Implementation Of Real Time, Information Management For Institute Of Technology (I.O.T)

ABSTRACT

This project work focuses on the creation of a website and e-portal for the institute of Technology in order to enhance communication and improve the educational system of Kwara State Polytechnic. A website is a collection of web pages, images, video and other digital assets that hosted on one or several web server, usually accessible via the internet, cell phone or a LAN.

The pages of website can usually be accessed from a common root URL called the homepage, and usually be residing on the same physical serve. The URL of the pages organized them into a hierarchy, although the hyperlinks between them control how the reader perceivers the overall structure and how the traffic flows between the different part of the sites. The institute website and e-portal has been developed using HTML, CSS and JavaScript as the front end, PHP as the back End MySQL as the Database.

It follows the three tier architecture with PHP for coding and providing the classes for database connectivity.

TABLE OF CONTENT

Title                                                                                                                            i

Certification                                                                                                              ii

Dedication                                                                                  iii                                                                                                           

Acknowledgement                                                                                                   iv

Abstract                                                                                                                     v

Table Content                                                                                                           vi

List of Table                                                                                                              vii

List of Figure                                                                                                            viii

CHAPTER ONE

• Introduction 1

1.1       Aim                                                                                                                 4

1.2       Objective of the Project                                                                              4

1.3       Scope of the Study                                                                                       5

1.4       E-Learning and Web Portal                                                                                    6

1.5       Benefit of E-Learning Portal                                                                      8

CHAPTER TWO

2.0       Literature Review                                                                                        10

2.1       History of Institute of Technology (IOT)                                                 11

2.2       Internet History Timeline: Arpanet to the World Wide Web                12

2.3       History of the World Wide Web                                                                16

CHAPTER THREE

3.0       Web Design Process                                                                                    20

3.1    Prototype  Based Methodology                                                                 20

3.2       Developing a Web Site                                                                                22

3.3       Method of Data Collection                                                                         27

CHAPTER FOUR

4.0       Design Site Architecture, Implementation and Result Interpretation  37

4.1       Data Source                                                                                                   38

4.2       Student Registration                                                                                                39

4.3       Data Processing                                                                                            44

4.4       Notepad ++                                                                                                   44

4.5       System Testing                                                                                             52

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0       Conclusion                                                                                                    58

5.1       Recommendation                                                                                         59

Reference                                                                                                      62

Appendix                                                                                                       64

LIST OF TABLE

Table 1:          Agric Engineering Department                                                      29

Table 2:          Civil Engineering Department                                                       30

Table 3:          Electrical Electronics Engineering Department                          30

Table 4:          Mechanical Engineering Department                                           31

Table 5:          Metallurgical Engineering Department                                        31

Table 6:          Mineral Resource Engineering Department                                 32

Table 7:          Student in support, not in support and Neutral in the use of CBT in ICT Related courses                           33

LIST OF FIGURE

Figure 1:        Block Diagram of Prototyping-Based                               21

Figure 2:        Student Registration                                                            40

Figure 3:        Adding of Course                                                                 42

Figure 4:        Adding of subject                                                                 43

CHAPTER ONE

1.0       INTRODUCTION

Today, websites are efficient  tool  of communication within society. For example, when people need information a company, institution of learning or on organization , most of them will almost instantaneously think of its website .

The influence that this website has in the private and public sector cannot be over emphasized, these days the private and public sector is not complete without a website.

The use of the web and e-learning portal as a primary information channel is growing daily. As the number of web users grows it is important that the information is accessible and usable by all .the introduction of website and e-portal concept to the web has opened new possibilities and improved the level of dissemination of knowledge in educational sector.

Design is one of the key parts of web design. This includes the design principles, design element, lines shape, texture, color, font and direction.

Web design means the designing, creating, uploading and updating of a website and its implementation. It also involves information architecture, website layout, structure, user interface, navigation website.    

  Websites: A website refers to a location on the internet and a collection of web pages, images, videos, which are addressed relative to a common uniform resource  location (URL). It’s nothing but a domain name hosted on server which is accessible via a network called internet private local area network. Owning a website becomes an essential part for any institution, businesses and company, without web presence such organization is just running the risk of losing the business opportunities.

