing the information from database academic catalog while for a user who has 66 participated in a test or Q amp A session it may involve updating the answer of test or query to the database MainForm LecturerRegistration StudentCourseRegistration UserCatalog I Administrator 1 Nogin 3 2 maintain authorized lecturer l l l l l l l l l l l 3 update lecturer account 4 maintain authorized student course 3 5 update student course account H r l l I l l l Figure 4 10 Sequence Diagram For Administrator User Description of Figure 4 10 gt To access i GEMS system an administrator is required login to the system From the main form or main page the administrator can choose to register an authorized lecturer or student to the system Mea
70. ce and activity diagrams Design An 1 GEMS system is designed based on the information gathered from the previous phases As it progressed an i GEMS prototype design is evaluated persistently Whenever there is a doubt during the design evaluation the prototype design stage is revisited to modify or enhance the design Bear in mind that the earlier the system evaluation and modification have performed the cheaper the cost it incurs for a system Compared to system modification that performed at later phase such as after the implementation stage usually the system will costs much higher The prototype design and design evaluation stages will be visited iteratively until it comes to a satisfied level where it will then proceed to finalize the i GEMS design The primary approach in designing the system is based on UA methodology that embodies OOM UML and iteration in development approach Implementation In this phase the i GEMS system is implemented based on ASP NET programming languages In addition Microsoft Access 2000 is used to serve as a database for the i GEMS system During the implementation UML diagrams were referred constantly to ensure that corresponding and consistent user requirements are incorporated into the system 46 As advocated in the OOM approach basically the i GEMS system is developed based on the concept of objects or components The components are then combined together to serve as a complete system Whe
71. ching materials throughout the whole nation Hence it helps avoid the problem of covering inconsistent teaching scope among the lecturers from different campuses As a result students who are studying the same subject no matter which branches they are from their performance can be evaluated fairly and accurately In addition through I GEMS it enables the knowledge sharing and discussion exists among the lecturers through discussion board provided by the system On the other hand through the proposed electronic system students and lecturers communications are no more restricted to classroom only Instead a student can consult a lecturer from anywhere and at any time In addition whenever students have any enquiries they can refer to their own lecturer as well as lecturers from other campuses who are teaching the same subject Through I GEMS the system ensures that students would not miss any study materials or important announcement even though they may be absent from the class Moreover students can participate in objective test questions from the system whenever they get prepared They can take the test at any time and any place provided that they are connected to the electronic system In short the proposed i GEMS system is significant to TARC as it contributes benefits to the lecturers and students in information collaboration and sharing As a result these contributions can then further enhance the college efficiency and effect
72. community supported easy to use development tool for building ASP NET web applications Moreover Web Matrix is a freeware compiler where the program can be downloaded free from http www asp net webmatrix ASP NET is Microsoft s latest version of popular dynamic Web programming technology where it is a convergence of two major Microsoft technologies NET and Active Server Pages ASP ASP NET is a programming framework built on the common language runtime CLR that can be used on a server to build powerful Web applications Common language runtime CLR is an environment that can run and maintain any codes written in any computers One of the powerful features in ASP NET is when writing an application developers can choose to write application using Visual Basic NET C or J programming languages or even a combination of languages In i GEMS system Visual Basic NET has been used as the primary programming language in implementing the system 96 ASP NET is an object oriented language An object is a self contained unit of functionality It holds data and codes accesses and manipulates that data in simple well defined approach When developing an application developers can use ASP NET server controls or object to create common user interface elements and programs Making use of the reusable built in controls or custom objects allow the author to rapidly build the web based application as the controls has simplified pa
73. database Control Allow an academic staff who is Y Redirect to Control Panel teaching the subject proceed to Panel Page Control Panel to maintain a subject s teaching materials Logout To logout from the i GEMS system Y Redirect to Login page Table 5 2 System Evaluation Academic Staff User Control Panel In i GEMS only academic staff who are teaching a subject are authorized to access the corresponding subject s control panel in order to maintain share and standardize the teaching materials Hence the control panel functionalities are only tested by academic staff who are teaching the subject as demonstrated at the table 5 3 Test Case Functionalities Yes No Remarks Actual Output Announce Able to add an announcement Y Redirect to ment Announcement page to add an announcement An announcement 1s saved into database and recorded into a log file Able to edit an announcement Redirect to Edit Announcement page Modified Able to delete an announcement 112 announcement is updated to database and recorded in a log file The selected announcement is removed from database and recorded in a log file Unit Information Able to add a unit information file Able to remove a unit information file Redirect to Unit Information page Choose file dialog box is displayed when click on Browse button Sel
74. e allows lecturer to post one or more test for a subject to evaluate students understanding For instance a subject may have test 1 test 2 and so forth Students can then participate in a test section and submit their answers The test module will then analyze and process students answers and produce test performance immediately The module provides 3 levels of general comments to the students according to their test performance If student s marks are ranged from 0 to 49 the system will 86 display Your test performance is close to standard level Try harder you may lead to better performance by spending more effort on the subject If student s marks are within the range of 50 to 79 system will display Your test performance is average You may lead to excellent performance by spending more effort on the subject On the other hand if student s marks are 80 or above then the system will compliment by showing message Your test performance is excellent Well done Please keep up with your performance ix Q amp A Module The module enables students across six campuses to raise and share their queries Answering section is no more restricted to their own campus lecturer instead the questions can now be answered by all the campuses lecturers who are teaching the same subject Hence through using the module it helps to enhance the efficiency and effectiveness of questioning and answering feature x
75. e more on providing high speed networking and processing capability in order to support the i GEMS that cater for six campuses of TARC 89 4 7 Test Plan The main users of i GEMS system are academic staff and students from computer science of TARC The test plan for i GEMS system comprises of module test or unit component test and integration test Based on the test plan each module will first be tested and followed by the integration test Within each of the module test a detailed functional test is implemented to ensure all the sub features within the module is completed as expected Following is the list of module test together with its corresponding functional test which is based on a sampling subject AACS1614 Introduction To Information Technology Announcement Unit Test e Allow an academic staff to add an announcement e Allow an academic staff to edit an announcement e Allow an academic staff to delete an announcement e Allow all users to access the posted announcement e The module is capable to arrange the latest announcement on the top or according to descending order Unit Information Test e Allow an academic staff to upload a subject s Unit plan to the system User is encouraged to name the Unit plan according to the proposed naming convention example Unit plan AACS1614 doc where AACS1614 is the subject code for Introduction To Information Technology e Allow an academic staff to r
76. ected file name and path is displayed in File field The selected file is uploaded to the i GEMS system The selected file is removed from the i GEMS system Lecture Notes Able to add a lecture notes file Able to remove a lecture notes file Redirect to Lecture Notes page Choose file dialog box is displayed when click on Browse button The selected file name and path is displayed in File field The selected file is uploaded to the i GEMS system The selected file is removed from i GEMS system Tutorial Able to add a tutorial file Able to remove a tutorial file 113 Redirect to Tutorial page Choose file dialog box is displayed when click on Browse button The selected file name and path is displayed in File field The selected file is uploaded to the i GEMS system The selected file is removed from the i GEMS system Assignment Able to add an assignment file Able to remove an assignment file Redirect to Assignment page Choose file dialog box is displayed when click on Browse button The selected file name and path is displayed in File field The selected file is uploaded to the i GEMS system The selected file is removed from the i GEMS system Test Able to add a test title Able to edit test title Able to delete a test title
77. ember universities and UKeU related collaborations e Conducting research and developmental activities in technological and scientific areas of mutual interest with member universities Additionally both parties will e Allocate mutually agreed upon resources funding manpower space necessary to make the partnership significant e Collaborate identify and potentially develop joint and collaborative programs with academic partners worldwide identified with UkeU 31 e Allow UKeU to promote NTU s expertise when talking to existing and potential customers and in conferences http www ntu edu sg Table below demonstrates the analyzed exemplary studies based on the four institutions Purdue University ELCH Estonian e University and Nanyang Technological University Purdue ELCH Estonian Nanyang Approaches University e University Technological University Single standardized course Management g v v Y system Institutions v v v collaboration Institution s v v autonomous control Table 2 3 Emerging Approaches Against The Four Exemplary Studies 32 2 5 Chapter Summary The advent of the Internet and ubiquitous of computing has boosted the implementation of e learning system in education sector TARC is one of the members who join the trend in the adoption Nonetheless as the implementation of e learning system at TARC is still at the infancy stage the college still have long way
78. emove a subject s Unit plan from the system e Allow all users to view the Unit plan through the system e Allow all users to download the Unit plan from the system to a specified path or location correctly 90 Lecture Notes Unit Test Allow an academic staff to upload a lecture notes to the system User is encouraged to name the lecture notes according to the proposed naming convention example Lecture Notes AACS1614 Chapter 1 doc Allow an academic staff to remove a lecture notes from the system Allow all users to view lecture notes through the system Allow all users to download lecture notes from the system to a specified path or location correctly Tutorial Unit Test Allow an academic staff to upload a tutorial to the system User is encouraged to name the tutorial according to the proposed naming convention example Tutorial 1 AACS1614 doc Allow an academic staff to remove a tutorial from the system Allow all users to view tutorial through the system Allow all users to download tutorial from the system to a specified path or location correctly Assignment Unit Test Allow an academic staff to upload an assignment to the system User is encouraged to name the assignment according to the proposed naming convention example Assignment 1AACS1614 doc Allow an academic staff to remove an assignment from the system Allow all users to view assignment through the system Allow all us
79. en integrated to form a complete i GEMS system Integration test is carried to evaluate the overall 1 GEMS performance and operations Integration Test Security integration test e All users are required to login to the system with valid user id and password e A user is allowed to change existing password by accessing Change Password feature e When finish using the i GEMS system user can logout from the system e The i GEMS system is capable to analyze user s access authority and grant the authorization level according to the user s identity User Categorizing Integration Test e The i GEMS system is capable to distinguish a student user and direct the user to a student s main page e The i GEMS system is capable to distinguish an administrator user and direct the user to an administrator s main page 93 The i GEMS system is capable to distinguish an academic staff who is teaching the subject AACS1614 and direct the user to an academic staff s main page that allow the user to maintain and control the content of the subject The i GEMS system is capable to distinguish an academic staff who is not teaching the subject AACS1614 and direct the user to an academic staff s main page where the controlling and maintenance features are not accessible by the user Time Frame Integration Test Subject AACS1614 is accessible at first semester for every academic year Subject AACS1614 is not accessible to student user at
