Design and Implementation of a Centralized University Result Processing and Transcript System: Case study of University of Ibadan

and Implementation of a centralized university


INTRODUCTION
The result-processing and transcript generation are two tasks within tertiary institutions that link the academic section with the administrative section. The academic section examines the students, grade the examinations and award scores for each course taught in the semester. The Department approves the scores at a meeting and directs the examination officer to process the overall performance of students in the department for that session and to distribute the scores to departments who have students with scores in a course taught in that department. Examination officers have a variety of options (e.g., calculators, excel sheets, bespoke programs) to use in processing or calculating the overall performance of each student in the department. The processed results of each level of study from the Departments are presented to the Faculty Board for approval. The Faculty, in conjunction with the Examinations Office, on behalf of the Departments presents the results to Senate for approval. The Senate approval is final. This process is the same for both final year and non-final year students. All other activities such as transcript generation and statement of results occur after senate approval. The University of Ibadan Act (1962) section 5 part 2c empowers Senate as follows "the 91 organization and control of courses of study at the university and of the examinations held in conjunction with those courses." The administrative section involvement in result processing and transcript generation starts from the departmental and faculty level, where the administrative staff assists in preparation for the Faculty Board or Senate meeting. The Examinations Office decides on the format of result presentation at the Faculty and Senate level of the University. After Senate approval of the presented results, the administrative section is in charge of transcript generation and endorsement.
The relationship between the academic and administrative sections has been mutually satisfactory. However, the relationship did not include the student population who are the owners of the processed scores. The forceful entrance of students into the relationship changed the dynamics, responsibilities and deliverables as it relates to academic performance. The bid to integrate and meet the demands of students for timely dissemination of results, reduce the transcript generation time for graduates, improve retrieval of results from departmental archives and the need to reduce result computation period led to this work. The aim of this work is to develop an automated and secured result processing system that generates appropriate reports such as transcripts and statements of results. The grading system at University of Ibadan is based on the seven-point system (Faculty of Science Prospectus, 2013) as opposed to the four-point system currently proposed by the National Universities Commission (NUC). Ukem and Ofoegbu (2012) developed a computer software application to facilitate the automated processing of undergraduate results to eliminate tedious and error prone processes. The software was developed in Java programming language and PHP while employing MYSQL Relational Database Management System. The developed software works based on the five point system of the National Universities Commission (NUC) with user access limited to three roles: Super Administrator, Staff Administrator and Staff. The software computed Grade Point Average and Cumulative Grade Point Average for each student based on examination scores entered. The software is secured by only passwords; not web-based thus access is restricted; requires manual entry of scores and does not generate reports. The software focused on results processing at the departmental level only.

LITERATURE REVIEW
In Oyeyinka and Oladipo (2015), the result processing software was re-engineered into a multi-modal system (data access layer, program logic layer and the user interface) comprising of five major modules designed for specific user groups with assign privileges. The system operates in online and offline mode and has ability for forward and backward integration with the student course registration portal. User feedback was accepted to ensure all requirements were met. However, the software relies on manual collation of student's scores for every course taken before computation.

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Akinmosin (2014) developed a single platform to manage the processing of all examination records within Nasarawa State University, Nigeria. The system has two levels of design models: physical and logical. The physical model refers to the interfaces between users, the result system and user devices; while the logical model consists of the database. The data used for testing was obtained from the Department of Physics, Nasarawa State University. The performance evaluation showed that the system is still under development and requires customization to the grading system of the University.
In Cadar, Teytelman and Trusova (2003) a design of a system that replaces paper transcripts with computerized records that are secure, safe, convenient and practically impossible to falsify was presented. The design is based on Authenticated Grade Records (AGRs), which are used to record a grade for a particular subject/course, record the number of classes taken in a particular term and certify that a degree was received. These records are computerized and are digitally signed with private keys, using the RSA algorithm to ensure authenticity. Universities then carry out the verification process using the public keys received either from the sending University or Educational institution. This work is applicable to the output of the result processing and transcript system where a framework of interconnected institutions exist such as that provided by NUC.
Oluwasegun, Akomolafe and Oyedeji (2015) provided a biometric-based solution for the security issues affecting result processing in tertiary institutions in Nigeria. The fingerprint authentication system was developed using VisualBasic.net. Staff fingerprints were enrolled into the system to form a biometric template which the system validates against at every login attempt on the result processing software. The result processing software also ensures that all write transactions to the database are confirmed and identified by forcing another biometric authentication at the point of making a write request to the web server and associated database. This ensures that the exact person initiating the transaction was the same user who logged in to the application. The users identified at login and various confirmation milestones set for write transactions are logged into a table for future reference and audit trail. The security of data into the system is considered by this solution. Iwuagwu (2013) documented issues students face when requesting for transcripts as evidence of academic performance. Some of the identified issues include misplaced records, dependence on paper records and limited storage for physical files. A computerized information system was proposed and demonstrated. The proposed system is not based on any requirements hence the functionalities are limited. Ajayi, Lawal and Isheyemi (2015) provided a mobile application for users to request for transcripts from an educational institution. The mobile application was developed to target the android mobile platform with Java Android Programming (Native App) as the language of development. The Hybrid Mobile App with HTML5 and JavaScript was compiled with Phonegap. ObjectOriented PHP served as the frontend with MySQL 93 database as the backend. This mobile app prevented hacking of transferred data by employing md5 checksum for data encryption. Ogwuche and Oyerinde (2015) investigated the implementation of information retrieval and indexing in an academic transcript system. The work sought to reduce the time consumed in comparing and finding student records saved in different tables. An algorithm that would optimize data and preserve them in an eco-friendly manner, improving the indexing and retrieval process of the system was implemented and evaluated. Pandya (2010) designed and implemented a transcript tracking system for transcripts submitted at California State University, United States of America. The system accommodates multiple points of entry and allows staff to efficiently track the acceptance and routing of a transcript. The system interacts with the existing student portal and provides real time status of the processing of the transcript turned in and additional reports needed for audit processes.
From the related works reviewed, it will be seen that academic institutions have challenges handling result processing and transcript systems. The solutions proposed, designed and implemented have ranged from academic perspectives to mobile users and security. In this work the aim is to implement a secured result processing and transcript system.

