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Enrollment system

2009-10-05T20:44:00.000-07:00

Enrollment systems are used in recording a student’s information. A well built one will reduce the load on the People that normally have to-do all the work. The University of Southeastern Philippines adopted new enrollment system for this school year 2009-2010.
Enrollment system is a good step for the school. Enrollment system is useful specially when the school retrieves the important information from the student. In the enrollment system, the school can trace what are the standings of the students. Lack of enrollment system in a school it can lead to chaos and troubles, the students will be confuse on what they should do and how they will do to be able to enroll. It is extremely useful in the school in the way of making the processes of enrolling much easy.

Enrollment system

For New and Transferees

First, the student will go to UGTO. They will encode the student information and also they will assign an ID number for the student. Next, go to the OSS (this is for the scholars only). The student must get and fill up the scholarship application then wait for the releasing of scholarship cards. After that, the student will go to ROTC or CWTS the they will register there and they will have the assign sectioning of CWTS or ROTC students, then their CWTS or ROTC slip will b released. The fourth step is they must go to their respected college and present all the enrollment requirements. But before they will present all the requirements they must go to their assigned adviser for advising for subjects so that they can get and fill up the pre-registration form, after it was filled up, the student must pay the other fees of the Local council, OCSC, Headlight and Insurance. After that the student will submit the pre-registration form so that the subjects will be encoded. After that a temporary COR will be given. If the student is a scholar the student will go to the students accounts and submit the temporary COR. For non-scholars, the student will pay at the cashier and submit the temporary COR then an official receipt will be given. Than the sixth step is the student will go to registrar’s office and submit the enrollment requirements (the Form 138 -high school card, the Photocopy of NSO Birth certificate, the USEPAT entrance exam result, the Admission slip, the Medical certificate, the Certificate of Good Moral –original, the 2x2 recent ID picture- must be 2 pieces, the prospectus of the enrolled course, a Long brown envelop, the Official receipt of tuition and other fees) then after that, the official COR will be given to the student.

For Old Students

First, the all Student Accounts must be cleared first; they must check the student accounts, check the balance, and then clearance signing. After that the next step is go to their respected college and present all the enrollment requirements. But before they will present all the requirements they must go to their assigned adviser for advising for subjects so that they can get and fill up the pre-registration form, after it was filled up, the student must pay the other fees of the Local council, OCSC, Headlight and Insurance. After that the student will submit the pre-registration form so that the subjects will be encoded. After that a temporary COR will be given. If the student is a scholar the student will go to the students accounts and submit the temporary COR. For non-scholars, the student will pay at the cashier and submit the temporary COR then an official receipt will be given. Than the sixth step is the student will go to registrar’s office and submit the enrollment requirements (the Official receipt of tuition and other fees) then after that, the official COR will be given to the student.

For Student Who Shift Courses

First, the all Student Accounts must be cleared first; they must check the student accounts, check the balance, and then clearance signing. Before the student will proceed to the next step, the student must go to its Former College and have a Request to shift form and fill it up. Then the student must also get a recommendation to shift. After that the student will go to its new college then have an acceptance to shift. Then the student can proceed now to the next step, the advising for subject and fill up the pre-registration form. The fourth step is, the student will go to UGTO/OSS for student profile uploading, then after that the student must pay the other fees of the Local council, OCSC, Headlight and Insurance. After that the student will submit the pre-registration form so that the subjects will be encoded. After that a temporary COR will be given. If the student is a scholar the student will go to the students accounts and submit the temporary COR. For non-scholars, the student will pay at the cashier and submit the temporary COR then an official receipt will be given. Than the sixth step is the student will go to registrar’s office and submit the enrollment requirements (the Official receipt of tuition and other fees) then after that, the official COR will be given to the student.

If the university want that the enrolment system be better they must give attention at the cashier in paying tuitions and miscellaneous. Student must be given a priority number and put an electronic number caller in the cahier. So that, their will be no cheaters in the line and students will just wait if their priority number is called.
- At the registrar, I think they try to implement the priority number, but what I’ve noticed was the guard was giving priority numbers but the number was not in order. I don’t see the essence of the priority numbers there, because there are still students who told their classmates to have a reservation in line even though they did not finish yet the step at the cashier.