80. ent student course in relate to the information in relate Course studying subject module to student course studying subject is updated to database Delete Able to remove a student course Y A student course is Student from a studied subject module removed from a Course specific subject module Change Able to change an administrator s v The modified Password password password is updated to database Logout Able to logout from the i GEMS Y Redirect to Login system page Table 5 1 System Evaluation Administrator User 5 2 2 Academic Staff User The table 5 2 below demonstrates 1 GEMS evaluation based on academic staff user perspective Test Case Functionalities Yes No Remarks Actual Output Login Able to gain access to the i GEMS Y Redirect to Subject system for an authorized user Selection page Subject Able to display a list of subject Y Redirect to the Selection options and allow user to make a corresponding selection subjects main page Subject s Allow an authorized user to access v The content is Main Page specific subject s teaching material displayed according to the user s selection By default announcement is displayed under content section 109 Announce Able to display a subject s latest Announcement is ment announcement properly displayed The latest announcement is always displayed on the top Unit Allow
81. ers for their information constructive criticism cooperation and many valuable suggestions Apart from that the author would like to thank University Teknologi Malaysia UTM for giving such a valuable opportunity to exert her knowledge and potential in completing the project In addition appreciations go to the reviews assessments and comments from the Panel of Assessors which are significant in contributing toward the betterment of the thesis Last but not least the author would like to thank her families for their precious support and understanding throughout the time ABSTRACT This thesis studies and analyzes the existing situation of Tunku Abdul Rahman College TARC in relation to academic collaboration and information sharing among its six campuses as well as the status and limitations of TARC s existing electronic learning application Based on the study an Interest Group Using Electronic Management System i GEMS is proposed to serve as a platform solution in supporting the collaboration and academic information sharing that is customized to TARC s circumstances The i GEMS is a web based application that developed using ASP NET programming language while Unified Approach UA that advocates Object Oriented Methodology OOM in system implementation and Unified Modeling Language UML for diagram modeling are selected as a guide in developing the proposed i GEMS system Through the i GEMS lecturers from dif
82. ers to download assignment from the system to a specified path or location correctly Academic Staff Information Unit Test Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to add his or her contact details to the system Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to edit his or her contact details from the system 91 Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to delete his or her contact details from the system Allow all users to access the academic staff information Test Unit Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to develop one or more objective test by adding a new test title such as Test 1 Test 2 and so forth for a whole semester Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to edit the objective test title from the system Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to delete the objective test title from the system Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to add objective questions with its corresponding answer into a specific test title Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to edit an objective question from a specific test title Allow an academic staff who is teaching subject AACS1614 to delete an objective question into a specific test title Allow students who are studying the subject to participate in each test for one time Students are not allowed to retake the same test Once a
83. ferent campuses can collaborate and share academic information with each other This in turn can lead to delivery of standardized education throughout the six campuses of TARC In addition lecturers can broaden their knowledge other than their own fields of teaching through accessing other academic information from the i GEMS In short i GEMS is a system that advocates managing academic information through collaboration across the campuses information sharing and learning throughout different academic modules as well as promoting higher interaction and information sharing among the students and lecturers vi ABSTRAK Tesis ini dilaksanakan bagi mengkaji dan menganalisa situasi di Kolej Tunku Abdul Rahman KTAR berkenaan kerjasama akademik dan perkongsian informasi di antara enam kampus Ini termasuk juga status dan kelemahan perisian pembelajaran elektronik sedia ada Interest Group Using Electronic Management System i GEMS dicadangkan sebagai landasan bagi menyokong kerjasama dan perkongsian informasi akademik berdasarkan situasi di KTAR I GEMS adalah perisian yang dibangunkan dengan mengunakan bahasa aturcara ASP NET berdasarkan konsep Unified Approach yang menggalakkan penggunaan metodologi berorientasikan objek untuk membina sistem dan Unified Modeling Language bagi pemodelan diagram Melalui i GEMS pensyarah dari kampus yang berlainan dapat berkerjasama dan berkongsi infomasi akademik di antara satu sama lain Dengan ini
84. ferent university may encompass different scope of services By and large the services and functionalities provided by the e university can be categorized as following e E Teaching and distance learning e E Library 18 e E Enrolment e E Administration e E Commerce e E Publishing E Teaching and distance learning E teaching involves the use of ICT to enhance teaching s core activities ICT is used to support teaching by offering various services such as uploading lecture notes and tutorial to the web portal that can be viewed by all the students online assessment forum discussion board online announcement and so forth In other hand distance learning is an option for earning course credit off campus or takes course at locations remote from the point of instruction Distance learning may take the form of an instructor led course delivered via satellite to multiple remote locations Distance learning may also be training applications delivered via computer networks to students at any network node Web based training is one of the distance learning method in that the training application resides on a Web server while students may use the training from any location that can access to the server E Library An information resource to support academic programs including online services support for information literacy and research study E library enable users to perform online all the functions of the traditional library
85. for integration with student information systems and authentication protocols Blackboard Inc allows teachers and educational organizations to post their courses on the web Once a company has bought a license for the course development product they can begin posting and offering teaching materials and courses over the web WebCT http www webct com WebCT is one of the leading providers of e learning systems for educational institutions Thousands of colleges and universities in more than 70 countries worldwide are expanding the boundaries of teaching and learning with WebCT With WebCT institutions are implementing successful strategies for engaging learners increasing enrollment capacity without making major facilities investments and serving diverse student populations Hence it is said the WebCT has successfully provided e learning system that presents a host of new opportunities for institutions to cost effectively expand access to education and improve educational outcomes WebCT helps educators and students leverage the power of the Web to improve their educational experience WebCT sells a course development tool that enables educators to quickly build supplementary course materials or full courses to 21 be offered through the WebCT learning hub So far the company has offered courses to more than one million students Deitel amp Associate Inc http www deitel com Deitel amp Associate Inc teaches instructo
86. further attention Innovative and effective technological and pedagogical solutions will be developed and inculcated in cooperation with higher institutions in order to enhance the learning process In addition educators will be offered to a variety of training and support International cooperation Globalization of education and international competition demands greater international and domestic cooperation between higher education institutions Developing common curricula in cooperation with foreign universities increasing the number of foreign students and strengthening the quality and competitiveness of university through the international cooperation is the goal of many local universities The objective of the international cooperation is to provide e education to the globe combining and disseminating information on e learning to local and international students and develop international cooperation in the field of e university 2 4 2 The Emerging Approach According to study WebCT 2003 many universities and colleges around the world have embarked on the developing of online learning strategy and investing in the infrastructure required With the advent of Internet the course management system has proven to be an essential component for an education institution to compete with others According to WebCT having course materials transferred to online mode should not be the final for any e learning system Standardization 28
87. ges of codes Figure 5 1 shows the server objects provided by the ASP NET 2g HTML Elements E Control amp 35 webControl AdRotator A Label 86 Button FE Calendar JV CheckBox D CheckBoxList FL CompareYalidator E CustomValidator J DataGrid ab LinkButton fabl TextBox E Table gH DataList DropDownList E A HyperLink Image 14 ImageButton ListBox E7 Literal 7 Panel RadioButton v Dia Custom Controls Figure 5 1 ASP NET Web Controls 97 The following is a list of several important advantages that offered by ASP NET Enhanced Performance ASP NET is compiled common language runtime code running on the server ASP NET provides advantage of early binding just in time compilation native optimization and caching services right out of the box World Class Tool Support The ASP NET framework is complemented by a rich toolbox and designer in an integrated development environment WYSIWYG What You See Is What You Get editing drag and drop server controls and automatic deployment are the features this powerful tool provides Power and Flexibility Because ASP NET is based on the common language runtime the power and flexibility of that entire platform is available to Web application developers The NET Framework class library Messaging and Data Access solutions are all seamlessly accessible from the Web ASP NET is also language independent so you can choose the language
88. gies ICT in the process of teaching However as the current stage of the system is mainly supporting main campus hence the system does not really support the collaboration and information sharing among the students and lecturers throughout the different campuses within the whole nation Instead the system is mainly deployed to offer the e learning or Internet environment in providing teaching materials At current phase the system is not meant for promoting the communication and academic information sharing throughout the different campuses As mentioned in previous chapter section 1 3 to communicate with other branches lecturers such as a branch lecturer who wants to communicate with a subject s unit leader unit leader is one of the main campus lecturers who is selected as a leader for a unit or subject the branch lecturer has to first acquire the unit leader s name and contact details through his or her own course tutor assume that previously the branch s course tutor has collected the related information from main campus course tutor Only then the branch lecturer can exchange ideas with the unit leader mainly through email telephone fax or mailing approaches The figure below illustrates the existing communication approach throughout the campuses of TARC Stepl A campus X lecturer 2285 y Campus X s Course Tutor e Scenario 1 A campus X lecturer asks for a subject s unit leader from main campus contac
89. ging Approaches Against The Four Exemplary Studies 31 4 1 Database Description Of 19 Tables For I GEMS 78 4 2 I GEMS Interface Chart 83 4 3 Hardware Requirements For Supporting The I GEMS System 88 5 1 System Evaluation Administrator User 108 5 2 System Evaluation Academic Staff User 111 5 3 System Evaluation Control Panel 114 5 4 System Evaluation Student User 116 xi LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE NO TITLE PAGE 2 Existing Circumstance For Academic Staff To Communicate Across Campuses 15 2 2 Existing Possible Communication Approaches For Academic Staff To Communicate Across Campuses 16 3 1 The Unified Approach UA Process Structure In Iterative Form 36 3 2 Data And Functions Packaged Together As An Object 37 3 3 Object Oriented Systems Development Approach 39 3 4 Proposed Operational Framework For I GEMS System 44 3 5 I GEMS Project Schedule 47 4 1 Use Case For Existing Communication Circumstance 55 4 2 Sequence Diagram For Existing Communication Approach Across Campuses 56 4 3 Use Case For Existing E Learning Application 57 4 4 Sequence Diagram For Existing E Learning Application Lecturer View 58 4 5 Sequence Diagram For Existing Application Student View 59 4 6 System Architecture For Existing E Learning Or Cel System 60 4 7 Use Case For I GEMS System 63 4 8 Sequence Diagram For Lecturer User 64 4 9 Sequence Diagram For Student User 65 4 10 Sequence Diagram For Administrator User
90. has referred to lots of programming books and Web sites in mastering the ASP NET Many programming problems were faced during the system implementation from initial system design connecting and maintaining database and to deliver all the required functionalities Sometimes in order to develop some of the simple functions that the author has taken as granted features it may require hours or even days to produce that so called simple functionalities For instance functions that enable user to upload a file to display a document properly within 1 GEMS system to allow user to download a file into a specified path correctly to display up to date academic materials on a DataGrid control to fix database connection errors and many other features have actually taken plenty of hours and efforts in producing all those functions However due to the author s persistence and determination finally the i GEMS system has been completed on time and fulfilling all the project scope and user requirements as endorsed earlier It is a great accomplishment to the author as the proposed system has been developed from nil knowledge on the ASP NET programming language to finally successfully producing the completed i GEMS system 148 7 3 Aspiration On the whole although i GEMS system has delivered all functionalities that stated in user requirements nevertheless there are still some room spaces for future enhancement in terms of system usability a
