1.

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the problem

Instructors are not only limited to imparting education to their students but they

are also responsible for managing their own courses for the duration of a semester.

Some of these responsibilities include handling notes and communications to and

from students, organizing and managing student groups, monitoring the attendance,

and recording grades. The proponents aim to centralize all these responsibilities into

one system through the development of the Course Manager Mobile Application.

A mobile application, most commonly referred to as an app, is a type of

application software designed to run on a mobile device, such as a smartphone or

tablet computer. It is a software program you can easily download and access

directly using your smartphone or another mobile device.

To help the instructor properly manage a course, the proposed mobile app would

possess features such as the monitoring of the attendance of the students in their

smartphones or tablet computers, sending announcements through the app for the

students to read, having a list of the enrolled students in a course in the app, and

giving private notifications to the students for their monthly periodical grades.

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 A student would also benefit from this proposed mobile app since they would not

need to consult their instructors personally to see when they have incurred absences.

When subscribed to this app, the student could see their attendance in a certain

feature of this app. Students could also see their grades via a private notification from

the teacher so that they could have a basis to compute their grades. This feature of

giving grades would promote transparency and help an instructor distribute grades

easier instead of showing their grades one by one which would take up a lot of time

especially if the class is only an hour long.

The proposed mobile app also provides ease of communication even outside of

school hours. The instructor could post announcements through the app which the

students could access anywhere they are. This provides an alternative solution instead

of communicating to one student to relay a message to the other students. The

instructor announcement feature would be a reliable source for students so that

announcements come from a firsthand source.

1.2 Overview of the current state of the current Technology

Instructors are not only given the task to properly educate students but also

manage a course throughout the semester. One responsibility of an instructor is to

monitor the attendance of students by using index cards. The proposed mobile app

would offer an alternative to monitor grades through their smartphones and even

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 refer to the smartphone wherever they are in case the instructor wants to monitor

absent students.

Instructors also relay grades to the students after periodical exams through written

notes or showing their graded spreadsheets to students. The proposed mobile app

would relay a student’s grade privately eliminating the time it takes for instructors to

write down a lot of student’s grades or call upon each student.

Notes and handouts are also useful for students to have a helpful resource in their

courses. Through the proposed system, notes and handouts could be downloaded

even before a class begins. This promotes advanced reading and more active student

participation. Announcements are also provided in the proposed app since

communication is key to managing a course properly. The announcement would be

displayed in the homepage of the app.

1.3 Project Rationale

 STI College Baguio

STI College Baguio would benefit from this application as the college

would be credited for future advancements from this mobile app. The

college would also be credited since they would be providing professional

paneling for the improvement of the thesis.

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  Students

Students could now access announcements and information about their

respective courses easily through their smartphones or tablet computers.

 Faculty

The Faculty of STI College Baguio would benefit from the proposed

mobile application since some of their responsibilities would be eased or

centralized into this app.

 Developers

The developers of the proposed STI Bulletin Mobile Application would

gain necessary knowledge about mobile application development. The

familiarity to create and run a mobile application would be of added value

to the developer’s experience and future career.

2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION

2.1 Problem Statement

 How can the monitoring of attendance, recording of grades, distribution of

handouts and spreading of announcements be centralized?

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2.2 Proposed Research Project

2.2.1 General Objectives

 To centralize the monitoring of attendance, recording of grades, distribution of

handouts and spreading of announcements through the STI College Baguio

Course Manager Mobile Application.

2.2.2 Specific Objectives

 To develop a mobile application that can be accessed easily.

 To develop an attendance module to monitor attendance.

 To develop a gradebook module for privately displaying course grades.

 To develop a communications module for instructors to post announcements

and students to provide feedback.

 To develop a course documents module for course handouts, files, assigned

readings, and assignments.

2.2.3 Scope and Limitations

SCOPE

 The proposed mobile app could be accessed by the users anywhere on their

smartphones or tablet computers.

 Monitoring of attendance could be done through the system.

 A private notification would be sent to students to receive their tentative

grades after periodical exams.

