DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STUDY PLANNING APPLICATION FOR BAZE UNIVERSITY

ABSTRACT

 

This is an application that aids any person (students or otherwise) learn new skills and build proper study habits by automating the process of study planning and giving an objectively sound daily schedule for the user. The application allows the user build a study plan and schedule efficiently, as well as manage grades, assignments and exams. The application was able to notify the user during study times and dynamically change the study times to match changes in school or personal timetable as well as the additional feature that allows the user get study material from the application.

The application was not completed due to time constraints but the aspects that were, are fully functioning. This is an application I hope can help students be more organized and dedicate better time to their study habits.

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

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1.1      Overview

This is a research project that deals with the implementation of an app that allows users to create study plans and timetables. In this research project I will present why a study planning app is necessary, how the ideas came into fruition as well as why such an app would even be needed.

A study plan is a summary of subject requirements of a course a student is taking and subjects that should be studied (What is a study plan?, 2020). It shows the student how much of the planned work the students have worked on, how many courses they currently have, and courses and subjects they plan to study in the future. Existing apps already help make this more convenient for students but that is not the only plan for the app I plan on implementing. For this application the goal is not to make an app that allows you create a study planning app that just allows you create digital study plans as those apps already exist and usually cater to people who already use study plans. The goal of the project is to create an app that automates this process by creating timetables for students and recommending topics for the student to study.

1.2      Background and Motivation

Nigerian education, especially in the public sector has been at a state of dysfunction for quite a long time now. Lack of proper infrastructure and lacklustre human capital has been in disarray (Lawal, 2019). Even though funding and budget allocation for education is at an all-time high, it is still well below the recommendation of the United Nations which recommend a percentage of

15% – 20% of the country’s budget be allocated to education as opposed to the country’s current percentage of just 6.7%. Though the value of the allocation is the highest it’s ever been (at approx. ₦671 billion), it’s at a lower percentage than the past three years, which have a percentage of 7.05% in 2019 (at a value of ₦650.5 billion), 7.04% in 2018 (at a value of ₦605.8 billion) and 7.4% in 2017 (valued at ₦550 billion). (Amoo, 2019)

With the information I’ve given above it should be no surprise that education in Nigeria is underfunded, dooming it to be subpar in comparison to countries with better funded education sectors. Nigerian students get underpaid teachers and lecturers who don’t care about student welfare as well as poor facilities for getting work done, leaving the students with the workload and stress of the situation. Students are usually left to study themselves with little to know guidance, with high schools not really fostering better studying habits for its students, considering it’s just as underfunded as the tertiary sectors of public education.

I believe that this project would completely solve this problem but rather reduce it. With students able to learn how and when to study themselves with greater convenience it’ll help improve performance and lessen the damage done by our poor education sector.

Study planning is a massive part of a student’s life; a fact that can be corroborated by must students in high schools or universities. This is most true for students of Universities and other tertiary institutions where there is no clear structure or plan for studying for the students unlike most high schools who have study halls and other enforced periods of studying. This means freer time on the hands of students and no real guidance or study habits which leads to higher rates of procrastination. (Gogoi, n.d.)

The main motivation for this project is to help students maximize this time so that it is utilized properly. It’s to make it easier for users to properly plan out and suggest study periods, topics, materials, etc. This, I believe will help boost student performance and help foster proper study habits in students.

1.3      Statement of the Problem

The ability to correctly plan out and exercise proper and well thought out study plans is a skill most, if not all students should possess. It is also a process that is difficult to master, especially for students entering the college atmosphere newly and not use to dictating when and what to study without any form of guidance. This leads to students finding it difficult to manage their school lives and managing their time properly.

A lack of proper guidance or studying habits brings nothing but difficulties to students since its hard to manage studying along with the course load they take on and any extra-curricular work they might have. Even assuming they came to universities with these skills, they most likely didn’t also come knowledge on most the subjects they will be taking or any material that would be better for them during their studies (unless their recommended by lecturers).

An app that not only helps students with this process, but also makes it more enjoyable and convenient for the student would be a great help. Apps that act as a basic study planner already prove to be very helpful using present technology available in average PCs and mobile devices to help study planning more convenient, but very few features are added to these apps that separate them from a physical study planner. This means that if you weren’t into using physical study planners, not much will convince you to gravitate towards these kinds of apps. However, what I believe would is an that that not only acts as a study planner but as a kind of study guide that helps students not just keep track of their studying but rather assists them in their studying.

1.4      Aim and Objectives

This is an application that aids any person (students or otherwise) learn new skills and build proper study habits by automating the process of study planning and giving an objectively sound daily schedule for the user. The application takes account of the subjects the user is studying, the difficulty of those subjects and the free time the user has available. The application would then weight the difficulty of the subjects taken and build a timetable for the user based on this data, allocating time to each subject based on its difficulty and priority on your own personal timetable. The application will be able to notify the user during study times and dynamically change the study times to match changes in school or personal timetable as well as have an optional feature to suggest study topics to the user.

1.5      Significance of the Project

The most significant area of life this project would benefit would have to be academia. With the current state of education in Nigeria and that fact, as stated earlier in this document (in the problem statement) the decreasing investment in education of the country, educational institutions are starting to become less reliable by the day. Lack of resources and strikes have been a common practice by these institutions but have shown to be getting worse in this current time. In fact, during the year of the conception of this project, The Academic Staff Union of Universities have been on strike since March of 2020 with the date of resumption still unknown.         This has been compounded by the effects of the pandemic that has devastated the world and halted the activities of most schools, forcing most students out of school or continuing their education from home with minimal supervision or assistance from their various schools. This has made learning and studying a burden to most students with most finding it difficult to pay attention to classes done over conferencing software, with many students complaining about grasping what they are being taught in class.

The proposed application would be most significant in this area. It will help students’ study with ease, helping them manage their time properly and getting proper studying material and tutors. Study planner is only a generic term used to describe this application as it will be an application not just for making study plans but recommendations of studying materials and securing help in the various topics and material recommended to you. With most students being forced to learn on their own nowadays, an application that would help students not only manage their time properly but not stress about what to study or which topics require more time and where to get the best material for that topic would be of immense importance.

 

 

1.6      Project Risks Assessment

[This section briefly explains the risks of the study – those aspects the researcher cannot control.]

RISKS

Inability to carry out research due to loss of hardware/software resources	Be aware of and observe school IT security procedures   Secure Android mobile phone when not in use.
Loss of work due to equipment failure /loss	Weekly data backup to H drive
Software availability (Unavailability of API’s)	Alternative API’s will be checked for.  Software requirements will be identified in good time for possible contentious software
Late delivery of hardware component	Hardware requirements will be identified in good time to be able to order them in good time

    Table 1.1 Risk Assessment

 

 

1.7      Scope/Project Organization

This thesis is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 introduces the project overview, the objectives, the significance and a general outline for the direction of the project. Chapter 2 contains the literature examining historical perspective and ascertaining a context for the project. Chapter 3 examines the requirements, analysis and design. Chapter 4 reviews the implementation, testing and evaluation of the system. Finally, Chapter 5 concludes the project, examining the limitations and suggesting possible improvements to the system and the project as a whole.

DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF STUDY PLANNING APPLICATION FOR BAZE UNIVERSITY

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