91. ic To involve in a specific topic discussed by replying to the topic Unit leader is authorized to remove an unsuitable question Unit leader is authorized to remove an inappropriate thread Note Only lecturers who are teaching the subject are authorized to participate in the discussion module e Access Academic Staff Information e Change Password e Logout Xo X X X X 82 Control Panel Note Only academic staff or lecturers who are teaching the subject are authorized to access the control panel module e Announcement Add Edit and Delete Announcement e Unit Information Add and Remove Unit Information e Lecture Notes Add and Remove Lecture Notes e Tutorial Add and Remove Tutorial e Assignment Add and Remove Assignment e Test Add Edit and Delete Test e Academic Staff Information Add Edit and Delete academic staff information e Test Result To trace students test result Table 4 2 I GEMS Interface Chart 84 4 5 4 Detailed Modules Features On the whole i GEMS system comprises of 12 modules each of the modules provides different functionalities and purpose to serve administrator academic staff or lecturer as well as the students of TARC Following are the descriptions of the 12 modules i Security Module I GEMS system is not accessible by the public instead it is only accessible to valid academic staff and students of
92. ing list of software will be utilized e Operating System Microsoft Windows XP Professional e Internet Information Services IIS The powerful web server IIS 5 0 is used to provide a highly reliable manageable and scalable application infrastructure for the web based 1 GEMS system e Web Browser Internet Explorer 6 0 is used to view and display the contents of the electronic system e Microsoft dot Net Framework1 1 The software is needed to support ASP NET programming application development The software can be downloaded free from the Internet hsttp www microsoft com downloads e Web Matrix The software is one of the most powerful ASP NET compilers It allows system developer to build and maintain a proposed system The software can be downloaded free from the Internet http www asp net webmatrix e Microsoft Office Suite Microsoft Office 2000 is required to assist in documentation of the project e Microsoft Project Microsoft Project 2002 is utilized to plan and track the schedule for the i GEMS system e Microsoft Visio Microsoft Visio 2002 is utilized as a diagramming program that allows the author to visualize the system information effectively through the creation of modeling diagram such as UML diagrams e Microsoft Access Microsoft Access 2000 is required to serve as a database for the i GEMS system e Programming language ASP NET programming language is the core pr
93. is appropriate Do you agree that the information presented is enough Can you understand the instructions given by the system Comments Revision 1 0v Date Signature Name 165 APPENDIX H i GEMS SCREEN DESIGN The following i GEMS screens demonstrate the functionalities that can be accessed by an academic staff who is teaching a subject AACS1614 Introduction To gt Information Technology Login page Jit Lege pap eed ii Ep gt SR ges edu BR Pal Tn lagos pair ries vers unser ome and peered el det er the Lange biien bebes i mener J e ee eg mg NA 166 Subject selection page RR XX Cau eS Cd T Que s ub rent EI A D lil Dei CH Gab Hi pat Ze qe Bes Lre Srk Eng srboant da HIERS Este Pher mieri e mb prt kap bcke Alt lbs Es alain Tdi AI hoger recio Abre Tua Lx D d ARC gedon Drag ind Lal iion ETE PTS Sys rm eu EH a eT Subject AACS 1614 Introduction To Information Technology main page T j y iH ni A 1 Jg b lt 2 p We T Man L shpi bonera ias Ca bikr mamas Tep Turmes F ne pee Pe eed x ee Pe er ann Peed 162 a eh oda Ba Viris dodo rah iaa lila dab peto RE pud Ta Merce L gd aims sc Pa chris De beta tree Leit ER Lopes Y ad cd 13s mur T ime KIT GEERT 167 Unit Information page TIN al B i re FIL Fie Me A ire mo ck Aj
94. iveness in delivering the academic education as well as increase the reputation of TARC 10 1 7 Chapter Summary The chapter has provided an overview on the proposed system i GEMS which is a system solution that customized to TARC s existing circumstances Based on the chapter a reader can have an understanding on the problem statement objectives scope and importance of the proposed project On the whole i GEMS is a solution that will serve as a channel to allow different campuses lecturers to get acquainted with each other It facilitates information sharing and management among the lecturers of different campuses who are teaching the same subjects For those lecturers who want to broaden their knowledge other than their own field of teaching they can improve themselves by learning from other academic modules that offered by the proposed system In addition i GEMS is developed to provide a channel that allows better information communication between the students and lecturers of TARC Students can access the course materials announcement assignment and even a test from the system The proposed system also will serve as a platform for students to raise their inquiries to lecturers The answering section is not restricted to the student s lecturer only instead other campuses lecturers who are teaching the same subject can also answer the inquiries Therefore a student can receive a reply faster than using e mail approach
95. k the Login aspx file choose Open With and select Web Matrix If Web Matrix is not found under Open With menu select the program from Start button click All Programs and open the Web Matrix Fia Ect Vas Penia Tool Help L Geek CH d sqm DH Acida EH Crippa EB ES f El Se D File and Folder Tasks j ES id E Open eih Mesa Shiko MET 2003 CP Add Tes CP add CF add Uni g ij Parara this fia d e Ties Tubo o ls Annum p Hoen this Fs 96 Mersoft Visual Sade HEI 2005 DN Copy te Me E Notepad a VPubkih tha Filo Lo the Wels J E CP eat TH ES nai thin hin miona derek Explorer WX Delete this Fle H weda d cr Tutor gens Info asp amp mdem Subn tr p e gz Wes pop Heed kf EMG EHS Links Lira apa Login d 0 Ebudenb ape Figure 5 20 Running I GEMS System Using Web Matrix ASP NET Compiler 124 Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix will then be launched together with the Login aspx file as shown below Figure 5 21 mig EL pime EET our E End LLLI ad cick oF PAL og Errcs Figure 5 21 Microsoft Asp Net Web Matrix To run the i GEMS system press F5 key from the keyboard you will then be prompted by the following screen Figure 5 22 Start Web Application Start Web Application Start a Web application at the selected application directory Application Directory C Inetpublwwwroot i GEMS Use ASP NET Web Matrix Server Application Port 1808
96. l and intellectual resources and international competition have catalyzed the need to strengthen a university s competitiveness with the cooperation with other local higher education institutions The cooperation may involve in research and development activities creating and using e learning infrastructure developing common curricula widening learning possibilities and mutual recognition of studies Equal possibilities in acquiring quality One of the major problems revolve around a country s education institutions is unbalanced development For instance Malaysia has many universities including both public and private institutions are offering inconsistent education services to all those local and foreign students There are relatively large number of students including working adult learners are not accessing to equal good opportunities in acquiring quality higher education The objective of the e University is to provide high quality education that is accessible to a wider target group including working 27 people people with disabilities learners in remote areas and also for other students by the means of modern technology and applicable solutions Innovation and development of studies Lecture oriented learning practices will still be widespread in the next few years The development and training of educators is undertaking first steps Student s inability to be independent in studying and as an active learners require
97. l have lesser resistance from the end users in using the proposed system as i GEMS has been deployed at computer science division Instead cooperation and adoption are expected from the rest of end users The time needed to fully implement i GEMS system at all campuses and for all streams that offered at TARC is estimated to be another three years Seeing that currently e learning system or system like i GEMS is not fully adopted by academic staff at TARC Many still resist using the electronic system in delivering education Most of them still prefer to depend on traditional classroom teaching to impart their knowledge Hence it requires total of five two three years time to fully roll out the i GEMS system at TARC College To ensure the proposed system can be rolled out successfully it requires commitment from top management in executing the rollout strategy as well as change management strategy that is discussed at next section 136 6 2 Change Management In order to align with TARC s vision and to ensure the success rollout of 1 GEMS system the following change management strategies are suggested Information System Information Technolo IS IT Management Strategies Standardization policy A policy on setting the standards for academic materials to be delivered to students throughout the six campuses of TARC must be developed at the onset For those courses that are offered at several campuses the lecturers from different
98. leader is assigned to coordinate a teaching module among the campuses 4 2 Lecturers from different campuses access and maintain the same teaching subject module 4 3 A lecturer can also access to other subjects module 5 A student accesses to the corresponding study materials Figure 4 20 Process Framework For The Proposed I GEMS System 4 5 Physical Design 4 5 1 Database Design FII An i GEMS database has been designed using Microsoft Access to support the i GEMS system The database consists of 19 tables as listed at below No Table Name Table Description l Subject To show subject code title and subject s availability 2 Staff To verify staff s identity 3 Subject Teaching To identify the academic staff that are teaching a specific subject and their position hold 4 Student To verify students identity 5 Course To identify subject that offered to a course 6 Student Result To record students test performance result T Time Frame To indicate duration for each of the academic semester 8 Announcement To record announcement based on subject 9 Unit Info To maintain subjects unit information 10 Lecture Notes To maintain subjects lecture notes teaching materials 11 Tutorial To maintain subjects Tutorial materials 12 Assignment To maintain subjects Assignment materials 13 Test Title To maintain subject s
99. learning system the student may get the reply at one week or one month later or the worst case is never get reply from the specific lecturer Thus from the i GEMS system it helps to reduce or avoid such problem by allowing other campuses lecturers teaching the same subject who are free and convenient to answer the students questions The flexibility in answering section will increase the prompt reply rate and this in turn can motivate students in using the system 142 e Accessible at any time and any place With the assistance of web based i GEMS system it enables learning to be available to students 24 hours a day seven days a week around the nation Students can access to the study materials or having communication with lecturers whenever it is convenient for them Through the proposed system they can view and access study materials from any places with a computer that connected to the Internet This is especially for those students who have personal commitments and could not attend classes at TARC they can always check through the electronic system for any important message or announcement as well as studying materials that prepared by their lecturers In short i GEMS offers greater competitive advantages to TARC as it advocates academic collaboration across the campuses information sharing and learning across different subjects modules as well as promoting higher interaction and education learning between the students and
100. lecturers 143 6 6 Chapter Summary Organizational strategy is essential to ensure the success implementation of i GEMS A rollout strategy that requires total of five years time is suggested in order to fully deploy the proposed system at TARC College At first stage a pilot deployment of the system will aim at main campus and Penang campus for computer science diploma subjects When the result of pilot deployment is satisfied within two years duration the system will then expand to other campuses computer science division It is then followed by i GEMS deployment for other division streams such as Mathematics Electronic Engineering Microelectronic Business Studies and so on with another three years time Currently most of the academic staff are more inclined to traditional classroom teaching in delivering education thus resistances is expected from the end users when deploying the proposed system Hence it is essential to obtain commitments from top management in executing the rollout strategy as well as change management strategy such as standardization policy knowledge sharing end users training and so forth In data migration plan in order to ensure that transformed data is always the up to date and be timely these data should only be migrated at the time when a division and corresponding end users are participating in using the i GEMS system While in BCP a disaster recovery manual should be developed by IT division and
101. m a lecturer can upload objective questions to test students understanding Once a student has finished answering the test questions the system is capable to process and mark the students answers automatically and produce summary result to the participant In addition to enhance the knowledge of academic staff a lecturer is allowed to access other first year diploma computer science subjects other than the subject he or she is currently handling From the student perspective students are allowed to access the lecture notes tutorial questions assignment or announcement from the proposed system Whenever students have uncertainties for a particular subject they can raise queries on the system Through the system students queries are not only can be answered by their own campus lecturer but also lecturers from other campuses who are teaching the same particular subject As student s question and answering session can also be accessed and discussed by other students who are studying the same subject hence information sharing exist among the student group The raw data such as lecture notes tutorial questions announcement students name and so forth which is used in developing the i GEMS system will be the combination of actual data that is based on the author s hands on working at TARC as well as some simulation data that is based on other computer science diploma subjects To develop the i GEMS system the follow