I heard that the new enrollment system was a VFP. VFP is very a powerful tool for developing desktop applications. We have developed a complete enrolment system for schools using VFP and now it is being used some of the universities here in Mindanao. It has automated evaluation features, prerequisites detections, scheduling and conflict resolution management and more. It makes use of SQL Server as database server and VFP as front-end.

Before, every college does have their own registrar, and to the Institute of Computing, it was really easy and fast because of the small number of students. But now, they made it fair. Maybe the enrollment system was not really effective, but at least, there are improvements.

COMDDAP

2009-09-30T18:05:00.001-07:00

COMDDAP is an association of the country's top information technolgy businesses. Its primary objective is to promote the sustainable development of the of the country's information technology industry through voluntary collaboration of its member companies. It is the goal of COMDDAP to be able to provide its members general views and updates from different sectors - private and government, and highly regarded individuals to further uplift the morale and knowledge of its organization.

The vision of promoting and elevating the standards of Information technology (IT) in the Philippines fueled a group of prominent computer companies to form the Computer Distributors and Dealers Association of the Philippines or COMDDAP. Its initial member-companies represent the world's leading makers and providers of computer product solutions and peripherals.
In 1997, the manufacturing sector - represented by industry leaders Hewlett Packard, Epson and Compaq, among others - was integrated into the COMDDAP membership, making the association a more diverse representation of the IT sector and thus the new name, COMPUTER MANUFACTURERS, DISTRIBUTORS AND DEALERS ASSOCIATION OF THE PHILIPPINES.

It is a three-day expo (July 2-4, 2009) that showcases Information Technology (IT). The expo was held at the Apo View Hotel on the July 2, 2009. Inside the Hotel, are numbers of companies were there to display their products in their respective booths. There as displays of best and latest products offered by different company that is connected to Information Technology.

This is the following sessions I joined on Thursday, July 2, 2009:
*The HP Thin Clients that was during 2:00pm up to 3:00pm
*Retail Management System Overview that was during 3:00pm up to 4:00pm
*Open Source for Business Application that was during 4:00pm up to 5:00pm

The first session I joined introduces the HP Thin Clients. Thin Client is a computing device without the hard drive and fan. The speaker discussed that It has a very low power consumption that ranges about 11W to 20W, which is 80% lower than a desktop computer and also discussed the advantages of the hardware. The hardware was enabled with a higher data security in both hardware and software. It has no moving parts, so therefore every thing inside the hardware is attached to it securely and it will never budge no matter how hard you shake it and it is really is thin. Its height and length is half that of a normal system unit and its width is a quarter.

Retail Management System developed by Microsoft. This software offers the following for its users:

• Streamline Operations- lets the owner view and update the inventory and track the inventory while the user id offline, reserve shipments, purchase order and share reports.

• Improve Profit Margins-easily adjust pricing, identify best selling items, track the return of investment and is employee productivity.

• Build Customer Loyalty-customize receipts, flexible pricing structures, which mean it would be easy to adjust the price if the customer has a discount or any other related.

• Manage Business, Not Technology-easy install and training of employees will not take a huge amount of time. It can also access online help and managing different inventory types is not a problem.

• Have a life outside your business-it eliminates the hassle of always being onsite thus, enabling the user to check his business’ branches or establishments anywhere and anytime.

Next was the Retail Management System Overview

The following are the key features of the RMS:
• Inventory control and tracking
• Purchase order
• Pricing, sales and promotions
• Sales tracking
• Powerful, flexible reports

The major significance is that application of the IT/IS systems are very useful in the business. Especially in dealing with business transactions, manipulation and data security.

The last session I had attended was the Open Source for Business Application. The person who talked in front was Ben Aligre, a Project Manager of Spin Web. Open Source is an approach to the decision develop, it is no vendor lock in the source is open and free to use. It is license software that is free for distribution and access to the source. There was confusion with the word of “free”. Because when you heard the “free software” they find it free as in free beer. And that’s why they change it to Open Source. There are softwares that are non-proprietary or do not need license. These softwares are Open Office, Mozilla Fire fox, Lime wire, Transmission, Ubuntu, Thunder Bird, Pidgin, Gimshop, VLC and many more.