Each website has its own unique web address (uniform resource locator) which can be reached though an internet connection. The opening page of a website is usually called homepage which contains. Hyperlinks to other pages on the same or other site(s).

A single web server may support multiple website and a single website may reside on multiple web server, sometime thousands of miles apart.

Typical Website Attributes

• It’s a public interface
• It support the user in specific task (marketing or ecommerce)
• It provides targeted content from independent resources to specific audience
• Its content is generally focused, eliminates the need of visiting different sites
• It selects and organizes the material needed to be accessed
• It established your presence in online global market
• It reaches the targeted audience.

Web portal is a vehicle by which a user gains an access of driving broad array of resources, while a website is a destination in itself.

Portals and websites are distinct entities which often overlap and complement each other. A web portal and website should be strongly linked together, but they should not replace each other.

Website represents an organization to outside world, but a portal provide multiple user roles with a common access point.

A portal is a collection of website or service that offers board array of resources and services such as email, forums, search engines and online shopping malls. It’s an organized gateway that helps to configure the access to information found on the internet. Web portal applications offers consistent look and feel with access control & procedures for multiple applications and databases. Some of the web portals are AOL, Google, Yahoo and even more.

A student portal is a web based interface to access personalized information, resources, applications, and educational academic options with students can reach a range of internal and external sources through a network connection in a password protected setting.

Homepage: This is the first page most users see when accessing the portal is homepage is typically the highest level of a portal hierarchy.

Portal Developer: This is the organization responsible for building a portal.

Portal Maintainer: This is the organization responsible for operation a portal once deployed.

The maintainer is responsible for responding to feedback about the portal correcting errors, and adding new information as it becomes available.

1.1       AIM

The aim of this project is to create a website and c-portal for the institute of technology in other to enhance e-communication and improve the student/lecturer interaction of Kwara State Polytechnic.

1.2 OBJECTIVE OF THE PROJECT

The objective of the project is

1. To create a link or means of interaction between the lecturers and students outside the lecture room
2. To store information for future reference
3. For easy access to educational resources like past question papers. course materials, handout/textbooks e.t.c.
4. To serve as source of information for students, staffs and parents.
5. To create a database of past projects that each department has embarked on
6. To update students, staffs, parent and guardians on what is happening in the institute and the entire polytechnic.
7. To make an easy surfing on the internet for the students and staffs. It is also for easy downloading of material needed for their study.

1.3 SCOPE OF THE PROJECT

The scope of the project is to design and implement computer aided information and management database website and e-portal via cloud computing. The database is to be built using information gathered from each department, the Institute and school management. This information should reflect the departmental information and activities, historical and current records of students’ population etc. This will serve as a useful tool that will enhance the learning and teaching processes.

1.4 E-LEARNING AND WEB PORTAL

The term learning means to gain knowledge or understanding of or skill by study, instruction or experience. Unfortunately e-learning does not possess such a precise and clear definition. The understanding of the e-learning concept varies from training via the internet according to (computer user high-Tech Dictionary, http/www.computeruser.com), to a more extended definition as an approach to facilitate and enhance learning by means of personal computers, CDROMs and the internet as explained in (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org). E-learning is the delivery of education (all activities relevant to instructing, teaching, and learning) through various electronic media (koohang& Harman, 2005).

The electronic medium could be the internet, intranets, satellite TV, video/audio tape, and/or CD ROM. An c-learning web portal is able to provide students with networks access to them. Typical c-learning portal features contain one or more of the following component (volodymyr&wilfried. 2004): organization, information, documentation, assessment and corn mu n zeal ion to mention just a few.

An e-learning platform is specialized software, sometimes referred to as the virtual learning environment or the course management system (CMS). This software should be capable of providing facilities for both the development and the delivery of c-learning. The CMS is usually a distributed online system connected to the internet through the c-learning web portal. Several communications media are used for c-learning including the internet, intranets, extranets, videos/audio tape, and/or CD ROM. From history, some educational institutions have started the process of creation of enterprise open source applications such as course management systems and electronic bulletin (e-bulletin) board. These are some of the initiatives taken by higher institutions on move away from proprietary software towards open source.

