www.iub.edu.

bd - the scenario

www.iub.edu.bd - the scenario

Introduction: Communication is one of the most important tools in our daily life. Now a day we can communicate very easily through many media. Internet is one of the most easiest and popular way for communication. University students are very much involved and gradually becoming used-to with this communication medium. Independent university Bangladesh (IUB), is one of the most leading, demanding and competitive private universities in Bangladesh. Basically they use internet for different materials for their academic course requirements. Most academic courses of IUB now need knowledge thats available on the internet. Students have to browse the internet for a long time everyday. And in this era of Web 2.0, the appeal is much stronger to facilitate the students with quality service.

(web 2.0 is the second generation of the World Wide Web, especially the movement away from
static webpages to dynamic and shareable content en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Web_2.0)

Problem Statement: This report would tend to carry out the findings of a research on the web based communication among the beneficiary of Independent University Bangladesh (IUB). The research is conducted with the topic www.iub.edu.bd - the communication scenario. This research would try to narrow its focus on the present scenario of IUB web portal and its communication lacking like- un-interactivity, absence of site map from the homepage, less student participation, poor feedback system etc. It has been confirmed by the CITS that the web portal and the web related materials are under development and going to be upgraded shortly. Thus it leaves valuable opportunity for us to make this development an effective one from all possible aspects of communication. This opportunity indicates that the findings would

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come out from a research which would take a closer look at present web based communication, services and facilities provided by http://www.iub.edu.bd. In IUB every student have there academic identification number (SID), similarly they have there own e-mail ID because they want to create their own virtual identity over the network but not in their own university domain. The teachers give their handouts through Jalils shop (a photocopy shop) and by providing lots of external links. Students sometimes have to upload their assignment by their e-mail. Internet is the most powerful medium because it contains text, audio, image and video all together. The content of the internet is growing day by day as the user number is increasing. The expanding knowledge available in the network is reaching to more and more people around the world. Unfortunately, IUB authority is very poor in communicating through internet. The University home page is un-interactive as well as not user friendly. Not only that, but also, the students do not have sufficient computer labs available in the campus. The numbers of the seating arrangements in the labs are not compatible to the total number of students. But since this research does not subject to that ground that particular area will be avoided. Again there is no chance to leave out the online registration system which is expected by the students. We have selected four major problems from our web site and are working on these problems. 1. Lack of Links The pages of different schools are with different visual approaches, not only that, they also dont provide the same facility. For an example, school of business provide much better option than school of environmental science and management

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or, school of liberal arts and social science. There are also dead links like http://www.secs.iub.edu.bd/ 2. Poor Archive IUB started this facility few months ago. But this section is poor. All of the information is web based. No audio, video or text document, which are not helpful for students. 3. No service for Student Students cant check their own result or collect their transcript or any data from this web site. This service course registration not available! Even, Students are not part of the target audience for this portal.

4. Online registration service is not available.

Methodology: To find out the lacking of the portal, a research was carried out. The students of the Independent University, Bangladesh were selected as the sample. The sample frame exists in the university registrar. These are taken as the sample because these population samples are very likely to use the internet facility within the university or from out side the university. The web page of the university should basically be useful for those. Exploratory study is right choice for the research. The objectives of exploration accomplished with two different techniques and they are Individual Depth Interviews (Conversational/semi-structured). Structured Questionnaire.

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We followed random sampling in order to avoid the biasness of the researchers. Some 70 students were taken as the sample from the whole sample frame. These students participated in our project and filled up the questionnaire. Thus the data were collected from them. We selected 22 questions in the questionnaire. All of those questions are related with the web site of IUB. These questions are attached at the back of this document. Structured Questionnaire was selected for the students. These subset (students) of the sample frame is restless in nature, thereby, it can be said that there would be a very few of the subset size that would come for the Individual Interviews. On the top of it the structured questionnaire saves their time as well and helps precisely to build a hypothesis through induction.