What do you think is/are the reasons why the university decided to tapped in-house resources, was it a good decision?

2009-06-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

First, I would like to discuss my knowledge on the situation. If I remember it correctly, one of our professors in this university openly discussed matters concerning the previous USEP enrollment system to us. He discussed the said enrollment system as an example on one of our lectures. He stated that the university is paying a large amount of money to a certain company that developed the said system. He also stated that the university is only renting the enrollment system. He elaborated it more by stating that the university is renting the said system but not necessarily on a rent to own basis. By that time he stated that the university is planning to shift on a new enrollment system but he did not stated that in-house resources would develop it. Our professor on that subject is Engr. Michael Angelo Cagape in case you still don’t know. He is one of the developers of the new USEP enrollment system.

Second, let us now focus on the facts from my knowledge. One of the fact is the university is spending a lot of money on the previous enrollment system. There is nothing wrong with that because such systems really do cost that much. Let me be clear that I don’t have an idea on the exact amount of the payment the company receives from the university that is why on my point of view spending money on system such as an enrollment system is a harm for the university. Second fact is that the university is only renting the said system. The first question on my mind is “Why rent?” That question really bothered me until I forced myself to think that maybe renting maybe cheaper than buying the said system. On that point I still don’t know about rent to own basis until our professor told us that such basis do exist. So what is a rent to own basis. On what I have learned on that subject, rent to own basis is a form of renting that a company lends another company a system. The later pays the former on a scheduled basis until the later can own the system. I was relieved to know that such basis exists on the field of system development not knowing that I would be shocked on the next thing my professor would tell me. I was really shocked that the university never opted to rent to own the enrollment system. The question, “Why rent?” came back to me. Alas, I really pondered why the university had chosen to rent and pondered more on why not on a rent to own basis. Such things could never be answered unless you are really a curious type of person. So much for pondering on such things let us discuss on my opinion on tapping the in-house resources.

Third, I would now state my opinion on tapping the in-house resources of the university and later on stating my opinion if that decision was a good one. So maybe you are wondering why did this boy discussed so much before answering the question stated above. It is because my statements above would be the basis of my answer not because I want to reach a thousand words. (Maybe I am doing it to reach a thousand words). So much for that so let us enumerate reasons why did the university opted to choose to tap its in-house resources. One obvious reason is that the university finally had realized that renting such system is a big loss to the university. Imagine renting a multi-thousand system and it could never be yours. Let us be realistic here. Owning a something is way better that renting it. I think funding is the main reason why the university finally opted to tap the in-house resources. Let me be clear again that I am only expressing my opinion here and not all my opinions are correct and I am ready to be corrected by someone who knows better that me. Some great minds in our university had seen that the future would not that be nice if the university would still be renting an enrollment system where in fact we have persons inside the university that can are very well qualified to develop such systems. I think another reason is that in-house resources are present in our university. There could be such no excuse such as lack of resources in terms of manpower. We should give the person that made the university realize that such in-house resources do exist a round of applause. So I think that those two reasons are enough for the university to decide to shift to a new enrollment system. Let me recap the reasons for me are the presence of system developers in our university and the other is the funding of an enrollment system. If you were to ask me if tapping in-house resources is a good decision, I would frankly say yes. Yes, it was a very good decision. Why? I would ask you again, “Why not?” We have the resources and the goal of shifting to a new enrollment system is for the good of the university and directly or indirectly it is also for the good of the students. The university has the manpower so I think there is no excuse for not using existing manpower. We could not justify if the change of system would save money by this early but I think as future system developers we could assume that the university can save money in the long run. Yes, it was indeed a good decision. I think no one would protest in a decision that would somehow save money and only those who benefits on the waste of the universities’ (student’s and Filipino’s) money are the only ones that would protest. Although we cannot assess yet the effectiveness of the new system but I do believe that the system could be developed further for the faster and orderly enrollment and what matters most for me is that the enrollment system of the University of Southeastern Philippines is now owned by the university. It is not rented. It is not leased. It is not borrowed. The university now owns it.