Kim, Chaudhury and Rao (2002) claimed that there are three types of web portals:

Data Portals: Concerned with managing such structure data as corporate databases with a single point of access.

Information Portals: In contrast to the data portals, this type of portal is concerned with managing such unstructured data as e-mail, text, and other documents by using indexing and cataloguing systems with search and retrieval functionality.

Collaborative Portals: This type is focused on group interaction functionality as well as the integration of the enterprise by bridging internet, extranet, private source data, and public information. The users are also allowed to access all collaborative functions such as classified topics, conferencing, team discussion, news channel, calendaring, and the abilities to personalize the interface.

1.5 BENEFITS OF E-LEARNING PORTAL

1. To plan and disseminate course outline by lecturers
2. To manage attendance of both students and lecturers
3. To create and submit assignments
4. To participate in interactive discussions between students and lecturer anytime, breaking through the barrier of geographical location. With the portal there will be an enriched and members of the academic community.
5. The school portal offers education without walls
6. Your ipad, Smartphone or computer changes from being a toy to a tool.
7. It is the generation learning management system (LMS) combining academic management, social collaboration and third-party integration.
8. This is the emerging learning platform exemplified by the distant learning and Open University model.

CHAPTER FIVE

5.0       CONCLUSION

This project work has emphasized the usefulness of website and e-portal educational development of the institute and the polytechnic at large. As the of web user grows daily, it is important that the information should be accessible and usable by all students in our tertiary institution across the nation in order to enhance the process of teaching and learning.

The entire website of the institute of technology has been built the links and scripts within the website and c-portal have been ascertained to be working perfectly.

We were able to build an educative, interactive website and e-portal that bears the domain name of the institute that is easy to use and update. We hope the student, staffs, school management, parents and general public as whole will find the web site useful.

5.1 RECOMMENDATIONS

Based on our final implementation, there are certain improvements that can be done in the future. For the future website design, we make the following recommendations. These recommendations are derived from each project phase, namely planning, analysis, design and implementation.

Provision of Internet facility

There is need for the institute to provide 24/7 internet service. This will make it possible for staffs and students at different locations on the globe to exchange ideas on various fields of study and also allows students and lecturers to communicate both within and across international borders.

Upgrading of ICT Centre to CBT standard

The institute ICT centre should be upgraded to meet the standard requirements for CBT exam. If this could be done the centre will be useful for any CBT exam or post utme exam. This could be achieved by provision of a secured server, provision of laptops, networking of all computer system at the centre, provision of centralize UPS and stabilizer.

Proper maintenance /management of the portal

All the departments within the institute must ensured that there is adequate measure on group for proper maintenance of the website and portal i.e at least five students from each department should be assigned to updating /maintenance of IOT website /portal.

Staff Training in ICT

Adequate ICT training should be provided for the staffs and students probably by the school management. this will enhance more effective and efficient use of the web portal.

Frequent Power Failure

Power failure is one of the major problems faced by the people of Nigeria. When there is shortage of power supply little can only be achieved as far as using web-portal for e-learning is concerned. Hence , the institute should provide an alternative power supply such as solar energy for the institute to sustain the e learning activities in the school.

Improvement in the supported type of test

For now the portal only support a computer based test with 4 options answer, it is recommendation that the portal should be able to support two options type of test (Logical test) which is also know as True or False question and question that can have multiple answers.

Increase in the student population

The low number of students released by some departments to carried out Project work has been one of the major reasons why there is a huge delay in ‘development of the portal, Students are the information fetcher but for some departments that have lower number of students working on the development of portal it was harder to gathered enough information from their department to the portal

Continuity of the project work

The school portal is yet to get to its perfect state and even if it does there is ways need for maintenance and updates.

If the institute want the portal to better serve it staff and help contribute to the development of the institute there is a need for further development of the website and portal as there are many goals that are yet to be achieved.