METHODOLOGY
This work was done using the experimental approach. The proposed Result Processing and Transcript System consist of four modules. The modules interact and are integrated to meet the requirements specified in the Faculty Handbook/Prospectus and the Student Information Handbook. The Software Development Life Cycle was adopted for the development of the Result Processing and Transcript System. The modules for the result processing and transcript system are shown in Figure 1. The Result Processing and Transcript System uses forms, databases, algorithms and reports to meet all the requirements and functionalities desired by students, staff and external agencies such as World Educational Services (WES). Figure 2 shows the functionalities available on the Result Processing and Transcript System.
The forms serve as input to the system with some of the following data fields available scores for a course; student identification number for a course taught and examination administered; session, course code, department, faculty and report type. The database stores student bio-data, course details such as code, title, number of units, scores, computed results, staff names and position. The processing module consists of algorithms for computation and report generation using the rules and regulations from the handbook. Sub modules exist for final year students and non-final year students. The reports serve as output from the system allowing such functions as view, print, send by email and send by SMS. The system is web-based, using PHP for the programming and MySQL for the database, and accessible only via local network connection with computer MAC address authentication.

RESULTS
The program was used by most departments in Faculty of Science for the 2013/2014 session as a pilot study. The Faculties of Law, Arts and The Social Sciences are currently using the system. To implement the result-processing program, a server to host the program and student data and results was provided. All users (Lecturers, Examine Officers, Head of Departments, Deans and Record Officers) in the University will access records from the same domain thereby eliminating problems of redundancy and inconsistency in records. The result calculation process for each department was confirmed by the Head of Department, because the program uses content from the Faculty Handbooks. The student data (bio-data and course registration) was collected from the student portal while the department provides the approved scores for each course taught. The program calculates the results and produces outputs based on several formats e.g. faculty, senate, etc.

Figure 2. Services Available
Users login to the application through a unified interface. Authentication was done via system MAC address and login details specific to a department for the purpose of security. When authenticated, users are granted access to different services provided by the system as shown in Fig 2. The services available include data upload, reports and so on. Users can only upload results for the courses taught in their department. The session and course are selected on the interface, while results are uploaded in .csv format as in Figure 3. The .csv file has 2 columns for matriculation number and score.

Figure 4. System copy of results uploaded
A report is generated at the end of the upload to state the level of success and display data stored for each student for the course uploaded. The printed report is endorsed by the Course Lecturer and the Head of Department as security against tampering from System Administrators or system failure. Figure 4 shows the scores uploaded for students who took the course GEY234 with the date and time uploaded.  The format for the presentation of non-final year students to the Faculty Board, shown in Figure 7, contains details for assessing a student performance without reference to specific courses. The report gives the Faculty Board an overview of the students' performance in a level of study without revealing personal data. In Figure 8 the departmental format for result processing shows the scores for the courses taken by students at a level of study. This report guides lecturers at the departmental level in assessing students and making decisions. Statement of Results, as in Figure 9, are used to report the academic progress of students who are not graduating but require an official record of their academic performance e.g. scholarship, grants, visas. The system uses available results in the database to generate this report. At the University of Ibadan, statement of results is generated for students at the end of each semester and session. The Statement of Results can be sent to the e-mail addresses provided by students in their bio-data. The program generates the University Transcript as shown in Figure 10. The process is automated and based on scores in the database. The student must fulfill all regulations, as stated in the Faculty Handbook, to graduate before the system can generate a transcript. The transcript can be printed and endorsed for official use. The program has a built-in analytical tool that produces charts of academic performance of students in a level of study, department and faculty. The charts are generated using the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) of the students. In Figure 11 the chart shows that only 5 students are in the first class division and 31 in the second class upper division category.

CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
Result processing and Transcript generation, that had been done manually and in a difficult manner, has been digitized by this software. The design of the software is based on university regulations for admission and graduation, senate approved curriculum and security requirements. In this work, a system capable of collecting students scores, storing the scores for each student, securing the scores, calculating the results per semester with cumulative grade point, generating reports that meet university and external agencies requests, and providing multiple ways of sharing the results. The Agile method of software development was used to make the design iterative and development faster. The result processing and Transcript system is functional and operational at the University of Ibadan, Nigeria.