Lastly, I would like to share what I have learned by this activity. Although we have already discussed ways of developing systems (in-house, outsourcing, and others), it is still good to recap on such things so that as future system developers we could decide on how is the best way to develop a system. Although it seems on my answer that I am favoring in-house development more than anything else but that is wrong. I don’t favor and way of development. It so just happened that the situation favors in-house development but that could be another topic. Thanks for reading what I had worked hard for and any comments are greatly appreciated.

HELLOOOOOOOO

2009-06-26T20:23:00.001-07:00

Hi I'm Ace Andrion Sandoval, a 4th year Bachelor of Science in Computer Science student.
I'm an eager learner.
Most of the time, I challenge myself to do something better than someone else.
I'm expecting to learn more about system development through group sharing and class sharing.
I expect to be a part of a development that I would be proud of.

To Be System Use Case Diagram

2009-04-02T17:31:00.000-07:00

As- Is system Use Case Diagram

2009-04-02T16:49:00.000-07:00

Assignment 6A

2009-02-17T23:56:00.000-08:00

Round 1: Project Proposal

Having consultation with Dr. Randy S. Gamboa is such a thrilling and unforgettable experience. Each time we step inside the faculty room, my heart pounds hard as if anticipating something big would happen. Yes! Something big would happen. Honestly i don't know how would our professor react to our proposal. Honestly our system is somewhat a punch to the moon (translate: suntok sa buwan) but I believe in my team. I believe we could do it. So there we are standing in front our professor, eager to have his approval for our proposed system. We convinced our professor to take our proposal as if our life depended on it. Our team and our professor have agreed to limit the scope of our study because our professor is concerned of the difficulty of what we are proposing. I think we did great in our proposal but my team was exhausted after that.

Round 2: 1st Consultation

Here we go again. After finishing our planning phase and furnishing the papers, it is time again to meet with our professor. We were the first one to have a consultation with our professor for that day. (I still dont know if it's better first or last) Surprisingly our professor didnt read our paper first. He threw us questions (hard ones) before reading the paper. I did not expect it to go like that but we managed to answer (partial answers) his question. Altough i can feel the pressure building, we still managed to pick ourselves up and deliver the concept of our paper. Defending it at all cost because we worked hard for that paper. Our goal is to have minimal revisions so that we can proceed in the next phase as soon as possible. I think we did great but its not over yet.

Round 3: 2nd Consultation (Coming Soon)

2009-01-26T02:18:00.000-08:00

Here we can see the activity diagram that I made based on my previous answer on assignment 4. Actors including the automated system are separated by a rectangle. Each actor has there own rectangle where use cases are designated. We can see which use case an actor use and also the flow of the enrollment system. We can observe that not all actors can use the automated system that is because customers are only limited to giving information and payments and the users are the one that has direct access to the automated system.

2009-01-18T19:11:00.000-08:00

This image above shows my interpretation of the USEP enrollment system using a use case diagram. According to "wikipedia.com", use case diagram consists of use cases (actions done or processed in the system) , actors (persons involved in the system), relations (determines which actor performs a use case) and boundaries (system boundaries and system boundaries). I based my answer on that description of a use case diagrams.

I will discuss the objects involved in my use case diagrams.

Actors:

Enrollee is considered the customer of this enrollment system. He is the basis of all basic use cases inside the use case diagram.

Treasurer is the actor that collects and assess a student in student fees such as local council fees, publication fees, organization fees and other student collected fees.

Adviser is the actor that identifies the subjects allowed for a student to enroll upon.

Librarian is the actor that registers the student as an officical bearer of an library card.

Cashier is the actor that assess the payments needed for an enrolle to enroll and also collects tuition fees and other university fees.

Encoder is the actor that encodes the subjects of the enrollee.

Registrar is the actor that register the subjects of the enrollee as official subjects of the enrollee.

Use Cases:

Assess Student is the use case used when an actor needs to assess an enrollee.

Pay Assesment is the use case used when an actor performs an action related to payment and collection.

Identify Subjects is the use case used when an actor performs an action that relates to determining subjects which the enrollee wants.

Encode Subjects is the use case used when an action is related to encoding of subjects.

Register Students is the use case used when an actor performs an action that relates to registration.