 Urgent announcements are headlined in the mobile app for the students to read

the most important information first before anything else.

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  The proposed mobile app could also have a download section for handouts or

necessary files for the course.

LIMITATIONS

 The proposed mobile application is only available for bonafide STI College

Baguio students and instructors who have a smartphone or a tablet computer.

The smartphone or tablet computer must have an Android operating system.

 Only bonafide students from a certain course could only access that course.

 The grades provided by the instructor would only be temporary until the final

grade would be properly submitted and verified.

2.2.4 Methodology

“Fourth generation techniques are the package of software tools that enable a

software engineer to specify the characteristics at a high level and then a source code

is automatically generated base on the specification.”[http://www.only4bca.com]

The 4GT paradigm currently, a software development environment that

supports 4GT paradigm includes some or all of the following tools: nonprocedural

languages for database query, report generation, data manipulation, screen interaction

and definition and code generation; high-level graphics capability; and spreadsheet

capability.

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Phases of Fourth Generation Technique

 Requirements Gathering

This is where the definition of requirements necessary in building SCAN

is defined. The developers used different methods in acquiring information

needed such as interviews and observations and researches.

 Design Strategy

The gathered data is translated into set of presentation that describes data

structures, architectures, algorithmic procedures and interphase characteristic.

 Implementation

This is the third 4GT wherein the design presentation is translated to an

artificial language that result in instruction that could be executed by the

computer. The gathered requirements and design are put into a machine

executable form. The developers would implement using 4GL which enables

them to represent desired output in a manner that results to automatic generation

of code to generate the output. Data structure with relevant information must

exist and be ready accessible by the 4GL.

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 Testing

In computer hardware and software development testing is used at key

checkpoints in all overall process to determine whether objectives are being met.

This is required to ensure the system’s quality, reliability and availability when

being used.

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 3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT

3.1 Calendar of Activities

Week Schedule (June - September)

Activities June July August September

1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4 1 2 3 4

Planning

Identification Problems

Data Gathering

Analysis

Development of Solutions

Identification of Hardware and

Software to be utilized

Documentation

Design

Design of Database

Design of Modules

Design of Graphical User Interface

Implementation

Evaluation of the System

Acceptance testing of the System

Installation of the System

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 3.2 Resources

Hardware

 512MB RAM

 API Level 9 or Ginger Bread

Software

 Java Platform

 SQLite database

 Eclipse IDE

 Android Studio

4. APPENDIX

4.1 References

http://www.only4bca.com

4.2 Resource Person

4.3 Personal technical vitae

Corpuz, Aldger B.

BSIT-DA

#26 Lower Dagsian Baguio City

09056000764

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Davalos, Beryl Z.

BSIT-DA

#190 Loakan Proper, Baguio City

09353143828

Piluden, Kurt Mathew C.

BSIT

#43 Balacbac C Sto.Tomas Proper, Baguio City

09496600970

Togmoy, Margielyn B.

BSIT-DA

#16 - A Upper P. Burgos, Baguio City

09099423942

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 Table of Contents

1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................... 1
1.1 Background of the problem .............................................................................................. 1
1.2 Overview of the current state of the current Technology................................................. 2
1.3 Project Rationale .............................................................................................................. 3
2. PROJECT DESCRIPTION ..................................................................................................... 4
2.1 Problem Statement ........................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Proposed Research Project ............................................................................................... 5
2.2.1 General Objectives .................................................................................................... 5
2.2.2 Specific Objectives ................................................................................................... 5
2.2.3 Scope and Limitations............................................................................................... 5
2.2.4 Methodology ............................................................................................................. 6
3. PROJECT MANAGEMENT .................................................................................................. 9
3.1 Calendar of Activities....................................................................................................... 9
3.2 Resources ....................................................................................................................... 10
4. APPENDIX ........................................................................................................................... 10
4.1 References ...................................................................................................................... 10
4.2 Resource Person ............................................................................................................. 10
4.3 Personal technical vitae .................................................................................................. 10

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