Research Design: Our questionnaire is divided into two parts. In the first part we have collected background information of our respondents. Questions numbering 1 to 5 are used for this part. The second part starts from question number 6 and ends at 22. By this part we have collected data on the ways that IUB web site is used by the students and facilitate them. We gathered the information that we worked with by some structured questionnaire. Since the exploratory research concentrates more on the independent and dependent variables than the descriptive or co-relational study, all the hypothesis were less concentrated and the variables were the first priority. During the research there was no significant support on the secondary data on the Bangladeshi private universitys web page. Therefore the

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research stood on the basis of the answer analysis of the primary data collected from the random sampling. Thus our motive is to find out the Independent variables (IV) that may change the state of the dependent variable (DV) or the hypothesis. The variables are as follows: Independent Variable Lack of Links Poor Archive No service of Student profile Online registration service is not available.
Table : Variables

Dependent Variable IUB web page is not interactive and user friendly for the students
(interactive - Acting with each other; Responding to the user in the broader sense. en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interactive)

Hypothesis Development and Finalizing: Primarily the hypothesis that we developed was IUB web page is not interactive enough for the beneficiary. But through our research we changed the hypothesis into IUB web page is not interactive and user friendly for the students. According to our study 4 lacks or inefficiency took place behind the reason of the hypothesis.

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Research Execution: The first independent variable Lack of links. For defining the problem we used two questions. First question was Do you use IUB librarys online materials as your information/knowledge resource? which is question number 14 in our questionnaire. The response is as follows:

Frequen Yes No Total Table 1.1 cy 39 31 70 Percent 55.7 44.3 100.0

Valid Percent 55.7 44.3 100.0

Cumulative Percent 55.7 100.0

At question number 18 we inquired about Are all the direct links of the different schools of IUB web portal are important for a student? The result is shown in the following tableFrequen Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Total Table 1.2 cy 20 44 5 1 70 Percent 28.6 62.9 7.1 1.4 100.0 Valid Percent 28.6 62.9 7.1 1.4 100.0 Cumulative Percent 28.6 91.4 98.6 100.0

About 56% from the sample group acquire knowledge about the present news and articles published in the IUB web page. 91.5% of the participants responded in favor of all the direct links of the different schools of IUB web portal are important. But during the intersection, they did not seem satisfied. Most of those 91% even

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expressed that there is no scope for their opinion in the web page. Some times they feel helpless on some issues. The feedback system is still backdated. The study finds out that the web site of School of Business is well developed. But it still needs some modification. On the other hand the other schools web pages are not well developed like School of Business and School of Engineering and Computer science. But common problem is every links have different interface. And the links are not properly connected from the main page. Most of the students memorizes the web address iub.edu.bd/ as well as the address for their own school page. Second problem is poor archive.

An archive refers to a collection of historical records, and also refers to the location in which these records are kept. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archive
We used one question for this problem. Question was Do you wish IUB to have a DATA-Base/Archive for students activities? Frequen Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Don't Know Total
Table 2.1

Cumulative Percent 38.6 51.4 1.4 2.9 5.7 100.0 Valid Percent Percent 38.6 38.6 51.4 90.0 1.4 91.4 2.9 5.7 100.0 94.3 100.0

cy 27 36 1 2 4 70

At the beginning of the study we perceived that the archive problem may not earn the adequate response in favour of creating a new archive or increasing the archiving capacity. A noticeable response was found in favour. About 39% of the sample strongly agreed and

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51% generally agreed with the concern. Where as only 1% of the sample disagreed on the issue. By this service students can upload their projects then it will be helpful for freshman students. In addition to that there will be recognition of the students about authoring a project, research, media activities etc. especially the students from the communication school suffers most for poor archiving. Their courses cover numbers of media projects most of which are in multimedia format. But unfortunately these works are lost some how. Some of the students agreed that some of their works are brilliant and fulfill better quality and competency they are lost and never in lime light. IUB web site has this service. But this service is poor. IUB has only data base or archive for students project archive. Some intern reports and some research proposals are save in the library link. These become very helpful for the students at times. Likely students agreed that a bigger archive is necessary. Students of communication department want this service in their web site. Because they want to upload their video projects. Archive plays an important role because it is an asset for any university web site. For example, AIUB (American International University) has their own research publishing page ( http://orp.aiub.edu/). Third independent variable is No service of Student profile. More than 50% students disagreed that IUB web portal provides sufficient facilities (i.e. web space, Students academic profile etc.) for the students. Frequen Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly cy 4 26 33 7 Percent 5.7 37.1 47.1 10.0 Valid Percent 5.7 37.1 47.1 10.0 Cumulative Percent 5.7 42.9 90.0 100.0