I would like to further discuss my diagram. As you can see I placed actor on two sides. Those actors seen in the left side are actors that has no direct access to the automated system while those in the right side are the one that has access to the automated system. If you can see no all actors have relationship with uses cases because that action is not done by the actor. He may be involved but he does not directly performs that action. Like the use case "Encode Subjects", only the encoder has access to the computer and it is not the enrollee that directly encodes the subjetcs in the software. The above statement are also used to justify why i did not relate other actors into a use case.

Assignment 3

2009-01-10T19:26:00.000-08:00

If I would base my choice on my personality, I would choose to conduct an observation rather than the other techniques. I made that choice because I have to admit that I'm not a people person. So let me discuss my personality first so I can justify my answer because maybe your thinking that I'm active in student services yet I'm saying I'm not a people person. Maybe it's confusing for you and guess what. So am I. I'm in a environment where I have to deal with a bunch of people (most of them strangers) is a normal scenario thus why am I saying I'm not a people person. So let me justify my answer and make this clear. I hate to break it up to you guys but I'm naturally a shy person (please believe me). I am the type of person that would choose to sit on a corner and observe the environment as time goes by. That is the way I am. I learn through observing. I listen but not necessarily I would speak. I only speak when I need to. I'm not the type that would talk to anyone and anytime. I choose when best to speak and I choose whom to speak because I'm really a shy person. It don't easily get along with other people and it takes time for me to be comfortable with strangers and new faces. I'm a natural observer too. I pay attention to what I think would be useful and I try to learn on that observation. I think conducting an observation is a wise choice for me if I would base it on my personality.

Assigment 2

2008-12-22T23:40:00.000-08:00

If I would my relate my objectives in life to a SDLC (System Development Life Cycle), I would choose it to weigh more on the adaptive side and weigh lesser on the predictive side. Why? Its simple. In the real world there are many factors that could affect your objectives in life and also your SDLC. There are this factors that are not in the plans and that budge into your life. Citing an example is a "failed subject", we did not plan to have one. Right?. In fact we never thought we would have one. We set our goal on our diploma not thinking of the events that could occur in between the day you set foot on this university and the day of our graduation rites. In short if we compare it to a SDLC, we have to adopt on the situation that comes day by day. Therefore for me it is better to be on the adoptive side that the predictive side because we should be honest to ourselves that we cannot predict everything.

Moving on. Lets say that my objective is to graduate. I am just referring to my medium term objective here because my long term objective is to be successful in life. We are not aware of the phases that we came through but we the truth is we already finished a phase such as planning. Therefore my own model of a SDLC is planning-learning-building-trial-implementation.

Planning

If we assume that our objective is to attain a diploma, planning is the part on where should we attain it and what kind of diploma should we attain. We planned to take exams on several schools and consider several courses. If you are like me, I planned to take exam only and only in USeP and enlist myself as a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science student. That is what I planned. A plan must be final and certain because coming back at this phase only means you have to start all over again and you dont want that to happen. We may not be aware but we have already finished this phase because we are here now as what we have planned.

Learning

This is the phase where we learn and gather information to attain our goal. We do this subject by subject. This is the phase where we absorb knowledge in the field of IT. So ask we can see, we are still in the learning phase.

Building

What I am trying to emphasize in the word building is building of one self as a future IT professional . After the learning phase it is up to an individual on how he builds himself as an IT proffesional. He can choose whether to discard some of his learnings ang take what he thinks can be useful for him.

Trial

This is the phase where we put ourselves in trials such as quizzes, exam and projects. This is where we test if what we build ourselves on is enough. This is also the most crucial part because in this phase we see if we should go back to building, learning or much worse back to planning. If we pass this trial therefore we go back again to learning but this time with another subject and so the cycle continious until we have nothing to try anymore so we proceed to the implementation phase.

Implementaion

This is the phase where we are suppose to be holding our hard earned diplomas and join the real world of IT. This is the phase where we take a step into a larger objective. This is the phase where we attained our goal.

Where is adoptive there? What is adoptive there is we should break a large picture into smaller pieces. We should be able to adopt in those smaller pieces before jumping into another piece. We should also learn to adopt if we have absorbed a failing grade. We should be able to adopt whatever comes. For example you have a certain problem that you have not predicted, it is more advantages if you could learn to adopt with that problem.