102. m SenderID As String Dim TodayDate As Date Dim SQL AS String Dim AnnTopic As String TodayDate Now strPath Request PhysicalApplicationPath amp iGEMS mdb DBConn New System Data OleDb OleDbConnection Provider Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4 0 DATA SOURCE amp strPath SubjectCode Application SubjectID SenderID Application UserID AnnTopic txtTopic Text SQL Insert Into Announcement SubjectCode Topic Message StaffID TodayDate TodayTime Values amp SubjectCode amp amp txtTopic Text amp amp txtMessage Text amp amp SenderID amp amp TodayDate Date amp TE TimeOfDay amp dbCommand CommandText SQL dbCommand Connection DBConn dbCommand Connection Open dbCommand ExecuteNonQuery DBConn Close Catch err As System Exception dim msg as string msg err Message MsgBox msg Error Message End Try Figure 5 4 To Insert An Announcement Into Access Database 102 From CP Edit Announcement aspx btnUpdate procedure Dim DBConn As System Data OleDb OleDbConnection Dim dbCommand As New System Data OleDb OleDbCommand Dim strPath As String Dim Sol As String strPath Request PhysicalApplicationPath amp iGEMS mdb DBConn New System Data OleDb OleDbConnection Provider Microsoft Jet OLEDB 4 0 DATA SOURCE amp strPath Sql Update Announcement SET Topic amp txtTopic Text amp Message amp txtMessage Text amp StaffID
103. m development methodology is created to serve as a guideline throughout the development of i GEMS system 50 CHAPTER 4 SYSTEM DESIGN 4 1 Organizational Analysis TARC was established on 24 February 1969 with the mission to provide higher education opportunity for school leavers and young Malaysians who seek to further their education TARC is 50 subsidized by the Government of Malaysia for all courses fees and capital expenditure The other 50 is borne by the Trustees of TARC MCA As a result the college can supply cheaper courses that affordable by lower income citizens As mentioned in Chapter 1 section1 2 currently TARC has six campuses located throughout the nation Among 105 courses that are offered at TARC some common courses or subjects may be offered at the same time throughout the six campuses of TARC For instance the subject Introduction to Information Technology is a common subject that is offered to all first year diploma students during the first semester throughout these campuses In other words each campus may have several lecturers handling the same subject at the same time However these groups of lecturers do not know each other They do not know who are the lecturers from different campuses teaching the same subject In other words there is lack of communication and information sharing among the lecturers from different campuses As a result lecturers from different campuses may develop their own se
104. m the existing system instead it is another newly developed system that is customized to TARC s circumstances and requirements Seeing that the goal of i GEMS system is not developed to serve all the education functionalities other than the scope specified in the report other functionalities are not included For instance course scheduling student administration examination management library system and so forth are not included in the i GEMS system Challenges Time duration is one of the challenges faced in producing project 2 As the author s Project 1 is just completed on May 2005 it left a few months available for the author to proceed and complete project 2 Other than time duration mastering programming language was another great challenge to the author The author has learned and explored herself the programming language ASP NET from nil knowledge level until being able to produce a completed i GEMS system within three months duration where the first 147 two months were used to develop the system and third month was mainly for system testing and enhancements It was a very challenging task especially for the first month in learning and developing the i GEMS system the learning process was slow and stressful as lots of difficulties and hurdles were encountered yet most of the system functionalities were not delivered As the system developing process was totally the author s self learning session the author
105. mation can be retrieved just before it is required rather than merely relying on printing and photocopying To implement the proposed change management strategies successfully it is always essential to obtain the top management commitment in executing the strategies Through the proposed strategies mentioned above it will help to ensure that the i GEMS solution can be implemented more effectively and efficiently 138 6 3 Data Migration Plan The main data for i GEMS system is academic teaching materials such as lecture notes tutorial assignments Unit information and so forth These academic materials are appropriate to be transferred by corresponding end users academic staff only when they are using the i GEMS system On the other hand data that are needed to register an academic staff to an assigned teaching subject and a student course to the corresponding studying subject will be migrated when the division such as computer science of a campus is involved using the i GEMS system In other words to ensure that migrated data is always the most up to date and be transformed at the right time these data will only be transferred when a corresponding division and end users are participating in using the i GEMS system 6 4 Business Continuity Plan BCP A Business Continuity Plan BCP for i GEMS system is required to plan for how TARC will resume partially or completely interrupted critical function s or data after a di
106. modification and click Update button AAA EES acrem k Qu da reia E JIB D Lr ia Barr me Figure 5 27 Updating An Academic Staff Teaching Record 129 If an academic staff is no more teaching a subject administrator can remove the staff from that subject by selecting Delete Academic Staff from left panel From the Staff ID field click the arrow down button and select a staff ID then click Search button The corresponding academic staff record will be displayed Choose Delete button a Deletion Confirmation will prompted to confirm the deletion Choose Yes to delete the record from database or choose No to cancel the operation Figure 5 28 E C EE Ce Ze P uu funky Abdul Rahman Col lege E Ls Figure 5 28 Removing An Academic Staff From A Subject 130 To register a student course to a corresponding studying subject choose Add Student Course from left panel following screen will be displayed Figure 5 29 Fill in all the fields and click Add button to save the record TH MA H Abdul Ra man E ollege Figure 5 29 Adding A Student Course To A Corresponding Studying Subject 131 To edit the added record click Edit Student Course from left panel and following screen will be prompted Figure 5 30 From the Course Code field click the arrow down button and select a course code then click Search button The corresponding course record
107. mponent a binary component or an executable component e Deployment Diagram The deployment diagram shows the physical architecture of the hardware and software in the system UML model is chosen as an approach for modeling and documenting 1 GEMS system as the UML diagrams can be applied throughout requirement analysis design and implementation phases Any of the nine diagrams from UML 43 can be used as an incremental basis within the development phases when the need arises For the thesis three main types of UML diagrams use case diagram sequence diagram and activity diagram are deployed to demonstrate the existing application and communication circumstances as well as the proposed i GEMS system under the chapter 4 System Design The other types of UML diagrams will be incorporated as part of the appendix On the whole the goals of deploying UML are as follows e Provide users a ready to use expressive visual modeling language so they can develop and exchange meaningful models based on object oriented concepts e Be independent of particular programming languages and development processes e Provide a formal basis for understand the modeling language It also helps in addressing the issues of scale inherent in complex mission critical systems e Encourage the growth of the OO tools market e Support higher level development concepts 44 3 3 System Development Methodology for i GEMS Based on the
108. mpus X lecturer i 1 request for campus Y lecturer contact details M 2 get campus Y lecturer information r gt l l 3 campus Y lecturer information E l 4 campus Y lecturer contact details 4 i gt d l l i 5 collaborate with campus Y lecturer i i i 1 l l j l l l l I Figure 4 2 Sequence Diagram For Existing Communication Approach Across Campuses Description of Figure 4 2 To initialize collaboration with campus Y lecturer campus X lecturer first request campus Y lecturer s contact details through the campus X course tutor Campus X course tutor will then contact campus Y course tutor to get the campus Y lecturer information and then pass the information to campus X lecturer Campus X lecturer can then start communicate and collaborate with campus Y lecturer for academic information 57 Other than Figure 4 1 and Figure 4 2 reader can also refer to section 2 2 1 and section 4 2 for the analysis of current circumstances Figure 4 3 4 4 and 4 5 are the UML diagrams that demonstrate TARC s existing e learning application or called as CeL system For further descriptions on the existing application reader can refer to section 2 2 1 Use Case Diagram Unit documents Discussion board Lecturer Student Figure 4 3 Use Case For Existing E Learning Application Description of Figure 4 3 As mentioned at section 2 2 1 and sectio
109. n There are lots of colleges and universities all over the world rushing in implementing the e learning platform to build competitive advantage in facing the current global environment TARC is also one of the colleges that have joined the trend The idea of establishing an e learning project in TARC was proposed by the management about 3 years ago The project began to materialize in the academic year 2002 2003 When TARC embarked on the e learning a committee team was set up to look into matters concerning the project The team comprised of staff from different departments who were invited to join the committee on a voluntary basis based on their interests in the project One of the first objectives of the committee was to identify a suitable commercial learning management system LMS that will enable courses to be delivered online Finally the team has subscribed with Blackboard Inc to provide the e learning services Though currently TARC has an e learning system that is provided by Blackboard Inc however as the e learning system is provided by the third party where the system implementation is not accessible to the author hence the proposed i GEMS system is not a modification from the existing system Instead the proposed system will be a newly developed system that is customized to TARC existing environment 13 2 2 1 TARC s E Learning System TARC has chosen Blackboard Inc in supporting the e learning project The Blackboa
110. n 4 2 the existing e learning system is currently offered at main campus only At the moment the system is mainly used for transferring academic materials to the Internet It is not meant for supporting the collaboration and academic information sharing throughout the different campuses As shown in Figure 4 3 lecturer and student can access to the three main modules that offered by the e learning system which are unit documents discussion 58 board and test modules Unit documents are referring to a subject s related documents such as lecture notes tutorial question or assignment question Sequence Diagram CelMainForm UnitDocuments DiscussionBoard Lecturer 1 login gt 2 maintain teaching unit documents gt 3 maintain discussin board 4 prepare test questions Figure 4 4 Sequence Diagram For Existing E Learning Application Lecturer View Description of Figure 4 4 To access the e learning or CeL system a main campus lecturer user is required to login into the system Only authorized lecturer can gain access to the CeL system From the CeL main form the lecturer user can opt for maintaining teaching unit documents discussion board or preparing test questions 59 CelMainForm UnitDocuments DiscussionBoard l Student l l l l 1 Nogin A 2 access unit documents
111. nd functionalities The design of user interface can be further enhanced in order to increase the system attractiveness This can be done be referring to many other professional Web sites and from there refining current system interface On the other hand instead of to serve as e learning system only for future development i GEMS system can be further expanded to include other TARC s functionalities and operations The functionalities including online course enrollment examination management e payment student administration and so on However to produce such a complicated system it may then require another several years to complete In spite of this the author may consider to include some of the functions for future system development 149 7 4 Chapter Summary In the author s opinion the greatest achievement in producing the project is the accomplishment of Master thesis and i GEMS system which have met with all the endorsed project scope user requirements as well as format that required by the UTM For the project constraint as i GEMS is designed and customized to TARC s environment hence the system is not applicable to all of the higher education institutions On the other hand the greatest challenge to the author in producing project 2 was to mastering and learning ASP NET by her own within three months period where the first two months were mainly used to develop i GEMS system and third month was used for sys
112. ndling the subject 63 4 4 Conceptual Design 4 4 1 Business Process and Data Model UML Diagrams of To Be System Figure 4 7 up to figure 4 18 are the UML diagrams that illustrate the proposed i GEMS system Use Case Diagram Other Subject Module Campus Y lecturer Register Lecturer V Register Student Course Figure 4 7 Use Case For I GEMS System Admininstrator 64 Description of Figure 4 7 As i GEMS system advocates collaboration and sharing of academic information across branches the figure shows that both campus X and campus Y lecturers can access and maintain the five main modules e Teaching Subject Module a subject that both campus X and campus Y lecturers are currently teaching e Test Module e Discussion Module e Q amp A Module e Other Subjects Module In the meantime a student can access the three modules Subject Module Test Module and Q amp A Module to assist in their study For an administrator he or she is responsible to register a lecturer or student to the system in order to become a user of i GEMS system Sequence Diagram MainForm TeachingSubject Discussion Test OtherSubjects AcademicCatalog H H Campus X Y lecturer I 17 login t gt 2 maintain subject s teaching material 1 1 I 1 d 1 H 1 H 1 l 1 l 1 l H l I H 1 l H 3 access or upddte te
