Chapter I INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

An information system is an integrated set of components for collecting, storing, processing and communicating information. Business firms, other organizations, and individuals in contemporary society rely on information systems to manage their operations, compete in the market place, supply services and augment personal lives. Information system projects sometimes are initiated to improve the accuracy of the processing data or ensure that a procedure prescribing how to do specific task is always followed. A computer can maintain accurate and consistent database, hence resulting is an improved performance. The study focuses on one type of information system which is the student information system. A Student Information System (SIS) is a software application for educational establishments to manage student data. Student Information System (SIS) is available to all students and allows them to view course listings, view grades, access student financial accounts and verify personal information. Palawan State University has seven colleges; the group has chosen the College of Business and Accountancy as their subject. The study is entitled College of Business and Accountancy Student Information System, this system will focus mainly on storing and retrieving of student data. Because of the fact that it holds thousands of students, making it the college with the biggest population ever since, having this information system available in their management will contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of managing and reporting student records. With its drive for education excellence, the Palawan State University ardently tried to reach its goals of producing globally competitive students with its quality education and services. The College of Business and Accountancy has consistently lived up to its goal of producing competent graduates equipped with sufficient and up-to-date knowledge and skills which they need to face the unending challenges of global development and changes in the industry and community.

Currently, the College of Business and Accountancy is using the manual system of getting and storing student information. This practice has been used for years since the CBA started its operations. This kind of system adds a lot of work and has a number of disadvantages. Since the university itself wants to give quality education and services, as what has been stated, and the College of Business and Accountancy is there to help and assist the students with their needs and improve academic excellence, the proposed system, the College of Business and Accountancy Student Information System will be a tool in achieving all of these. This will serve as the stepping stone towards the CBAs technological advancement.

Description of the Existing System The College of Business and Accountancys manual information system begins with the occurrence of the day to day transactions. During enrollment, the new students are required to fill up a form for their personal data and other forms. These are kept in folders and are filed. The same is done to the daily transactions of the CBA in regard with student concerns.

Statement of the Problem Because of the manual system of gathering and storing student data used by the College of Business and Accountancy faculty, the following questions arise: 1. What improvements could the College of Business and Accountancy make in the process of recording student-related transactions? 2. How could the problems related to the use of the manual system be lessened? 3. How could the faculty quickly search student data needed in thousands of student records? 4. How can the faculty help the students in their academic performance?

Objectives of the Study The group aims to accomplish the following objectives: General objective y To build a secure, flexible, easy to maintain environment for creating and maintaining academic and student records through a computerized College of Business and Accountancy Student Information System. y y y y Build a foundation for student systems that can be easily expanded to other departments. Measure, evaluate, and plan for continuous improvement. Improved access to information greater access to more data on a timelier basis. Improved reporting and decision-support capability.

Specific objectives y Quick access of grades, students schedule and others is expected which is beneficial to CBA students. y Add special features in the system: grades, graduates, and deficiencies of the CBA students. y y Store data related to the concerns or needs of the CBA students. Help the faculty and staff to improve their record-keeping strategies.

Scope and Delimitations of the Study The proposed system is concerned with the student information of the students in the College of Business and Accountancy here in Palawan State University main campus. It will only focus on the profile, schedules, grades, deficiencies of the students.

The system involves only the storing and retrieving of student data. It will limit the number of users, the College Dean for viewing purposes, the College Secretary and Deans Secretary for viewing and data input. The additional users will be decided by the authorized persons (the ones mentioned) if there is still a need for it.

Significance of the Study Due to the very large volume of student data, it is very hard to handle this great quantity manually or through an inefficient information system, hence resulting to a slow processing speed. Adapting the College of Business and Accountancy Student Information System will be a great help to the faculty and staff of the CBA in terms of being more systematic on handling student-related transactions or services. The use of the proposed system will be more efficient and useful than using the existing system alone. Once the system is implemented, time involved in the processing and retrieval of information will be minimized, less error in data entry making it provide accurate information, removal of data as a result of redundancy, there will be a bigger capacity to store and manipulate data entered to it and it will generate monthly/yearly reports. A lot of benefits will be acquired through this proposed system since it has a number of advantages including the ones mentioned.

Chapter III RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Research Design The study made use of the system analysis and design in determining the existing manual system and the development of the computer-based system for the storing and retrieving of student data.

Data Gathering Procedure To develop a computerized system, the group has done different methods of data gathering for the purpose of learning more about the existing system and analyzing what the proposed system must be. Request of permission has been done through formal letter which was received by Dr. Carmen Fernandez on August 3, 2010. Interview schedules were made. The group only had the chance to interview the deans secretary ________________. Impromptu questions were asked regarding the functioning of the CBA faculty in terms of student data gathering, the problems that arises, as well as what the secretarys opinion on having a student information system. Survey was also conducted to know the side of the CBA students in regard with the proposed system and the existing system. The purpose of this is to find out how satisfied the students are with the existing system and how willing they are in adapting a student information system. After gathering all the completed questionnaires from 30 respondents, total responses from each item were obtained and tabulated.