Assignment 1

2008-12-22T22:44:00.000-08:00

Humble to say our chosen system is simple but if we think of the time left for our group to accomplish a part of that system, I think it is justifiable. We also considered our limitations and our skills in coding and analysis. I honestly think that if given a short time and with my skills as a Computer Science student, I could not accomplish the given task. It's right to say that our team is just playing it safe but thinking of our skills and knowledge, I think it is only fair. I know my team as well as I should know them. Some of the members of the team are my group mates every time we have a project to be done therefore I know their weaknesses and their strengths. As a group we aimed for a system that is attainable to us and a system that we could handle as a group.

What our professor said is right. I don't have anything against what he said. It was a call for a realization. We should realize to build a system that is worth credits, credits not only from our professor but credits from other schools or organizations. I am willing to take that challenge but I should not risk the fate of my team for my pride. I would like to share some systems that I think worth given credits. I was introduced to this systems during my participation on Y4IT Congress held at UP Diliman. One is a GIS or a Geographical Information System. It is a system that shows a certain location and its status. It can also be seen in layers, groups and status. So where can this system be used. First of all its a kind of map, a very detailed map. Second it could be used as a simulation for disasters or anything you like to simulate. Lets say you want to simulate the location with an earthquake, you could see the result of that earthquake and the damage it could deal. So developing this kind of system could save lives because you would know if that location if safe to reside on. The speaker (also the developer of that system) said that developing a GIS needs time, knowledge in geology, and great grasp of computations. In fact, he said that it still unfinished and outdated due to the changes in technology. I forgot the exact name of the second system i want to introduce but generally it is a data keeping system for a hospital (a big one). So what is the challenge about this? The speaker, a young and techie female doctor, said that only 4 such system had been developed here in the Philippines and not one of them had been implemented. So we may ask why? There was no problem with the software she said. The problem is with the users. They are hesitant to try the new system (especially the old doctors). Therefore not one had been implemented and is fully running because the doctors still opt to use the traditional paper and pen. This post is becoming out of the subject and too long so if you have questions maybe I can share my knowledge.

So thinking that i knew about this system, maybe you are thinking, why did we still choose to develop a system that is common and simple. It is a group decision and I honestly think that such system (the ones i talked about earlier) needs time to develop. One semester is insufficient and even a year is insufficient. We also based it on our capacity to develop a project. First we proposed to our former teacher that we would develop a system for a barangay day care center. A simple enrollment and data keeping system integrated into one. It was not approved because we have to admit that would a barangay really spend time and money (considering it is a real life situation) to ask us to build a system for them. After that, our former professor asked us to develop a system for the Human Resource Office of our university instead. We gladly agreed to develop a system for the said office and that is how we came up with our proposal.

My First Reflection

2008-12-20T01:14:00.000-08:00

This is my first time to post on a blog so bear with me guys (including girls).

I am expecting our reporting to be slow but I was wrong because as I had observed we were all reporting in a fast phase. It was good in a way that we must cover 7 Chapters in just 2 days but I think the topics were not properly absorbed by the audience. Although if we think about it, all those topics were already discussed to us since we were freshmen therefore all those reports are just a review of what we have learned in the previous semesters. I am expecting what we have learned from the reports would be used on our project. Speaking of what is useful, on my personal opinion I think the first report and the fourth report are essential. I think the topics under the first report and also the fourth should be given importance because the topics discussed there serves as a foundation for a system analyst. Along the report of Object - oriented approach and Traditional approach, a question is raised if what is best used as a tool for system analysis and design. Object oriented approach is easier compared to the traditional approach. The objects are there and all we need to do is implement them. I was taken back of what our professor said that we must not rely on objects. We must also learn how to manipulate this objects thus bringing us back into the traditional approach. As what i have learned after the two reports of chapter 6 and 7, I can now answer the question stated earlier. In reality, object oriented approach is much easier to adopt because of its simplicity but i would rather have a knowledge or expertise in both approach. I would like to add that every one of us has his choice on what tools, approaches and techniques to use but what is really important is the foundation of his learning as a system analyst. It was also a good idea to finish the reports in two days because we can have more time in our consultation (which i think is more important than the reports). So a general overview of the reports is it is good. Thank you for reading this.

my first blog....

2008-12-19T02:14:00.001-08:00

this is my first blog... :)