CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 BACKGROUND OF STUDY

In many tertiary institutions in the country, students seek a project in a given field of specialty as part of the upper level of their degree programme. Usually, a project can be filled by at most one student, though in some cases a project is suitable for more than one student to work on simultaneously. To give students something of a choice, there should be as wide a range of available projects as possible, and in any case the total number of project places should not be less than the total number of students. Typically a lecturer will also offer a range of projects, but does not necessarily expect that all will be taken up.

Each student has preferences over the available projects that he/she finds acceptable, whilst a lecturer will normally have preferences over the students that he/she is willing to supervise. There may also be upper bounds on the number of students that can be assigned to a particular project, and the number of students that a given lecturer is willing to supervise. In this paper we consider the ways of allocating student project in our various institutions.

1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

The traditional way of allocating project to students in our higher institution need to be reconsidered since project/research writing is sensitive aspect of student education in the higher institution.

Before now, lecturers ask students to go out and get project topics for themselves for approval. This system made project writing look less like a class assignment which does not require an extra effort to complete rather an issue of copying.

1.3 OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

With the advancement in file saving and file retrieval system, institution cannot afford to be ignorant of the basic tool, which is the driving force behind technological oriented administration.

Much can be achieve if an institution have a well-organized management system. Students project can easily be allocated to each or group of students without the problem of delayed project allocation from the supervisor or conflict of topic between two individual or group of student in the same department. Students update can be easily be accessed if the database system is enhanced.

1.4 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

Projects provide a flexible framework for engaging students in exploring curricular topics and developing important 21st century skills, such as communication, teamwork, and technology skills. In addition, students are motivated by the fun and creative format and the opportunity to make new friends around the world. For teachers, a school portal enables quick and easy management of student accounts and review of project work.

1.5 SCOPE OF STUDY

The research will center on the design and implementation of Student Project Allocation and Management system for the department of computer science in Kogi State Polytechnic, Lokoja.

The project would manage the database of students (Maximum of 500 students) and group them in triplets as a group or group member, in which students that their matriculation number do not fall in a given specified range could not be a member of any group within the range i.e. if the specified range is 60 (sixty) students, matriculation number greater than 60 could not be a member of any group in the first range of 60 students and so on.

1.6 LIMITATION OF STUDY

Usually, every work has some limitations and this study is not exempted. The two major limitations of this study are the time limits within which the study is expected to be completed as well as financial constraints. The time constraint prevents the researcher to have an in depth study and analysis on the subject matter. The study is also limited to computer science department of the institution.

1.7 DEFINITION OF TERMS

·     Algorithm: This is a detailed set of step by step instruction for solving a given problem.

·     Bug: bug is a defect, an error, or flaw in a machine or computer program.

·     Computer: Any electronic machine that can be programmed to carry out a finite set of instructions. Such instructions could be arithmetic or logical operations.

·     Computerization: It involves carrying out a set of task with the aim of managing and controlling library operation using computer resources e.g. to store information in a computer system.

·     Control: Control involves monitoring and evaluating feedback to determine whether a system is moving towards the achievement of goals.

·     Conversion: This is the process of changing from an old or existing system to a new system.

·     Common Dialog Boxes: A set of windows dialog boxes available to Visual Basic programmers for open, fonts, colour, save and print.

·     CPU: The Central Processing Unit (CPU) is the part of a computer that performs operations and executes software commands.

·     Debug: it means to find and remove error in a computer program.

·     Data: This is a raw fact that can be processed by any computing machine.

·     Database: This is a systematically arranged collection of computer data, structured so that it can be automatically retrieved or manipulated.

·     Form: A form is said to be a template that is used to give a distinctive attribute/character considered apart from its content, colour, texture or composition.

·     Feedback: Is defined as data about performance of a system.

·     Flowchart: This is a pictorial representation of an algorithm.

·     Feasibility Study: A preliminary study undertaken to access whether a planned project is practicable or not.

·     Hardware: Hardware is a physical component of a computer system which includes; Keyboard, Mouse, Printers etc.

·     Input: This simply means data entered into a computer for processing.

·     Information: This simply means data that has been processed into a meaningful detail.

·     Output: output is anything that is produced by the computer to the user in form of text, sound, picture etc.

·     Object code: the binary version of a computer program that is used by the computer to run a program.

·     Program: A set of Logical Instructions combined to perform a specific task in order to accomplish a goal.

·     Protocol: A set of technical rules about how information should be transmitted and received by a computer.

·     Project: This is a planned set of interrelated tasks to be executed over a fixed period and within certain cost and other limitations to accomplish an objective or goals.

·     Project management: The discipline of carefully projecting or planning, organizing, monitoring, and controlling resources to achieve project goals under specific success criteria.

·     Project Allocation: To distribute project to a particular individual or group of persons for special research purposes.

·     Software: Software is a generic term used to describe a set of instruction called program which is used to direct all the activities of the computer.

·     System: System can be defined as a collection of interconnected components which work together to achieve a set of goals or objectives.

·     Syntax: The set of rules, principles and processes that govern the structure of sentences in a given language.

·     Translator: A computer program that converts other programmes from one computer language to another computer language.

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