Design and Implementation of Automated Course Allocation System for Lecturers

ABSTRACT

On this project, the purpose of the automated course allocation system is to develop with ease and smoothen the course management allocation process in schools. Moreover, a lot of issues have popped up regarding the manually allocation method such as lecturers could not get the expertise courses to be lectured, more courses given to higher position lecturers and also burden their research timing. According, to the problem the researcher has come up with a solution which to develop a course allocation system for lecturers. The researcher has set the objectives to provide the lecturers their expertise field course to be lectured and also provide the correct number of courses according to the lecturer position and timing. Regarding, this the developer has done a research study on the similarities of the system which has been developed previously. So that, the developer can make a comparison with the previous system and the system about to be developed. This project also can be used to refer for the futuristic course allocation system development and also enhance modern day school course allocation across institutions around the globe.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

The university course allocation problems deal with the scheduling of the teaching program. Two different but related problems arise in this context. One is to schedule courses and the other is to schedule examinations in the most efficient way. Course allocation problems have attracted the continuous interest of researchers mainly because they provide the opportunity of testing combinatorial solution methods in formulations that represent difficult practical problems. In most of the attempted solutions of either the course or examination problem, the objective is to and a feasible schedule (Rauf, Kalai, and Adnan 2018). A feasible schedule is one that satisfies the teaching or examination requirements, respectively. These requirements appear usually as explicit constraints in the IP formulation while additional case specific constraints arise as a result of the particular institution’s rules, administrative policies and pre-specified preferences. Constructing a feasible schedule is a difficult problem whenever there is a scarcity of classrooms and increased ¯flexibility in the students’ choices. A more difficult problem is to produce a good feasible schedule. A good (or fair) schedule is one that has convenient relative time positions of the courses or examinations corresponding to every group of students following the same compulsory courses, that is, a compact schedule. In the present study, these requirements are faced by properly structuring the problem and by using suitable objective function coefficients in the IP formulation. The present study describes the development of a system producing good (or fair) course allocation for the lecturers (Diebold et al. 2014a).

There are different departments in a University, each one including different specializations. The academic year is divided into two independent semesters (first and second) each containing completely different courses. To facilitate the construction of a fair schedule, the university administration supports the construction of a conflict free schedule only for certain university streams. A university stream is a set of compulsory and optional courses suggested by the administration to be followed by the students in each one of the eight semesters [Murray et al (2015).]

University course allocation is a large resource allocation problem, in which both times and rooms are determined for each class meeting. Significant research has been devoted to Curriculum-Based Course allocation in particular, because of its importance for universities worldwide. In some institutions, the classroom assignment problem is the only part of constructing a timetable which uses computer-aided decision making. Older formulations of the classroom assignment problem use a simple measure of quality which allows each time period to be considered independently. These formulations can be modeled as an assignment problem, which can be solved in polynomial time. More recent formulations are able to address complex measures of quality which cause interdependencies between time periods, such as providing the same room for all classes from the same course (Lach & Lubbecke, 2018). However, this causes the problem to be NP-complete (Carter & Tovey, 2017).

1.1 Background of the Study

The history of Baze University Abuja, was established in 2011 and received its provisional license from the National Universities Commission (NUC) on the 7th March of the same year. Academic activities commenced with staff and 17 students all in one building on the site of its 50,000 sqm campus.Construction of the Administrative Block, the Faculty of Law, the Faculty of Computing & Applied Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Faculty of Environmental Sciences and the Faculty of Medical and Health.

In 2021, construction of the University Teaching Hospital commenced and is expected to be completed in the same year. Already, there exists a Library complex, Staff Housing Complex and the students’ Hostel consisting of 2 Blocks for males and females with a capacity for 500 students each. The University has had six consecutive Convocation Ceremonies and has produced graduates in various disciplines.

The Association of Certified Chartered Accountants (ACCA) and BAZE University, a Nigerian private university have entered into a collaborative partnership with the overarching objective of providing professional foundation for growing accounting graduates in Africa.

ACCA is an institution with over a century in experience of developing globally relevant finance professionals through innovative learning delivery.

A statement yesterday explained that the memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed on behalf of Baze University by its Deputy Vice Chancellor, Registrar -Rtd Major Gen. Inuwa Idris, as well as the Dean of Faculty of Business and social sciences, Prof. Emeka E. Ene; while ACCA was represented by its Head of Country; Thomas Isibor, Business Development Manager, heading the Norther Region of Nigeria; Mr Anthony Chukwuma and Evelyn Isioye; Key Account Manager.

Some of highlights of this collaborative partnership arrangement include: provision of learning support to the Baze University students and academics; integration and embedding of ACCA curriculum into Baze University curriculum; accreditation of Baze, Accounting department and collaborating to enhance the curriculum; and capacity building to develop capability of the faculty to deliver ACCA tuition to fast track the students journey with the ACCA.

In his remarks, Baze University’s Vice Chancellor, Prof. Mamman Tahir, commended ACCA for demonstrating a high level global professional accounting leadership position by its value offerings to the University.

Idris said the university had been repositioned to take a leadership role in providing academic and professional development in accounting in African sub-region.

According to the ACCA, “the partnership is further strengthened by the alignment of vision for both institutions. The vision of the university to be a distinctive quality-based educational institution, making a difference in the nation’s history through positive impact of its services and its graduate output excites and inspires us.