113. never there is a need the design phase is revisited to clarify uncertainty and hence better implementation is delivered Testing Once the system is developed completely it is then proceed to the testing phase UML and user requirements statement are served as main guide during the testing process Whenever there is a system error bug or unmatched requirement discovered a report is lodged and if time were allowed the system implementation phase would be revisited in order to modify and enhance the system The implementation and testing phases are visited iteratively until the system is reaching to a satisfactory level If some of the system deficiencies are not solved within the given time frame then a report is lodged to serve as a reference for future maintenance As documentation is an essential for a system to serve as a reference verification maintenance as well as a formal roll out of the system therefore within the proposed system development life cycle each phase is involving documentation With the proposed system development methodology it serves as a useful guide in designing and developing the i GEMS system 3 4 Project Schedule Based on the proposed system development methodology a project schedule is planned as shown at Figure 3 5 47 48 49 3 5 Chapter Summary There are varieties of system development approaches available in the market for instance UA approach or OOM waterfall model prototypi
114. ng model spiral model rapid application development RAD and so forth Seeing that i GEMS is a web based application that developed using ASP NET hence the UA approach that advocates OOM in implementing system and UML for modeling diagram is selected as a guide in developing the proposed i GEMS system According to researchers UA methodology is based on the best practices that have proven successful in system development The approach mainly revolves around OOM UML and iterative in development OOM develop a system based on objects that contains attributes and functions which can be easily replaced modified and reused The approach encourages the view of a system as collection of cooperative and collaborating objects which served as the basis for improvements in traceability quality maintainability and extensibility UML is deployed to specifying constructing visualizing and documenting the i GEMS system As UML diagrams is best suit for object oriented system development and can be applied throughout requirement analysis design and implementation phases hence the UML is chosen to model the i GEMS At section 3 3 a system development methodology or framework is proposed for the 1 GEMS system On the whole the framework is comprises of initiation analysis design implementation and testing phases Last but not least at section 3 4 a Gantt chart that denotes the schedule of i GEMS system based on the proposed syste
115. ng the Internet such as the early days of e Commerce where businesses simply rushing for putting brochures online Since then course management systems like Blackboard Learning System have grown in use and is important to all levels of education in the world For instance according to the 2003 Campus Computing Project survey done at 33 United States 33 6 of all college courses are using course management tools which are growing from 26 5 in 2002 20 6 in 2001 and just 14 7 in 2000 Based on the chapter the author realizes that there are growing numbers of education institutions taking further step in implementing the online education system in order to increase their competitive power Some of these institutions have collaboration and shared services within campuses as well as with other local or oversea education institutions through a single course management platform Within this paradigm standardization on common course management system is a necessary step toward the success collaboration In addition a system solution that can support the individual institutions to maintain and control their own brand pedagogies and teaching approaches is essential in order to achieve consensus in supporting the shared services environment From the literature review the chapter has broadened the author s knowledge on the ICT usage and development in higher education sector It is suggested that TARC can always improve the existing applica
116. nified Approach UA or Rational Unified Process RUP is based on the best practices that have been proven successful in system development The approach is produced by three major methodologists G Booch I Jacobson and J Rumbaugh in their attempt to unify their modeling efforts Ali Bahrami 1999 The team was hired by Rational company and has created UML and Rational Unify Process RUP in giving pieces of advice around software process UA consists of methodology and steps in developing an application which embodies best practices processes and guidelines in a system development project Generally UA advocates six best practices develop software iteratively manage requirements use component based architectures visually model software verify software quality and control changes to software The approach establishes a unifying and unitary framework by utilizing the UML notations and diagrams for better understanding on object oriented concepts and system development There are four main phases in UA methodology inception elaboration construction and transition Other software development stages are often divided into five phases analysis design implementation integration and testing As shown in Figure 3 1 the process structure of UA can be viewed based on two viewpoints The horizontal axis represents time and the dynamic aspects of the UA in terms of the four project phases While the vertical axis represent the static a
117. nstallShield Wizard 5 14 Prompt Showing Completed Installation Of Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix 5 15 Window s Control Panel 5 16 Windows XP Setup 5 17 Selecting IIS From Windows Components Wizard 5 18 Windows Components Wizard Configuring Components 5 19 Completing The Windows Components Wizard 5 20 Running I GEMS System Using Web Matrix ASP NET Compiler 5 2 Microsoft Asp Net Web Matrix 5 22 Start Web Application 5 23 I GEMS Login Page 5 24 I GEMS Administrator s Main Page 5 25 Registration Of Academic Staff To The Corresponding Teaching Subject 5 26 Edit An Academic Staff Teaching Record 5 27 Updating An Academic Staff Teaching Record 5 28 Removing An Academic Staff From A Subject 5 29 Adding A Student Course To A Corresponding Studying Subject 5 30 Updating A Student Course To A Corresponding Studying Subject 5 3 Removing A Course From A Subject 6 1 Estimated Cost Incurred For A Student Who Fails A Subject xiii 118 119 119 120 120 121 121 122 123 124 124 125 126 127 127 128 129 130 131 132 141 EITF ELCH ICT IT i GEMS IS IT MCA OOM TARC UA UML UTM xiv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Estonian Information Technology Foundation E Learning Consortium Hamburg Information and Communication Technologies Information Technology Interest Group Using Electronic Management System Information System Information
118. nwhile the administrator can update or remove a user from the system who is no longer authorized to use the system such as lecturer resignation or student withdrawal 67 Activity Diagram Login denied e d Y Aces teaching subject module Acces test module Acces other subject s module Access discussion module Access Q amp A module Access registration module Figure 4 11 Activity Diagram For Overall System Description of Figure 4 11 When a user logs in into the i GEMS system the user s identity will be verified If the login information is not matched from database then the login will be denied Whereas if the login information is matched from system database then a user can proceed to access the system and choose to deal with any of the six activities access Teaching Subject Module access Discussion Module access Test Module access Q amp A Module access Other Subject s Module or access Registration Module 68 Authorized lecturer Authorized student View academic contents View study materials Edit lecture notes Download lecture notes Read announcement Edit tutorial questions Atocue assignment Download tutorial Download assignment Post announcement Update database Figure 4 12 Activity Diagram Access Academic Module Description of Figure 4 12 From a Teaching Subject s Module a user s identity is assessed If
119. of independent institutions a university system or multiple campuses of a decentralized university Before embark on the shared services standardization on common course management system is a necessary first step toward the success collaboration Shared services can come in many forms such as joint help desks training programs or even joint systems implementation In a shared system implementation there is just one installation of hardware and software and often a distributed support staff serving multiple campuses or institutions in an enterprise wide strategy The cost savings come from eliminating redundancies in hardware and software or the redeployment of staff The hardware and software are run from a central source potentially on the campus with the most technical expertise or specialization In order 29 to achieve consensus in support of a shared services environment a solution must be offered that allows the individual institutions to maintain and control their own brand pedagogies and teaching approaches enrollment management infrastructure integration and e learning policies without affecting the others in sharing the system Exemplary Studies 1 Purdue University Purdue University is implementing a single academic system to serve all four of its campuses This is the first time that Purdue has deployed a single standardized technology solution for all of its campuses In the past each campus made independent
120. ogramming language that is used in developing the i GEMS system As the dot net application is capable to support various types of platform users are freed from using various types of technologies that drives today s computing marketplace As i GEMS is developed based on web based approach the system will be developed using Object Oriented OO methodology and modeled by using Unified Modeling Language UML which will be discussed in detail in chapter 3 Generally users of the proposed i GEMS system will be academic staff and students from computer science division of TARC Once the system is developed a plan for component test and integration test will be produced Based on the testing plan each unit component is tested and then followed by the integration test For further information on the i GEMS system development methodology reader can refer to chapter 3 1 6 Importance of Project From the proposed system 1 GEMS lecturers and students of TARC are the two major groups of people who will benefit from the system When compared to the current system the proposed electronic system solution will provide the easiest fastest and most efficient way that allows 24 by 7 basis of communication among lecturers from different campuses Through the proposed system it enables the different campuses lecturers who are teaching the same subject to cooperate with each other through the cheapest cost media to produce standardized tea
121. omponents can be acquired externally or developed internally e Manage complexity By breaking down a complex solution into different components and with each component encapsulated from others complex development can be better managed 41 3 2 2 Unified Modeling Language UML Version 1 0 of the UML was released in January 1997 developed by Grady Booch James Rumbaugh and Ivar Jacobson who worked for Rational Software Corporation Hans Erik Eriksson and Magnus Penker 1997 Other than Data Flow Diagram DFD UML is another approach that is used to model system and make them readable to users The UML is a language for specifying constructing visualizing and documenting the software system and its components The UML is a graphical language with sets of rules and semantics UML provides the ability to capture the characteristics of a system by using notations such as actor use case action state class object and so forth On the whole UML encompasses following nine diagrams as illustrated below e Use Case Diagram A use case diagram is a graph of actors a set of use cases enclosed by a system boundary communication associations between the actors and the use cases and generalization among the use cases A use case is a description of a functionality that the system provides e Class Diagram A class diagram shows the static structure of classes in the system The classes represent the things that are handled
122. onalities are complete Do you agree that the system design is appropriate 159 Do you agree that the system design is attractive Do you agree that the system design is consistent Do you agree that the system s font size is appropriate Do you agree that the system s font color is appropriate Do you agree that the information presented is enough Can you understand the instructions given by the system Comments Revision 1 0v Signature Name Date APPENDIX F 160 User Acceptance Test for i GEMS System Academic Staff User Functionalities test Modules Acceptance Testing Action Yes No Remarks Login Able to gain access to the i GEMS system for an authorized user Subject Able to display a list of subject options Selection and allow user to make a selection Subject s Allow an authorized user to access Main Page specific subject s teaching material Announcement Able to display a subject s latest announcement properly Unit Allow an academic staff user to view the Information content of a unit information file Able to download a unit information file to a specified path correctly Lecture Allow an academic staff user to view a Notes lecture notes content Able to download a lecture notes file to a specified path correctly Tutorial Allow an academic staff user to view a tut
