REWRITE

08 Aug REWRITE

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Student Class Registration System Individual Project

Phase 1: Requirements Analysis

1. Problem Definition

ABC University needs a new student registration system for classes. The current registration method is time consuming and inefficient for the growing student base. In order to cope with the demand, ABC university has decided to move forward with the implementation of a fully automated system for class registration. The registration system in use now requires students to meet with their advisors prior to the semester and decide upon class requirements for the coming term. Afterwards, the advisors register the student for their classes. ABC University hopes that this new system will limit the advisors to an advisory role and students can move forward with registration on their own.

2. Issues

ABC University currently does not have a portal for students to register for classes on their own. The current system access is limited to advisors and it is incumbent upon the advisors to register students for classes. With a growing student population, ABC University is not able to respond to the rising need for advisors during class registration time. In order to provide a solution to this issue, ABC University is looking to implement a fully automated online portal system that allows students to select and register for classes on their own; advisors would continue to serve in an advisory capacity. The only advantage currently provided by the existing method is that each student would get advisor time and the school can maintain a high level of customer service. The consequence of the current method is that the school is very limited to how many students they can have because class registration is a long, drawn out procedure.

The goal of the new system is to automatically provide all necessary information for students to be able to register on their own. The system will be connected to the ABC University database and be able to report on class availability, class schedules, and professors for the class. The student will still have the ability to visit their advisor on an as needed basis but if the need is not there, the student will be able to register on their own. The benefit of this new system is that the school can now aggregate data such as:

· Class popularity,

· Wait lists for classes,

· Professor popularity,

· And class descriptions.

Should the new system be successful, university faculty will experience a rise in time, work, and money. A fully functioning system can help a student stay on track from the beginning of their college career to the end. The users of the portal will be full time and part time students of ABC University. Besides helping university faculty free up more time, the new system will also help in increasing student satisfaction by being a great service to students in ways such as:

· Allow students a better chance to register for desired classes,

· Allow students to register for classes based upon their schedule,

· And drastically decrease the time spent on the registration process.

3. Objectives

The creation of a student registration portal for classes would serve a number of objectives.

The most important objectives are:

· Log in process to ensure security,

· Display of detailed courses required for student’s degree,

· Virtual schedule before registration is finalized,

· Linked to university database to accurately report class availability,

· Registration confirmation,

· And student advisement report for progress tracking purposes.

It is crucial for the student to be able to access the portal from any location so they can register at their convenience. Should a student choose to not visit their advisor in person, the advisement report will aid in helping a student stay on track in terms of which classes they need to take and which they have completed. With the virtual schedule, a student will be able to get a visual representation of what their semester will look like so they can have a better foundation for planning their extracurricular activities.

The advantages of these achieving these objectives for the university are incredibly practical. Since one of the major concerns was that the student population was stunted due to lack of advisors available, this frees up university advisors to be able to meet with students that need the extra support. Additionally, it allows the university to track and monitor students’ progress in their degree.

4. Requirements

The design of the student registration portal for ABC University has functional, non- functional, hardware, and software requirements. They are broken down below.

4.1 Functional Requirements

The portal functional requirements are detailed below:

· The system proposes possible schedules to the student during registration;

· Search function;

· Student degree progression tracking;

· Integration with university database;

· Administrative report generation;

· Administrative override functionality;

· Administrative action tracking;

· Override reversal;

· Course detail display including class capacity, professor, waitlist, seats remaining, and description;

· Staggered access for registration to prevent overload and allow priority;

4.2 Non-Functional Requirements

4.2.1 Appearance Requirements

ABC University’s logo and the existing basic design of university should be displayed. The system should achieve basic web design standards similar to ones proposed by the US Digital Service. The design and the color should make users feel comfortable when using the portal. The design should also reflect the seriousness of the university environment.

4.2.2 Usage Requirements

The overall design of the portal ensure ease of access, usability and maintain user efficiency. The portal design should ensure that the user will have an easy learning curve so the portal can be seamlessly adopted by the stakeholders. Stakeholders should have the option of undoing any changes made to their own records as well as offer redundancies in checking and confirming their selections.