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Disagree Total
Table 3.1

70

100.0

100.0

IUB web page has the facility for student e-mail account. But more than 60% students dont use this facility because; the space of mailing account is too small. They can not store their important documents in inbox. If mailing space is increased the students will use this facility. Students deliberately want their profile on the internet, especially in the IUB web portal. Information is power. IUB can empower the students by providing a place to talk and to share, education and information among themselves. A well designed student profile is a demand of present situation. This profile will help students to get updated about the courses more easily than the regular way. Not only that but also they desire to see their semester results and other reports on update. Problem statement question number 3 Question 16 in the questioner. Do you wish to collect study materials, course material from www.iub.edu.bd ? Frequen Strongly Want Will be good No Need Total
Table 3.2

Valid Percent 52.9 44.3 2.9 100.0 Percent 52.9 44.3 2.9 100.0

Cumulative Percent 52.9 97.1 100.0

cy 37 31 2 70

A good thing about IUB web page is students can collect their course calendar through IUB web page. If they can collect their course material, they say it will be helpful for them. Some courses require more than a couple of books. It is not always easy for a student to collect them from markets or borrow from library. Thus students agrees that there should be a personal space for each student where they can find their courses enrolled, their current
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position, their current grades, important lecture notes, handouts, notices from that particular course instructor etc. SB site the School of Business introduced this facility for the first time in the IUB but it was limited only for the business students. Moreover, it was not even properly working. Our study finds that once a student registers to the sb site he/she should have all the courses he taken in his profile (students login) and the updates but it does not work that way. School of Engineering and Computer Science had the same scenario. Only courses like MIS 442, MAT 211, BUS 485 students get this facility only for these courses. This is even done by the instructor himself. These system should be eliminated as soon as possible. There should be an automation between registrars office, accounts and the schools.

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Problem statement question number 3 Question No. 19 in the questioner. You are comfortable with the regular (by currier/mail) academic transcript? Frequen Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Total
Table 3.3

Valid Percent 15.7 50.0 18.6 15.7 100.0 Percent 15.7 50.0 18.6 15.7 100.0

Cumulative Percent 15.7 65.7 84.3 100.0

cy 11 35 13 11 70

Students sometimes fail to receive the academic transcript by postal service. It becomes a problem for students. They have to collect from the registrar formally. The authentication is factor for the authority though this problem can be solved by protecting the copying and printing option of the academic transcript on the profile. Our study finds out that about 65% of the respondents strongly and generally agree that the academic transcript should be sent by the e-mail or posted in the web profile of each students. This is not even that expensive and technically not very complex job to do. The academic profile on the net is very necessary for the students on the ground of progress and their planning for progress. It can also be done with the regular system academic transcript but the chances for missing it and increase of hassles are then not apart as the transcript are sent only one copy free of cost.

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Problem statement question number 3 It will be better if the academic transcript is on the web and accessible only by individual students and the academic advisor. Frequen Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Agree Total
Table 3.4

Valid Percent 55.7 35.7 7.1 1.4 100.0 Percent 55.7 35.7 7.1 1.4 100.0

Cumulative Percent 55.7 91.4 98.6 100.0

cy 39 25 5 1 70

The hassle during the registration period is obvious. Most times the advisors are very busy with advising a significant number of students. They find very few time for individuals for counseling. One very common question by the academic advisor is have you completed all the foundation courses?. Students are often confused with this question and advisors as well. This online academic transcript system can help and save a lot of valuable time for the students and allow the advisors to counsel the students more properly with more time and without confusion.

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Fourth and last problem online registration. Question No, 12 in the questioner. courses online from home? Frequen Strongly Agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Total
Table 4.1

Do you wish to register/take

Valid Percent 77.1 17.1 2.9 2.9 100.0 Percent 77.1 17.1 2.9 2.9 100.0

Cumulative Percent 77.1 94.3 97.1 100.0

cy 54 12 2 2 70

Another obvious problem during registration is that students run between academic advisors office and the registrars office several times. And between the run the room in the desired courses are missed most of the times. 77% percent of the respondents strongly agree with registering online. Disagreement is very few in number. This online Registration can even be done from home if this system is upgraded to the network. One Private university in Bangladesh is providing this facility to their students very successfully. The students of IUB are expecting this service for a long time. Findings: Students primarily agreed that the link of the different schools should be there in the main page on the web of IUB. To add with it as the project was in move, after the discussion the IUB web page has been found updated with the links of the different schools. Some of the beneficiaries other than the students argued on the necessity of the archive. But however the technical persons created and uploaded an archive on the page. Most of the IUB officials and the students raised their opinion with a strong voice that there should be a personal profile page for individual students with proper authentication. This profile would include every particular of the students. According to the technical personnel the online