123. onian Business School IT College Ministry of Education and Research and Estonian Information Technology Foundation EITF The institutions comprised of both public and private universities The aim of Estonian e University is to establish an independent legal body within coming years By and large Estonian e University activities are carried out by working groups that consist of representatives from the institutions There are currently three working groups Administrative group deals with regulations procedures plans organizational matters questions about interuniversity cooperation and so on Technological group concentrates on issues about course and learning object databases learning environment technological infrastructure and so forth The third group called content development group is dealing with staff training and development initiating thematic networks for joint development of modules and curricula developing quality assurance measures and so forth Aune Valk et al 2004 4 Nanyang Technological University NTU and UK eUniversities Worldwide UKeU a UK government backed consortium have signed a Memorandum of Understanding MOU to collaborate in the areas of teaching learning research and content development Under the MOU NTU and UKeU will explore opportunities in e Collaboration in teaching activities by the provision of content facilities and services e Co developing and co branding course offerings with UKeU m
124. ontaring Took TIME T sagit Hense Du Gun finie Descapbon Includes vb nnd ETE suppor along seth support For FrontPage hamachon Bree Seren Pages and database connections Total dck apace reque S70 HB Space m sl on dck SA D MB Ges L apak Lg ce Figure 5 17 Selecting IIS From Windows Components Wizard Follow the ongoing screen instructions till the IIS installation is completed Figure 5 18 and Figure 5 19 Windmez Components Wizard Conligunnag Compenenbs Setup s making he rudin changer jou quested hh ang ses ages pda EE mes depending on the componenti esieched Sisha Cobar ML Figure 5 18 Windows Components Wizard Configuring Components 122 Windows Companenis Ward Completing the windows Components Wizard ou hara x ccaiiolly completada e nado Componenta fefe sadi Tn chose Hus rezeg obok fre Figure 5 19 Completing The Windows Components Wizard 123 System Integration Manual i GEMS System After installing Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix and Internet Information Services IIS the installation can then proceed to the last stage to install the i GEMS system From the Project 2 s CD copy a whole folder named i GEMS to the path CMnetpublwwwroot Administrator can now launch the i GEMS system by using Web Matrix program which is a powerful ASP NET compiler to run the source code Login aspx Figure 5 20 Right clic
125. orial 6 and 7 14 Revision Tutorial 7 and Q amp A Marks Allocation Coursework Assignment 50 Presentation 20 Report 30 Test 40 Participation 10 Total 100 Final Examination Section A 25 objective questions Section B 3 theory questions 25 15 Choose 3 out of 4 questions 100 Total final marks is constituted of Coursework 40 Final Examination 60 APPENDIX E 158 User Acceptance Test for i GEMS System Administrator User Functionalities test Acceptance Testing Action Yes Remarks Able to gain access to the i GEMS system for an authorized user Able to register an authorized lecturer to the respective teaching subject module Able to modify information of a lecturer in relate to the teaching subject module Able to remove a lecturer from a teaching subject module Able to register a student course to a specific studying subject module Able to modify information of student course in relate to the studying subject module Able to remove a student course from a studied subject module Usability test Please rank each of the following features based on the given criteria 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 No comment 4 Agree 5 Strongly Agree Acceptance Features Do you agree that the i GEMS system is easy to use Do you agree that the i GEMS system is easy to learn Do you agree that the functi
126. orial s content Able to download a tutorial file to a specified path correctly Assignment Allow an academic staff user to view an assignment s content Able to download an assignment file to a specified path correctly Test Allow user to participate in an objective test questions Q amp A Allow academic staff to answer a question Allow academic staff to add a question Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject to moderate question topics Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject to moderate content of reply 161 Discussion Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject to add a discussion topic Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject to participate in a topic discussion Allow a Unit leader for the subject to moderate discussion topics Allow a Unit leader for the subject to moderate the content of discussion thread or reply Academic Staff Information Able to display a subject s academic staff information properly Change Password Able to change an academic staff s password Control Panel Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject proceed to Control Panel to maintain a subject s teaching materials Logout To logout from the i GEMS system 162 Usability test Please rank each of the following features based on the given criteria 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 No
127. ow a student user to view a lecture Notes notes content Able to download a lecture notes file to a specified path correctly Tutorial Allow a student user to view a tutorial s content Able to download a tutorial file to a specified path correctly Assignment Allow a student user to view an assignment s content Able to download an assignment file to a specified path correctly Test Allow a student user to participate in an objective test questions Q amp A Allow a student user to add a new question Allow a student user to reply a posted question Academic Staff Able to display a subject s academic staff Information information properly Change Able to change a student s password Password 164 Logout Able to logout from the i GEMS system Usability test Please rank each of the following features based on the given criteria 1 Strongly disagree 2 Disagree 3 No comment 4 Agree 5 Strongly Agree Acceptance Features 1 2 3 4 5 Do you agree that the i GEMS system is easy to use Do you agree that the i GEMS system is easy to learn Do you agree that the functionalities are complete Do you agree that the system design is appropriate Do you agree that the system design is attractive Do you agree that the system design is consistent Do you agree that the system s font size is appropriate Do you agree that the system s font color
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129. plication OOM UML diagrams project Gantt chart strategic planning for information systems effective approach in formulating IS IT strategic and IT for organization transformation was constantly applied Chapter 2 Literature Review reviewed various topics that are related to or similar to the proposed project From the chapter the author has captured overall understanding on the concept of E learning or e university the existence of emerging learning system providers as well as the future trend and development of learning system in higher education sector 145 Based on the study and analysis of existing problems from chapter 1 and section 4 2 as well as the literature review the author has proposed an i GEMS system solution that is customized to TARC s circumstances A system development methodology that designed according to the i GEMS requirements is delivered at section 3 3 Based on the proposed system development methodology a Gantt chart is scheduled accordingly at section 3 4 In addition an overall conceptual view of the proposed system has been designed using UML modeling diagrams section 4 4 From Chapter 4 System Design and Chapter 5 Design Implementation and Testing the proposed i GEMS system that consists of 12 main modules and 19 tables was designed and implemented The 12 modules are Security Module Register Module Announcement Module Unit Information Module Lecture Notes Module Tutorial Module
130. queries they are encouraged to pose their questions at anytime even after classroom session and receive feedback from any campuses lecturers who are teaching the subject through the electronic system Business IS Strategies Lecturer training Through attending system training lecturers will be introduced to the concept and features of the new system By knowing the system better it can reduce the lecturers resistance towards the changes and slowly it may become a norm for the lecturers to use the system as part of their teaching tools Student training College should encourage students to use the system by providing training to them From the training students will obtain the system usage knowledge such as the skills of downloading study materials how to participate in Q amp A section or to participate a test from the i GEMS system and so forth System registration The system registration and usage should start from computer science department As a lead in information technology all the academic staff and students from the computer science department should take an initiative to register themselves and participate in using the electronic system Just in time access to timely information I GEMS allows academic staff to update lessons and teaching materials instantly through the use of electronic system This keeps the content fresh consistent and enables students to access to the most current data immediately Infor
131. r led training courses for many of the world s largest organizations Deitel publications are used in each of its training courses and in thousands of colleges and universities worldwide Deitel amp Associates Inc provides courses pertaining to programming such as Java C C XML Internet programming wireless programming NET languages Perl and Python The version 1 Deitel web based training courses are similar to the Deitel interactive multimedia Cyber Classroom products The courses include the full content of the textbooks as well as complete auto walkthroughs live code examples and hundreds of solved problems The products also include course management scheduling and assessment features The version 2 web based training courses emulate the instructor led training experience with more extensive lecture and lab features Productivity4you http www p4you com Established in 2001 Productivity4you Limited or P4You is a highly focused e learning and knowledge management company that utilizes technology and innovative solutions effectively to achieve bottom line improvements for clients The company has a strong and unique blend of commercial technological and educational expertise with substantial experience in designing and delivering e learning and project management plans and solutions This can be demonstrated across their established client base of FTSE 100 corporations public sector and educational organizations
132. rd Inc has provided the blackboard learning system as the college e learning system or code named CeL http www tarc edu my The Blackboard Learning System is a web based server platform that offers industry leading course management It is an open architecture that allows for integration with student information systems and authentication protocols The system is available for local installation or hosted by Blackboard ASP Solutions http www blackboard com The college e learning system is essentially deployed to deliver online teaching units or subjects that the academic staff is teaching in a virtual learning environment Through CeL a lecturer can post the academic materials into the system and make them available to student on a 24 by 7 basis From the system an academic staff can create assignments and add them to assignment content area The content area can list the title dateline and details of the assignment In addition a lecturer can assess students performance through test feature offered by the system Discussion board is another useful tool that can be used to enhance a course unit Lecturers can create forums to discuss on topics related to a specific subject in the discussion board Students can reply and converse about the topics on line For instance a lecturer may create a unit review forum Users may access the forum by clicking on appropriate link in the discussion board When a forum is accessed a page
133. s as well such as e exam e library e publishing e administration and the rest To the author s vision future education may revolve to an extent whereby a complete education system will be delivered through the use of ICT and Internet so that education opportunity is accessible by anyone from any places e Serve as faster cheaper and more efficient communication platform As the proposed system is intended for advocating and facilitating academic collaboration among the campuses lecturers hence it serves as an easier faster cheaper and more efficient platform for communication across the campuses For a common subject that offered at more than one campus the lecturers from different campuses who are teaching the same subject can get to know each other through the i GEMS system This has eliminated existing tedious workflow whereby to communicate with other campus lecturer one has to go through the course tutor to get the other campus lecturer s contact details and then just can initiate the communicate through email telephone fax or posting An estimated communication saving cost based on the proposed system is calculated and demonstrated at Appendix C 140 e Increase work satisfaction of lecturers through collaborating and sharing academic materials From the i GEMS system different campuses lecturers can collaborate and exchange academic information with each other on a few clicks They can now cooperate in preparing the lect
134. s of valuable information and knowledge content education institutions today are facing with critical challenges what is the best approach in controlling and managing all this precious information and knowledge while at the same time makes the content up to date flexible and easy to access through the Internet Many education institutions have opted for third party or e learning providers that can supply the services at professional level Following gives a brief overview of existing prominent e learning providers H M Deitel P J Deitel and T R Nieto 2001 20 Blackboard Inc http www blackboard com Now Blackboard Inc is licensed by more than 2 300 client institutions or more than 12 million users in 35 countries Blackboard is used by over 45 of U S postsecondary institutions that use course management systems In responding to the major challenges facing higher education institutions the Blackboard Inc has provided Blackboard Learning System which is a web based server software application that offers the industry s leading course management system The Blackboard Inc enables instructors to create and manage course content utilize world class publisher content evaluate performance and communicate with students In addition to provide a robust environment for online teaching and learning the Blackboard Learning System provides an open architecture for customization and interoperability and a scalable design that allows