4.2.3 Accessibility Requirements

The portal should follow national guidelines such as 508 Accessibility requirements to ensure accessibility by all stakeholders. The portal design should take into consideration stakeholder disabilities and the design should allow for them to access as well. In order to maintain accessibility, the portal design should also be

4.3 Software Requirements

In order to be scalable and user friendly, the proposed system has the following requirements:

· Responsive in design,

· Browser agnostic,

· Maintain acceptable speed and latency for use;

· Maintain data reliability;

· Allow for access through any device with web access;

· Maintain easy of administration so university IT will have

· Accessibility compliant (example: 508 compliant)

4.4 Hardware Requirements

Since the solution is web based, the hardware requirements will be limited for the proposed system. However, there are some needs and they are listed below:

· Function on a minimum of 2GB RAM

· Functional on basic graphics hardware (example: video card, device display, etc)

· Operating system agnostic

· Device processor compatibility (example: intel i5 chip or higher)

5. Constraints

In order to have a clear understanding of the design constraints, it is necessary to understand the environment in which the system will be implemented. The portal will have to interact with the university’s current environment. Therefore, it is important in maintaining

control the adjacent systems such as the university database(s) and/or the computerized environment. The development of this portal will not require any increase in physical space. Due to the need for accessibility, it is important that the portal remain device and browser agnostic because it is to be expected that stakeholders will try to access the portal remotely from anywhere. Lastly, it is important that the solution takes into consideration user and administrator technical abilities. The portal should be capable of being updated to follow standardized compliance regulations and not interfere with stakeholder performance.

6. Proposed System

To combat the difficulties of student registration at ABC University, a student registration portal has been presented as a potential solution. The ultimate goal of this portal is to increase the efficiency of student class registration and allow ABC university to grow their student population so it is important that the solution remains scalable.

Armed with a comprehensive understanding of ABC University’s environment, the proposed solution is a web-based portal that pulls data from the university’s database and displays information for the stakeholder regarding classes, class details, class schedules, etc. Aside from IT, the two stakeholders are students and administrators. Both groups of stakeholders will have their own log in to utilize the portal. The student will have access to the following information in the portal:

· Student ID

· Name

· Date of birth

· Password

· Mailing address

· Registration date

· Student status

· Contact information

· Image

As a user, a student can perform the following tasks:

· Registration

· Branch selection

· Scheduling

· Search

· View class details

· Generate advisement reports.

Available to stakeholders is the log in portal. This portal allows for authentication of user accounts. All stakeholders will have their own unique credentials for the portal. Once logged in, stakeholders have the ability to search the university database for the data they need. Students will be able to search for the classes they register, see the details for the classes, create a mock schedule prior to confirmation, and finalize their selections. Administrators will be able to see class details, reverse changes to student schedules, and create priority registration for students

that are allowed that. User management is limited to be used by administrators such as IT and/or university faculty. Students will not see or have access to this part of the portal.

6.1 Data Flow Diagram

After the student requests a log in to the registration portal and access is granted, the student is able to request information from the portal in terms of class information, class schedule, and make edits. This information is pulled from the ABC University database. For administrators, the format is very similar. The administrator is submits a log in request and once it is granted, they are able to view the student data, class data, and make edits to the data in the portal. Similarly, the information is also retrieved from the ABC University database. Data input into the registration portal is transferred to the ABC University database.

Phase 2: System and Database Design

7. User Interface

The user interface design for students and administrators are shown below.

Student registration portal log in

Each student and administrator will have their own unique credentials to log into the portal on this interface. Once they log in, they will be able to view the information available to them in the next page.

Student portal interface

This is the student class registration portal. This is where a student will be able to access their class registration by following the “add/drop class” link. The other options available to them is their class schedule, their personal information, their advisor information, an ability to sign up for graduation, and an advisement tool should they feel they do not need to meet with an advisor in person.

Administrator portal interface

As an administrator, their main job has been to aid the students in registering for their classes. Once an administrator logs in, they will be able to see their own calendar that typically displays meetings with the student. Since administrators have no need to add/drop classes for themselves, their registration portal will be slightly different from a student’s.

Student course search interface

When a student navigates to their add/drop class portal, this is the interface they are presented with. They will have the ability to search for a specific school term and search using keywords or course numbers to find the classes they intend to take.

Student Course Search Results

Once a student searches for the class they would like to take, the portal than directs them to a results list of the results. These results include classes that have reached capacity and are identified with the letter F under status, and classes that have not reached capacity. Once a student selects the class, they click “add” to include it in their schedule.

Student Registration Portal Class Registration Completion

Upon completion of registration, the student home interface of the registration portal will display the class that the student registered for.

7.1 Logical Model Design

8. System Architecture

The student registration portal is a web-based portal that interacts with an existing database of information. Once a stakeholder (student or administrator) accesses the web portal, the web portal pulls information from the ABC University database and displays the information requested.

8. Conclusion

With the implementation of a student class registration portal, it will allow for ABC University to more efficiently process class registration. The shift from manual registration by student advisors to a more automated solution has been long awaited. With the implementation of a student registration portal, the university can grow their student population and advisors would have more free time devoted to other tasks. The class registration process would not take as long and it would become a more efficient process. The initial roll out of the portal will have to be monitored but the potential to build upon the student registration portal will be great.