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registration will not be possible shortly but it can be done. Contrarily students strongly agreed that the online registration should be activated as soon as possible. Independent Variable Lack of Links Poor Archive No service of Student profile Online registration service is not available Lack of Links, Poor Archive, No Student profile Service and Online Registration Service these four are basically the independent variable that are predicament if not nurtured properly. The interactivity of the students depends on attracting the students at the first point. To attract the student in a productive manner the aforementioned independent variables are the key to develop the IUB web page is not interactive and user friendly for the students. These independent variables are only a few for the dependent variable but there are scopes to find out more independent variables on this particular concern and equally there are scopes for further research. IUB web page is not interactive and user friendly for the students Dependent Variable

Limitation: Though at the beginning all the beneficiaries were chosen to be the sample but for some unavoidable reasons only the students were taken as the sample frame.

Few Faculty Members, Management Employees and staffs avoided, neglected, technically denied to participate.

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Few of the above mentioned subsets did not want to mention any negative impression about the discussed issues. During our field works some students did not wish to incorporate with the study. The time duration that has been declared was insufficient to gather more information for this project. In the case of secondary data collection there were no similar studies or articles found.

Conclusion: Interaction with the web related personnel or the IUB authority and the students is very important for the over all development of the university. As this study is under progress it is expected that some more issues may arise, some of which are already activated, and some are about to activated. In general, the digitization indicates that all the issues that are mentioned will be solved accordingly and ultimately the IUB web page will be more interactive than ever.

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Appendix - A Survey questioner:

Topic: http://www.iub.edu.bd : The scenario.

1. Gender: Male

Female

2. Age : 18-20 21-25 26-30 31-35 36+

3. Educational back ground English medium Bengali medium

4. What is your academic status?

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Freshman year 0 29 credits Sophomore year - 30 59 credits Junior - 60 89 credits Senior - 90 +

5. Your study area a) Major: ______________________________________________ b) Minor: ______________________________________________

6. Do you use internet everyday? Yes (If Yes) For how long 0+ 1+ 4+ 7+ 1.0 hours 4.0 hours 7.0 hours hours No

7. How often you visit IUB web site? Once a week. Daily. Forgot when I last time visited. Never visited.

8. Do you have an account in IUB web mail? Yes and active. Yes, but not activated. No. Dont know about the service.

9. Do you look for information updates and events news in IUB web page? Yes

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No (If yes) What is the information about Admission. Registration. Academic Calendar. Notice. Special interest. (eg. Different clubs)

10. Do you think IUB web portal provides sufficient facilities (i.e. web space, Students academic profile etc) for the students? Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Disagree. Strongly

11. Do you wish IUB to have a DATA-Base/Archive for students activities? Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Strongly disagree. Dont know!

12. Do you wish to register/take courses online from home? Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Strongly disagree.

13. Do you wish to use IUB web page to Add/Drop courses? Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Strongly disagree.

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14. Do you use IUB librarys online materials as your information/knowledge resource? Yes No (If Yes) Do you want to have this service to be available at your home pc? Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Strongly disagree.

15. Are you satisfied with the contents available in IUB Library online service? Yes. No.

16. Do you wish to collect study materials, course material from www.iub.edu.bd ? Strongly want. Will be good. No need. No matter.

17. Have you ever received any e-mail from the www.iub.edu.bd authority? Not at all. Sometimes. Often. Everyday.

18. All the direct links of the different schools of IUB web portal are important for a student. Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Disagree. Strongly

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19. You are comfortable with the regular (by currier/mail) academic transcript? Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Disagree. Strongly

20. It will be better if the academic transcript is on the web and accessible only by individual students and the academic advisor. Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Disagree. Strongly

21. your comments, opinions, request or communication to the faculty members can be through the IUB web page. Strongly agree. Agree. Disagree. Disagree. Strongly

_________ _____________ ID Signature

Riyadh Rahman (02) Musfiq Rahman (0630231)

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