135. saster or disruption It is recommended that IT department should prepare a disaster recovery manual that contains the names and contact details of crisis management staff post failure procedures in resuming the system location of backup data copies of insurance contracts and other critical materials that necessary for i GEMS continuity operation In addition it is recommended that system backup should be performed twice per semester For each semester it is appropriate to perform the first system data backup at mid of semester where half of the academic materials are loaded While second data backup is scheduled at the end of semester as most of the academic materials are available and finalized With the creation of a disaster recovery manual and system backup twice a semester these will help to ensure the continuity operation of i GEMS system 139 6 5 Expected Organizational Benefits Through developing the i GEMS system some competitive advantages and benefits are expected to be delivered as discussed at the following e Towards innovative education delivering The embarking on e learning system or i GEMS serves as a stepping stone to lead TARC towards next generation of education delivering At the moment i GEMS advocate managing academic information through collaboration across campuses and knowledge sharing across subjects With these fundamental principles i GEMS may then expand to cater other education functionalitie
136. spects of the UA in terms of workflow or activities The balance of effort spent in each workflow varies from phases to phases Within a phase there may have more than one iteration depend on the needs of a system 36 Phases Core Process Workflows Inception Etstoraticn Constuction Transition Business Modeling Requirements Analysis amp Design Irmplementatio Core Supporting Workflows Configuration amp Change Project Managernen Erwironme Iterations Figure 3 1 The Unified Approach UA Process Structure In Iterative Form When UA is applied to i GEMS system under the inception phase major process workflow will be collecting user requirements from other academic staff and students who are going to use the system through the author s practical experience observation and discussion with the users In elaboration phase much effort will be spent on understanding the user requirements as well as analyzing and designing the proposed system Construction phase will focus more on implementing the system by using ASP NET programming languages and testing will be performed at the same time In short the unified approach revolves around OOM UML and iteration during system development To implement the i GEMS system OOM will serve as the main approach in developing the system For modeling tool the UML that consists of nine diagrams will be used to illustrate the proposed system In addition the i GEMS
137. student has submitted his or her answer immediately test unit is able to analyze and process the student s answer and produce result immediately The test unit is capable to give advise to the student according to his or her test performance Q amp A Unit Test All types of user are allowed to access and share the question and answering section All types of user are allowed to raise a new question topic All types of user are allowed to participate in a topic by answering a question or raise sub question that is related to the topic Only academic staff who is teaching the subject is authorized to monitoring and controlling the Q amp A section by removing any inappropriate content 92 Discussion Unit Test e Only academic staff who is teaching the subject AACS1614 is allowed to participate in the discussion unit e Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject to new a discussion topic e Allow an academic staff who is teaching the subject to involve in a topic discussion by replying to the discussed topic e Only unit leader for the subject is authorized to monitoring and controlling the discussion section by removing any inappropriate discussed content Control Panel Test e Only academic staff who is teaching the subject AACS1614 is authorized to access control panel to produce and maintain the materials of the subject Once each of the modules or unit components is tested completely all the modules are th
138. system refer to section 4 3 User requirements Three types of user acceptance test has been created for three main types of users administrator academic staff and student and distributed to the end user Reader can refer to the forms of user acceptance test from Appendix E to Appendix G Among the users there was one administrator five academic staff and five students from TARC have taken a test on the i GEMS system On the whole most of the users are satisfied with the system functionalities as it has met with the user requirements and project scope While for the usability test out of eleven users eight users agreed that the i GEMS usability is acceptable On the other hand there were two users commented that the system design still can be further enhanced to become more attractive In general through conducting the user acceptance test it demonstrates that the i GEMS system has achieved the project scope and user requirements that specified earlier Nonetheless there is still some room space for future enhancement in terms of system usability 118 5 3 User Manual for Administrator Installation Procedure i Installing Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 is required in running the web based 1 GEMS system The copy of Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 package can be downloaded for free usage at http www microsoft com downloads Once the package is downloaded choose to install the package and you
139. t of teaching materials for the same subject which has then led to resources wastage As lecturers from different campuses may produce different sets of teaching materials it implies that the scope covered by the lecturers may be different As a 51 consequence during final examination where all the six campuses students will seat for the same question paper for the common subject some of the students at a certain campus are not able to answer the question as their campus lecturer did not cover that particular topic Hence the quality of the students cannot be measured accordingly and accurately The consequence is worsen when the inconsistent scope covered by lecturers from different campuses have led to students failing the subject In other cases some branches lecturers may take the initiative by contacting unit leader unit leader is one of the main campus lecturers who is selected as a leader for a unit or subject from the main campus through their course tutor course tutor is a person who is in charge of a small group of lecturers From the course tutor they get the contact details and communicate with the unit leader through e mail telephone fax or mailing to access or exchange the teaching materials Among the methods e mail is the fastest way to exchange and share the teaching materials among the lecturers from different campuses Nevertheless e mail system is not good enough to support the sharing as it is tedious
140. t details Or e Scenario 2 A unit leader asks for other campus s lecturer contact details who is teaching a same subject tacts Step 2 A campus X lecturer ERE gt gt Campus Y lecturer e Contact through email telephone fax or mailing posting Figure 2 1 Existing Circumstance For Academic Staff To Communicate Across Campuses 16 Telephone Mailing No communication Figure 2 2 Existing Possible Communication Approaches For Academic Staff To Communicate Across Campuses In addition currently TARC does not have a complete framework or policies that advocate communication and collaboration of teaching across the different branches as well as the standardization of teaching materials throughout the whole nation While TARC is a nation wide college that comprises of six campuses located at various states of Malaysia collaboration among the campuses is significant in order to be able to provide a standardized and consistent education throughout the nation Seeing the problems that were mentioned in chapter 1 discussion with top management was done in relation to the potential issues especially the inconsistency in preparing academic materials throughout the campuses However top management has noted that the issue is not easy to solve It requires lots of careful planning and considerations since it involves other branches management and policies issues as well Nonetheless the top management is moving forw
141. t information to obtain details such as a subject s semester schedule marks allocation reference books and so forth v Lecture Notes Module The module serves as a centralized platform for the academic staff across the campuses to maintain and share same set of lecture notes Through using the module lecture notes will then be delivered consistently throughout the six campuses hence it can help to avoid the lack of standardization problem that mentioned in 1 3 Statement of The Problem In addition students across the six campuses studying the subject can then view and download the lecture notes from the module vi Tutorial Module The module serves as a centralized platform for the academic staff across the campuses to maintain and share workload in producing a standardized and consistent tutorial In addition students across the six campuses studying the subject can then access and download the tutorial from the module vii Assignment Module The module serves as a centralized platform for the academic staff across the campuses to maintain and share workload in producing a standardized and consistent assignment In addition students across the six campuses studying the subject can then access and download the assignment from the module viii Test Module The test module serves as an easy to use mechanism for the academic staff to deliver their objective test questions through using the i GEMS system The modul
142. takes time to accomplish the task and functions provided are limited Hence i GEMS is proposed to overcome the problem and served as a platform for information sharing and management In addition the communication between the lecturers and students for most of the time is restricted to classroom hour only Students sometimes may find difficulties in communicating with the respective lecturer During lecture hour student may not have enough time to consult the lecturer Whereas for those students who are absent from the lecture may miss some important points or announcement For those more proactive students they may send their questions to the lecturer s email account and wait for a reply However as not all lecturers using e mail account constantly as a result some students may get the lecturer reply one week or even one month later This situation may further discourage student from communicating with the lecturers Therefore it is said that lack of communication problem exists between the lecturers and students 52 Hence i GEMS is proposed to overcome the problem by allowing student to post their questions on the respective subject site and the questions can be answered by any lecturers even lecturers from other campuses who are teaching the same subject Furthermore the question and answering section will be sharable by all the lecturers and students involved in the same subject Thus through I GEMS system it helps to impro
143. tem 24 2 3 3 Impact of E learning With the adoption of e learning or e university concept curriculum approach is tend to focus more on student centered learning setting as well as learning environments centered on problem solving that require students access to a variety of information resources Traditionally graduates are required to demonstrate generic skills that involve capabilities such as an ability to reason formally to solve problems to communicate effectively to be able to negotiate outcomes to manage time project management along with collaboration and teamwork skills With today s ICT in higher education or e university graduates are required to display more than that Appropriate levels of information literacy is now required that is the capabilities to search and identify locate and compile as well as to evaluate relevant information in order to engage with it or to solve a problem James C Taylor 2002 In addition the emerging use of ICT in higher education has changed the roles of educators Many educators are changing their teaching styles to be more responsive to the characteristics of online environment and emphasize more on students self directed learning The following Table 2 2 demonstrates the changing roles for both educators and students Zane Berge 2002 Changing educators roles Changing students roles Educators role is changing from acting as content experts to serving
144. tem testing and enhancements Even though the task to produce Master project is stressful and tough to the author where it required lots of hard works efforts and time spent for completion However it is worthwhile to spend all the efforts as the author has learnt and gained lots of knowledge experiences and fulfillment in producing the Master project 150 REFERENCES Ali Bahrami 1999 Object Oriented Systems Development McGraw Hill Companies Inc Aune Valk Indrek Reimand Ene Tammeoru J ri L ssenko and Karin Ruul 2004 Consortium type e university Estonian e University model Estonian e University model Cheick Kante and Vishal Savani 2003 E Learning The New Frontier in The Developing World World Links Washington DC Estonia 2003 Strategy Of Estonian E University 2004 2007 Europe Hans Erik Eriksson and Magnus Penker 1997 UML Toolkit John Wiley amp Sons Inc H M Deitel P J Deitel and T R Nieto 2001 e Business amp e Commerce How to Program Upper Saddle River New Jersey Prentice Hall Inc James C Taylor 2002 Automating e Learning The Higher Education Revolution University of Southern Queensland Australia Maris Treimanis 2003 E University concept amp the University of Latvia BALTIC IT amp T 2003 FORUM April 3 Ron Oliver 2002 The role of ICT in higher education for the 21st century ICT asa change agent for education Edith Cowan University Perth Western Australia WebCT
145. th2 amp amp strFileNameOnly FileSize txtTitle Text txtComment Text ELSE MsgBox The file is already existed Please select another file to add File Existed END IF ELSE MsgBox Please select a file to add File Missing END IF Figure 5 7 Create Folder And Upload File 105 DataGrid Control Another critical programming technique in implementing i GEMS system is the DataGrid control or object which is the most essential object that used to display most of the academic materials The Figure 5 8 shows that a DataGrid control is used to bind with announcement table from Access database Topic Message Date Time Databoand Databoud Databound Databoned Databeound Databound Databeund D atabound Datab snd Databound Databeund Databousd Dintab snd Data ound Databound Dahbed Databeond D atabound Databeund Databound Figure 5 8 Datagrid Control To employ a DataGrid control just drag the control from Web control toolbox as shown in the Figure 5 9 733 HTML Elements FE Calendar IV CheckBox E CheckBoxList FL CompareValidator E CustomValidator 37 DataGrid ab LinkButton mT e d Figure 5 9 Drag Datagrid Control From Web Control Toolbox The Figure 5 10 demonstrates the coding approach in binding an Announcement table to the DataGrid control From Announcement aspx Codes under HTML body section lt asp DataGrid id CAnnouncementList style Z INDEX 100
