DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN ONLINE CLEARANCE SYSTEM FOR GRADUATING STUDENTS

CHAPTER ONE

1.0  INTRODUCTION

This chapter covers the ideas of what this project entail, why is project is carry out and what is to be achieved at the end of the work.

1.1 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

The internet has change the face of the world and make receiving and sending of information spread widely and easily, this can be done at the tips of peoples hand and without wasting any time. Compared to when internet has not evolved, before information could be received another end, it takes time depending on the distance of the journey.

According to (Adesanya, 2002). The Internet is a global collection of many types of computers and computer networks that are linked together. It is increasingly becoming the solution to many information, problems, information exchange, and marketing.

According to Awuzie (2013) Clearance is the process of determining and negotiating any permission that are needed to include the use of someone else’s intellectual property in creative project. Clearance systems for graduating students are vital incessant procedures and process in every University that is inevitable. The clearance must be carried out so as to check if the student is eligible to go for NYSC service and not owning the school anything. It is the University practice to carry out these processes at the completion of the last exam in school, where the student did not have any carryover left.

Online clearance system is a web base system which makes use of the internet. Federal University of Technology current method of clearance is not internet base which increase the stress of student going from school to school to sign the forms. The form given to student must be signed by the following; Dean of all school, University Liberian, Head of department, Sport official, Dean of student affair.

Thus the need of a web based clearance system for graduating student is inevitable to save the time and the cost of transportation from one location to another.

1.2   STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

In Federal University of Technology Minna, clearing of graduating students has always been a manual process. Effort has been made by the University to replace the existing manual process with an automated clearance system for graduating student but to this day clearance is still a manual process. It is evident that the registration is incapable to totally replace the manual process of online clearance system for graduating student.

It is obvious that we are now in a technology era where science and technology applied to almost every aspect of life to make work faster, easier and efficient. As a University of Technology it is our duty to lead the way into Science and Technology for other institution and organization to emulate by implementing automated systems that will replace all manual process within our University System.

The manual process of clearing student has a lot of limitation which include

i.  The integrity of information is not fully guaranteed, as there is high risk of information getting to unauthorized or wrong hand that may manipulate the information illegally making the information inaccurate.

ii.  In the absence of personnel in charge of any of the clearance form processes, the entire clearance registration process is delayed until such personnel is available

iii.  Too much time is wasted before a student successfully completes his/her clearance registration form

iv.  The manual process is only capable of attending to a limited number of student a day, hence students who are not attended to will, have to come back the next day until they successfully complete their clearance form registration.

1.3. OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

Listed below are the objectives of this project work;

i.  To identify issues associated with current process of clearing final year students in Federal University of Technology Minna,

ii.  To design and implement an automated clearing system for Federal University of Technology Minna.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Online clearance system is basically design to save user information, facilitate the manipulation of data in a faster rate, provide concurrent access (access too many user at this time) to authorize users, and also ensure the integrity and accuracy of the information system store by the authorize users.

The online clearance system for graduating student will help to ease the student from queuing to have them cleared by the University.

1.5. SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The online clearance system for graduating student has been designed to manage the clearance process for graduating student of only Computer Science Department students of Federal University of Technology Minna.

1.6 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

For the purpose of this project, the service provided by the Online Clearance System For Graduating Students (OCSFGS) is only restricted to Computer Science Department. It does not extend to other departments in the University at the moment. The application can be extended if the University management is interested with it.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

v  OCSFGS: means Online Clearance System for Graduating Student.

v  Online: is the condition of being connected to a network of computer or other device.

v  Clearance: is the certification of blamelessness, trustworthiness, faithfulness or suitability. The definition by free dictionary.

v  System: an assembly of interrelated elements which we find interesting to study, it could be a process or machine.

v  Graduating Student: is a student that has completed his/her 4 or 5 year course of study in the University.

v  Computer network: is a group of connected, communicating devices such as computers and printers.

v  Internet: is composed of hundreds of thousands of interconnected networks.

v  Database: is a collection of data or file purpose to assist many users at the same time.

v  Databasemanagement system or DBMS: is software designed to assist in maintaining and utilizing large collections of database.

v  Website: is a collection of web pages which have image and/or text for the purpose of passing information to the users.

v  Server : is a process that provides requested services for clients.