Research Procedure

Planning Phase During the planning phase, the group defined what to develop, how to develop and when it will be developed. In this phase, the concept is developed to describe how the faculty will work once the proposed system is implemented and assess how the system will affect the transactions between the CBA students and faculty. To ensure the feasibility of the project, work plans and schedules have been prepared in this phase. The goal during this phase is to create a student information system for the College of Business and Accountancy faculty.

Analysis Phase In this phase, the needs of the students and the faculty in charge of the transactions are identified. With this, the goal is defined on the basis of its functions. The group decided to develop a system that will store and retrieve information quickly. Collection of data is necessary in this phase. Interview and survey was used. Interview was done with the faculty in charge of student-related transactions and survey was conducted to the CBA students.

Design Phase This phase describes the desired features and operations of the computerized system. The group began the design process with solution design and layout that became a part of the designs and functional specifications. These functions are included so that the proposed system will perform tasks that will benefit the end-users.

Implementation Phase Codes are written here in order to run the said system. The system has been built based on what was documented and designed. The goal here is to implement the use of the proposed system correctly in accordance with the project plan. This includes the installation process and training of users.

Maintenance Phase Inevitably the system will need maintenance. Software will definitely undergo change once it is delivered to the customer. There are many reasons for the change. Change could happen because of some unexpected input values into the system. In addition, the changes in the system could directly affect the software operations. The software should be developed to accommodate changes that could happen during the post implementation period. There is a need for a system programmer in this phase.

Chapter IV PRESENTATION OF DATA

Description of the proposed system The proposed system is designed to make a computerized routine in keeping student records that will allow easy access to desired information. To get into the system, the users are required to enter their username and password for security purposes. If it matches the pre-recorded data, the main form would be presented. There are three levels of users provided. For the Dean Secretarys form, the user, which is the admin, could have a full access in the system. Clicking on the menu bar, all the command buttons are present and are functioning. This allows the user to enter, edit, save and print student data. For the Deans form, the user, which is the level1, is only allowed to use few command buttons. This user is made for viewing purposes only, but the user can edit the student information. For the College Secretarys form, the user, named as skylancer in the program, can also have access in all command buttons except that the administrator option here is disabled. It has the same functions as that of the users but it cannot have access with the profile and password of the users of the Student Information System. In the file menu, there you can see the students profile, grades and schedules. The list of school year, courses and the administrator option is located here. In the reports, you can print here the list of students, the individual report of the students, the list of graduates and the list of students with grade deficiencies. The about menu will show the authors behind the student information system. The tools and windows are added menu button in case the users need it.

Hardware Requirements The implementation of the system requires the following hardware: Processor -Intel Pentium 4 or higher / 2.0 Gigahertz (GHz) or higher Memory 1 Gigabyte or higher DVD ROM RW One (1) - Unit Monitor -18 LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) One (1) Unit Keyboard Standard QWERTY

One (1) Unit Optical Mouse One (1) Unit Printer -Epson One (1) Unit Uninterrupted Power Supply (UPS) -1000 volts One (1) Unit Automatic Voltage Regulator (AVR) One (1) Unit Scanner

Software Requirements The system requires the following software: Operating System Windows XP A series of Microsoft operating systems for use on general-purposes computer systems. Application Software Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0 A language rapid application development environment that gives fast, easy, and intuitive tools to quickly develop Windows applications. Using Visual Basic, one can develop simple utilities or sophisticated applications. Data access features allow you to create databases, front-end applications, and scalable server-side components for most popular database formats. MySQL Server 5.0 with the MySQL Administrator 1.1.9 and MySQL Connector -MySQL stands for My Structured Query Language. The program runs as a server providing multi-user access to a number of databases. Crystal Report -integrates with the Microsoft Visual Basic 5 and Visual Basic 6 IDEs. It also with the VBA IDE (the VBE) in office 2000. It can also open, design, and customize reports from the VB / VBE. It provides report design and report publication features. Microsoft Office -word, excel, access

User Requirements 1. Must be trained in running the system. 2. Has knowledge about computer. 3. Good keyboarding skills with knowledge in using word processing, excel, and database applications.

Chapter V SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Summary Based on the analysis of the costs and benefits, the proposed system total benefits equal to PhP 61,640.75 exceeded the total costs of PhP 50,745 incurred in making it. The net benefits of PhP ____________ from the student information system are greater than the manual information system benefits of PhP ________. Through the use of the student information system, the College of Business and Accountancy faculty would be able to simplify the tasks done. This will give the students, as well as the personnel, the ability to quickly and accurate locate information of registered inquiries from prospective students. This will keep track of the current and past student records, this will also generate monthly or per semester reports in order to make decisions and guide the students with their academic performance. Conclusion Based on the information presented in the summary, it is concluded that the implementation of the College of Business and Accountancy Student Information System would contribute a lot of benefits helping the faculty give its quality services to the students. Recommendations The group recommends the use of the proposed College of Business and Accountancy Student Information System since the said college has the largest population of students compared to other colleges in the university. With the said features of the proposed system, there will be improvements with the CBAs services for the students. But, the system is still open for developments to solve the delimitations of the study since a student information system has a variety of features or functions.

INTERFACE OF THE SYSTEM