146. the user is a lecturer teaching the subject the lecturer can proceed to view academic contents The user can then choose to edit lecture notes edit tutorial questions allocate assignment or post announcement Whenever it is necessary the activities may lead to updating the database of i GEMS system Whereas if the user is a student then the student can proceed to view study materials download lecture notes tutorial assignment or read announcement from the system 69 v iew discussion section Pos a discussion topic Discuss a topic Figure 4 13 Activity Diagram Access Discussion Module Description of Figure 4 13 From a Discussion Module lecturers who are teaching the same subject are allowed to have discussion on topics related to the teaching subject From there a lecturer user can choose to post a new discussion topic or to participate by replying to the existing discussed topics Add question 70 View test module Authorized lecturer Authorized student Edit question Delete question Answer test question View test result Update database Figure 4 14 Activity Diagram Access Test Module Description of Figure 4 14 From the Test Module a user s identity is assessed If the user is a lecturer the lecturer can proceed to add edit or delete a question Whereas if the user is a student then the student can proceed to participate test session and view the
147. their course material and interact with their teacher and classmates e TestBuilder to create quizzes assessments and tests to measure student capabilities e Poll Survey Builder to gain valuable feedback from your students on the course the material or class in general e Learner Management tools to organize and manage students review report cards and much more Table 2 1 illustrates the comparison between the e learning providers Blackboard Inc WebCT Deitel amp Associate Inc Productivity4you and ScibeStudio in offering set of tools to support the e learning system 23 Blackboard WebCT Deitel amp Productivity4you ScibeStudio Associate Content Content Course Lecture Capture CourseBuilder Authoring Authoring Management and Web Publishing Syllabus Presentation Course Content SiteBuilder Builder Builder Scheduling Authoring Course Communication Course Content and TestBuilder Cartridge Management Assessment Course Delivery and Management Discussion Assessment and Multimedia Assessment Poll Survey Board Survey Cyber Authoring and Builder Classroom Management Assessment Personalized Web based Web Quizzes Learner and Surveys Content Training Authoring Management Tool Reporting Viewlet and Presentation Performance Software Dashboard Virtual Conferencing and Web Collaboration Table 2 1 Set Of Tools Offered By The Providers In E Learning Sys
148. their questions to the lecturer s email account and they have to wait for the replies However as some lecturers may not use the e mail system constantly students may get the reply within a week a month or even never get reply from the specific lecturer As a result it de motivate students from asking the lecturer questions Students may not be aware of the important message or announcement made by their lecturer if they are absent from lecture e Some students may not receive the complete study materials before a class For instance prior to attending tutorial class some students may not receive the required lecture notes for reference As a consequence they come to class without any preparation Seeing such problems exist among the lecturers and students it motivates the author to develop i GEMS system which is a customized system solution that developed based on TARC circumstances 1 4 Project Objectives The following is a list of objectives for the proposed system i GEMS e To analyze TARC s existing circumstances in relation to i Communication and collaboration approach in academic information sharing and management among the lecturers from different campuses ii Difficulties of students in communicating with lecturers e To formulate a framework to serve as i Organization strategies in implementing the proposed system which advocate academic information sharing and collaboration among the campuses of T
149. tion better by referring to other exemplary approaches and customize them based on its own environment In the future perhaps TARC should consider extending the collaboration with other local or oversea education institutions in implementing the e learning system 34 CHAPTER 3 METHODOLOGY 3 1 Introduction The Interest Group Using Electronic Management System i GEMS is designed and developed mainly based on Unified Approach UA The approach advocates elaborating and designing a system by using Unified Modeling Language UML and developing a system based on Object Oriented Methodology OOM As i GEMS is a web based system hence OOM approach is more appropriate to serve as the system development methodology Seeing that OOM is more suitable for I GEMS instead of exploiting Data Flow Diagram DFD the UML modeling will be deployed for documenting the system Compared to other approaches such as Waterfall Model UA approach or OOM is less rigid and more effective whereby it emphasizes on meeting the user s needs develops a system iteratively whenever it is needed and promote the concept of objects and reusable components On the whole section 3 2 discusses on UA approach This is then followed by a system development methodology that is proposed based on the i GEMS circumstances At section 3 4 a project schedule is drawn up Finally the last section 3 5 is a summary of the chapter 35 3 2 Project Methodology U
150. to go prior to reaching a level that is competitive enough to compete with others At the moment TARC s existing application is mainly intended for transferring the traditional course material approach to online system at main campus only The system does not handle standardization shared services or collaboration among the campuses As the e learning participation is based on voluntary basis there are not much volunteer lecturers who offer themselves as the participants In addition this chapter indicates that many education institutions lack of enterprise wide implementation of e learning platform Akin to TARC these institutions diminish standardization in order to save cost by allowing each campus to make their own academic materials Hence i GEMS which advocates collaboration and information sharing among campuses that in turn leads to academic standardization is proposed Appropriate strategies are also needed to encourage the adoption of e learning system among the educators in order to increase the competitive advantage of the college Besides the chapter has given brief insights on several related issues such as the e learning e university existing prominent providers for the learning system as well as the future trend and development in implementing the online learning system Bringing courses online is only the initial steps in implementing the e learning It was the same cycle as the other sectors when they first embraci
151. udent verification Not all people are allowed to access to the system Only authorized students can gain access to the system e Students can download study materials such as lecture notes tutorial and assignment from the system e Whenever students have enquiries they can raise the questions to the system The answering session is not restricted by the student s lecturer only instead the answering session can also be handled by other campuses lecturers who are teaching the same subject e The question and answering session can be accessed and discussed by all the students who are studying the same subject Hence the system allow the information sharing exist among the group 54 e Students can access to the announcement made by their lecturer without constrained by location boundary They can access the message at any time and anywhere e Student can participate a test session that is prepared by their lecturer at anytime and anywhere e The system will process and analyze a student s test performance and produce the result immediately e The system allows students to modify their password for security purpose From administrator perspective the functionalities of the proposed system are as follows e To register authorized student courses to corresponding studying subjects e To register authorized lecturers to the respective subject modules 55 4 2 Current Business Process and Data Model 4 2 1 UML Diagrams
152. uest forms Appendix A and B and then send to the head of school to get approval Once the e learning application is approved the online service will be only available at a specified period or which is equivalent to one semester duration When that teaching semester is ended the applied academic unit will no longer be available for the students If the same lecturer intended to use the e learning system for the next semester he or she is required to go through the same application process cycle once again For those lecturers who do not apply for the e learning system services they could not access into the system Moreover even for a lecturer who has applied for the e learning system he or she is not allowed to access other academic units The lecturer can only access to his or her own applied academic unit only Hence it is said that there is no information or knowledge sharing exist across the academic units Current Stage At the moment the e learning system is mainly deployed at main campus of TARC According to the e learning committee team currently the e learning services are not formally offered at other campuses other than the main campus Nevertheless when the project is grown into mature stage the e learning system may incorporate into other branches as well 15 At the moment the Blackboard Inc has provided the e learning system to TARC as a mechanism to embark on the use of information and communication technolo
153. ure notes tutorial questions assignment test and so forth Instead of preparing all these academic materials by a campus lecturer the workload now can be sharable across the campuses The sharing will reduce the effort of a lecturer in preparing teaching materials as well as it helps to avoid redundancy in preparing the same set teaching materials at other campuses As a result these contributions will further enhance the college efficiency and effectiveness in delivering the education as well as increase the reputation of TARC e Increase students motivation and interest In addition the collaboration and sharing that exist among the campuses has ensured that a standardized and consistent education is delivered throughout the nation As mentioned at section 1 7 those students who are studying a common subject across the campuses can now be evaluated fairly and accurately Compared to existing circumstances section 1 2 lack of collaboration among the campuses has led to inconsistent academic scope covering which in turn has caused some students failing a subject due to the uncovered topics at their campus Time cost and efforts are required for a failed student to resit for the subject The Figure 6 1 demonstrates an estimated cost incurred for a student who fails a subject due to the inconsistent scope covering Diploma fees RM8000 Tuition fees per credit RM52 4 credits per subject RM52 x 4 RM208 Resit registration fees RM
154. ve the communication and information sharing among the lecturers and students as well as among the teaching lecturers of a particular subject From Chapter 2 section 2 2 1 of the report TARC s existing e leaning system was introduced At the moment the e learning system is mainly deployed at main campus and it is not a default service that offered to all the academic staff There are only 5 of the lecturers from the main campus have formally participated in using the system In addition as mentioned at section 2 2 1 the current stage of the e learning system is mainly deployed to offer the Internet service in providing the teaching materials The system does not support for collaboration and information sharing among the students and lecturers throughout the different campuses of TARC In addition as the existing system is subscribed with a third party Blackboard Inc the system implementation is not accessible to the author Hence all above mentioned factors have motivated the author to develop a newly i GEMS solution that is customized to TARC s existing circumstances and requirements Project Structure and Function The proposed system i GEMS is developed based on TARC s context and circumstances Following are the lists of scope for the i GEMS system based on lecturer student and administrator perspectives From lecturer perspective the functionalities of the proposed system are as follows e Lecturer verification
155. will be prompted for installing Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 Figure 5 11 Microsoft HET Framework 1 1 Setup 2 J Would you Bos to ratal Microsoft JMET Framework 1 1 Package A E Figure 5 11 Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 Installation Setup Select Yes to continue installation A successful installation will lead to following prompt Figure 5 12 ie Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 Setup E Installation of Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 is complete Figure 5 12 Prompt That Showing Completed Installation Of Microsoft NET Framework 1 1 ii Installing Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix Download the free copy of Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix from http www asp net webmatrix 119 When the install package is launched for the first time Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix InstallShield Wizard will be prompted Figure 5 13 el Micrnsafr ASP NET Web Matriz Instali amp hield Wizard Ki Welcome bo the Installshield Wizard for Microsoft ASPET Web Patric Thes ks sde West pall licer pou bo reudi y nepal or sersows Microsoft ISP MET web Patris To continue dick Meat Figure 5 13 Microsoft ASP NET Web Matrix InstallShield Wizard Follow the ongoing screen installation instructions till the end of installation Figure 5 14 T Microsodt ASP NET Web Matriz Inmtali amp hield Wizard Installshield Wizard Completed The Trete vg Abee a gesch Ae inet alle Micros AGP MET Web Patric Chick Finish bo est the

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