AUTOMATED COURSE TIMETABLE AND CLASSROOM FIXTURE
ABSTRACT
The manual system of generating a timetable is a tedious job for educationalist in colleges with large number of students with respect to time and manpower which usually ends up with various classes clashing or multiple lectures assigned to a particular lecturer. Providing an automatic timetable generator will help to generate exam and class timetable automatically and help save time. The target here is to develop a simple, efficient and easily accessible application using php scripting language with xamp server, which will ease the process of generating and distributing timetables. The system will be very easy to use, interactive and less complex interface with inputs like teacher’s name, the data for the rooms, data for the labs and the data for the courses. The system will have a well-designed database to store all the information entered as input. Instead of tedious paperwork, the students and the faculty can use this user-friendly system to view the timetable with ease instead.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
The case of automated course time table and classroom fixture can be described as a process of getting limited time we have shared or scheduled in order to meet the desirable needs. To attain this goal, it is of most important to introduce the modern time table system, in order to make academics easier for both students and lecturers alike (Ezeala, 2011).
The advert of computer has brought many changes in our daily life today in the sense that many institutions no longer use the manual way of processing course time table and classroom fixture and those that still use the manual method are working towards the new information system. In other words, the manual way of processing time table and classroom fixture has been creating a lot of problems in the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa, particularly, the Department of computer science. Problems like, classroom allocation for each lecture clashes and improper time allocation for each lecture are the most rampant(Godwin,2020)
The use of automated course timetable and classroom fixture will make the above-mentioned problems a thing of the past and will enable proper time management among lecturers and students preventing clashing of all kinds (e.g. lecture hall clashes, course clashing etc.) (Bayo,2017).
1.2 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Computer can be seen as an electronic device which accept and produces information following a set of instructions. (Jerry,2019). Hence, the use of computer is widely accepted in many establishments and institutions.In the story of many institutions, the issue of computer is yet to be settled but with the present information age, the solution is in view. (Lawal, 2018).
It clearly shows that this institution has been facing a lot of problems in terms of course timetable and classroom fixture, which has necessitated theneed for automation of current system of course timetable and classroom fixture processing in the institution (Fatima,2020).
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEMS
The institution,Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa, particularly the Department of computer science should allow their course timetable and classroom fixture to be automated to solve the following problems:
i. Insufficiency in classrooms thereby leading to a problem in the allocation of classrooms for the courses available in any semester.
ii. Clashing of lectures; this is very common in situations where there are insufficient classrooms and too many coursesin a semester.
iii. Problems of time allocation; this deals with the number of hours that will be spent during each lecture and show many hours we have for a working day.
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVES
This project work is necessitated by the fact that the existing methods of time table and classroom allocation are not efficient. Among the problems are classroom allocations for lecturers and students, and soon. The aim of this study is to eliminate or reduce problems encountered during manual processing of student course timetable and classroom fixtures.
The objectives can be enumerated as follows;
i. Developing a program that would help the management in producing effective timetable to enhance learning and teaching.
ii. Remove the problems encountered during manual system of coursetimetable allocation to prevent any set back in the department.
iii. Minimize the stress, time and cost of the manual system of generating a course time table.
iv. Create an easy way of producing the time and classroom fixture by using the computer system.
v. Finally, to replace the old system with an automated course timetable allocation.
1.5 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
The automation of student time table and classroom fixture is to relieve the management of the Federal Polytechnic Nasarawa of the difficulties of time table and classroom allocations. At the end of this project, the following benefits are expected by the staff in charge of the course timetable and classroom fixture;
i. Reduce pressure on preparation of course timetable and classroom allocations.
ii. Reduce the time spentin the old classroom fixtures that is the proposed system to generate course timetable to the Department without wasting much time.
iii. Finally, it will help the department in providing actual times, for each course for their teaching staff everyday throughout the semester.
1.6 SCOPE AND LIMITATIONS
A research into the present student’s time table and classroom fixture system has shown that the automation of student’s time table system is a necessary process (Alabi,2020).
The scope of the study is:
i. Analyzing the processes and problems involved in the course time table and classroom fixture preparation in the institution.
ii. Produce an elective timetable processing system that will be constantly used every semester without lecture clashes.
iii. Use PHP scripting language to create a system that will be used in time and classroom allocation to avoid clashes of lectures.
1.7 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The method adopted for the purpose of this project is hereby analyzed one after the other. The data that will be captured will be comprising the courses, the classrooms available and finally the time allocation, that is, the period interval between each course. All of these will be inform of data flowing from one module to another. At anytime that it is needed by the user, there will be definite data or key that will be selected before the aim will be achieved (Emmanuel, 2011). For the purpose of this study, the method used in collecting information in this research work, “Automated Students Time Table And Classroom Fixture System” was gotten through;
1. Interview; This is face to face communication between the researcher and the respondents. In this method of data collection, the researcher asks his questions verbally while the respondent replies verbally.
2. Observation Method; In this method, the researcher makes duly an observation of the manual method of student time table and classroom fixture system to see how this is carried out in order to create an easy way to achieve the new proposed time table and classroom fixture system.
3. General Research; This method has to do with carrying out some investigations in order to know how the present system is going with the lecturers and students alike.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
1) AUTOMATION: It describes the process of using a machine or computer system to carry out a series of operations with little or without human interruption.
2) COMPUTER: A programmable electronic machine that can accept, store, retrieve and process data to produce accurate and efficient results or to give information (Zack, 2011).
3) TIMETABLE: It is a list showing the time and classroom allocation to course and their lectures (Datt, 2009)
4) CLASSROOM: This is the allocation of venue for teaching of the course by the lecture with the student in the same venue (Alberto, 2000).
5) SYSTEM: this is a set of inter related component that interact with one another to achieve a purpose (Elizabeth, 2021).
6) ALLOCATION: it is a space assignment for each course and time the time for it.