“We are keen to support its quality to provide university education to British standards in Nigeria at about half the cost of sending a student to study abroad. Our vision for this University is to further strengthen its reputation at a national and global level by bridging the gap between academic and professional education for its students thereby improving employability and supporting the capacity development of its faculty.”

Federal Capital Territory. Officially recognized by the National Universities Commission of

Nigeria, Baze University is a coeducational Nigerian higher education institution. Baze University offers courses and programs leading to officially recognized higher education degrees such as bachelor degrees, master degrees in several areas of study. See the uniRank degree levels and areas of study matrix below for further details. This 9 years old Nigerian higher-education institution has a selective admission policy based on entrance examinations and students’ past academic record and grades. International applicants are eligible to apply for enrollment. Baze University also provides several academic and non-academic facilities and services to students including a library, housing, sports facilities, as well as administrative services.

The University offers various academic programmes for undergraduate and post-graduate degrees. A total of 43 undergraduate degree programs are run at the university under the following faculties:

• Faculty of Management and Social Sciences
• Faculty of Law
• Faculty of Computing and Applied Sciences
• Faculty of Engineering
• Faculty of Environmental Sciences
• Faculty of Medical and Health Sciences

The Department was established in 2011 with highly qualified academic and administrative staff. The first set of Computer Science graduates finished in 2014 with twenty-seven (27) students. Since then five (5) sets have graduated to-date. The Department presently has 23-full time members of academic staff with 5 in professorial cadre and Senior academic staff with varied areas of specialization in Computing, IT, Software Engineering, Cybersecurity and Information Security and Information System Management. Currently the department has more than 300 Students. The Department commenced MSc postgraduate program in Computer Science with five specializations in 2019.

The Departmental Programs comprise both theoretical and hands-on practical to meet the needs of industry. Specialized courses and topics were introduced on NUC minimum academic benchmark to enhance course models with professional certification topics in Oracle, Cisco & IBM academia.

In addition, emerging technologies in ICT such as Information security, Ethical Hacking (CEH), Internet of Things (IOT) are all embedded in Undergraduate and Postgraduate programs in Computer Science. Our students are expected to demonstrate their innovative and research expertise via a high-quality thesis (of a publishable standard) that contributes to research knowledge or a practicum that solves a significant practical problem in the industry or society at large.

The Department also promotes research in technology incubation in meeting challenges of 21st century. Computer Science department will build capacity and develop human capital to the highest level possible in the field of Computer Science to safeguard the information superhighway (Internet), create global jobs to boast the economy and create wealth for the nation reduce unemployment and poverty. Our alumni continue to demonstrate excellence in Postgraduate Programs in prestigious universities abroad (UK, US, Canada etc.) and are also presently working in various prestigious organizations at National & International levels.

1.2 Problem Statement of the Study

The current course management allocation for academic staff (lecturers) at Department of computer science, Baze University is being done manually which causes inaccuracy on the number of courses given to the lecturer. Other than that, lecturers could not get the preferred course according to their expertise. And also, the courses are difficult to manage according to the changes. So also there will be needs of developing an automated system that will handle the shortcoming of the current problems at hand to provide better solutions.

The problems found in the current system (manual system) are:

• Absence of an automated system to capture and store course allocation records.
• Inability to easily update course allocation records.
• Difficulty in obtaining reports pertaining to course allocation records.

1.3 Aim and Objectives

The aim of the study is to design and implement an automated course allocation system for Department of Computer science with the following objectives:

To develop a database to register course and store the allocation records for future use.

• To reduce conflicts in course allocation.
• To easily manage course allocation records.
• To eradicate the use of pen and paper
• To automate the process of course allocation.

1.4 Significance of the Study

The system is developed to ease the allocation of courses for the academic semesters. This system will also be giving priority for the lecturers on the expertise field courses to be lectured. The system also will helps on the higher position lecturers to receive on minimum number of courses which can lower their wok burden. It also helps on the research lecturers to by giving low amount of courses assign according to the profile created on the system. Also It will be more flexible that the manual system and easy to use and update course allocation details. Moreover, the system will be online basis where the lecturers and administrator can access the system anytime and anywhere.

1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study

This study is aimed at finding out how the use of automated system can help in course allocation in the computer science department of Baze University, Abuja. The study will only cover the department of computer science due to some limitations and constraints such as:

Time Constraints: Due to the required completion time of this work, it is not possible to extend the work to other departments.

Complexity: Meanwhile extending the research to all departments within institution would lead to completion and complication resulting to liability of the work.

1.6 DEFINITION OF TERMS

Course Allocation: The assignment or earmarking of courses to lecturers involved

University: an educational institution for higher learning that typically includes an undergraduate college and graduate schools in various disciplines, as well as medical and law schools and sometimes other professional schools

Automation: The conversion of manual system to machine (Computer) based system.

Credit Unit: This is the number of hour, practical or tutorial or allocated weeks in each semester. Head of Department: The “Head” as the name implies the controller of director even the person or body at the hem of affair in the department.

Technologist: This is the technological craft man that can dissemble and re-assemble any technical device or machine.

Design and Implementation of Automated Course Allocation System for Lecturers

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